We wish you a merry Xmas

You need:

1. green construction paper, 20 by 20 cm
2. white tempera paint
3. white pencil
4. fine markers in white and black
5. colored markers

Draw staves on the sheet using a white pencil. Make fingerprints for the snowmen: use the tip of your finger for the head, use your thumb for the body. Wait till the paint has dried. Use a black fine marker to draw brooms, branches=arms, stones=eyes+mouth. Draw the carrot = nose with orange marker and draw caps of hats on some of the snowmen.
Finally, draw the text of We wish you a merry Xmas (or another Christmas song) under the staves. 


Source: 50 Xmas things to make and do, Usborne

Silver and white Xmas tree

Made by a student of grade 4

You need:

1. green construction paper
2. silver marker
3. white pencil

Draw the trunk of a tree in the middle of a sheet, starting at the bottom and ending about 2 inches from the top. Color the trunk with silver marker. 

Draw lines from the trunk to the right and left. Don't use a ruler! The lines become shorter to create a triangle.  

Draw Xmas decorations on the branches using a white pencil. 

Colourful Christmas trees

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You need:

1. two drawing sheets A4 size
2. watercolour paint
3. brushes
4. jar with water
5. tissue paper
6. scissors
7. glue
8. ruler
9. pencil
10. gold or silver marker
11. white correction marker
12. glitter

Paint a background for the Christmas trees with water paint. Use different colours and let them blend into each other. Use plenty of water for nice bright colours.
Choose three colours of tissue paper. Fold the sheets several times and cut triangles and squares. Take a sheet of drawing paper and make it wet with a brush and water. Lay the pieces of tissue paper on this wet sheet. If the tissue paper is not wet enough, it won't bleed. Then 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 from the sheet when it is completely dry. The sheet will look like this:

Cut long triangles from the sheet that was coloured with tissue paper. You may use the schedule above (based on A4 size sheet of 21 by 29 cm - half cm will remain on both sides then). You can cut a piece from the bottom of the triangles if you want trees of various heights. Paste these three trees with overlap on the water paint 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. Draw a simple branch structure. Draw the strains with brown pencil or use the metallic pins. Draw snowflakes around and on the trees with a white (correction) marker or use chips from the punch. rond en op de bomen. Paste the artwork on a coloured background. Sprinkle some glitter on the forest floor.

All artwork is made by students of 11-12 years old

Catching leaves

Made by students of grade 4

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A3 size
2. oil pastels
3. liquid water color paint
4. brushes

Students trace their hands (thumbs point to each other) on the bottom of the sheet and color them with oil pastels. They draw swirling autumn leaves above the hands and color them with oil pastels too. Paint the background with diluted liquid water color paint and leave some space on the edges.

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.