Primary Color Hands for Kindergartners

Children's artwork of hands in primary colors titled "Primary Color Hands by Kindergartners.

Here is a simple lesson to introduce your students to the primary colors.

We started out by reading the book Mouse Paint, which is a fun story to teach about primary colors.

My kindergartners, while I love them dearly, were having difficulties lately with classroom procedures. We needed to go back to the basics with simple materials until they understood how and why to clean up. I pulled out this idea that I got about 11 years ago when I first started teaching. It was part of a kindergarten art “booklet” that was passed on to me from other art teachers.

Children's handprint artwork, made by kindergartners, is surrounded by various geometric shapes and pieces of colored paper. The process is very simple and easy to follow. Trace your hands and then color designs inside with red, yellow and blue. This happened on the first day.

Four handprints in primary colors are surrounded by small geometric shapes. During the second class period, the hands were then attached to a larger paper. Tissue paper squares, shape stickers and paper mosaic squares were glued on to the border.

Child's drawing of hands colored in primary colors, surrounded by a border of colorful paper squares.

Then, they glued on this strip of paper.

My hands are colored with the PRIMARY colors: Red, Yellow, and Blue—ideal for kindergartners.

This sheet can be downloaded here: Primary Color Hands Download

Children’s artwork featuring kindergartners' handprints colored with primary colors: red, yellow, and blue, surrounded by colorful paper squares. Kindergartners' drawing of Primary Color Hands in red, yellow, and blue with a blue-bordered frame. Kindergartners' hand drawings colored with red, yellow, and blue are surrounded by geometric shapes in matching primary colors. A child's drawing of Primary Color Hands, featuring handprints in red, yellow, and blue, surrounded by colorful shapes.