Owls in the tree

Made by a student of grade 5

You need:

1. grey construction paper
2. white drawing paper A1 size and A4 size
3. tempera paint
4. brushes
5. scissors
6. glue
7. linoleum 10 by10 cm
8. lino knives
9. flat piece of glass
10. block printing ing
11. lino press
12. linoleum roller

I found this great lesson on Artsonia!

Before the lesson: ask two students to paint an A1 size sheet with brown tempera and a few yellow and red. This painted paper will be used for tearing branches and tree stumps by all students. 
Another A1 sheet should be painted in warm autumn colours; this sheet is used for cutting out leaves.

Each students draws an owl on linoleum. Cut the outlines, the wings, eyes and beak. Decorate with small patterns. Print the owl several times in two colours and leave them to dry.

Take a second lesson to finish the artwork. Tear stumps and branches from the brown painted paper and paste them on the grey sheet. Cut leaves from the autumn sheet. Cut the owls with a little edge (1 mm). Look for a great composition and paste everything.

Comics .... In the style of Roy Lichtenstein

 

Artworks are made by students of grade 3

A lesson based on a lesson from Phyl's site, There's a dragon in my artroom, but instead of painting I decided to choose for collage. Check out Phyl's site for the paintings!

You need:

1. coloured paper A4 size
2. white drawing sheet A4 size
3. newspaper
4. ruler and pencil
5. glue
6. crayons
7. glitter
8. colour markers

Roy Lichtenstein (1923 - 1997) was an American popart artist. He is best known for his enormously enlarged cartoons. After his art studies in New York and Columbus Liechtenstein teached art himself. In his spare time he painted abstract paintings and made parodies of American art from the twenties. In1960 he came into contact with Claes Oldenburg and the style elements from advertising and comic strips. He started to use use grids, dots, black outlines and bright colours, the style who made him famous. From 1962 Lichtenstein used the works of Monet, Picasso and Mondrian as the inspiration for his art and he paints sunsets in their style. Most of his work however is based on advertisements and cartoons.

Show artwork of Liechtenstein on the digital board and discuss the characteristics: primary colours sometimes with green, text balloons, raster dots as we know from newspaper photographs and thick black outlines. Show comic balloons from Lichtenstein and discuss them.

In this lesson students create a comic balloon like Lichtenstein did. Choose for a basic form, a star or cloud. See my 'how to draw a star step by step' below.
Cut this or cloud out of coloured paper. Cut another cloud or star from a newspaper. Draw an action word on the white sheet and colour with markers. Cut this word. Create composition and paste the parts of the artwork. Draw action stripes with black crayon or use glitter.

How to draw a star:

1. Draw a circle.
2. Draw lines from the edges to the circle, using pencil and ruler. See the black lines in the picture.

3. Draw lines from the same places but make them diagonal. See the red lines in the picture.

4. Cut the parts between the triangles, the blue pieces in the picture.

Astronaut in space

Made by a student of grade 3

You need:

1. black construction paper
2. white drawing sheets 
3. water colour paint
4. brushes
5. jar with water
6. crayons
7. salt
8. glitter
9. scissors
10. glue
11. picture of yourself
12. picture of an astronaut

Fold two sheets of drawing paper in half. Paint the four halves with different colours watercolour. Allow the paint to blend together; you may first draw patterns with crayons or use salt for a nice texture. Let both sheets dry.
Cut circles in various sizes from the painted paper. Swap painted paper with someone else if you like to. Create a composition of space on the black sheet. Paste some planets at the edge and cut them, to the endlessness of space even better.
Cut the astronaut and paste a picture of yourself on it. Paste planets and the astronaut. Use glitter or confetti to add stars.

International Space Station

You need:

1. piece of cardboard 30 by 25 cm (box)
2. space wallpaper or blue crepe paper
3. gold and silver foil
4. scraps paper and cardboard
5. metallic supplies like candle holders, stones, beads etc. .

During a school project about space students of grade 5 made the International Space Station - ISS, where Dutch astronaut André Kuipers currently stays. We saw photographs of the ISS and talked about the different parts of it. 

All students get a piece of cardboard and wallpaper or crepe paper. With different materials they make their own representation of the ISS.

