Unit Plan 10 (Grade 6 Art): Mood Through Color & Design
Grade 6 art unit analyzing how color, contrast, balance, and emphasis shape emotional tone and mood through intentional design choices in artwork.
Focus: Analyze how design choices influence emotional tone by examining how color and composition create mood in artwork.
Grade Level: 6
Subject Area: Art (Visual Arts • Interpretation • Design & Color)
Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 50–60 minutes per session
I. Introduction
In this unit, students explore how elements of art (especially color) and principles of design (such as balance, contrast, and emphasis) work together to create mood in artwork. They analyze a variety of images to identify emotional tone—calm, energetic, gloomy, cheerful—and connect those feelings to specific visual choices. Through guided discussion, graphic organizers, and small color studies, students practice using art vocabulary to explain how design decisions affect what a viewer feels and notices.
Essential Questions
- How do color choices (warm vs. cool, bright vs. dull, light vs. dark) affect the mood of an artwork?
- In what ways do contrast, balance, and emphasis influence what the viewer feels and focuses on?
- How can I use art vocabulary to explain the emotional tone of an artwork?
- Do different viewers always feel the same way about the same colors and designs? Why or why not?
- How can noticing mood and design in other artworks help me make stronger choices in my own art?
II. Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives — Students will be able to:
- Identify and describe color schemes (warm, cool, monochromatic, complementary, neutral) in artworks and connect them to mood words (VA:Re7.6a).
- Analyze how value, contrast, and saturation contribute to emotional tone (e.g., calm vs. intense) in selected artworks (VA:Re7.6a).
- Explain how composition choices (balance, emphasis, placement) affect where the viewer looks first and how that supports mood (VA:Re7.6a).
- Create quick mini color-and-design studies that intentionally aim for a chosen mood and then describe how their choices support that mood (VA:Re7.6a).
- Use a simple analysis organizer to write or speak about how elements and principles work together to create mood in at least one artwork (VA:Re7.6a).
Standards Alignment — 6th Grade (NCAS-Aligned)
- VA:Re7.6a — Analyze how elements of art and principles of design create mood and structure in artwork.
- Example: Students identify how color affects emotional tone.
Success Criteria — Student Language
- I can name the color schemes used in an artwork and describe how they feel.
- I can explain how contrast, value, and saturation help make an artwork feel calm, tense, happy, or sad.
- I can describe how balance and emphasis affect where my eye goes first and how that supports the mood.
- I can create a small design that matches a chosen mood and explain my choices.
- I can use art vocabulary to write or talk about how color and design create mood in an artwork.