The princess and the pea

You need:

1. coloured construction paper
2. fabrics
3. a pea
4. glue
5. scissors
6. scraps of construction paper, including gold and silver
7. markers and/or colour pencils

Read the fairy tale 'The princess and the pea' of Hans Christian Andersen. Discuus after this what a princess bed would look like. The students make the bed of the princess in this story. The bed has to be made of stripes of paper. At the bottom of the bed is a real pea, of course. Cut strips of fabrics for the matrasses (use special scissors for fabrics) and make a princess on top of this whole pile. Maybe the bed has even curtains or a little golden crown?

Made by students of grade 1

Greek pottery

You need:

1. brown paper bag or wrapping paper
2. black markers (different sizes)
3. coloured paper for background
4. glue
5. scissors

In ancient Greece pottery in daily life was very important. It was used to store and preserve all kinds of food, like wine, olive oil and water. The pottery was often decorated. There is red-figure pottery with red figures and the background black, and black-figured, with this just the other way. Wikipedia has more information about Greek pottery, especially on the different styles in the decoration of the vases.
View images of Greek pottery. Discuss several forms:

amphora - jug with a handle on both sides so it could be easily lifted. Amphora's were used to store liquids and solids.



crater - mixing vessel for wine and water. The Greeks always mixed their wine with water and sometimes they added spices to change the flavour.


kylix - bowl, flat or on an ornate base with two horizontal handles to pass the scale easily.

Discuss the different designs on the vases: animals, plants, people, flowers, triangles, spirals, mythical creatures etc.
The students fold a piece of brown wrapping paper in half and draw one half of a Greek vase of their choice against the fold. Cut the vase and draw figures and patterns on it using black sharpies. Paste the vase on a coloured sheet.

Made by students of grade 5

Fairy tale caste

Made by students of grade 4

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. indian ink
3. dip pen
4. watercolour paint
5. brushes
6. jar with water

See some pictures of castles and talk about the several parts: battlements, high thick walls, drawbridge, towers, schietgaten, portcullis etc. Talk about the location of a castle: often a high point, so oversee the area. Show that many castles were surrounded by a moat and discuss why this was.

Students draw their castle directly with indian ink on ther sheet. Add details like shutters, torches or flags. Draw the background, the surrounding of the castle. Colour the drawing with watercolour paint. The combination of indian ink and watercolour paint will give a perfect aged feeling.

Baby and blanket, like Gustav Klimt

Made by Debbie, 11 years old

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. pencil
3. colour markers
4. chalk pastel

Gustav Klimt (Austria, 1862 – 1918) was born near Vienna. In 1876 Klimt was awarded a scholarship to the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts . His work consists of paintings of mostly women, but also wallpaintings, drawings and collages. Klimt is much praised for the use of gold in his paintings.

Show some artwork of Klimt, and especially the painting 'Baby'. Discuss the distinctive features in the work: different patterns in the blanket, many colours, the blanket is more important than the baby, wavy lines verschillende patronen in de deken, veel kleuren, de deken is belangrijker dan de baby, wavy lines to express the folds of the blanket.

Students draw a baby in its bed, covered by a patchwork blanket. The blanket has to be divided into sloping surfaces. All different patterns should be coloured with markers. Drawing little black stripes at the edges of the fabrics, will make the patchwork blanket look more real. Use chalk pastel for the a wallpaper behind the bed.

Rainbow fish

Made by students of grade 3

You need:

1. drawing sheet A5 size
2. ruler
3. pencil
4. colour markers

The students put the sheet in the width and draw from top to bottom pencil lines 1 cm apart. Good to practice measure skills!

Draw a fish and a sea bottom line. Colour the fish with markers keeping the same sequence of colors. We chose the order of the colours as they were in the box. Fins, background and bottom should be coloured in the same order, but of course the colours here are staggered to those of the fish.