In the style of Pablo Picasso

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. watercolour paint
3. brushes
4. black marker
5. ruler and pencil
6. scissors and gluetekenpapier op A4 formaat
7. black construction paper 

Show some cubistic works of Picasso on the digital board. What do you see? What does the face look like?

Students draw a portrait. In this lesson we made a portrait of Zwarte Piet (Black Pete), the helper of our Dutch Sinterklaas. We called him Pietcasso! Of course this lesson can be done with any other portrait.
Colour the portrait with watercolour paint. Paint a background too. Outline with black marker.
Measure the face between hair and neck. Divide it in three and draw the lines with ruler and pencil on the drawing. Cut the three strips. Divide the strips in quares.
Paste the top of the face on a black sheet. Make a composition of the little squares; be sure there's not a facial square on the outside of the face. Paste the squares. Finally paste the lower face. 
.

Building a burger

I did this lesson in October 2009, and soon saw it on many blogs. It's still one of my favorite lessons.
This week we had the Dutch Week of School Breakfast, a good reason to build a lot of new burgers with students of grade 4.
How to do this? Look at this post.

Sailboat regatta

You need:

1. two sheets of white drawing paper
2. sandpaper
3. tempera paint in blue, green and white
4. brush
5. coloured paper
6. brown paper (grocery bag)
7. glue
8. blue paper A1 size

Spray paint stripes in blue, green and white on a saucer. Lay a sheet of white drawing paper before you, with the small size up. Paint it with coloured waves. Don't mix the colours on the saucer, but dip the brush in two or three colours. Leave the sheet to dry.

Take the second white sheet and lay it before you with the small side up. Cut a piece of sandpaper as wide as the sheet and 8 cm high. Paste the sandpaper on the bottom of the sheet.

Tear the painted sheet in wavy strips. Tear the straight sides of the first and last strip too, so that all strips have two wavy sides. 

Place the strips overlapping on the white sheet. Start below. Place the second strip partly under the first one, the third under the second etc. Paste down the short sides of the waves on the left and right.

Cut boats out of a brown paper bag; bigger ones below, smaller ones at the top (perspective). Cut masts out of the paper bag and sails out of coloured paper. Paste the boats between the waves and paste the long sides of the waves at the same time. Paste sails and masts on the boats.  

Paste or staple all works together on large blue sheets (A1 size) to create a beautiful group work.

Artworks made by students of grade 4

Origami tulips

You need:

1. origami sheets 10 by 10 cm
2. strip of green cardboard
3. scraps of green paper
4. scissors
5. glue

Fold the sheet twice, open and turn around.

Fold two diagonal lines and open it.

 

Fold the sheet double at a straight fold,

push the ends inward and push it flat.



It is a double square now.

Fold one point down.



Fold two points to the side.

Fold four tulips in different colours. Paste them on a piece of cardboard. Cut stems and leaves and paste them.

The princess and the pea

You need:

1. coloured construction paper
2. fabrics
3. a pea
4. glue
5. scissors
6. scraps of construction paper, including gold and silver
7. markers and/or colour pencils

Read the fairy tale 'The princess and the pea' of Hans Christian Andersen. Discuus after this what a princess bed would look like. The students make the bed of the princess in this story. The bed has to be made of stripes of paper. At the bottom of the bed is a real pea, of course. Cut strips of fabrics for the matrasses (use special scissors for fabrics) and make a princess on top of this whole pile. Maybe the bed has even curtains or a little golden crown?

Made by students of grade 1

Surrealistic collage in the style of Dalí

By Tristan, 10 years old

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A3 size
2. magazines
3. scissors
4. glue
5. tempera paint
6. brushes

About Dalí
Salvador Dalí (Figueres, 1904 – 1989) was a Spanish painter and versitile artist. in his younger years he was interested in painters like El Greco, Michelangelo and Diego Velázquez. He focused his attention at that time to Impressionism and Cubism. Dalí studied in Madrid from 1921 to 1924. In 1929 he moved to Paris. He met Pablo Picasso and André Breton and joined with surrealism. In 1940 he moved to the USA and lived there for 15 years. After this he went back to Spain. Dali's work can be divided in four periods.

