Colors and the Color Wheel

Hello. I am the secret that makes strawberries red and makes the sky blue. I help you see bright yellow lemons and leafy green trees. I love to put colors together so they can be friends. Some colors are warm like the sun, and some are cool like the water in a pool. Some colors like to sit side-by-side, like red and orange, and some like to stand across from each other to make things pop, like purple and yellow. I make the whole world a happy, colorful place to play.

For a long, long time, people loved all my colors but didn’t know how we were all connected. They saw red flowers and blue birds and yellow sunshine. Then, a very curious man named Sir Isaac Newton wanted to understand rainbows. He wondered where all those pretty colors came from. One day in the year 1666, he sat in a very dark room. He let a little bit of sunlight shine through a special piece of glass called a prism. Wow. A beautiful rainbow splashed right onto his wall. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple all appeared. He discovered that sunlight holds all my colors inside it, hiding like a surprise. He was so excited that he drew all the colors in a circle, like a happy family holding hands. That was me. I am the Color Wheel, and he was the first person to show everyone how my colors are organized in a circle.

Ever since Sir Isaac Newton drew me, I have helped so many people. I help painters pick colors that look wonderful together in their art. They look at me to decide if they want to paint a bright yellow sun next to a cool blue sky. I help you choose which color shirt to wear or what color crayon to use for your drawing. When you see a red stop sign, that's me helping everyone stay safe. When you see a green 'go' light, that's me telling you it is okay to cross the street. I am your guide to a world full of color, and I love helping you make everything bright and beautiful every single day. What colors will you play with today.