Rollercoaster fun

You need:

1. oil pastels
2. drawing sheet
3. watercolour paint
4. brush
5. jar with water

After a school trip to an amusement park, these drawings were made. The goal was to draw what you liked most in the park and make sure you're part of the drawing.
Coloured with oil pastel and then painted with a brush and watercolour paint.

Made by styudents of grade 4

Melted clocks, Salvador Dalí

Made by students of grade 4

You need:

1. clay
2. clay plate
3. clay roller
4. knife
5. glaze
6. brush

More information about Salvador Dalí, see the lesson High legged elephant in the style of Salvador Dali.

Look at the painting The persistance of memory of Salvador Dali. You can read about this artwork on Wikipedia. Discuss the melted clocks and the symbolism.

Students make a melted clock of clay, like Dalí painted in his artwork. Roll sthin strips of clay for the numbers and hands of the clock.

Bake the clocks in a clay oven and glaze them. Bake again.

Thanks to Willem Wienholts 

Starry night, like Vincent van Gogh

Artworks made by students of grade 4

You need:

1. rectangular canvas
2. acrylic paint
3. brushes
4. color page Starry Night

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) was a Dutch post impressionistic painter. His work falls under the Post-Impressionism. When he starts painting, he paints ordinary people like poor farmers who do heavy work. The colours of his paintings are dark (The Potato Eaters).
He moved to Paris and is impressed by the work of French painters: light and colours are the important things in their work. Van Gogh exchanged the darker colours for brighter colours. The painter Pissaro learns him to paint like the impressionists. Van Gogh changes the dots into stripes.
After two years in Paris, Van Gogh moved to southern France, where he paints orchards and cornfields.
In the garden of the hospital in Arles, where he's treated for his depressions, he paints his most beautiful and famous artworks: Starry Night. In 1890 Van Gogh commits suicide.

Show images of Van Gogh's artworks on the digital board, including Starry Night. Discuss these works: bright colours, litte dashes next to each other in stead of mixed coloures. 

The students use a colouring sheet of Starry Night to draw on their canvas. This has to be painted like Van Gogh did: short brushstrokes (lift your brush always if you have put a dash)! Do not mix the colours, but put two colours simultaneously on your brush to get the Van Gogh effect. The key is: do not paint like you always do, make little dashes!
Note: when using acrylics - rinse your brushe is okay, but be sure to dry that brush! The paint is the best when it is used undiluted.

Surrealism with eyes

You need:

1. camera
2. drawing sheet A3 size 
3. aquarelle pencils 
4. markers 
5. brush
6. jar with water 
7. scissors and glue 

Surrealists like Dali painted images in a hyper realistic style accompanied often with unexpected surprising or even shocking additions. Surrealists let their imagination run wild and painted dreams.   

In this lesson students will make a surrealistic artwork with eyes. Paul Miró, the Spanish surrealistic artist, painted often eyes in his work.

Eyes are meant to look with,  but how can we use eyes in our imagination? Maybe you can play soccer with them ... Or they are on the shelves of a refrigerator .... What tot think about a bouquet of eye flowers to give your mother...

Each student invents a surreal situation of which he or she is part of, and draws it. On a separate sheet several eyes have to be drawn, coloured in bright coloures with markers. The teacher takes a picture of the child as it sees itself in that situation and prints it. The drawing has to be coloured with aquarell pencils. Use water and a brush to smoothe the colours. Paste the photograph in the drawing and then paste the eyes. 

All arworks made by students of grade 4. 

Flamingo in Art Nouveau

 

Made by students of grade 5

You need:

1. white drawing sheet 
2. metallic gel pens
3. glue and figure scissors
4. coloured construction paper for background

Gaudi House, Barcelona

Art Nouveau, also known as Jugendstil an international style of art, applied art and architecture that was most popular during 1890-1914. It is also known as Modernism in Catalonia - Spain, with its most notable contributions by the architect Antoni Gaudi.

Art Nouveau was applied to everyday objects like jewellery and furniture, but also on fences, balconies and facades. Art Nouveau artists used organic shapes, like plants and birds, eggs and women. The lines express emotion. In Paris you will discover Jugendstil in some accesses to the subway. Gaudi also designed his buildings in this style: elegant whimsical shapes, decorated with mosaic tiles and wrought iron.

Show Jugendstil / Art Nouveau pictures using the digital board. Discuss the features: elegant lines, rounded shapes, often asymmetrical, organic shapes, exuberant.