Early period (1917-1927) - In this period Dalí made paintings of the landscape around Figueres. These works already show his kinship with Impressionism and Cubism.

Transition period (1927-1928) - This period is characterized by experimentation. He uses different textures, made with paint resins, sand, stone, cork and gravel.
Surrealistic period (1929-1940) - The Surrealists were not sufficient to logic alone. They focused on dreams and the subconscious. Dalí explored his own fears and fantasies and painted them on canvas through symbolic images in a very realistic, almost photographic style. He called his paintings 'hand painted dream photographs'.

Classical period (1941-1989) - Dali stopped in 1941 with the surrealist style. He became fascinated by religion and modern science and found his inspiration in the ancient and Renaissance art.

Back to work
Show some surrealistic works of Dali and discuss the salient features: his work looks like a photo, contains 'strange' elements - things things that can not actually. The work will surprise or a shock sometimes. Explain the difference between realism (reality painted on canvas, like a photo) and surrealism - realism with strange elements. Tell students that they have to make a surreal collage today. For this they cut pictures from magazines, arrange them on a sheet and paste them. They may, if no proper background is to be found, paint a part of this background.

When ready
Discuss the artworks: what surrealistic elements do you see? And what are the realistic elements? What do you think of the combination of both?

Abstract relief

You need:

1. piece of grey cardboard 18 by 24 cm (cereal box)
2. tissue paper
3. wood glue
4. several zijdevloeipapier
5. houtlijm
6. various free materials like rope, pasta, shells, sticks, buttons, etc.
7. varnish
8. coloured cardboard for frame

Look at the painting Catalan landscape of Joan Miró (Google pictures). Discuss what is on this painting, what things are definable and which are not. Explain the difference between realistic and abstract.

Tell the students they are going to make an abstract relief. Students make a composition of different items on their grey cardboard. They have to make a horizon line at least. Paste the different items with glue. Don't paste the items too close together and make sure it is not too full.

When the composition is ready, bring wood glue on all items and the cardboard. Cover everything with tissue paper. Push the paper firmly against the pasted items to make the tissue paper crumple. Here and there the paper will rip, so paste multiple layers of the same colour paper.

Finish with a layer of wood glue or wait until the artwork has dried and then apply a layer of varnish. Paste the artwork on a coloured background.

All artworks are made by students grade 3

Thanks to Ann de Naegel and her students.

Egg carton head

Made by Tristan, grade 4

You need:

1. cardboard A3 size, black or brown
2. egg cartons
3. scissors
4. glue

Bring some things with an obvious texture: a piece of wood, stone, glass, a knitted sweater, carpet etc. Let the children feel and express what they feel. Show them with a flashlight (shine directly or indirectly) that texture can be soon also.

Give each student two egg cartons and a piece of cardboard. Students have to make a head of the egg cartons, using the different textures of the material. The inside of the carton feels different as the outside.

Slide the pieces (torn or cut) on the cardboard until you have a good composition. Paste everything securely, taking care to minimize the black or brown carton shown in the face.

Artist Trading Cards

Some weeks before Christmas, I was contacted by Amy Baldwin, art teacher at St. Pauls Lutheran School in Millington (Michigan). She wrote me she was a fan of my weblog. We emailed for a while, wondering if we could do a little project together. I read about exchanging ATC's on many art blogs, so I proposed to let our students make those little cards for eachother. This seemed to her very nice, so we got started!

Amy's students made ATC's for my students, my Dutch students did the same for hers. A couple of days before Christmas I sent an envelope filled with 50 ATC's of my 23 students to Millington.

Yesterday we received the big envelope, full of ATC's! How exciting for my students to get those beautiful cards from the other side of the world! They admired the cards and were surprised about the Dutch words on some of them. Thank you very much Amy and thank you all, St. Paul's students!

Paper bag city

Made by a student of grade 2

You need:

1. white drawing sheets A3 size
2. tempera paint in blue, white and black
3. brown paper bag
4. scissors and glue
5. brushes

Torn some typical city center buildings in various forms out of brown paper bags. Paste them on a white sheet. In front of the high buildings we see smaller ones (overlap). Paint a blue or grey blue sky on the sheet. Use different colours of blue and grey. Outline the buildings with black tempera paint. Paint windows and doors. Hang all artworks together to create a long street.

