5 Reasons Why You Only Need 3 Tempera Colors for Your K-5 Students

Shopping for tempera paint can make you feel like a kid in a candy store! How can you resist filling your basket with all those juicy colors??

When you’re in the market for paint for your elementary classroom or homeschool, you really only need 3 colors of tempera to provide a great learning experience for your students, and you’ll simplify your life at the same time.

Here are 5 great reasons to teach color mixing with just the three primary colors – red, yellow, and blue:

1. You’ll save storage space. This may not seem like a big deal, but imagine the space it would take to store a dozen colors of tempera paint (with multiple bottles of each, depending on the number of students you have) compared to storing just three colors.
2. You’ll save time. Prepping palettes with paint for students is quick and easy when you only have 3 colors to pour, instead of 12. And stocking fewer colors will also save you time when you need to inventory paints for re-ordering.
3. You’ll save money. Less paint will be wasted when kids are mixing their own colors from red, yellow, and blue. Students can mix purple, orange, or green if they need it, but why put those colors on their palettes just to see them go unused if they don’t?
4. You’ll see more variety and more interesting colors in your students’ paintings. When kids learn color mixing, they can produce an array of colors far beyond what you could ever stock in bottled form. And better colors lead to better paintings. (Of course, you’ll also want to have white and black tempera on hand for mixing tints and shades of all those colors, for even more variety!)
5. Your students will gain confidence and a solid understanding of color. Color mixing skills improve with practice, just like other skills that require time and effort. When students have all the colors they need already on their palettes, many won’t bother to mix any colors of their own, forgetting everything you’ve taught them about color theory and becoming completely dependent on premixed colors.

Painting with tempera paint provides an ideal opportunity for students to learn things about color that will last them a lifetime. You can make the most of this by avoiding the urge to “buy the whole rainbow” and let your students learn to mix it instead!

Visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store for one of my favorite lessons, “Create Your Own Color Wheel” and get ready to watch your students take their color mixing and understanding of color to the next level!

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