Autumn leaves mandala

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. compasses
3. pencil
4. oil pastels

Draw a circle with a diameter of 20 cm. Draw within about 1 cm another circle (the edge of the mandala). Cut out and fold into 8 pieces. Draw against one of the folds half of an autumn leaf using black oil pastel.

Fold the sheet and press firmly with the hands to get a print of the leaf on the other side of the fold. Trace this half with black oilpastel. Repeat this and draw the other three leaves. Colour the leaves and background with oil pastels in warm colours. Colour the edge with a nice pattern.

Olympic athletes

You need:

1. scissors
2. glue
3. white drawing paper A1 size
4. cardboard in Olympic colors
5. compasses

Start this lesson with the symbol of the Olympics: the colored rings. What do these rings mean? What colors do they have? How are they placed together? Ask one or two children to take the position of an athlete. What is the position of the legs, arms and body? Ask another student to show another position and discuss it again.
This is a group work for five students. Every group gets a big white sheet, five sheets of colored cardboard (colors of the rings: black, yellow, red, blue, green) and at least five copies of the athlete.
Step one: each group member cuts an Olympic ring, using compasses and scissors. Paste this five rings on the big white sheet. Look carefully which ring has to be pasted in front or back, and which ones have to be pasted through each other. Be sure the little cutting line is pasted underneath another ring.

  Step two: Every student takes a copy of the body and cuts every part of it. Then these bodyparts have to be pasted around, in, behind and in front of the Olympic rings.

Stamping with Mondrian

Goal: reducing the visible world in horizontal and vertical lines and primatr colors.   

Technique: stamping. 

You need:

1. black cardboard 
2. sponges cut in different sizes (squares and rectangles) 
3. tempera paint in red, blue and yellow 
4. brushes
5. white crayons 

View these artworks of Mondrian and talk about how he abstracted a tree. 

Also talk about Victory Boogie Woogie, the painting in which you can see part of the map of New York. Tell students we are going to make our own Mondrian map. Discuss the terms primary colors, square, rectangle, vertical and horizontal lines.

Instruction 

Brushes will not be rinsed, but will remain the same color.

Show how to use a brush to rub the sponge with paint. 

Show how to stamp: do not slide the sponge, but lift it off the paper. This way you'll get a tight shape.  

Stamp horizontally or vertically only. 

Do not stamp two of the same colors next to each other. 

Make sure the shapes don't touch each other. You must be able to see the black roads between them. 

When the work had dried, draw stripes on the black roads using a white crayon. 

Elements of art: shape, color, line. 

Artworks are made by students of grade 1/2. 

Monet's waterlilies pond

 You need:

1. drawing paper A3 size
2. tempera paint in green, blue, white, red and yellow
3. two brushes per student
4. two spunges per student
5. paper towels
6. oil pastel crayons 
7. schotels  

Claude Monet (1840-1926) is considered one of the most important painters of Impressionism. 

 Typical for Impressionists:

• they choose subjects from ordinary life 
• special attention for light and color
• work in the open air
• smooth brushstrokes
• dashes resemble a sketch
• it's about the impression!

Discuss the term impressionism. Show some paintings by Monet and zoom in on a work with water lilies in Arts & Culture. Do students see the characteristics of impressionism in this artwork?

Monet had a large garden with a pond and a Japanese bridge in Giverny France. He liked to paint in that garden. His works of water lilies are therefore famous and are the basis of this lesson.

Lesson 1

Squeeze some blue, green and white paint onto a saucer. Dipt your sponge into the blue paint. Stamp on the sheet. Do the same with green paint and stamp all over the sheet. Finally do this with white paint. You can use the green side of your sponge,  to get a light green color also. Let the work dry.

Lesson 2

To paint the water lilies: mix a little bit of red with white paint. Paint ovals spread across the sheet. Not too neat, it's all about impression!

Paint a green border at the bottom of the ovals: the leaf. To make it fresher, you can mix some light green paint and use it. You don't have to clean the green brush first. 

Then paint a heart in your flower with yellow. Let the work dry. 

Finally draw lines in your lily with a dark red or purple oil pastel: the petals. 

Artworks made by students of grade 1 and 2.

