Radial name design

You need:

• white drawing sheet from 21 cm by 21 cm
• black marker
• black fineliner
• black or coloured construction paper for background

There are many fun things to do with your own name! Draw a spot in the middle of the sheet (use a ruler!) and draw an even amount of lines to the sides of the sheet. In the example are ten lines, producing nine compartments. Write your name in capitals within a compartment, while the bottom and upper side of the characters reach the lines. Colour the characters with a black marker.

Then write your name with a fineliner as often as you can in small characters in the next compartment. You may write horizontally of diagonally, as you wish. You can even write in squares.

Fill the compartments alternate with big and small names. If you like it, you can colour the compartments with the big names with wasco crayons.

Country vanes

You need:

1. white drawing paper (A4 format)
2. felt pens
3. black fineliner

Each country has its own specific things: an anthem, a flag, one language, national food, a certain building, an event. What do you think when you think the Netherlands? Of course there are the requisite stereotypes, like wooden shoes - no, we don't walk on them anymore! Yet the wooden shoe is something special about Holland. In this lesson children will make a vane, a little flag with characteristics about a self chosen country. The vane should have four distinctive things to recognize a country, so other children will instantly know to which country the vane belongs.

Discuss with the children some examples from countries and significant things who belong to that country.

After this children choose a country. In their table groups the children help eachother to consider the four typical things for the chosen countries.

Vanes come in different forms. Show some forms on the digital blackboard. The vane has to be symmetrical. To avoid ugly wrinkles, it's better to divide the sheet with thin lines in four pieces. After this, outline a symmetrical vane.

Draw four different things in the compartments and colour it with felt pens. Outline every drawing with a fineliner.

Picknick quilt

What kind of things do you think of when you hear the word summer? Which of those things are easy to be drawn? An ice cream will be easy to draw, but a drawn beach will be less clear as part of a quilt. Is it better to choose objects that belong to the beach such as shells or beach toys. Each group receives a large sheet of coloured paper and white squares of paper from 11 by 11 cm. We're drawing summerquilts together!

Discuss how you can get a group work: choosing matching colours or choosing the same subject.

You need:

1. pencils
2. sheets of paper from 10 by 10 cm
3. scissors and glue
4. big cardboard for background

Every member of the group makes some drawings for a summerquilt. Those little drawings have to be coloured with colour pencil. When all drawings are ready, they have to be glued on the coloured background. Possibly the edges of the large sheets can be decorated with sticky buttons or drawn patterns.

Picknickkleed, door Oscar, Ozan, Yorn, Fabian en Richard, groep 7

Graffiti

Juf Lisette is the maker of this lesson! You need:

1. Grey drawing sheet
2. Wasco
3. White drawing paper
4. Felt pens
5. Scissors, glue

Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property. Graffiti is sometimes regarded as a form of art and other times regarded as unsightly damage or unwanted. All children get a grey sheet and some white sheets. To get a wall texture, use wall bricks to scratch over with wasco crayons. Cut those bricks and glue them on the grey paper sheet.

Design your own name in graffiti characters and colour it with felt pens. Cut it out and glue it on your brick wall. Of course children can choose for a slogan of a pop artist instead of their name.

Graffiti, made by children from 10-11 years old

Sunny faces

You need:

1. white piece of paper 20 by 20 cm
2. brushes
3. watercolour paint
4. jar with water
5. black marker

After talking about warm and cool colours, children have to divide their sheet in four squares. Outline a dish exactly in the middle of the sheet. Draw a sunny face with eyes, nose, mouth, cheeks, eyebrows and eyelashes. Don't draw too small, because those parts have to be painted and outlined later.

Use watercolour paint to colour your sunny face. Cool colours for the background, warm colours for the sun. The four parts of the face have to be coloured with different warm colours. The same for the background: use four different cool colours. When the work is dry, outline each part with a black marker. Mark the dividing lines also.

Opart like Vaserely

You need:

1. white paper
2. markers
3. ruler and pencil
4. charcoal

Show the children works from Victor Vasarely. What do you see? Do you recognize the optical illusion? How did Vasarely make this? Do you see the shapes coming out from the background? What colours and shapes has been used? We call this opart or optical art. Tell children they are going to make an opart drawing today. Every child becomes a white sheet of paper and starts with outlining one or more round objects like a lid or a dish. Draw curved lines from above to below and from the right to the left. Draw a grid pattern behind the circle with squares from 1,5 to 1,5 cm. Teach children how to do this, it appeared not to be that easy...:) When finished, colour the squares in the circle like a checkerboard. 1. Go slow and think first, a mistake is easily made. 2. No two colours should be right next to eachother (side to side) 3. Colours should always be corner to corner with eachother To accentuate depth, we used a piece of charcoal and drew a shadow around the ball.

Crazy monkey's

You need:

1. white drawing sheets
2. colour pencils
3. scissors and glue
4. green or yellow sheets for background

We always have to laugh about monkey's; maybe because they look so much like us!