In the style of Gaston Chaissac

You need:

1. drawing paper A3 size
2. tempera paint in primary colours
3. brushes
4. jar with water
5. paper towels
6. bold black marker
7. black construction paper
8. glue or stapler

The French painter and writer Gaston Chaissac was born in 1910. He came from a poor family and was often ill. In 1934 Chaissac moved to Paris and worked as a shoemaker. He lived in the same house as the German artist Otto Freundlich. It was through the friendship with Freundlich that Chaissac developed the desire to become an artist. He trained himself as an autodidact, supported and promoted by Freundlich. Freundlich also introduced him to the Parisian art scene.

Chaissac exhibited his works in 1938. During his stays at a sanatorium because of his tuberculosis in 1938 and 1939, Gaston Chaissac used the time to paint and draw. After his wedding he moved to the Vendée.

The artist bridged this isolation in the countryside through lively correspondence with gallery owners, authors and artists in Paris. Although Chaissac endeavored to establish a connection with the artist community, he was only valued as an artist by a small circle of gallery owners, journalists, and friends.

As a result, he didn't receive the expected recognition during his lifetime. Chaissac worked as a tireless experimenter and used materials that he found for his works of art - newspapers, shells, peels etc. He painted on every substrate available to him, created pen and ink drawings, watercolours, oil paintings, collages and unusual three-dimensional works. The artist was sometimes classified by Jean Dubuffet with the 'Art brut'. Chaissac himself called his work rather rustic modern.

Gaston Chaissac died in 1964.

Without title, © Gaston Chaissac

View photos of the work of Chaissac and especially the work above. Discuss the salient features: bold black lines that separate colour planes, little depth, simply drawn faces, white planes. What would those white planes mean?

I chose this painter also to repeat colour mixing skills. The students draw on their sheet one head and one or more limbs. Put a pencil mark in these planes, because they have to stay white. Then divide the sheet with wavy lines into small areas. Students choose two primary colours and use them to mix several colours. Paint the different planes with these mixed colours. Start with the brightest colour and and add more and more of the darker colour.

When the work is dry, outline every colour with a black marker. Bumps will disappear. Finally draw eyes, nose and mouth in the face. Paste or staple the work on black paper.

In the style of Gaston Chaissac, by students of grade 3

Longing for spring: printing flowers!

You need:

1. piece of linoleum of 12 by 12 cm
2. several sorts of paper
3. lino knives
4. block printing ink
5. flat piece of glass
6. linoleum roller
7. lino press
8. coloured cardboard 34 by 12 cm
9. scissors
10. glue or stapler

Students draw one or more flowers on their piece of linoleum and cut it out. Then the flower has to be printed on three different sorts of paper. In this lesson I choose for coloured construction paper, a brown paper bag and white white woven towels from the dispenser. Cut the prints with 1 cm around. Paste or staple them on coloured cardboard. Spring can come!

Both artworks are made by students of grade 4

Wild flowers

You need:

1. black construction paper 20 by 8 cm
2. colour pencils
3. tempera paint
4. q-tips
5. saucer

A short lesson with great results! Draw a lot of flower stems on the black paper with several colours green. Stamp the petals above and between the stems, using tempera and q-tips.

Patterned landscape

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A5 size
2. black fine marker or Indian ink
3. coloured paper for background

Children sketch a simple mountain landscape with grey pencil. Use different patterns to colour the mountains: spheres, lines, triangles, squares, leaves - as different as possible. Patterns can by filled negatively of positively: fill a moutain with circles and colour the space between them with black, so the white circles will remain. Paste the drawing on a coloured background.

Made by students of grade 3

Concentric circles Like Kandinsky

You need:

1. drawing sheet A3 size with 12 squares of 10 by 10 cm
2. temperea paint
3. brushes
4. paper towels
5. jar with water

Wassily Kandinsky (1866 – 1944) was a Russian-French painter. His style of painting originally belonged to expressionism, and is sometimes included in symbolism. Kandinsky was one of the artists who gave shape to the abstract art in the early twentieth century.

