Weaving flowers

 

Made by students of grade 1

You need:

1. beer coaster
2. coloured yarn
3. weaving needle
4. paper plate
5. white sheet
6. coloured construction paper A4 size
7. scraps of coloured paper
8. tempera paint
9. brushes
10. glue
11. scissors

Cut notches in the beer coaster at intervals of 1 cm. Be sure it is an odd amount. Wrap cotton yarn around the tray, back to front, until the whole beer counter is wrapped. Start weaving in the middle. Use different colours of yarn. Don't weave too tight, to keep the work flat.

To make the flower you have to paint a paper plate with tempera paint. If you use plastified plates, the paint will give a wrinkly effect. Cut a circle ouot of a white sheet circle which is two cm larger then the plate. This will be the outer edge of the flower. Paint it too.

Paste the woven circle on the plate. Paste the plate on the coloured circle. Paste it all on a coloured sheet. Cut petals and a stem out of green paper and finish the flower. 

Wild flowers

You need:

1. black construction paper 20 by 8 cm
2. colour pencils
3. tempera paint
4. q-tips
5. saucer

A short lesson with great results! Draw a lot of flower stems on the black paper with several colours green. Stamp the petals above and between the stems, using tempera and q-tips.

Report of my holiday

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A3 size
2. colour pencils
3. markers
4. atlas

At the beginning of a new year in school children often make a drawn report of their holiday. Where have you been? Where is that area of country? Which language is spoken there? What What currency is used? What have you done there? Where did you stay? To which sites have you been? What else did you do there?

The mission is: make a drawn holiday report and write interesting information in your drawing.

Both works are made by students of 11 years old

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.

Summer memory

You need:

1. white drawing paper
2. watercolour paint
3. brushes
4. jar with water
5. glue
6. colour pencils
7. grey or light brown cardboard

Passed holiday's are always full of memories. Sunset on the beach, a sunny afternoon in the woods or impressive threatening clouds above the sea. What colours belong to that memory? What colours belong to a sunset, to the woods and what colours would you use for the threatening thunderstorm?

Paint your sheet full with your holiday memories using watercolour paint. Paint sloping strips in different colours. After drying, tear the sheet in strips while following the different colours. Glue your strips with a little space between them on the grey/light brown paperboard. Write a title in beautiful characters and decorate the frame with little holiday memory doodles (shells, clouds, flowers etc).

Made by students of grade 5

Sunglasses

You need:

1. black construction paper A4 size
2. white drawing sheet
3. colour pencils or markers
4. scissors
5. glue
6. silver and gold marker

Draw half sunglasses against the fold of a black sheet. Cut the glasses. Draw a summer scene on the white sheet. Colour it. Put the glasses on it and slide until you see the best part. Paste the glasses on the drawing and cut them again. Decorate the glasses with gold or silver marker.

Made by students of 12 years old

Desert sunset

Made by a student of 8 years old

You need:

1. coloured paper
2. black construction paper
3. scissors
4. glue

By tearing stripes of different colours of paper, children create a sunset. Draw a big cactus on black paper and cut it out. Paste the cactus on the sunset sheet.

I scream for ice cream

Made by students of grade 1

You need:

1. coloured cardboard A2 size
2. brown construction paper
3. white drawing paper A4 size
4. tempera paint
5. brushes
6. saucers
7. tissue paper
8. salt
9. scissors
10. gold markers
11. fiber fill or cotton wool

In this lesson, children use each other's work.

Divide the class into six groups. Give each group of children some white sheets, a saucer, one colour tempera paint, salt, brushes, a jar with water and blotting paper in a slightly darker colour than the paint. Mix tempera on a saucer with a lot of water to get a light (ice cream) colour. Each group paint a few sheets of drawing paper with this diluted tempera. Salt can be applied to create texture and small pieces of blotting paper with water will suggest chocolate chips or fruit in the ice. Be sure there are so many sheets of each colour that every student can get half a sheet of all six colours.

Hang the sheets outside to dry.

Cut the large sheets of coloured cardboard lengthwise into three, so you get three large strips of approximately 15 by 60 cm. Give each child a coloured strip and a sheet of brown construction paper. Each student cuts a cone out the brown craft paper by folding the paper and cutting a triangle from the fold . Then the draw a wafer pattern on the cone with a gold marker.

Give each student half sheet of painted paper of all six colours. Let them draw circles on the sheets by outlining a cup. Cut the circles. Paste the ice-cream cone on the large sheet of cardboard, and paste six different circles on it. Remember that the first scoop of ice cream has to be pasted partly in the cone. Finally cream may be added, by cutting half a circle out of fiberfill or some cotton wool.

