Blowing trees

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. watercolour paint
3. tempera paint
4. indian ink
5. q-tips
6. straws
7. black construction paper

Practice blowing the ink droplets first on a scrap paper. Drip a drop of indian ink at about one third from the bottom of the sheet and blow through the straw to the top of the sheet and to the sides. Keep blowing to get smaller branches. Make three trees this way. Let your work dry. Paint a background with watercolour paint. You can paint over the trees carefully, the indian ink will not smudge if it's dry enough. Let the work dry again. Take tempera and a q-tip to paint autumn leaves on the branches, the ground and in the air. Near the tree many leaves, further less leaves. Paste your work on a black sheet.

Owl in moonlight

You need:

1. white drawing paper A4 size
2. oil pastel
3. blue ink
4. brush
5. dish with water
6. scouring pad

See the moon shining through the trees... and in the moonlight everything looks blue.

Children scetch a winter tree, so there will be no leaves. Show them that the branches at the end always be thinner. Scetch a moon between the branches. Draw a cat or an owl on one of those branches.

The tree has to be coloured with blue oil pastel. Color difference can be made by pressing harder or softer, or by using a little black or white through that blue for the feathers. Colour the owl or cat blue too. Use black to draw eyes, ears and beak. The moon is white-yellow and becomes darker yellow to the outside.

When colouring is ready, everything has to be outlined with white oil pastel; even the smallest branches have to be outlined. This is a difficult chore, because you barely see the white and you run the risk that the white crayon will get blue (scrape it then!).

The background will be painted with ink, water and a scouring pad (watch your clothes!). The white lines will resist the ink. Put undiluted blue ink on a dish and dip the soft side of the scouring pad in it. Stamp with the pad along the outer edges of the drawing. Add water to the ink when you're nearer at the moon. The blue will be lighter then. Make a great light blue circle around the moon.

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?

Autumn trees near the water

You need:

1. light blue drawing paper A4 size
2. oilpastel crayons
3. tempera in autumn colours
4. brushes

Fold the paper in half. Above the fold is the country, below the fold is the water. Students draw with oilpastels some trees without leaves in the grass. Those trees have to be coloured firmly. Below the fold is the reflection of the trees in the water. The trees have to be drawn again, but mucht less thick coloured.

When the trees are ready, students get a plate with five colours of tempera: yellow, orange, red, brown and green. leaves have to be made by tamponning with the brushes. Tell your students to tampon with two or more colours at the same time, so don't mix up the colours.

When the leaves are ready and the paint is still wet, fold the paper again. There is now a lighter print of the foliage at the bottom of the sheet: the reflection in the water. The branches of the tree will now be visible again, because part of the paint is now on the bottom of the sheet.

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.