Tuesday, November 11, 2025

Owls in the tree

You need:
  • grey construction paper
  • two thick and large white drawing sheets
  • brushes
  • scissors and glue
  • linoleum 12 by12 cm *
  • lino knives
  • flat piece of glass
  • block printing ink
  • lino press
  • linoleum roller
* or use foam to make the prints.
Before the lesson: 
  • Have two students paint a large sheet of thick white paper with brown tempera and accents in yellow and red to create a wood structure. 
  • Let them paint another large sheet in warm autumn colours.
This painted sheets can be used by all students for tearing branches and tree trunks and cutting leaves.   

What should you do? 

Lesson one: 
  1. Draw an owl on linoleum. 
  2. Cut the outlines, wings, eyes, claws and beak. 
  3. Decorate with small patterns. 
  4. Print the owl several times in two colors and let dry.
Lesson two: 
  1. Tear a tree trunk and branches from the brown painted paper. 
  2. Cut leaves from the autumn sheet. 
  3. When dry: cut the printed owls with a little edge (1 or 2 mm). 
  4. Look for a great composition and paste everything on a grey sheet. 
Works of art made by students of grade 7. 

Friday, November 7, 2025

Ow ow ... owls!

What do you need?
  • white drawing sheet 
  • black markers in different sizes
  • yellow or orange marker
  • liquid watercolor
  • brushes
  • black construction paper
  • photographs of owls

Watching owls
Show photo's of owls.
Owls are nocturnal animals. They sleep during the day and hunt at night. Their face is round and flattened. The eyes are large, allowing them to see well at a distance, even at night. An owl can turn his head 270 degrees and can thus look in all directions. Owls have a hooked beak and powerful claws. Two claws are directed forward and two backward. You cannot see the ears, they are holes that are sometimes covered with an ear cover. Ears should not be confused with the ear tufts above the eyes, that, for example, the long-eared owl has.
Most owls have a mix of brown, black, white and grey feathers. These colors provide camouflage, so owls can easily hide.

What should you do?

  1. Sketch an owl on a branch with pencil, considering the characteristics from owls as discussed. 
  2. Draw patterns on the body parts of the owl with black markers in various thicknesses. By drawing different patterns you will recognize individual body parts of the owl. Make parts darker by drawing patterns closer together. 
  3. Color the eyes and beak yellow or orange.
  4. Paint the background yellow with liquid watercolor paint. Make sure you don't touch the drawing, to avoid the ink will bleed. Therefore stay about a half a centimeter away from the owl. 
  5. Paste your work on black background.

Artworks made by students of grade 5.

Thursday, November 6, 2025

Building sandwiches


  
Texture, balance and variety were elements students concentrated on as they created this collage of a big sandwich! 

What do you need?
  • colored card board 
  • ribbed cardboard
  • leftovers of colored paper
  • yarn leftovers
  • fabric leftovers
  • pasta in different shapes
  • seeds and/or rice
  • scissors and glue
Before: 
Discuss what students like on their sandwich and how to represent this. Examples: yellow paper with holes in it will represent cheese; red yarn can be ketchup and an enrolled piece of pink cotton is a slice of ham.
The artwork should be partly 3D, so do not paste everything just flat; try to work spatial and let things overlap. 
What should you do?
  1. Create a table cloth from leftovers of cotton or paper. 
  2. Cut a plate and paste it on the table.
  3. Cut two parts of a hamburger bun of ribbed cardboard. 
  4. Put your favourite toppings on the burger.
  5. Complete your burger with  the second piece of ribbed cardboard.
Works of art made in grade 4, 5 and 6.