Outline a saucer on a white drawing sheet and cut it. Draw Art Nouveau shapes and lines using metallic gel pens in three colours.  Paste this drawing on a second sheet of white drawing paper. Draw legs, tail and head of a flamingo bird and decorate these parts also with gel pen. Cut the bird with figure scissors leaving a white edge. Paste the art work on a long piece of coloured paper that matches the colour of the flamingo.

Salvador Dali's mustache

You need:

1. drawing sheet A3 size
2. oil pastel crayons
3. pencil 
4. black marker 
5. pipe cleaner 

More information about Salvador Dalí, see the lesson High legged elephant in the style of Salvador Dali.

Show some surrealistic artworks of Dali and discuss the surreliastic parts of it.  Show The melting clocks. Discuss the shape of the clockes. What happened to these clocks? Are these clocks that you can hang on the wall? Why not? Why do we call this surreal?

Using a step by step method, the students draw a face. I opted for the method of WikiHow. Interchange in this method step 1 and 2 by folding the sheet in four parts and then draw an egg shale according to the measures in the figure below. Then continue following the steps on WikiHow.

This is the face of Dali. Draw some melting clocks around it. Draw also some half ones on the edged of the sheet.

The clocks and face have to remain white. Colour the background with warm colors and the clothes of Dali with cold colours (or vice versa).
Outline the clocks and face with black oil pastel. Use a black marker for the numbers and hands of the clock and the parts of the face. Colour the iris of the eyes with a bright colour.

Pierce two holes under the nose and put a piece of pipe cleaner through them. Bend it into a nice mustache. Sign your artwork with your own name. Put the name Dali with a small mustache anywhere at work.

Artworks made by students of grade 4

Thanks to Anne Farell from Use your coloured pencils who gave me the idea of the pipecleaner mustache! 

High legged elephant like Salvador Dali

A great lesson from colleague blogger of Artisan des Arts.

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. markers (not waterproof)
3. brush
4. jar with water
5. chalk pastels
6. felt
7. scissors and glue 

Show some surrealistic artworks of Dali. Show The elephants. Discuss the realistic (the body of the elephant) and the surrealistic parts (house on the back, high legs) of this work.

Students draw a Dali inspired elephant and trace it with a marker. I gave them some 'how to draw' templates. Take a wet brush and go over the lines, so the water turns into watercolour. Let dry.

Draw a horizon line and a sun. Colour the background with chalk pastels and blend with your fingers. Draw shadows of the elephant's legs. Maybe they don't have the right direction, but that's part of surrealism!

Cut a piece of felt for a blanket, decorate it and paste it on the elephant.

All artworks are made by students of grade 4

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.

Doodling together group mural part 2

What to do with that great group mural (see Doodling together group mural) if it has to make place for other artworks and everybody wants to have it? Exactly! Cut it in equal pieces and paste those pieces on black sheets of construction paper.  That awsome mural turns out in a lot of great artworks; one for all groupmembers!

Happy new year

Made by students of grade 3 and 4 

You need: 

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. blue liquid water colour paint 
3. brush
4. crayons
5. black and yellow or orange construction paper
6. yellow chalk pastel

Show pictures or movies about fireworks and discuss what this looks like. Use crayons to draw fireworks on a white sheet. Paint this with blue liquid water colour paint. Let dry.

Cut a skyline out of half a sheet of black paper. Paste this on the blue sheet. Cut windows from yellow or orange paper.
Draw a yellow chalk line on the roofs and smudge it.   

The Xmas tree isn't green

You need:

1. two drawing sheets A4 size
2. liquid watercolour paint
3. brushes
4. jar with water
5. tissue paper
6. scissors
7. glue
8. pencil
9. gold or silver marker

Paint a background with liquid water colour paint. Use two dark colours and let them blend into each other, leaving some white on the sheet.
Choose three colours of tissue paper. Fold the sheets several times and cut triangles and squares. Take a white sheet and make it wet with a brush and water. Lay the pieces of tissue paper on the wet sheet. If the tissue paper is not wet enough, it won't bleed. If so, make it wet again with a brush with water. Fill the sheet with these tissue paper parts and leave it to dry. Remove the pieces of tissue paper when it is completely dry.

Artwork made by students of grade 4

Fold the tissue coloured sheet and cut triangles in several heights. Paste the trees on the background. Don't paste the trees all at the same height, so you get depth. Cut some smaller triangles from the left overs if you want more trees.
Outline the trees with silver or gold marker and draw a simple branch structure. Draw the trunks with a brown pencil.

