Rubric for Food Coloring Leaves

Grade One Science: Color

The grade one class had fun combining art and science to make coffee filter “leaves” colored with food coloring.  The students were to use red, yellow and blue to create “fall leaves’.  We went on a walk to explore the colors of leaves in the fall.  There were yellow, brown, red, and even purple leaves, but no blue or white leaves.  The challenge was to use the primary colors to create leaves with colors similar to those that we found in nature.

This activity occurred near the beginning of the year in grade one so the rubric is very basic.  We discussed what the goals were (a) to completely cover the leaves (no white) and (b) to use all the colors but ensure that there was no blue to be seen.  Since we had been working very diligently on group skills since the beginning of the year we decided that we should also include the skills we had been practicing in the rubric. 

There were other things we could have added, for example, the students colored with pencil crayons their goal for the colors of the leaf, then compared it to the food coloring leaf after, but we decided that what we had was enough things to work towards on our rubric.

 Materials: Pre-cut coffee filters in the shape of leaves

                 Red, blue, and green food coloring

                 Plastic sheet/paper/margarine lids to go under the leaves to go under

Rubric:

What did I learn when I made ‘food coloring’ leaves?