Kandinsky was inspired by music. According to his own timbre theory, each colour has its own language and expression, and each colour has a soul. Kandinsky tried to convert musical compositions into paintings. He heard colours in music and he saw music in colours. This correlation between music and colour is the starting point of this lesson. Show students images of by Kandinsky. Tell that he listened to music while painting. Look at the painting 'Squares with concentric circles'. Which circle would belong to cheerful music? And what kind of music did Kandinsky hear while painting the dark circle?

Students are going to make a painting in the style of Kandinsky while listening to classical music. During this lesson they listened to Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Each student gets a white sheet with 12 squares of 10 by 1o cm. Tell them to work from the outside to the middle. We may see no white anymore. Try to avoid two the same colours in one circle. Hang all paintings together on a bulletin board for a great group project!

Made by students of grade 1

Clowning around

You need:

1. coloured construction paper 32 by 23 cm
2. white drawing paper A5 size
3. oil pastels
4. scissors
5. glue
6. tempera paint

Look at pictures of clowns on the digiboard and talk about how they recognize a clown.

Give each student a coloured construction paper and a white sheet of A5 size. Let them cut the corners of the white sheet, and let them paste this clown's face on the coloured sheet. Draw a clown using oil pastels: eyes, nose, mouth, hair, hat, bow etc. Colour the different parts with oil pastels. Outline everything with black.

Use toilet rolls and tempera paint to stamp coloured circles around the clown. Hang them all together on the bulletin board: ready for carnival!

Artworks made by students of grade 2

The man with the apple - like René Magritte (2)

What do you need?

• white drawing sheet A4
• aquarelle pencils
• jar with water
• brush
• fine black marker

About the artist

Rene Magritte is born in 1898 in Belgium. When Magritte is 13 his mother commits suicide. She jumps in the river and is found with her dress covering her face. This image has been suggested as the source of several paintings from Magritte: people hiding their faces with objects.
In 1924 Magritte became friends with members of a surrealism group in Brussels: André Breton, Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí. These artists influence Magritte's work. 
Magritte gave his paintings a realistic effect of surrealism. He painted simple objects, like a shoe, apple or tree. He took these things out of their ordinary environment and placed them in a special surrounding.
One of Magritte's most famous works is a very realistic painting from a pipe, with the text: Ceci n'est pas une pipe (This is not a pipe). The painting is not a pipe, but rather an image of a pipe. As Magritte himself commented: "The famous pipe. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it's just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture 'This is a pipe,' I'd have been lying!" By putting us constantly on the wrong track, Magritte forces us to think about art. 
Links: Magritte museum, Brussel 

See also the other lesson In the style of René Magritte (1) on this blog.

 

What should you do?

1. Draw a man or woman from about chest height. 
2. Like Magritte, we see no face. 
3. And, like Magritte, the person has something on his head. 
4. Don't draw a face, but an object of your own choice. 
5. Color the drawing with aquarelle pencils. 
6. Use water and a brush to create the effect of aquarel paint. 
7. Let dry and outline everything with a fine marker.

Artworks made by students of grade 6. 

Foreshortening fun

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. colour pencils
3. coloured paper for background

Sneakers have beautiful soles; sometimes the soles better than the shoes themselves! This art lesson is about foreshortening, soles and the inside of hands. Foreshortening occurs when an object appears compressed when seen from a particular viewpoint, and the effect of perspective causes distortion. Foreshortening is a particularly effective artistic device, used to give the impression of three-dimensional volume and create drama in a picture.

Tell students a story about a scary monster. "Imagine a terrible scary monster approaching you. The monster is much bigger than you and is running fast. You are scared and your try to run backwards. This does not work and you fall. The monster leans over you and you try to ward off with your hands .... "

Students draw the bottoms of the shoes on about the half of the drawing sheet. Then they draw their hands, overlapping the tops of the shoes. They drew their head in between the hands, and add their body. The arms need to be drawn directly to the hands, and the legs have to be drawn to the bottoms of the shoes. Students draw details on the shoe bottoms, and lines on their hands.

