Make colors lighter with white and darker with black.
Tints and Shades teaches third graders about value, how light or dark a color is. Kids add white to make tints and black to make shades, then mix eight colors in an interactive paint lab.
Art & Creativity course · Grade 3
Tints and Shades · Learning goals
Value means how light or dark a color is. Add white to make tints and black to make shades, then mix eight colors in the paint lab.
Why it matters
Value is how artists show light, shadow and depth.
Tints and shades give kids many more colors from just a few paints.
Light and dark colors help kids create mood and make parts of a picture stand out.
Inside Tints and Shades
A short read-aloud lesson first, then hands-on games and a quiz to lock it in.
Step 1 · Lesson
A short read-aloud lesson in 5 steps.
Step 2 · Mix paint colors
Mix tints with white and shades with black.
Step 3 · Quiz
5 questions to check what stuck.
Lesson preview
This is the real lesson text your child hears, read aloud by a friendly voice.
Value means how light or dark a color is.
Add white to a color to make a tint. Tints look soft, like a spring morning.
Add black to a color to make a shade. Shades look deep, like a night forest.
Add only a tiny bit of black. Black is very strong!
Artists use tints and shades to make things look round and real.
For parents
Learning sticks best when kids use it in real life. Here are simple ideas from this course.
Paint a strip of squares going from very light to very dark using one color plus white and black.
Practice
Real questions from Tints and Shades. Try them with your child, then tap to see the answer.
Question 1
Tint
Question 2
Shade
Question 3
Light or dark
The full course has 5 questions with instant feedback, stars and rewards. Create a free account to play them all.
Tints and Shades · Questions from parents
Tints and Shades is a grade 3 art & creativity course for kids ages 8–9. That is Year 4 art & creativity in the UK and Year 3 in Australia. It also works well for review in the next grade, or as a challenge for a confident younger learner.
Value means how light or dark a color is. Add white to make tints and black to make shades, then mix eight colors in the paint lab. Along the way they practice: Value Lab.
About 15 minutes in total, split into 3 short levels. Most kids finish it over two or three sessions. Progress is saved, so they can stop any time and pick up where they left off.
Yes. Tints and Shades is one of the first 2 courses in Grade 3 Art & Creativity. Create a free parent account and your child can start right away.
No. Every lesson has a friendly read-aloud voice, questions are read aloud too, and the pictures help kids follow along. Confident readers can turn the voice off.
Yes. SkillBloom is built for homeschooling families. Kids work through lessons, games and quizzes on their own, and the parent dashboard shows what they finished and which skills need more practice. It works on phones, tablets and laptops.
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