It's warm blanket time!

 Days are getting shorter, nights are getting colder. Time for a warm blanket!

What do you need:

1. colored paper for background (achtergrond)
2. brown paper 
3. leftovers of colored and white paper 
4. white drawing sheet cut in square 
5. watercolor paint + brushes
6. crayons
7. black marker
8. scissors and glue

Divide thhis lesson over more moments. Consider in advance whether you will give students a mold of the bear's head or whether they will have to draw it themselves. 

Folding and painting: 

For the blanket: fold the white sheet into 16 squares. Paint each square in a different color. Let dry. Draw stripes with a crayon on the folds of the squares just like on a patchwork blanket. 

Cutting:

• draw a bear's head on brown  paper and cut out, or trace the bear head template and cut out. 
• for the legs four ovals out of brown paper. 
• for the snout a circle out of colored paper. 
• for the ears two half circles out of colored paper. 
• for the eyes two small circles out of white paper. 

Pasting and drawing:

• stick the hind legs on the colored sheet. 
• stick the blanket so that the legs come out from underneath.
• stick the head halfway onto the blanket and the front legs underneath.  
• stick snout, eyes and ears on the head.
• draw nose, whiskers and pupils with a black marker. 

Artwork made by students of grade 1.  

Techniques: folding 16 squares, cutting shapes, pasting. 

Elements of art: shape, color. 

Snowdrops

 You need:

1. white construction paper 10 by 10 cm and 15 by 15 cm
2. oilpastel
3. soft crayons
4. white drawing sheet

Draw a frame around the drawing sheet at 1 cm from the edge. Color the background with oil pastel, pastels or a combination of these. Only use the colors yellow, green and blue.

Draw two flower stems with green oil pastel. 

Fold two snowdrops from the white sheets. Stick them on the work. 

Elements of art: color, nuance. 

Winter tree in warm-cool colors

 You need:

1. drawing sheets 25 x 32,5 cm
2. crayons
3. watercolor paint
4. black tempera 
5. brushes
6. jar with water

With crayon: draw a horizonline and a tree trunk from the bottom of the sheet. Draw branches that touch the edges of the sheet. Draw a pattern in the landscape below the horizon. 

With watercolor paint: paint the sky. Paint the surfaces between the branches in warm or cool colors. Paint the surfaces in the landscape: warm if you first chose cool, cool if you first chose warm. 

With tempera: paint the branches and trunk black. 

Elements of art: color (warm and cool), space, line (pattern)

artworks made by students of grade 4

Moon behind tree

Made by a student of grade 6

You need:

1. white drawing sheet 
2. charcoal
3. chalk pastels 
4. indian ink
5. brush 

Use a saucer to draw a moon in the center of the sheet. Colour it with yellow chalk pastel. Colour the rest of the sheet grey using charcoal: around the moon it's brighter than further away.
Draw a branch and paint it with Indian ink.

The best nest

1. drawing sheet
2. oilpastel
3. liquid watercolour paint
4. brushes
5. 3D tape

The best nest for birds in winter is a colourful one! This birdhouse will protect birdies against snow and cold.

Students draw a birdhouse and colour it in with oil pastels. Perhaps there's also a  peanut pendulum on the house. Draw  snowflakes (white oil pastel) and also a layer of snow on the house.
Paint the background with liquid watercolor. Leave about 1 cm white on the edges for an extra winter look. Draw (or print) a bird on another piece of paper and cut it. Paste it in the house using 3D tape for a spatial effect (the pads that are used to create 3D cards).

Made by students of grade 1/2

Catching snowflakes

 

Made by students of grade 4

You need:

1. blue construction paper
2. oilpastel crayons
3. fiberfill 
4. glue 

I don't know who was the first that posted this lesson ...Who do I link? Artsonia, Pinterest? However, it came across all art blogs lately! 

It's snowing! Look up and try to catch snowflakes with you tongue! What does your face look like when you look up?
Draw a child in a cheerful winter sweater. Colour with oil pastels. Outline with black. Paste a piece of fiberfill on the tongue, and do not forget to draw the snowflakes.