Use colour pencils to colour the drawing. When finished, paste it on a coloured background.

All artworks are made by students of grade 5

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

Colourful cows, like Peter Diem

You need:

1. white painting sheet A3 size or a canvas
2. acrylic paint
3. brushes
4. jar with water
5. paper towels

Peter Diem (1945) is a Dutch painter. Diem, born from a Dutch father and a German mother, came in Amsterdam at the age of 3. He had a difficult childhood in which the people of Amsterdam showed they were not charmed by Germans so soon after the Second World War. After highschool Diem went to a school for graphic design to study graphic work. Through several European countries Diem landed in the 70's in the USA, where he married and had children. Halfway through the 90's he returned to the Netherlands and settled with his Diem Museum on the Prinsengracht Amsterdam.

Diem is inspired by the CoBrA Group ( a group of artists from Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam - see also my lesson about CoBrA artist Corneille). His style is abstract and expressive. He brings the paint thick on the canvas, sometimes directly from the tube. With brush, knife and fingers the bright coloured paint is spread across the canvas. 'Diem paints like a tornado, he lives his art'. Themes in his work are flying cows, Napoleon, Africa and Ernest Hemingway.

Show artwork of Diem on the digital board. Pictures are to be found on Diem's website or use the Google picture viewer and look for Peter Diem. Discuss Diem's work:

• subject, Diem paints often cows
• use of bright colours
• simplicity of the image
• thick black contour lines
• no white spots anymore
• the cow is full screen

Show students how to draw a simplified cow, by drawing a cow on the digital board (click on the picture to enlarge). Let the children draw a picture of a simple cow. They have to sketch thin, without drawing many details. The cow has to be painted with acrylic paint, considering the features of Diem's work. Paint a background. Outline the cow with black paint and a small brush. This will also eliminate the unevenness. And of course the work has to be signed, just like Diem does!

All artworks are made by students grade 5

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

Stuffed animal

You need:

1. white or coloured drawing sheet A4 size
2. chalk pastel
3. pencil
4. hairspray
5. stuffed animal

Ask students to take their favourite stuffed animal for this lesson. Let them choose their own drawing sheet. In my class students had to choose from grey, brown or white.

Tell students how to work with chalk pastel: you have to colour lightly and then smudge the chalk with your fingers. Don't produce to much powder, because you won't be able to smudge it away anymore. Vary with colours; you may use two colours and smudge them together. Tell students about light and show them lighter and darker parts of the stuffed animals. Use white chalk to lighten up parts of the stuffed animal, and black chalk to darken colours and make shadows.

Draw a horizon line and sketch your stuffed animal lightly with a pencil. Colour it with chalk pastel. Chalk pastel will emphasize the softness of the animal. Create a background and colour it completely. Use hairspray to fixate the chalk and paste the work on a coloured background.

All artworks are made by students of grade 6.

Owls in the night

You need:

1. blue construction paper 15 by 20 cm
2. white tempera paint
3. piece of cardboard
4. brush
5. saucer
6. paper towel
7. fine black marker
8. yellow pencil

Draw a moon and colour it with yellow pencil. Paint the bottom of the blue sheet white with tempera paint.

Put a paper towel on a saucer. Put a stripe of white tempera paint on the towel. The paper towel will function as a stamp pad. Dip the edge of a piece of cardboard into the white paint and print a trunk. Drag the cardboard a bit to create a thicker trunk. Print several branches. Be sure to leave some space between the branches for the owls.

Use a fingertop and white paint to print the body of the owls. Leave the work to dry.

Draw eyes with a yellow pencil. Outline the eyes with a fine black marker. Draw details like feathers, beak and legs.

Print snow flakes using a q-tip or the end of a brush.

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.

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.