Small animals like Hans Innemee

You need:

1. three sheets of coloured paper 12 by 12 cm
2. pencil
3. chalk pastel
4. hairspray
5. white sheet for background
6. glue 

Hans Innemee (1951) is a Dutch artist. He studied graphic arts and worked for some time as an art teacher.
Innemee's art is a kind of collage made from monotyped drawings. After monotyping a lot of drawings, he makes his artwork by ripping parts of them and pasting them together on home made sheets. Coloring is done with oil pastels.

View artwork of Hans Innemee. Talk about the small stories in his art. Ask students which story they have in mind while seeing the artwork.

Discuss the characteristics of Innemee's work:

• Drawings of animals.
• Simple shapes.
• No details.
• Few colours.
• Black outlines.
• Simple background.
• Text / Title under the drawing.

The goal for this lesson is: draw a story in three steps on three sheets. Color with chalk pastels. Work like Hans Innemee.

Paste the three sheets on a larger sheet. Fix with hairspray. Write under the small sheets in as few words as possible the text of the story you had in mind.

Made by students of grade 4

Thanks to Hans Innemee for permission to publish his artwork in this blog post and his kind words about the artwork of my students! 

Doodling together - group mural

Made by students of grade 6

 You need:

1. drawing sheets A1 size
2. tape
3. tempera paint
4. brushes

Step 1
Stick some large sheets together with tape and lay them on a group tables of equal height.
Groups of four students at the same time draw little forms or doodles on this sheet using black tempera. The drawings should not touch each other.  When all doodles are finished, have a couple of kids connect them by straight black lines.

Step 2
Paint all surfaces and doodles with tempera. Each student chooses a colour and paints some surfaces or doodles. Be sure to avoid surfaces with the same colour next to each other.

This lesson can be done in every grade by varying subject or colours: choose only primary colours and straight forms to create a  Mondrian version.
Or choose a theme for the doodles, like Christmas, food or sports.

Great success in which variation whatsoever is guaranteed!

The proud artists of grade 6 all together! 

Original idea: Experiments in Art Education.

Typical Dutch design (group work)

Made by students of grade 4

 

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A6 size (postcard)
2. pencil
3. markers in red, blue and silver
4. coloured cardboard
5. scissors and glue

Discuss with the students things that are typically Dutch : tulips, windmills, clogs, cheese, canal houses, red white blue, etc. Look at  pictures of typical Dutch patterns (google 'Dutch fabrics): red- white or blue-white small squares or stripes or combinations of them.
Let students draw examples of cups and mugs on the digital board: narrow, wide, high, low, with belly, straight, angled, with or without foot, different ears etc.

The goal is to design cup and mugs with a Dutch design. Colour with marker and only use red and blue. Cut and paste all cups stacked on a sheet of coloured cardboard. Outline the stack with  silver.

Colourful city

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. pencil
3. colour markers
4. black fine marker

What kind of lines do you know? Straight, zigzag, wavy, spiral, edgy etc.

Draw on the upper half of the sheet six different lines from left to right. Draw on the lower half a lot of different overlapping  houses. Start with the front row. Be sure to vary in width and heighth and draw several kinds of roofs.

Choose seven colours. Colour the spaces between the six lines each with a different colour. Use the same colours for the houses of the city. Outline everything with a fine black marker.

Made by a students of grade 5

Source: Ecole les Peupliers

Spider in coloured web

Made by students of grade 2

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. blackoilpastel
3. autumn leaves
4. liquid water colour in orange and green

Divide the sheet with a black oil pastel in eight parts: two diagonal lines, one vertical and one horizontal. Draw a web between those lines. Draw one or more spiders in the web.

Colour the different parts with liquid water colour in orange and green.

Lost in the hall, a lesson about surrealism and perspective

Made by a student of grade 6

Thanks to Phyl, who originally posted this lesson. You can find hers here!

You need:

1. white drawing sheet 24 by 24 cm
2. ruler
3. pencil
4. watercolour paint
5. brushes
6. jar with water
7. magazines
8. scissors and glue
9. rubber foam

Show some surrealistic artwork from Dali and discuss about the salient features  surrealism.

Follow the first two steps of this lesson through direct instruction: the students follow the instructions the teacher gives.

Step 1
Draw two diagonal lines. Draw a square of 8 by 8 cm around the middle point. Draw around the square dots every 1 cm. Draw on the outside edges of the sheet dots with 3 cm between them.

Step 2

Connect the opposite dots by drawing lines. Draw on the diagonal lines dots with 2 cm between them. Connect the dots. 

Step 3
Colour walls, floor and cealing with watercolor. Always select two colours together and keep both walls equal in color.

Step 4
Cut some squares on three sides apart, fold the paper and paste a picture from a magazine behind.

Step 5
Cut two human figures out of foam and paste them as if they are floating in space.

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