(Source: Artsonia/Pinterest)

Suburb for birds

Made by students of grade 4

You need:

1. coloured cardboard 
2. wallpaper 
3. wrapping paper
4. tempera paint
5. black marker
6. brushes
7. scissors and glue

Students draw a birdhouse with a special entrance on brown wrapping paper. This entrance can be a heart, a star of even a bird. Cut this entrance and outline the hole with a black marker.

Paint the house with cheerful colours.

Paste it on a piece of wallpaper and cut it out with 2 cm around. Paste a strip of black paper on the cardboard, this is the standard for birdhouse. Paste the birdhouse on the standard. Outline the house with black marker.

All birdhouses together will make a colourfull suburb for birds!

Thanks to Maureen Kaal 

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.

Four season trees

 

You need:

1. four white drawing sheets A6 size (postcard)
2. Q-tips
3. tempera paint
4. coloured corrugated cardboard
5. silver and gold markers
6. fiberfill
7. glue

How can a deciduous tree tell you what season it is? What colours do they have in spring, summer and fall? What does a tree look like in winter?

Discuss these questions at the beginning of this lesson. Write on the board the colors in the spring heard (light green, green, white, pink - blossom), which belong to the summer (green, dark green, yellow) and the autumn colours (brown, orange, red, yellow). And in winter there aren't any leaves. left of course.

 

The students will make a tree for every season. The colours of the leaves have to show what season it is. The log is "painted" with a Q-tip, the leaves have to be may only be spotted. Remember that in fall there are a lot of leaves on the ground! Use fiberfill (snow) for the tree in winter.

 

Paste the trees next to each other on a piece of corrugated cardboard. Design it with gold or silver marker and write the seasons above the trees.  

Organisation:

Give each groep of six students an eggtray with several colours of paint. Give each student a Q-tip to paint the trunk. Per groep een eierdoos met de verschillende kleuren verf. Geef de leerlingen elk een wattenstaafje voor de boomstam.For the dots: one Q-tip per colour for common use.
 

Artworks made by students of grade 3

 

Thanks to Maureen Kaal

Winter mittens and cap

Made by a student of grade 2

You need:

1. coloured construction paper
2. markers
3. white sheet
4. glue
5. scissors
6. oil pastel

Students draw a face on a large sheet of white paper and colour it with oil pastels. Be sure the eyes are not on top of the head, but in the middle. The space between the two eyes is as wide as an eye.
From coloured paper students cut mittens and a hat (or trace templates first and cut them). Draw patterns on the hat and mittens with marker. The patterns on both mittens should be similar, as well as the patterns on the hat.
Paste hat and mittens on the drawing. Make sure the thumbs point to each other!

Winter forest prints

I found this lesson on Mrs. Knight's art class blog. Take a look on that blog to see more beautiful artworks.

You need:

1. ribbed cardboard
2. flat cardboard
3. woodsies
4. coloured construction paper
5. block printing ink
6. piece of plexiglass
7. roller

Students make a collage of trees, cut from pieces of flat and ribbed cardboard and woodsies. Tell them the cardboard can be used in two ways: from top to bottom or from left to right.
Shake the bottle of blockprint carefully to be sure oil will mix with the rest. Drip some paint on the glass and roll it out. Roll the paint on the trees. Put a sheet on top of it and press firmly with a flat hand. Make different prints, choose the best one to paste on a coloured background.    

Stamped polar bears

 

Made by students of grade 1

You need:

1. blue construction paper
2. pencil
3. tempera paint white and black
4. marshmellows
5. brush
6. glitter
7. glue

Show how to draw a polar bear out of simple shapes: circle, half of a circle (ears) and a part of a triangle for the body. Talk about the grey shadow under the head. How do you make gray? Tell students they have to stamp with marshmellows or brushes. Do not paint!

Students draw the head of a polar bear on blue paper. Use white to stamp head and body. Use grey to stamp the shadow. Paint eyes and nose with a small brush. Decorate the artwork with glitter.

