Cityscape at night

You need:

1. black construction paper 20 by 20 cm
2. oil pastel
3. white tempera paint
4. some drops of dishwashing detergent
5. brush

Students draw the outline of simple houses on black paper. Behind the high ones, in the front the lower ones. Colour the houses with oil pastel. Draw and colour a behind the houses. Mix some drops of dishwashing detergent with tempera paint. This keeps the paint to stick to the oily chalk. Outline the houses and moon with the white paint. Finally paint windows and doors.

Dutch December skyline

You need:

1. black construction paper 20 by 20 cm
2. chalk pastel
3. coloured pencils
4. white sheet A4 size for stencil

Draw a skyline with roofs of Dutch canal houses on the white sheet. Cut it. Choose a colour to stencil with. Rub chalk on the stencil. Use a tissue or your finger to rub the chalk off the stencil on the black sheet, to create the soft looking skyline. Turn the stencil and take another colour to repeat this process. Students may also exchange the roof with your neighbour, to get different skylines. Draw a moon with chalk pastel. Draw windows in the houses and colour them with a yellow and/or white pencil.

Paper bag city

Made by a student of grade 2

You need:

1. white drawing sheets A3 size
2. tempera paint in blue, white and black
3. brown paper bag
4. scissors and glue
5. brushes

Torn some typical city center buildings in various forms out of brown paper bags. Paste them on a white sheet. In front of the high buildings we see smaller ones (overlap). Paint a blue or grey blue sky on the sheet. Use different colours of blue and grey. Outline the buildings with black tempera paint. Paint windows and doors. Hang all artworks together to create a long street.

I love Holland

Made by students of grade 6

You need:

1. two pieces of linoleum of 12 by 12 cm
2. white drawing paper
3. lino knives
4. block printing ink in red and blue
5. flat piece of glass
6. linoleum roller
7. lino press
8. cardboard in red and blue
9. scissors
10. glue

What are typical Dutch things? Make a word web with the children. Think about cheese, canal houses, tulips, wooden shoes, cows etc. The children create a drawing on a scrap of paper with the theme I love Holland. Not too many details, because the drawing will be printed. The drawing has to be copied on both pieces of linoleum. It doesn't matter if they don't match exactly; this is even fun while making a two colour print, because the drawing seems to shift a bit. Use different linoleum knives. Cut the drawing from the first piece of linoleum. Cut the background from the second piece of linoleum, leaving the object. Lines within the object should be cut too.

Shake the bottle of blockprint carefully to be sure oil will mix with the rest. Drip some red paint on the glass and roll it out with the lino roller. Make 2 prints of your work on a white sheet. Rinse the linoleum clean and make 2 prints in blue in the same way.

Repeat this process with the second piece of linoleum: 2 prints in red and 2 in blue. There will be 8 prints if you're finished.

2 pieces of linoleum, 2 colours, 8 prints

Finally use one or more of those prints to make a two colour print. This has to be done by inking piece 1 red and printing it on a blue print of piece 2. See picture below. Let students choose their best prints and let them decide how many prints they want to use for their final artwork. Cut the prints with 1 cm white aound them. Make a composition on blue or red cardboard and paste the prints with 1 cm between them.

Final composition I love Holland, by Malou, grade 6

Transport yourself

You need:

1. piece of linoleum of 16 by 12 cm
2. white paper towel from a towel dispenser
3. mat
4. block printing ink
5. flat piece of glass
6. linoleum roller
7. lino press

What kind of transport do you know? Think of cars, limosines, trucks, airplanes, but also of skateboards, strollers etc. Everything with wheels can be used to transport persons!

Draw a mean of transportation on a piece of linoleum and cut it out. Shake the bottle of blockprint carefully to be sure oil will mix with the rest. Drip the paint on the glass and roll it out with the lino roller. Make several prints of your work on textured towel paper. Choose the best one to be your artwork.

Neon leaves

You need:

1. black construction paper A3 size
2. pencil
3. coloured chalk pastel

Neon light tubes form coloured lines with which a text can be written or a picture drawn, including various decorations. Neon is often used in advertising and commercial signage. Show some neon advertising or ask children if they know some. Discuss the features of neon light and the restrictions you have to deal with when you use neon lights.

Draw the outlines of some leaves onto a dark paper using a pencil. Let some of the leaves overlap. Choose a colour chalk pastel and carefully go over the lines of one leave. Make nice thick lines that follow the original. Do the same with the other leaves, using different colours. Then carefully go over all the lines with your finger. Just follow the direction of the lines rubbing backwards and forwards. Try not to smudge the lines outwards!

Now to turn the neon lights on: take a white chalk and go over all the lines again with the sharp edge. Use the sharp edge just to create a thin bright white line down the middle of the existing lines. Fixate the drawing with hairspray, or laminate it to create your own neon placemat!

Printed leaves

You need:

1. black construction paper A4 size
2. flat dried autumn leaves
3. white tempera and another cool colour
4. brush
5. colour pencils
6. piece of sponge

I found this project on Artsonia. Ask students to take some autumn leaves for this lesson. The leaves should be dried flat, for example in a phone book.

Paint the veined side of a leaf with thick white tempera. Press the leaf on black paper; use a clean sheet to cover the leaf and press on it with flat hand. Do this with several leaves. Then pick an additional cool colour to blend with the leftover white paint and sponge paint the background. Be sure to leave a little black around each leaf for contrast. Add some autumn colour to each leaf using coloured pencils.

