Show me your shoes

Made by Anne, 10 years old

You need:

1. white drawingpaper
2. coloured pencils
3. scissors
4. glue
5. coloured paper for background

Ask children to take their most beautiful, most colourful or most favourite shoes. Put one of your shoes in front of you on your table. Look carefully and draw your shoe on a white sheet. Colour it firmly and cut it out. Glue the shoe on a coloured sheet that matches to the colours of the shoe.

By Jetse, 12 years old

Guardian angels of the woods

You need:

1. white drawing paper
2. colour pencils

After telling a story about the protector of the woods, who hide themselves between the trees and bushes, children draw their own wood guardian angels. Those can be anything they think of: an angel, a ghost, a fairy or maybe even an animal. The colours should of course be natural colours: green, yellow, red, brown and mixtures of them. Hide your guardian angel between the trees, drawing a lot of leaves around it.

Comic strip language

You need:

1. white drawing paper from 10 by 10 centimetres
2. white drawing paper from 30 by 30 centimetres
3. tempera paint
4. felt pens
5. black markers
6. brushes

Comic strip drawers use a special way to reproduce sounds. They realise a special effect with letters or words. We call this an onomatopeia or sound-imitation.

There is always a black frame around the comic strip pictures. Sometimes you'll see the a part of the drawing outside of the frame. Ask sour students to take their favourite comic strips. Look for examples of sound-imitations and talk about them: SPLASH (falling water), TOINK (someone who bumps his head). Those sound-imitations are often combined with a movement or direction. You can notice this if you look at the shape or direction of the letters, or even at the letters themselves. Often you'll see matching symbols around a word, like litte stars for someone who bumped his head or drops of water around the word SPLASH. Students design a comic strip picture with a sound. They have to draw a concept first on the little sheet. When finished and satisfied with the concept, students take a bigger sheet from 30 with 30 centimentres. On this sheet they have to draw a frame (use a ruler!) about 1 centimetre from the sides. Outside this frame the drawing has to remain white, like in comic strips. After this children have to enlarge their concept. If it is to difficult, they can draw a grid on their sheet first (squares from 3 by 3 centimetres). Drawing and words have to be coloured with feltpens. The background and other great parts can be painted with tempera. Tell children to choose bright colours, so don't mix to much. At last outline all lines with a black marker.

Beautiful butterflies

You need:

1. white drawing paper
2. tempera
3. brushes
4. glue and scissors
5. coloured paper for background

Paint with a small brush white tempera to create . Niet te kleine vakken maken, dat is lastig inkleuren later. Door het mengen van kleuren en wit worden de vakken gevuld. Vertel de kinderen dat ze de verf niet verdunnen, om felle kleuren te krijgen. Ook na het spoelen van de kwast moet deze goed worden drooggemaakt in een papieren doekje. Vouw een tweede tekenvel dubbel en teken tegen de vouw aan een of meer halve vlinders. Knip deze uit. Verf ze in dezelfde kleuren als de achtergrond, maar blijf daarbij een halve centimeter van de rand af zodat je een wit randje overhoudt. Trek met witte verf dunne lijntjes rondom het lijf van de vlinder en de versieringen als de verf voldoende aangedroogd is. Plak de gekleurde achtergrond op een groter vel wit papier. Plak dan de vlinders op, waarbij je ook over de witte rand kunt gaan. Doe alleen lijm achter het lijf, zodat de vlinders iets van het pier gaan afstaan voor een ruimtelijke effect.

Black and white prints

You need:

1. two pieces of linoleum from 10 x 10 cm
2. lino knive
3. mat
4. block printing ink in black and white
5. flat piece of glass
6. linoleum roller
7. white paper A4 size
8. black papier A4 size
9. lino press

For this artwork you need two square pieces of linoleum. Draw simple patterns or simple figures. Cut from the first piece of lino the figures out and leave the background (negative). Cut from the second piece of lino just the background out while leaving the figures (positive). Press both works several times in black ink on white paper and white ink on black paper. Choose the best out of those prints. Paste the white prints on black sheets and the black prints on white sheets. Paste the black print on white paper sheets on a larger black sheet. Paste the white print on black paper sheets on a larger white sheet. Finally glue the black and white sheets together.