Snowmen mandala

You need:

1. white drawing sheet 
2. compasses
3. scissors 
4. crayons or oil pastels 
5. indian ink
6. brush

Step 1.
This lesson is a variaton on 'Autumn leaves mandala'. Click the link for full description.

Focus in this lesson: make sure the snowmen are really coloured white with crayons or oil pastels, otherwise they will turn completely black with ink after step 2.

Step 2.

Crumple the picture into a ball. Make flat again. Paint the entire drawing with indian ink. Rinse the ink immediately after it in the sink and let the work dry. The ink will rest in the folds of the paper  and creates a great "antique" effect.

Northern lights

You need:

1. black construction paper A4 size
2. chalk pastel
3. white wallpaper with texture
4. scissors
5. glue
6. fine black marker

I found this lesson via Flickr on Pinterest, but don't know to whom I have to give credit...
Show some northern light movies on Youtube. What can you tell about the colours? What movements do you see?

Draw a horizon line a little below the middle of a black sheet. Use different colours chalk pastels to colour the sea. Do not use too much chalk, so that it can be smudged.
Cut a strip of mountains out of black paper. Paste it on the horizon line. Use white chalk pastel to make snow on the mountains. Draw the northern light above the mountains. Smudge colours.
Draw a polar bear on an ice floe on the back of a piece of white wallpaper. Cut out. Draw details with a fine black marker. Paste the polar bear on the sea.
Finally paste the artwork on a bright coloured sheet.

By students of grade 5

Winter trees glimpse

Made by a student of grade 6

You need:

1. cardboard in three colours, 15 by 20 cm
2. ruler
3. pencil
4. cutter
5. cutting mat
6. double sided foamtape
7. hook

Draw a rectangle on each sheet of cardboard 2 cm from the edges. Draw wintertrees in these rectangles. The trunk must be on the bottom, the branches must reach the left, right or upper edge. Make sure the three trunks slightly stagger. Cut the parts between the branches/trunk and the frame using a cutter. Use double sided foam tape to paste the three windows together. The lightest colour in the front, the darkest colour on the back.

Attach a hook to the window to hang it.

Stamped snowmen

You need:

1. coloured construction paper A3 size
2. white and black tempera
3. saucer
4. brush
5. wine bottle corks

Give all students a sheet of coloured construction paper. Give a saucer with white paint and a little black paint for every two students. Children have to use a cork to stamp a snowman. Knots, eyes and mouth have to be made by finger printing. Only a hat or broom may be painted with a brush.

By students of grade 1

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!

Penguins and polar bears

Made by Jorine, grade 6

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. plastic wrap
3. watercolour paint
4. brush
5. jar with water
6. black waterproof marker
7. white tempera paint
8. orange marker
9. glue
10. coloured cardboard
11. white pencil

Paint a part of the sheet with blue water paint. Use lots of water. While the paint is still wet, push plastic wrap on it to create floes and then leave the sheet to dry. Remove the wrap.

Use a waterproof black marker to draw several penguins. Colour the black parts and draw wings. Use white tempera to paint the bellies. Leave the work to dry and draw eyes and beaks.

Draw a polar bear on the ice. Trace the pencil lines with a fine black waterproof marker. Paint the bear with white tempera paint, including the black lines to make them a bit hazy. Paint the background with a mixture of white tempera and a little blue. In the example the mix is made of white tempera and the blue rinse water of the water paint.

Paste the work on a coloured background and draw ice crystals along the edges with a white pencil.

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

Let it snow!

You need:

1. black construction paper 20 by 20 cm
2. white tempera paint
3. saucer
4. paper towel
5. fine markers in black and white
6. metallic gel pens

I found the idea of printed snowmen in one of Usborne's activity books. With music lines, I made my own lesson of it.

Draw curved music lines with a white or silver pen on the black sheet. Put a piece of paper towel on a saucer so it can serve as a stamp pad. Drip some tempera paint the paper towel. Use your thumb to stamp the bodies of the snowmen. Add a fingerprint for a head.

When the paint is dry, you can add eyes, nose, mouth, arms, buttons etc. Use gel pens and markers. Draw some music notes on the lines and write the lyrics of a winter song belof the lines.