Treasure map

Made by a student of 11 years old

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. strong brewed tea
3. wide, flat brush
4. colour pencils
5. candle

Drawing a treasure map is always exciting! A treasure map is a map that leads to a treasure or secret place. Little drawings tell you what you say on your way, and the road is often indicated by a dotted line. Treasure maps look often crumpled or discoloured, as if they have been well hidden. Students know treasure maps from books and comics. If not, show them some treasure maps on the digital board.

To make the treasure map look old and yellowed, the drawing sheet has to be painted with strong brewed tea. Do this at an earlier time so that the sheets have dried well before the drawing starts.

If the sheet is dry, a map that will lead the seeker to the treasure has to be drawn. Students have to make clarifying little drawings on the map and then colour everything with colour pencils. The treasure map has to contain a compass rose.

A job that is too dangerous for the children themselves to do, but that gives a nice weathered appearance: burning away the edges. Do this, being a teacher, yourself!

To give the treasure map something extra, students can create their own cryptography. This cryptography has to be rolled up and pasted on the map.

Also nice: seal the treasure map using drops candlewax. Press a coin in it, just before the fat has solidified!

Fall things

You need:

1. white drawing sheet 30 by 20 cm
2. pencil
3. ruler
4. crayons
5. liquid watercolour
6. brush
7. jar with water
8. coloured paper for background
9. glue

Practice the student's measuring skills by letting them draw a 5 cm grid on the drawing sheet, using a ruler and pencil. Trace the pencil lines with crayons. Draw crayon lines along the outer edges of the paper. Create a pattern of returning autumn drawings in the squares. In this lesson is chosen for diagonal lines. Trace the outlines and details of the drawings with crayon. Paint the drawings and background of the squares with liquid watercolour. Be sure the regular pattern is also to be seen in the colours.. Paste the artwork on a coloured background.

Made by a student of 11 years old

Totem poles

Made by three students of grade 6

You need:

1. drawing paper A4 size
2. coloured markers
3. coloured cardboard
4. pencil
5. potlood
6. scissors
7. glue

A totem pole is a wooden statue that was made by native tribes and was seen as a sanctuary. The pole was usually made of wood from the cedar tree and was often painted in bright colors. Show different pictures of totem poles. View and discuss the images that are cut in the totem poles.

In this lesson groups of students draw a totem pole together. To make one drawing together, some appointments should be made: the width, the colours, which drawing on which place etc.

Create groups of three or four students. Each student draws a portion of the totem pole and colours it in with coloured markers. Outline each colour with a thick black marker. Each student cuts his totem pole piece. The parts should be pasted into a whole picture on coloured cardboard. Finally, outline the exterior of the totem pole with a thick black marker.

Cool web, big spider

You need:

1. white drawing paper 20 by 20 cm
2. left overs of white drawing paper
3. yellow crayons
4. liquid watercolour
5. thick brush
6. jar with water
7. scissors
8. glue
9. black construction paper

Students draw a web with a yellow crayon. The easiest way is to first draw diagonal lines from the corners of the paper. Then draw more lines from top to bottom, left to right. The lines must all go through the center. After this draw circles around the center, until the sheet is full.

Paint the sheet using liquid watercolour ink in cold colours. Take two colours. Leave the work to dry.

Draw some leaves with a warm colour crayon on a white sheet. Draw the veins. Paint the leaves with warm colours liquid watercolour. Let the leaves dry.

Make a spider of black construction paper. In the example above, the spider is made of a circle with a diameter of about 4 cm. Cut the circle in to the center and stick the cutting edges on each other so the center rises. Draw a cross on the back if you want to. Cut a smaller circle for the head, draw eyes on it and paste it on the body of the spider. Cut the feet: 8 strips of 8 cm by 1/2 cm. Glue the legs on the underside of the body. Make a fold inwards on the mid of the strip, and 1 cm from the end a fold outwards.

When the work is completely dry, cut the leaves and paste them on the web. Put the spider in the web by pasting the lower parts of the legs and the head.

Paste the artwork on a black background. You may draw the spider web lines on the background too.

City waterfront

You need:

1. blue construction paper A4 size
2. white drawing paper A3 size
3. construction paper and/or ribbed cardboard in several colours
4. scissors
5. glue
6. watercolour paint
7. brushes
8. jar with water

I found this lesson once on a German school website. The combination of cutting/pasting and painting is exciting! Students paste tight cut houses, and the reflection in the water is made with water colour paint, which is not tight at all - just as it should be!

Students cut rectangles of different heights and widths out of coloured paper. These are the bodies of the houses. Cut several triangles out of red construction paper, these are the roofs. Cut windows and doors.

Draw a line on 1 cm from the bottom of the blue sheet. Make a composition of the houses on this line, starting with the highest ones. Place the shorter houses in front of them (overlap). Paste the houses and roofs on the blue sheet. Paste windows and doors on them in different colours.

When ready, paste the blue sheet with houses on a white A3 size sheet. Use watercolour paint to paint the mirror image of the houses in the water. Paint as precise as possible, but don't use a ruler: reflections in water aren't that straight! Paint the water blue.

Made by students of 10-11 years old