Ow ow ... owls!

What do you need?

1. white drawing sheet 
2. black markers in different sizes
3. yellow or orange marker
4. liquid watercolor
5. brushes
6. black construction paper
7. photographs of owls

Watching owls
Discuss external features of owls using photos.
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 the 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.

All works of art made by students of grade 5.

Building sandwiches

  

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

 

What do you need?

1. colored card board 
2. ribbed cardboard
3. leftovers of colored paper
4. yarn leftovers
5. fabric leftovers
6. pasta in different shapes
7. seeds and/or rice
8. scissors and glue

Discuss what kind of food 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 must partly be 3D, so do not paste everything just flat, but 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. Now building can start!
5. Is there enough food on the sandwich? Close it with  the second piece of ribbed cardboard.

Works of art made in grade 4, 5 and 6. 

Autumn birches

You need: 

1. drawing sheets A3 size
2. painters tape in several widths
3. liquid watercolor paint in red, green and yellow 
4. brushes
5. tempera paint  
6. stipple brush
7. old shopping card/customer card
8. saucers and jars

Choose thick drawing paper,  to avoid ripping when you remove the tape . 

Look at birch trees. What do you see?   

 

• straight trunks
• trunks are white
• horizontal peeling bark
• autumn color leaves: orange, yellow, brown, red

What to do?
Step 1
Place the sheet on the table with the narrow site down.  Stick strips of tape from top to bottom. Wide for the trunks, narrower for the branches. Note: branches grow up! 

Step 2

Paint the background in strips with diluted liquid watercolor. Let dry. Peel off the tape carefully. 

Step 3

Put some black tempera paint on a saucer. Dip a customer card in the paint. Pull this in several places from left to right (or right to left!) to halfway up the trunk to make the black streaks.

Step 4

Spray some warm colors tempera + green on a saucer.  Stipple leaves at the top of the trees using the stipple brush. Do not mix the colors, but use several colors at the brush at the same time. 

Step 5

Hang up! 

Works of art are made by students of grade 1. 

There's a ghost in my bedroom!

Help, there are ghosts in my bedroom! Behind the wardrobe, under my bed, behind the curtains....

You need:

1. white drawing paper 
2. indian ink
3. dip pen
4. pencil
5. paper towel
6. black paper for background

What should you do? 

1. Sketch your room with a pencil: bed, wardrobe, toys, window, door. 
2. Draw ghosts on several places. 
3. Trace the drawing with indian ink. Leave the ghosts white, and fill the rest of the drawing in with various textures*. 
4. Paste the drawing on a black sheet.

* Look for a lesson on texture at this link: Exercise in drawing texture. 

Works of art made by students of grade 5. 

Positive negative pumpkin faces

You need:

1. black construction paper A4 
2. orange construction paper A5
3. ruler
4. pencil
5. scissors and glue
6. cutting knife

What should you do? 

1. Divide in four rectangles.  
2. Divide the four black rectangles each in two rectangles. 
3. Divide the orange sheet in four rectangles; each rectangle is as big as a half black one.
4. Draw half of a pumpkin against the edge of an orange rectangle. 
5. Draw one eye, half of a mouth and a nose and cut out with a cutting knife.
6. Cut the outline of the pumpkin. 
7. Paste the half orange pumpkin against the edge of a black rectangle. Paste eye and mouth on the opposite side of the pumpkin.
8. Repeat these steps to make the other three pumpkins.

Wacky witches

You need:

1. charcoal
2. chalk pastels
3. drawing sheet 
4. black construction paper
5. hairspray

How do you recognize a witch? What animals or things do you associate with a witch? What does an angry witch look like? Think of characteristics like mouth, eyes and eyebrows.

Tell students how to use charcoal. Explain how we make differences in colors. Show how to use an eraser to erase the charcoal lines and a tissue or  to sweep out the color.

What should you do?

• Draw the contours of a witch face with charcoal. 
• Color the face with chalk pastel in a cool color. 
• Draw a mouth, eyes and nose with charcoal. 
• Add some typical witchy things like a cat, bat, spiderweb etc.
• Use hairspray to fix the drawing. 
• Stick the drawing on a black sheet. 

Works of art made by students of grade 4.

Which witch is this?

You need:

1. drawing sheet 
2. pencil
3. markers
4. white or silver pencil 
5. black paper for background

Start this the lesson with a class discussion about witches. How do you recognize a witch? What things belong to a witch? What can you say about the clothing of a witch?

What to do?

1. Draw with pencil the lower half of the body of a witch: skirt and legs. 
2. Draw things that belong to witches. 
3. Draw a horizon line at about 1/3 from the bottom. 
4. Color the drawing with markers. 
5. Color the background with markers or chalk pastel. 
6. Paste the artwork on a black background and decorate the rim with theme-related little drawings in white or silver pencil.

In the debriefing should be clear that you only need a half drawing to recognize a witch: Which witch is this?

All works of art made by students of grade 5.