Sailing boat

Made by Naomi, 11 years old

You need:

1. ribbed cardboard
2. white cardboard
3. carbon paper
4. cutter
5. cutting mat
6. glue
7. pattern boat
8. pattern mast and sail

Enlarge the pattern till it fits on a A4 sized sheet. Use carbon paper to copy the pattern of the boat on the cardboard. Cut the boat. Copy the stripes and cut them out of ribbed cardboard. Paste the stripes on the boat.

Copy the sail and mast on ribbed cardboard and cut them out. Cut the sails again out of white cardboard and paste them on the ribbed cardboard ones. Do the same with the flag. Paste the artwork on a coloured background.

This sailboat can alse be done by a group of students. All students make their own coloured sailing boat and paste the all together on a big blue painted piece of paper.

Check this insect!

Made by children of 7-8 years old

You need:

1. drawing sheet A4 size
2. colour pencils
3. black marker
4. scissors
5. glue

Study the anatomy of insects using photographs. Insects have segmented bodies supported by an exoskeleton. The segments of the body are organized into three distinctive but interconnected units: a head, a thorax, and an abdomen. The head supports a pair of sensory antennae, a pair of eyes, and, if present, three sets of variously modified appendages that form the mouthparts. The thorax has six segmented legs and, if present, two or four wings. These characteristics of the insect must be processed in the drawing. For the rest it is free. Choose fancy colours and draw body or wings as you like.

Fold a sheet of A4 double the length. Sketch against the fold the half of a fantasy insect. If you're satisfied with your sketch, trace the lines thick using a pencil. Press firmly! Then fold your sheet and draw on the back half of what you just traced, your bug again. Press firmly again, to be sure the pencil lines will be visible on the other half.

Then fold the sheet open. You'll see that your bug is now very light on the other side of the sheet. Trace these thin lines with a pencil, pressing firmly. After this, your symmetric insect is ready to be coloured.

The colouring has to be symmetric too. Use colours you like, it doesn´t have to be realistic. Outline the drawing with a black marker. Then cut it out leaving about a half cm of white paper around. Paste the drawing on a coloured background. If you´re ready, show your drawing to your classmates: "Hey, check my insect!"

Poppies in the wind

You need:

1. white drawing paper A4 size
2. tempera paint
3. puppies or pictures of puppies
4. brushes

Poppies are particularly in the United Kingdom, Canada and the U.S. symbol of the First World War because they flourished exuberantly on the battlefields of Flanders. In the famous poem 'In Flanders Fields' those poppies are mentioned. At the English National Remembrance Day, poppy wreaths are laid by the queen. Not real ones actually, because poppy petals fall very quickly. Poppies in the Netherlands have no symbolic value, but they are very nice to paint! View the brought poppies or pictures of them. Discuss the features of the flower: delicate satiny petals and a dark heart that shines through the petals. Because the flowers are very light, you see them always sway in the wind. Students paint some poppies on the upper half of their sheet. Paint the steels with black paint. Draw a frame with a red pencil about 1 cm from the edge. Paste the artwork on a black background.

Artwork made by students of 9-10 years old

A day at the beach

Made by students of 12 years old

You need:

1. white drawing paper A3 size
2. markers, aquarelle pencils or colour pencils
3. water paint
4. glue
5. coloured paper for background
6. brushes
7. jar with water

I'm going to the beach and I take …… Children draw themselves on a beach towel. On the towel are also the things that they are carrying when they go to the beach: sunblock, an Ipod, a book or magazin, a ball, a can of soda etc. The towel has bright colors and is recognizable for the person on it. Start colouring with the face and body. Use waterpaint or watercolour pencils to be sure to get a good skin colour. Colour the rest of the drawing with colour pencils (press firmly)or markers to make a colourful sunny artwork.

Summertime sorbet

You need:

1. coloured paper A4 size for background
2. magazines
3. aluminum foil
4. colour pencils
5. cookie
6. straw
7. scissors
8. glue

Make a collage of a delicious sorbet! Cut fruit from magazines, draw and colour icecream, cut a nice glass for your sorbet and finish your artwork with a straw and a cookie!

Butterflies in the style of Peter Callesen

You need:

1. white copypaper (80 grams) A4 size
2. coloured paper for background
3. pencil
4. cutter
5. cutting mat
6. glue

Peter Callesen (born in 1967) is a Danish artists who cuts artworks out of simple white sheets of copypaper. He uses the two-dimensional paper with three-dimensional shapes. This 3D shapes pop up from the sheet of or fall out. He doesn't add anything, just uses the plain sheet. The three-dimensional figures who seem to appear, are made from the same background.

Look at pictures of Callesen's work on his website www.petercallesen.com and discuss them with the students. See especially the work 'Hunting', on which you see a butterfly and a spider popping up from the paper. Discuss how this butterfly is attached to the background. Are there other possibilities for the butterfly to come out of the paper? The body may be stuck, but also part of a wing. By using different ways, you get variety in your work.

