The very lonely firefly

You need:

1. black construction paper
2. tempera paint
3. brushes
4. gold and silver markers
5. pencils

Book: The very lonely firefly from Eric Carle (also to be found on YouTube)

Students use white tempera to paint two or more jars at the bottom of the black sheet. They mix yellow and blue to paint grass in different shades of green over the jars. Draw fire flies with gold and silver markers and color them with pencils. 

Christmas carpet

Made by a student of grade 6

You need:

1. green, red or black construction paper  25 by 25 cm
2. ruler
3. pencil
4. gold or silver marker
5. red or green marker

Students divide their sheet with ruler and pencil in 25 squares from 5 by 5 cm. In each square they draw a Christmas figure: tree, candy, snowman, skates, mitten, sock, candle etc. These figures have to be coloured , just like a checkerboard: alternately the background is gold/silver or the figure is gold/silver.

Letter doodling

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A3 size
2. ruler
3. pencil
4. black markers
5. colored markers or pencils 

Shot pictures of letter doodling and fonts - new and older ones. 

Discuss the pictures. Letters in those alphabets are a kind of family.  How can you see that? What can you say about the lines? Are they fat, thin, curvy or angular? What do you feel seeing those alphabets?

Draw a grid with your students (a lesson about using rulers is always a struggle!). In this lesson there are 2 inches between the lines and a half inch between the letters.

After drawing their grid, students design their own alphabet and trace them with markers.

Artworkds made by students of grade 5

Dali's moustache II

Made by a student of grade 1

You need:

1. colored sheet A4 size
2. black marker
3. white sheet A4 size
4. black crayon
5. scissors and glue 
6. pipe cleaner 

More information about Salvador Dalí, see the lesson High legged elephant in the style of Salvador Dali.

Show some surrealistic artworks of Dali and discuss the surrealistic parts of it.  Show The melting clocks. Discuss the shape of the clocks. What happened to these clocks? Are these clocks that you can hang on the wall? Why not? Why do we call this surreal?
Dali's artwork will surprise you. We see realistic parts, complemented with dreams and fantasy.

Dali was an eccentric man. Show som portraits of Dali and look at all those different ways he wears his moustache.

Students write words about surrealism and Dali with a marker on the colored sheet. Then they draw a portrait of him with crayon on a white sheet. Cut it, paste in on the colored sheet. Puncture two holes under the nose and pull the pipe cleaner through. Shape the moustache in a way that Dali would like!

Dancing Christmas trees

Made by a student of grade 1

You need:

1. white drawing sheet
2. pencil
3. markers
4. chalk pastels

Dancing Christmas trees are Christmas trees who look like them only because of the shape (rectangular) and decorations (balls, garlands and stars)! The trunks are much longer than the  the ordinary trees and because of the curves in them it looks they are dancing.  

Draw with pencil, colour with markers, outline with black marker and colour the background with chalk pastels.

Landscape with chalk pastels

Made by students of grade 5

You need:

1. black construction paper
2. black oil pastels
3. soft pastels
4. hairspray

Show several hillsides and discuss what you see:  light/shadow, depth, overlapping, colours, pointed/rolling. 

Students draw with pencil a simplified hillside on the black sheet. In the blogpost 'Peaks and Valleys' a step by step explanation how to draw this. Give students a maximum of 5 minutes for this part of the lesson, to prevent them of drawing all kinds of details.

Trace the pencil lines with black oil pastel. Colour the hills and sky using chalk pastels. Color and mix, smear and blend until you're satisfied. Be sure the difference can be seen between the light-iluminated parts of the hills and the parts that are in shadow. 

Trace after coloring the black lines again if necessary. Fix the artwork with hairspray. 

Patterned peacock

Artworks made by students of grade 4

You need:

1. drawing sheet 20 by 20 cm
2. color pencils
3. markers
4. colored construction paper
5. glue

Draw a small peacock on the bottom of the white sheet. Draw lines from peacock to the sides and top of the sheet. Color patterns with color pencils or markers or a combination of them. Outline peacock and 'feathers' with a black marker.
Cut the peacock (look at the pictures) and paste it on a colored sheet.

Fruit in complementary colors

You need:

1. white sheets 20 by 20 cm
2. pencil
3. ruler
4. oilpastels
5. watercolor paint
6. brushes
7. jar with water

This lesson is originally from Miriam Paternoster's fantastic art lesson website: Arteascuola. 
Follow the link for a description of this lesson and be sure to look around there for more great art lessons!

By students of grade 4

Birdies on a branch

Made by a student of grade 1

You need:

1. liquid water color paint
2. brushes
3. crayons
4. white sheet
5. feathers
6. glue

Draw a branch with some birdies on it. Their eyes should be big and white! Color the birds with crayons using bright colors. Paint the branch and background with water color paint. Let dry. Draw feet and paste feathers. 

The sky is the limit

Golden Gate Bridge, made by Elize, grade 6

You need:

1. grey paper A4 size
2. white and black pencils
3. pictures of famous skylines

During a visit to the Museum in The Hague, I saw an artwork that Escher had made on gray paper. The only colours he had used were black and white. Together with the gray, you do have a lot of colours at your disposal. The Escher drawing I saw then, was the inspiration for this lesson.

Show photos of some famous skylines. Discuss skylines, skyscrapers and remarkable buildings. Ask children to search a skyline on the internet. Print this in black and white and then copy it so you can see the shadows of the buildings (settings light - dark on copyer). Students draw with just white and black pencil on the grey sheet.

