Collage like Karel Appel (CoBrA)

On black background, made by a student of grade 5

You need:

1. black or white drawing sheet A3 size
2. colored construction paper, 5 colors for each student 
3. glue
4. black tempera paint
5. small brush
6. liquid water color paint for background 

Karel Appel (1921-2006) was a Dutch expressionistic painter and sculptor, famous as one of the founders of the CoBrA movement. CoBrA stands for Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam.
CoBrA artists were inspired by children's drawings and the art of mentally disturbed.

Tell your students about abstract and figurative art. Show abstract and figurative artworks and ask which word belongs to them.
Then view some of Karel Appel's works: Little Boy, Some people together, Blue faced beast and Saarbrücken (Google pictures). Are these figurative or abstract? Put your hand on the eyes of the painting. Is the artwork still figurative? Students will discover the Appel's art is very close to abstract. 

When we see Karel Appel, we discover:

• large surfaces
• bright colors
• a few colors
• thick black lines

Students tear (using two thumbs and two fingers, show well how they have to tear)  organic shapes from the construction paper.  It's absolutely not the intention to tear a human of animal. The shapes have to be 'just like that'.  Some students will smuggle a little bit and stick an eye somewhere. Then squeeze an eye :) but do not accept clearly laid human figures.

When they have torn enough pieces, students make a composition of the shapes and paste them on the black or white sheet. The pieces may also be stuck over or on top of each other. Then the most exciting part of this lesson: what do I see in my collage? Ask a classmate to keep your work up. What do you see? Turn the work 90 degrees, and again and again. Do you see an animal or a human?
Use black paint and a thin brush to draw lines on your artwork so that your human of animal is also visible to others. Not too much lines, there must be some guesswork too!

On a painted backgrond, made by student of grade 5

Mondriaan: from 2D into 3D

You need:

1. white construction paper  A4 size
2. ruler
3. pencil
4. colored construction paper in yellow, blue and red
5. black marker
6. cutting mat and cutter 
7. glue

Show artworks of Piet Mondriaan and De Stijl and discuss them.

Fold the white sheet in 5 columns. The columns don't have the be the same width. Divide the sheet with pencil and ruler in three rows (thin, the lines have to be erased later).
Cut rectangle and squares out of colored paper. Make sure they are not wider as the columns. Paste  the rectangles and squares between the folded lines and outline them using a ruler and a black marker. Connect each one with its 'neighbour' with a marker. The lines should be horizontal or vertical.

Then cut two horizontal lines from the start of column 2 towards the end of column 4 (see picture).

Mondriaan cube

You need:

1. white cardboard
2. ruler
3. pencil
4. cutting mat and knife
5. markers
6. glue

After a lesson about the work of Piet Mondriaan, students draw a template of a cube (nice goal for the math lesson!). The surfaces are 8 by 8 cm, the stick edges are 1 cm.

Cut the template with a cutting knife. Use a black fine marker to draw squares at 1/2-1 cm from the edges. Within these squares you draw straight lines to get some rectangles and squares. Color these using Mondriaan colors: red, yellow and blue. Leave some surfaces white.

Fold the stick edges and paste them to get the Mondriaan cube!

Sawing like Piet Mondriaan

Made by a student of grade 3

You need:

1. black construction paper
2. plywood  
3. ruler and pencil
4. tempera paint in primary colors kleuren + white
5. brush
6. coping saw
7. sandpaper
8. glue

Divide a rectangular piece of thin plywood into rectangles and squares using ruler and pencil and saw them. Place every piece directly on the right spot the black construction paper. All pieces have to form a rectangle again. 

Sand the edges of pieces. Paint the pieces in primary colors and white. Past them on the black sheet. 

Patterned trees collage

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A3 size
2. liquid water color paint
3. brush
4. construction paper in several colors
5. scissors and glue
6. black fine marker

Fold the sheet in two. Paint the upper half blue, the  lower half green. Leave the edges white. 

Cut several shapes from construction paper: ovals, 'clouds', circles.   

Use a fineliner to draw the trunk and fill the shapes with a variety of patterns.  

Paste the shapes on the painted sheet and be sure the shapes overlap each other to suggest depth.

Source: The lost sock.

Portfolio: Bad Hair Day

You need:

1. white sheets
2. liquid watercolor paint
3. straws
4. oil pastel crayons

How to draw a face? We used the website Wikihow. Students draw their own face on a large white sheet and color it with oil pastels. Drop liquid water color in several colors above the head and blow it in different directions using straws. 

On the photo our proud third grade students with their portfolio's in which we collected all the artwork of this school year.

The very lonely firefly

You need:

1. black construction paper
2. tempera paint
3. brushes
4. gold and silver markers
5. pencils

Book: The very lonely firefly from Eric Carle (also to be found on YouTube)

Students use white tempera to paint two or more jars at the bottom of the black sheet. They mix yellow and blue to paint grass in different shades of green over the jars. Draw fire flies with gold and silver markers and color them with pencils.