Patterned hearts like Jim Dine

You need:

1. drawing sheet A5 size
2. crayons
3. liquid water colour
4. brush

Fold the sheet of paper into quarters. Cut a heart out of a piece in the hearts: Trace this heart four times with a pencil. Draw patterns in the hearts with crayons: stripes, circles, zigzag lines etc. Draw different patterns around the hearts.

Paint the whole sheet with liquid watercolour. The crayon will resist the ink.

Searching for the chameleon

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. oil pastels
3. scissors
4. small pieces of foam
5. double sided tape

Start the lesson with this poem about a chameleon.

Has anyone seen my chameleon this morning?

He has to be hiding somewhere.

He asked me if we could play hide-and-go-seek,

and then disappeared into thin air.

I've looked high and low in the yard and the house

and it seems like he's nowhere around.

He's probably hiding right out in the open

but doesn't yet want to be found.

I'm guessing he looks like a leaf on a bush

or the back of a sofa or chair.

He could be disguised as a book or a bagel.

Regardless, I don't think it's fair.

If you come across my chameleon, please tell him

I give up. He beat me today.

He's clearly the champion at hiding so, next time,

it's my turn to pick what we play.

Kenn Nesbitt

Draw shapes of your choice on the sheet. Leave about 1 cm white between the shapes. Colour them with three or four different colours of oil pastels.

Draw a chameleon on another sheet and colour it the same way as the first sheet: coloured shapes with one cm white between them. Cut it out with a one cm white around it. Use small pieces of foam and double side tape to paste the chameleon on the background. The chameleon will be slightly higher.

All artworks are made by students of grade 6

Artist Trading Cards

Some weeks before Christmas, I was contacted by Amy Baldwin, art teacher at St. Pauls Lutheran School in Millington (Michigan). She wrote me she was a fan of my weblog. We emailed for a while, wondering if we could do a little project together. I read about exchanging ATC's on many art blogs, so I proposed to let our students make those little cards for eachother. This seemed to her very nice, so we got started!

Amy's students made ATC's for my students, my Dutch students did the same for hers. A couple of days before Christmas I sent an envelope filled with 50 ATC's of my 23 students to Millington.

Yesterday we received the big envelope, full of ATC's! How exciting for my students to get those beautiful cards from the other side of the world! They admired the cards and were surprised about the Dutch words on some of them. Thank you very much Amy and thank you all, St. Paul's students!

Come on, let's make a snowman!

You need:

1. blue construction paper A4 size
2. oil pastels
3. pencil
4. white tempera
5. brush

Students sketch a part of a snowman on blue paper. Sketch the hat and scarf and other items too. By choosing an incomplete snowman, students are forced to draw big. An additional advantage is that there remains some to imagine, because wwhat would your snowman look like if he filled the complete sheet?

Tell students that they begin to colour with white. This is to prevent the other colors will mix with white, and to be sure the white crayons will remain white! When the artwork is ready, outline everything with black oil pastel. Paint snowflakes around the snowman with white tempera paint and a sturdy brush.

Made by students of 10-11 years old

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.

Valentine's day (with Jim Dine)

You need:

1. white paper 20 by 20 cm
2. cardboard 10 by 10 cm
3. pencil and ruler
4. scissors
5. glue
6. colour pencils
7. oil pastel crayons
8. chalk pastel
9. salt
10. tempera paint
11. different kinds of coloured paper (ribbed cardboard, tissue paper, crepe paper etc.)
12. watercolour paint
13. brushes
14. markers
15. red or pink paper for background

Jin Dine, born in 1935 in Cincinatti, is a sculptor and popart artist. Hearts, ties and tools are recurrent themes in his art. Let children learn about Jim Dine by showing and discussing his artworks. Because of upcoming Valentine's day a lesson about hearts today! Basic colours are red and white (and making pink of these of course!).

Children get a sheet from 20 by 20 cm. They have to divide this sheet with ruler and pencil into four squares from 10 by 10 cm. Fold the little cardboard and draw a heart against the fold. Cut it out. Trace this heart in the four squares. Divide the different colouring supplies on different tables. Stimulate children to experiment with these materials. What happens when I sprinkle salt in watercolour paint? How can I make my heart pop up from the paper? Can I combine chalk pastel and oilpastel? What happens when I sprinkle water on tissuepaper? Students have to colour their hearts and backgrounds by using as many supplies and techniques as possible. While doing this, kids may walk around through the classroom(s) and choose the place where the art supplies of their choice are. The only restriction is: when all chairs are occupied, you have to choose another supply first. When the four hearts are ready, they have to be pasted on a red or pink background.

All artworks are made by children of 10-12 years old

Snowman close ups

Made by Charmaine, 11 years old

You need:

1. grey drawing paper cut in pieces from 15 by 15 cm
2. oil pastels
3. glue
4. scissors
5. coloured cardboard

Children get three pieces of grey drawing paper. They have to draw the same snowmen face or part of the face from different points of view: frontal, of the side, from above, from the bottom, upside down etc. The snowmen must be coloured with oil pastels. Of course the colours of all drawings have to be the same. Outline everything with black oil pastel.
Glue the three snowmen close ups on a matching coloured cardboard.

Snowman close ups, by children of 11-12 years old

Puzzle trees

You need:

1. black paper A4 size
2. black paper 23 by 32 cm
3. oilpastel crayons
4. scissors and glue

Students draw with a pencil on a black A4 sheet a simple mountain landscape under the moon. Colour it with oilpastel crayons and outline the mountains and moon with black crayon. Show the students that the colour of the air around the moon is lighter. Use white and yellow to brighten up blue colours, or black to darken them. Make sure your colours in the air will blend.

When colouring is finished, turn around the sheet. Draw a tree on the back, with five branches: one tho the right, one to the right edge of the paper, one to the middle above, one to the left edge of the sheet and one to the left. Branches have to be small at the end and wide near to the trunk. You've got six puzzlepieces now. Cut them out and place them on the larger black sheet. Use the cut tree to check if your pieces lie well. Pate all parts on the black sheet, exept the tree of course. Maybe you can do something fun with it?

Cow's day

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A3 size
2. construction paper for background
3. tempera paint or oilpastels

When the cows are back in the meadows in spring, we should draw them! We look at photographs and paintings of cows. Using the website ‘how to draw a cow’ , children draw a cow in the meadow. Of course with a typical Dutch cloudy sky. Colour the drawing with oilpastels or tempera paint. Tell the kids that the meadow shouldn't be a simple green rectangle. They should use different colours. And: grass is growing up!