Detail: butterfly whose body still stuck.

The children scetch a small number of butterflies on their white sheet. Let them not draw intricate wings, because the animals must be cut out and that is hard enough! put double lines on the places that are not to be cut. Choose different options for the butterflies: let the body be stuck, or the the lower wings.

Cut the paper butterflies carefully. Take care that your specified 'fixed' parts are not to be cut. Paste the work on a coloured background, but do not glue behind the butterfly. Fold the butterfly wings something up, to be sure they are free of the paper and the background is clearly visible.

Made by a student of 11 years old

Weather proverb on a tile

Made by students of grade 6

You need:

1. white tile 15 by 15 cm
2. china markers
3. drawing sheet 15 by 15 cm
4. pencil
5. paper towel

During our school project about water and weather, children made their own tile with a Dutch proverb on it. The proverb had to be about water, of course. After making a concept on a drawing sheet, students wrote their proverb on a white tile with china markers. They added decorations with china markers too.

Flowers in fingerpaint

You need:

1. tempera paint
2. saucers
3. white drawing sheet A2 size cut in three
4. coloured paper for background
5. green crepe paper
6. scissors
7. glue

Give all students a saucer with tempera paint in blue, yellow, red and white. Let them experiment with mixing colours with their fingers. Show them that if they mix to many colours together, they'll get aa kind of brown. Mix blue and yellow to show this makes green. Show them to make colours lighter using white. Children can practice this on a scratch sheet.

Every child gets a strip white drawing paper (A2 size, cut lengthwise in three parts). Fingerpaint your own flower. Realistic or not, it's all right. The only restriction: the stalk and leaves must be green. The flower should be as high as the sheet.

Cut the flower leaving a white edge from about 0,5 cm. Paste all flowers on a coloured background. Cut a strip of grass from crepe paper and paste this in front of the flowers.

A field full of daisies

Made by Annika, 10 years old

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A3 size
2. tempera paint in blue, green, white, yellow and red
3. egg boxes or saucers
4. brushes
5. jars with water
6. newspapers
7. paper towels
8. coloured paper for background

Daisies (bellis perennis) are, until it freezes, found in lawns. View pictures of daisies and discuss what they look like. Children start to paint the grass. They have to make their own green colours by mixing blue, white and yellow. Paint the entire sheet with small vertical strokes.

When the grass is dry, the daisies can be painted. For on the field daisies are larger bigger then further away. Use a small brush and a lot of paint, to make sure the green grass is really covered with the white paint of the flower. Use a different colour green for the stalks or take the unmixed colour green directly from the bottle. Paint the hearts of the flowers with big yellow blobs.

Paste the artwork after drying on a matching background after drying.

Made by children from 9-12 years old

Desert

You need:

1. brown construction paper A4 format
2. pastel crayons
3. hairspray
4. wood glue

Look with the students at photographs from deserts and discuss what they look like. What kind of plants do you see? What about the colours?

Sketch with a pencil a simple desert landscape with little details. Cover the lines with wood glue. Try this first on a another sheet. Wait until the glue is dry; it has to be transparant instead of white. Colour your drawing with pastel crayons. Use different colours together and make sure you blend them with your fingers. Fix your drawing with hairspray.

Sun(flower)

You need:

1. white drawing sheet from 16 by 16 cm
2. felt pens
3. ruler
4. grey pencil
5. a pair of compasses

Divide the sheet in four compartments from 8 by 8 cm. Use a pair of compasses to draw a circle from the center with a radius from about 5 cm. Draw a frame from 1 cm within the outside of the sheet. Draw sunflower petals (or sunbeams!) around the circle.

Colour from inside to the outside. Choose two colours. Start at one of the quarters of the circle. Colour this with colour 1. Colour the petals with colour 2 and the background with colour 1. Finish with a part of the frame in colour 2. Do the same with the next quarter of the drawing, making sure the colours will alternate.

My collection from the sea

Made by a student of grade 6

You need:

1. white drawingpaper A4 size
2. aquarel pencils or watercolour paint
3. brushes and water
4. black paper
5. scissors and glue
6. black fine marker

After summer holiday it's fun to draw what you've found on the beach: shells, starfish, crabs etc. Divide a white sheet in four strips of 7 cm. Draw horizon lines in those strips. Draw several things you may have found on the beach and sketch as lightly as possible. Colour the shells with watercolour paint or aquarel pencils, trying to make shades by diluting the colours more or less. Paint the beach yellow/gold and the air light blue. When dry, outline the shells and horizon with a black fine marker. Cut the four strips and glue them with 1 cm between them on a black piece of paper.