In this lesson we're going to draw monkey's and add some extra funny details. Look at monkey photographs first. What do they look like - lenth of arms and legs, size of the head, eyes, nose etc. CHildren draw a frame on their sheet about 2 cm from the sides. The instruction is: draw a hanging monkey with two or three funny details. Examples: an Ipod, clothes, or jewellery . Draw your monkey as big as possible, but stay within the frame. Next: draw a jungle background, with climbing plants, tree trunks, big leaves and exotic fruit. Vervolgens wordt een oerwoudachtige achtergrond getekend: slingerplanten, grote varens, takken, boomstammen, grote bladeren, vruchten. Some of those leaves or branches may stick out of the frame. Colour the drawing with natural colours. Make sure the complete sheet is coloured, there will be no more white! Cut out the drawing (watch for the outsticking details) and glue it on a green or yellow sheet.

Show me your shoes

Made by Anne, 10 years old

You need:

1. white drawingpaper
2. coloured pencils
3. scissors
4. glue
5. coloured paper for background

Ask children to take their most beautiful, most colourful or most favourite shoes. Put one of your shoes in front of you on your table. Look carefully and draw your shoe on a white sheet. Colour it firmly and cut it out. Glue the shoe on a coloured sheet that matches to the colours of the shoe.

By Jetse, 12 years old

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.

Comic strip language

You need:

1. white drawing paper from 10 by 10 centimetres
2. white drawing paper from 30 by 30 centimetres
3. tempera paint
4. felt pens
5. black markers
6. brushes

Comic strip drawers use a special way to reproduce sounds. They realise a special effect with letters or words. We call this an onomatopeia or sound-imitation.

There is always a black frame around the comic strip pictures. Sometimes you'll see the a part of the drawing outside of the frame. Ask sour students to take their favourite comic strips. Look for examples of sound-imitations and talk about them: SPLASH (falling water), TOINK (someone who bumps his head). Those sound-imitations are often combined with a movement or direction. You can notice this if you look at the shape or direction of the letters, or even at the letters themselves. Often you'll see matching symbols around a word, like litte stars for someone who bumped his head or drops of water around the word SPLASH. Students design a comic strip picture with a sound. They have to draw a concept first on the little sheet. When finished and satisfied with the concept, students take a bigger sheet from 30 with 30 centimentres. On this sheet they have to draw a frame (use a ruler!) about 1 centimetre from the sides. Outside this frame the drawing has to remain white, like in comic strips. After this children have to enlarge their concept. If it is to difficult, they can draw a grid on their sheet first (squares from 3 by 3 centimetres). Drawing and words have to be coloured with feltpens. The background and other great parts can be painted with tempera. Tell children to choose bright colours, so don't mix to much. At last outline all lines with a black marker.

Beautiful butterflies

You need:

1. white drawing paper
2. tempera
3. brushes
4. glue and scissors
5. coloured paper for background

Paint with a small brush white tempera to create . Niet te kleine vakken maken, dat is lastig inkleuren later. Door het mengen van kleuren en wit worden de vakken gevuld. Vertel de kinderen dat ze de verf niet verdunnen, om felle kleuren te krijgen. Ook na het spoelen van de kwast moet deze goed worden drooggemaakt in een papieren doekje. Vouw een tweede tekenvel dubbel en teken tegen de vouw aan een of meer halve vlinders. Knip deze uit. Verf ze in dezelfde kleuren als de achtergrond, maar blijf daarbij een halve centimeter van de rand af zodat je een wit randje overhoudt. Trek met witte verf dunne lijntjes rondom het lijf van de vlinder en de versieringen als de verf voldoende aangedroogd is. Plak de gekleurde achtergrond op een groter vel wit papier. Plak dan de vlinders op, waarbij je ook over de witte rand kunt gaan. Doe alleen lijm achter het lijf, zodat de vlinders iets van het pier gaan afstaan voor een ruimtelijke effect.

Black and white prints

You need:

1. two pieces of linoleum from 10 x 10 cm
2. lino knive
3. mat
4. block printing ink in black and white
5. flat piece of glass
6. linoleum roller
7. white paper A4 size
8. black papier A4 size
9. lino press

For this artwork you need two square pieces of linoleum. Draw simple patterns or simple figures. Cut from the first piece of lino the figures out and leave the background (negative). Cut from the second piece of lino just the background out while leaving the figures (positive). Press both works several times in black ink on white paper and white ink on black paper. Choose the best out of those prints. Paste the white prints on black sheets and the black prints on white sheets. Paste the black print on white paper sheets on a larger black sheet. Paste the white print on black paper sheets on a larger white sheet. Finally glue the black and white sheets together.