City waterfront

You need:

1. blue construction paper A4 size
2. white drawing paper A3 size
3. construction paper and/or ribbed cardboard in several colours
4. scissors
5. glue
6. watercolour paint
7. brushes
8. jar with water

I found this lesson once on a German school website. The combination of cutting/pasting and painting is exciting! Students paste tight cut houses, and the reflection in the water is made with water colour paint, which is not tight at all - just as it should be!

Students cut rectangles of different heights and widths out of coloured paper. These are the bodies of the houses. Cut several triangles out of red construction paper, these are the roofs. Cut windows and doors.

Draw a line on 1 cm from the bottom of the blue sheet. Make a composition of the houses on this line, starting with the highest ones. Place the shorter houses in front of them (overlap). Paste the houses and roofs on the blue sheet. Paste windows and doors on them in different colours.

When ready, paste the blue sheet with houses on a white A3 size sheet. Use watercolour paint to paint the mirror image of the houses in the water. Paint as precise as possible, but don't use a ruler: reflections in water aren't that straight! Paint the water blue.

Made by students of 10-11 years old

Collage of geometric and organic shapes

Made by students of 8-9 years old

A lesson I found on Artsonia. It's a great lesson to explain the different shapes and to practice cutting and pasting skills.

You need:

1. black construction paper 18 by 18 cm
2. four coloured sheets 16 by 16 cm in different colours
3. scissors
4. glue
5. left overs black construction paper

Start this lesson with an instruction on geometric and organic shapes. A geometric shape is a shape with a name, like a rectangle, circle or square. It's shape is regular. An organic shape is a shape from nature, without a real name. The shape of a leave or animal is organic, but cloud shapes are organic too. An organic shape is a shape you can not describe, that has no name. It is irregular.

Choose four sheets with matching colours and fold them in four quarters. Cut the folding lines to get 16 squares of 4 by 4 cm. Put four rows of four squares neatly against each other on the black sheet. Do not place two of the same colours side by side. Glue the squares. Cut a number of organic shapes out of black paper. Create a beautiful composition on the sheet with squares and paste the black shapes. The shapes should not overlap.

Awesome alphabet

Made by students of grade 6

You need:

1. drawing paper A6 size (postcard)
2. markers
3. fine black marker
4. black cardboard
5. glue

Arrange which students makes which letter of the alphabet. The I and J have to be drawn on one sheet, to make a group work of five by five drawings. Each student draws one big letter, with about 1 cm free space around. Colour the letter as you like, using patterns. Colour the background as well. Outline the letter and the details with a fine black marker. Make sure the letter 'pops up' from the background, by choosing different colours and patterns. Paste all letters on a big black cardboard, five by five with 2 cm space between them.

Group work 'Awesome alphabet'

Photo fun

You need:

1. copy of a photo of the student in black/white, A4 size
2. coloured construction paper A4 size
3. ruler
4. scissors
5. glue

Take a digital photo of each student and print in black and white on A4 paper. Students draw on the back of the picture horizontal lines with 2 cm space between them. Cut the lines. Paste the strips with half a cm between the on the coloured paper.

With the name of the student and his birthday under the arwork, this is a nice birthday calendar for in the classroom.

Funky slippers

By Marrit, 11 years old

You need:

1. two white drawing sheets A4 size
2. coloured construction paper
3. two split pens or paper fasteners
4. scissors
5. glue
6. markers

Tear wide strips of the narrow side of a sheet of light blue and a dark blue sheet construction paper. Paste thes over and over and partially overlapping on a white sheet of paper: these are the waves of the sea in which your slippers will disappear! You can also choose yellow paper and sandpaper, to suggest the beach. Trace your foot on the second white sheet. Cut it twice. Remember that one of them should be a mirror image. Colour the slippers with bright summer colours.

Cut out of the remaining white paper four strips of about 15 cm long and 1.5 cm wide. Colour these too. Prick a hole in both flip-flops on the spot between the big toe and second toe. Prick holes in the four strips, approximately 0.5 cm from the end. Insert a split pin through the two strips and the slipper. Glue the ends of the strips under the slipper. Paste the slippers on the sheet with waves.