Mexican amate

You need:

1. brown paper bag
2. tempera paint in fluoresecent colours and white
3. brushes
4. jar with water
5. black marker
6. coloured paper for background
7. glue or stapler

Amate is a way of making paper, done for centuries by Mexican Indians. Amate paper is made by cooking the inner bark of various trees. At the beginning of the 20th century the Nahua Indians of Mexico started making amate paintings as a form of folk art, especially in order to exchange and sell them to tourists.

Show some pictures of Mexican amate paintings. Discuss the features: birds, flowers, bright colours and black outlines. A frame around the drawing with a pattern in bright colours too.

Tear the edges off the paper: use thumb and fingers of both hands and tear slowly. Use a pencil to draw some birds and flowers, add a patterned frame and paint everything with fluorescent tempera. Let dry and outline everything with a black marker. 

Paste or staple the artworks on coloured construction paper.

Tamponing an Easter bunny

 You need:

1. colored paper
2. tamponing brushes 
3. white tempera paint
4. pencil and color pencils  

A lesson to learn the technique of tamponing with a tamponing brush: do not move the brush back and forth, but stamp. Result will be a softer texture than when using normal brushes.  

No tamponing brushes in school? Give students a cotton ball in a cloth spin. 

What to do?

Scetch the outline of an Easter bunny. Press the pencil as gently as you can, to avoid thick pencil lines under the white paint. 

Stamp the bunny and let dry. 

Draw the outlines with a blak pencil. 

Draw small lines all around with a black pencil. 

Decorate the artwork with spring flowers. 

Art work made by students of grade 2.

Pretty tulip prints

 

You need:

1. corrugated cardboard or a cardboard box 
2. scissors
3. roller 
4. blockprint or tempera paint* 
5. colored or white sheets 

* blockprint dries more slowly and therefore works better than tempera paint. 

With cardboard boxes you can make beautiful prints. These tulips are cut from a cardboard box. 

roll in with block print

Cut a simple tulip from cardboard. Roll them in different colors and print several times on a sheet. Experiment with colors on top of each other and wet in wet. Print the tulips in several heights and let them overlap for a spatial effect. Let dry and stick the art work on a colored sheet. 

Elements of art: space, color, texture. 

Mix and match with Mondrian

 by students of grade 3

You need:

1. white sheets 21 by 21 cm
2. black sheet 23 bij cm
3. paper strips 3 by 6 cm in yellow, red and blue
4. black squares 3 by 3 cm
5. glue

Discuss life and work of Mondrian and the art movement De Stijl.  

I did this lesson in grade 5, students worked in  pairs. The figures are cut  before class. Per art work you need 4 black squares and 16 colored rectangles 

The assignment is:  

• make a composition of 4 squares, each consisting of 4 colored rectangles and a black square in the middle. Make sure there are no 2 of the same colors next to each other
• paste the composition on the white sheet, keeping a small white edge visible around each shape. 
• finally paste the art work on a black surface 

Students from higher groups can measure and cut the figures themselves. 

Difficult assigment and not everyone succeeded! 

Elements of art: shape, color, line. 

A lesson in color theory

 You need:

1. 4 cards of drawing paper, 10 by 7 cm
2. pencil
3. ruler
4. felt tip pens of color pencils 
5. black construction paper

Discuss de words primary and secundary colors using the color wheel.  

What are primary colors and why are they called so? What are secondary colors, how do you make them and why are they called so? What are the neutral colors? Discuss the word color nuance. 

What should you do?

1. Draw a frame on the cards at 2 mm from the edge using a thin black marker.
2. Draw a pattern of your choice on each card.
3. Color the cards according to the terms discussed.
4. Outline the patterns with a thin black marker.
5. Stick the cards on a black background.
6. Add the learned words.

Elements of art: color, line, nuance.

A field full of daisies

Made by a student of grade 5

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A3 size
2. tempera paint in blue, green, white, yellow and red
3. egg boxes or saucers
4. brushes
5. jars with water
6. newspapers
7. paper towels
8. coloured paper for background

Daisies (bellis perennis) are, until it freezes, found in lawns. View pictures of daisies and discuss what they look like. 

Students start to paint the grass. They have to make their own green colors by mixing blue, white and yellow. Paint the entire sheet with small vertical strokes and let dry.