Sydney skyline by Adnan, grade 6

Veggies

Made by a student of grade 3

You need:

1. veggies
2. white drawing sheet
3. liquid watercolour paint
4. crayons
5. indian ink
6. brushes
7. jar with water

Talk about veggies and why we all have to eat them. Show several veggies.

Use crayons to draw several veggies on your sheet. No overlapping.  Just draw the outlines, don't colour them with crayons.
Colour with liquid watercolour paint. Use two colours to make the paint bleed.
Paint the background dark grey with dilluted indian ink.

Giraffes can't dance

You need:

1. white drawing sheet
2. soft pastel
3. oilpastel
4. scissors
5. glue

Gerald would love to join in with the other animals at the Junge Dance, but everyone knows that giraffes can't dance ... or can they?

This lesson can be used by the book  'Giraffes can't dance' by Giles Andeae and Guy Parker-Rees.

Read the book of Gerald the Giraffe. After this children draw a giraffe that's trying to dance. Colour with oilpastels. Colour a background with soft pastel. Cut the giraffe and paste it on the background.

Made by students of grade 1 and 2. 

Johooo a dodo!!

Made by Neil, one of my students, who is very interested in the Mauritian dodo's.
He used markers and colour pencils  for this artwork. Thanks Neil!

Stacked birds

 

Made by students of grade 3/4

You need:

1. drawing sheet 20 by 40 cm
2. crayons
3. liquid watercolour paint
4. brushes

Inspirated by a picture on Pinterest.
Draw at least three birds sitting on eachothers back. The birds have to get smaller while getting higher. Colour with crayons.

Paint the background with liquid watercolour paint leaving an edge from about 1 cm. 

Singing in the rain

Artwork made by a student of grade 1

You need:

1. white drawing sheetA2 size
2. crayons
3. liquid watercolour
4. brush

Students draw a person under an umbrella and colour it in with crayons. Then they draw raindrops with white crayon. Paint the entire drawing with liquid watercolour.

Be sure that:

• rain falls from top to bottom;)
• under the umbrella is no rain
• rain is transparent, so we draw with white on white!
• rain forms puddles on the ground

Eyecatcher

You need:

1. drawing sheet A5 size
2. colour pencils

See each other's eyes. What components does an eye have? How is the shape of an eye? What colours do you see in the iris? How can you do this in a drawing? What is characteristic for the pupil? How can you draw the highlight in the eyes? 

See videos on YouTube, How to draw an eye / How to draw eyes.

Kids drawing one eye and colour it in with colour pencil. Wipe the colors with your fingers to mix them. Accents can be applied with a black fineliner. 

Artworks are made by students of grade 7. 

Snowmen

Made by a student of grade 4

You need:

1. blue construction paper
2. oil pastels

Students draw three or more overlapping snowmen wearing fashionable scarves. Colour with oil pastel and outline with black.

Small animals like Hans Innemee

You need:

1. three sheets of coloured paper 12 by 12 cm
2. pencil
3. chalk pastel
4. hairspray
5. white sheet for background
6. glue 

Hans Innemee (1951) is a Dutch artist. He studied graphic arts and worked for some time as an art teacher.
Innemee's art is a kind of collage made from monotyped drawings. After monotyping a lot of drawings, he makes his artwork by ripping parts of them and pasting them together on home made sheets. Coloring is done with oil pastels.

View artwork of Hans Innemee. Talk about the small stories in his art. Ask students which story they have in mind while seeing the artwork.

Discuss the characteristics of Innemee's work:

• Drawings of animals.
• Simple shapes.
• No details.
• Few colours.
• Black outlines.
• Simple background.
• Text / Title under the drawing.

The goal for this lesson is: draw a story in three steps on three sheets. Color with chalk pastels. Work like Hans Innemee.

Paste the three sheets on a larger sheet. Fix with hairspray. Write under the small sheets in as few words as possible the text of the story you had in mind.

Made by students of grade 4

Thanks to Hans Innemee for permission to publish his artwork in this blog post and his kind words about the artwork of my students! 

Typical Dutch design (group work)

Made by students of grade 4

 

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A6 size (postcard)
2. pencil
3. markers in red, blue and silver
4. coloured cardboard
5. scissors and glue

Discuss with the students things that are typically Dutch : tulips, windmills, clogs, cheese, canal houses, red white blue, etc. Look at  pictures of typical Dutch patterns (google 'Dutch fabrics): red- white or blue-white small squares or stripes or combinations of them.
Let students draw examples of cups and mugs on the digital board: narrow, wide, high, low, with belly, straight, angled, with or without foot, different ears etc.

The goal is to design cup and mugs with a Dutch design. Colour with marker and only use red and blue. Cut and paste all cups stacked on a sheet of coloured cardboard. Outline the stack with  silver.

Under the rainbow

Made by a student of grade 5

You need:

1. white drawing sheet 25 by34 cm
2. black marker
3. tempera paint
4. brush
5. scissors
6. glue

I found this idea on Pinterest. It's origanally from a teacher from Estonia.
Paint coloured stripes or circles at the top of a white sheet. Let dry. Draw contours of houses on a second sheet of paper with thin pencil lines. Ensure overlap. 'Colour' these houses with different patterns in black marker. Don't outline the houses; the surfaces should be recognizable by the different patterns.
Make the row of houses as wide as the painted sheet. Cut the row of houses and paste it on the painted paper.