Made by students from 10-11 years old

Athletes and their shadows

You need:

1. plywood plate on A4 size
2. coping saw
3. sandpaper
4. carbon paper
5. pencil
6. strong glue
7. black construction paper for background
8. tempera and brushes

Search in a newspaper, magazine or on the Internet for a photo of an athlete in motion. Note that, if you would print the photo in black, you'll see well what the athlete does. Place carbon paper with the black side down on your board. Lay the picture above. Trace the athlete. Press firmly. Saw the athlete neat and sand the edges smooth. Paint the two parts in the colours you like. Don't forget the edges! Glue your board on a piece of cardboard and paste the sawn-athletes with some space between. You will see an athlete with his own shadow!

Waterlilies like Claude Monet

You need:

1. tissue paper in different colors
2. white drawing sheet (A4 size)
3. glue

Claude Monet was a French painter and founder of French impressionist painting. Impressionistic paintings are a kind of snapshots, giving a quick impression. Up close it will only show spots and streaks; at a distance you see that these spots together represent an image.

After viewing some waterlily paintings by Monet, children will make their own waterlilies using tissue paper. To get the spotty Monet effect, the tissue paper should be torn into pieces. For the background students tear pieces of blue and green tissuepaper and paste them on their sheet. 

The flowers are also made of torn pieces of tissue paper. It is important to work from big to small: first the background, then the pieces of the large flowers, and over them the heart of the flower. 

Face in the mirror

You need:

1. coloured construction paper
2. scissors and glue
3. cutter and mat

During this lessons children will practice with positive and negative space. Discuss about a face: form, place of ears and eyes (same height), distance between the eyes, hairline (not just on top of the head), the width of the mouth and nose. Every child gets a construction paper and a half construction paper in two contrasting colours. Draw half of a face to the side of the small sheet. This face must be cut and placed at the center line of the whole sheet. Cut parts out of the half face and place them on the other side. When all parts are cut, everything cn be pasted.

Animal silhouette

You need:

1. white drawing sheet, A3
2. tempera and brushes
3. pictures of animal furs and side views of the corresponding animals
4. black construction paper
5. scissors and glue

For this task the children search the internet for photos of animal fur. The photographs have to be printed in colour. Then they paint the fur as accurately as possible on the white sheet. While drying, children can look for pictures of the animal from which they just painted the fur. This picture has to be a side view.

Print the animal and use a copier to enlarge it. The animal picture must fit on the painting of the fur.

Put the picture of the animal on black paper and tape it down. Then cut exactly along the outer lines of the image, while cutting the black paper also. Glue the silhouette on the painting.

Growing landscape

You need

1. drawing sheets A 3
2. tempera
3. brushes and water
4. photographs (or parts of them) from landscapes

A little piece from a landscape picture or a complete photograph (look for them in travel guides) will make a beautiful painting! Glue the litte piece somewhere on your sheet and paint the landscape as you imagine it would be!

Proud as a peacock

Made by students of grade 5

You need:

1. photographs from peacocks
2. peacock feathers
3. white drawing sheet
4. wasco crayons
5. watercolour paint
6. blue or green construction paper

Male peacocks are notable for their long tail, consisting of long feathers, with eyes at the end. Look at photo's of peacocks and try to get some peacock feathers in your classroom. How do you recognize a peacock? What does his body look like? And his head? What has he got on his head? Loot at the feathers and discuss the features. What does the eye in the feather look like? What colours do you see?

Children draw a rough pencil sketch of the body and the head of the peacock. It won't be necessary to draw each individual feather, this can be done while colouring.

Colour the peacock wih oilpastel crayons. When ready, paint the whole sheet with light blue watercolour paint. Oil pastel will resist. Finally glue the drawing on a blue or green sheet.