Then the daisies can be painted. In the front of the field daisies are larger  then further away. Use a small brush and a lot of paint, to make sure the green grass is really covered with the white paint of the flower. Use a different color green for the stalks or take the unmixed color green directly from the bottle. Paint the hearts of the flowers with big yellow blobs.

Paste the artwork on a matching background.

Cherry blossom tree

You need:

1. drawing sheet
2. tempera paint in red and white 
3. crayons
4. liquid water color paint
5. brush
6. broccoli 

Step 1

Draw a tree with crayon.  

Step 2

Paint the background with diluted liquid water color paint and let dry.  

Stap 3

Stamp blossom with pieces of broccoli.  

 

Source: www.gluedtomycraftsblog.com 

Tulips; spring is coming!

You need:

1. a bunch of tulips
2. vases or glasses
3. drawing paper A4 size
4. white crayons
5. water paint
6. brushes
7. jar with water
8. colored paper for background
9. glue

What does a tulip look like? What can you tell about the stem and the leaves? What do the petals look like? 

Every group gets a vase with some tulips. Students todraw a horizon line about a third from the bottom. 

Draw tulips with a white crayon. Look carefully at the tulips in the vase. The tulips must overlap.

Colour them with water paint, the white lines will remain. Paint the lawn and the air. Stick the artwork on a colored background.

Painting without using your hands

 

You need: 

1. big drawing sheets
2. brushes
3. tempera paint
4. liquid water color paint
5. tape

Painting without using your hands is quite a challenge! You can paint with your feet or mouth. We tried both. 

Painting with your feet
Put tables aside, newspapers on the floor and stick drawing sheets on top. Very important: take off the shoes in the hallway and leave them there 😀

Place a container with three colors tempera paint between two students. A beautiful portrait is too much, so ask them to paint simple lines or shapes. 

Painting with your mouth 
This is less difficult. Cover the tables with newspapers. Place jars with diluted water color paint and brushes. Students may paint what the want. You may also give them a simple goal: paint rectangles in different colors. 

Japanese cherry blossom on a plate

You need:

1. paper plates
2. acrylic paint: brown, green, red, white
3. brush
4. crepe paper: pink, white, red
5. glue 

This lesson about the Japanese cherry blossom is an old one, but now the blossoms are made on a paper plate. Too pretty to use for dinner! 

Branches are painted, leaves too. Not too big, because leaves only grow well when the blossoms are gone. 

Blossom is partly painted and partly made of crumpled crepe paper. 

Art Nouveau flower tiles

Art Nouveau or Jugendstil is an art style that was practiced from 1890 and abruptly stopped with the start of World War 1 in 1914.  t die werd beoefend vanaf circa 1890 en abrupt stopte met de start van WO1 in 1914. 

Art Noveau was mainly applied to everyday products (for emample furniture, glassware, jewellery), in architecture, graphic art and painting. Artists were inspired by nature: patterns with birds, flowers, plants. clouds, rocks, women.  Graceful moving lines express emotion. 

Famous Art Nouveau artists are Alphonse Mucha,  Gustav Klimt, Gaudi, Berlage. 

You need:

1. folding sheets 10 by 10 cm in several colors
2. pencil
3. scissors
4. glue
5. colored construction paper 30 by 20 cm

Show pictures of  Art Nouveau tiles: organic shapes of flowers and plants. 

Tell students they are going to build a litte wall of tiles in Art Nouveau style.  Every wall has six tiles. Flowers have to be cut out of the folding sheets. Try to use as much as possible of those sheets, so what you cut you glue on the wall. 

Artworks made by students of grade 2 

Patchwork landscape

by a student of grade 4

 You need:

1. white drawing sheets
2. water color paint
3. brushes
4. jar with water
5. crayons

Steps:

1.  Put the sheet in width for you.
2.  Draw a wavy line on 2/3 of the bottom using a crayon.
3. Divide this area in 12 of 15 surfaces by drawing 2 horizontal and 3 o4 r vertical lines. 
4. Draw with a crayon house and trees on the horizon line.
5. Draw patterns in the surfaces.
6. Paint the surfaces in differtent colors.  
7. Paint house, trees and  air. 

With this lesson you can also practice one-point perspective. Place a dot in the middle from the top of the sheet and draw vertical lines towards this dot. 

bij a student of grade 4