To demonstrate the power of color and perception, use three sheets of construction paper--red, yellow and green--and three red apples, yellow bananas and green pears. Place one of each fruit on each of the colors of paper. Look at how the change in background color affects how you see and feel about each fruit. Try this with other colors of paper and with other objects. You will find that color holds a lot more power than you may think.
To get a sense of how colors work together and relate to each other, make a color wheel. Trace a dinner plate and divide it into six wedges. Place the three primary colors in opposite corners a wedge apart. Place the secondary colors right in the middle of the colors they are made up of. This is a basic color wheel. You can continue to do this with a larger wheel divided into either 12 or 24 wedges and continue to mix the primary colors and secondary colors together. These in between colors, like yellow-orange or red-purple, are called tertiary colors.
Use the color wheel to find complementary colors. On a larger color wheel that includes tertiary colors, draw an equal triangle inside a color wheel to pick the three colors that work best together. Expand the range of color possibilities by adding white to create pastels, for example.