Made by students from 10-11 years old

Athletes and their shadows

You need:

1. plywood plate on A4 size
2. coping saw
3. sandpaper
4. carbon paper
5. pencil
6. strong glue
7. black construction paper for background
8. tempera and brushes

Search in a newspaper, magazine or on the Internet for a photo of an athlete in motion. Note that, if you would print the photo in black, you'll see well what the athlete does. Place carbon paper with the black side down on your board. Lay the picture above. Trace the athlete. Press firmly. Saw the athlete neat and sand the edges smooth. Paint the two parts in the colours you like. Don't forget the edges! Glue your board on a piece of cardboard and paste the sawn-athletes with some space between. You will see an athlete with his own shadow!

Waterlilies like Claude Monet

You need:

1. tissue paper in different colors
2. white drawing sheet (A4 size)
3. glue

Claude Monet was a French painter and founder of French impressionist painting. Impressionistic paintings are a kind of snapshots, giving a quick impression. Up close it will only show spots and streaks; at a distance you see that these spots together represent an image.

After viewing some waterlily paintings by Monet, children will make their own waterlilies using tissue paper. To get the spotty Monet effect, the tissue paper should be torn into pieces. For the background students tear pieces of blue and green tissuepaper and paste them on their sheet. 

The flowers are also made of torn pieces of tissue paper. It is important to work from big to small: first the background, then the pieces of the large flowers, and over them the heart of the flower. 

Face in the mirror

You need:

1. coloured construction paper
2. scissors and glue
3. cutter and mat

During this lessons children will practice with positive and negative space. Discuss about a face: form, place of ears and eyes (same height), distance between the eyes, hairline (not just on top of the head), the width of the mouth and nose. Every child gets a construction paper and a half construction paper in two contrasting colours. Draw half of a face to the side of the small sheet. This face must be cut and placed at the center line of the whole sheet. Cut parts out of the half face and place them on the other side. When all parts are cut, everything cn be pasted.

Animal silhouette

You need:

1. white drawing sheet, A3
2. tempera and brushes
3. pictures of animal furs and side views of the corresponding animals
4. black construction paper
5. scissors and glue

For this task the children search the internet for photos of animal fur. The photographs have to be printed in colour. Then they paint the fur as accurately as possible on the white sheet. While drying, children can look for pictures of the animal from which they just painted the fur. This picture has to be a side view.

Print the animal and use a copier to enlarge it. The animal picture must fit on the painting of the fur.

Put the picture of the animal on black paper and tape it down. Then cut exactly along the outer lines of the image, while cutting the black paper also. Glue the silhouette on the painting.

Growing landscape

You need

1. drawing sheets A 3
2. tempera
3. brushes and water
4. photographs (or parts of them) from landscapes

A little piece from a landscape picture or a complete photograph (look for them in travel guides) will make a beautiful painting! Glue the litte piece somewhere on your sheet and paint the landscape as you imagine it would be!

Proud as a peacock

Made by students of grade 5

You need:

1. photographs from peacocks
2. peacock feathers
3. white drawing sheet
4. wasco crayons
5. watercolour paint
6. blue or green construction paper

Male peacocks are notable for their long tail, consisting of long feathers, with eyes at the end. Look at photo's of peacocks and try to get some peacock feathers in your classroom. How do you recognize a peacock? What does his body look like? And his head? What has he got on his head? Loot at the feathers and discuss the features. What does the eye in the feather look like? What colours do you see?

Children draw a rough pencil sketch of the body and the head of the peacock. It won't be necessary to draw each individual feather, this can be done while colouring.

Colour the peacock wih oilpastel crayons. When ready, paint the whole sheet with light blue watercolour paint. Oil pastel will resist. Finally glue the drawing on a blue or green sheet.

Spring flowers

You need

1. white drawing paper
2. wasco crayons
3. tempera
4. brushes

Children draw spring flowers with black crayon. The whole sheet should be filled with flowers. Colour the flowers with tempera. Paint the background in a bright spring colour.

Moving around

You need:

1. white drawing paper A4 size
2. black finepointed markers
3. markers in three different colours
4. black construction paper for background

Movement, that is what this lesson is about. Give each child a rough leaf. Ask some children in your classroom to show different 'frozen' attitudes: running, cheering, catching a ball, kneeling. The other students draw this postures on their rough leaf. Their character has only to consist of a circle (head) and stripes for arms, torso and legs. The goal of this lesson is not to draw good-looking people, but only the attitude. If these droodles are okay, children fill their sheet with moving people. Again: draw simple figures consisting of a circle and scrawled arms and legs. The figures should not overlap, but there should be as much as possible on the drawing sheet. Allow children to draw first with pencil, and if the figures are good, they go over it with a fineliner.

When the sheet is filled up with moving figures, the spots between the people have to be coloured. Use only three different colours feltpens. The spots may not touch each other, there must even be a white border between the faces. Also around the puppets remain white. Keep a white border of about half a cm free all around the whole work. This will look nice on a black background.

Finally paste the picture on a black sheet of paper.