Winter trees glimpse

What do you need?

• three colors cardboard 15 by 20 cm
• ruler
• pencil
• cutting blade
• cutting mat
• double sided foamtape

What should you do you?

1. Draw a rectangle on the three pieces of cardboard 2 cm from the edges. 
2. Draw wintertrees in the rectangles. The trunk on the bottom, the branches must reach the left, right or upper edge. 
3. Cut the parts between the branches/trunk and the frame. 
4. Use double sided foam tape to paste the three windows together. The lightest color in the front, the darkest color on the back.

Works of art are made by students of grade 6. 

Winter tree in warm-cool colors

 What do you need?

• drawing paper
• crayons
• watercolor paint
• black tempera 
• brushes
• jar with water

What should you do?

1. With crayon: draw a horizon line.
2. Draw a tree trunk from the bottom of the sheet. 
3. Draw branches that touch the edges of the sheet. 
4. Draw a pattern in the landscape below the horizon line. 
5. With watercolor paint: paint the sky. 
6. Paint the surfaces between the branches in warm or cool colors. 
7. Paint the surfaces in the landscape: warm if you first chose cool, cool if you first chose warm. 
8. With tempera: paint the branches and trunk black. 

Works of art made by students of grade 4.

Elements of art: color (warm and cool), space, line (pattern)

Silver and white Xmas tree

What do you need?

• green construction paper
• silver marker
• white pencil

What should you do?

1. Draw the trunk of a tree in the middle of the sheet, starting at the bottom and ending about 2 inches from the top. 
2. Color the trunk with silver marker. 
3. Draw lines from the trunk to the right and left. Don't use a ruler! The lines become shorter to create a triangle.  
4. Draw Xmas decorations on the branches with a white pencil. 

Works of art made by students of grade 6. 

Colorful Christmas trees

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What do you need?

• two white drawing sheets A4 size
• water color paint
• brushes
• jar with water
• tissue paper
• scissors and glue
• ruler
• pencil
• gold or silver marker
• white correction marker
• glitter

What should you do?

1. Paint a background on the first white sheet with water color paint. Use different colors and let them blend into each other. Use plenty of water for nice bright colors.
2. Choose three colors tissue paper. Fold the sheets several times and cut triangles. 
3. Wet the second white sheet with a brush. 
4. Place the triangles on it and leave it to dry. 
5. Cut long triangles. You may use the schedule. Cut a piece from the bottom of the triangles if you want trees of various heights. Cut some smaller triangles from the left overs if you want more trees.
6. Paste the triangles with overlap on the colored background. 
7. Outline with silver or gold marker and draw a simple branche stucture.
8. Draw snowflakes with a white marker or use chips from the hole punch. 
9. Sprinkle some glitter on the forest floor.
10. Paste the artwork on a colored background.

Works of art made by students of grade 7. 

Autumn trees near the water

What do you need?

• light blue drawing paper A4
• oilpastel crayons
• tempera paint in autumn colors
• brushes

What should you do?

1. Fold the paper in half. Above the fold is the country, below is the water. 
2. Draw on the upper side with oilpastels some trees without leaves in the grass and color them firmly. 
3. Draw below the fold the reflection of these trees. Color them less thick.
4. Make leaves on the trees at the upper side by tamponing warm colors tempera paint with a brush. Don't mix up the colors, but use two colors on the same time. 
5. Fold the sheet when the paint is still wet to get the reflection on the lower side of the sheet. Press gently but do not rub!

Works of art made by students of grade 4. 

Owl in moonlight

See the moon shining through the trees... and in the moonlight everything looks blue. 

What do you need?

• white drawing sheet 
• oil pastel
• blue ink
• brush
• dish with water
• scouring pad

What should you do?

1. Sketch a winter tree, so a tree without no leaves. Be sure your branches are thinner at the end. 
2. Sketch a moon between the branches. 
3. Draw an owl on one of the branches.
4. Color the tree with blue oil pastel. Make differences in color by pressing harder or softer or by using a little black or white. 
5. Color the owl blue too. Use yellow or orange for eyes and beak. 
6. Color the moon: white-yellow in the center and darker yellow at the outside.
7. Outline everything (even the smallest branches!) with white oil pastel. This is difficult, because you barely see the white and your white crayon may get blue (scrape it then!).
8. Paint the background with blue ink, water and a scouring pad. The white lines will resist the ink. Put undiluted blue ink on a dish and dip the soft side of a scouring pad in it. Stamp along the outer edges of the drawing. 
9. Add water to the ink when you're nearer at the moon to make the blue lighter. Make a light blue circle around the moon.

Autumn birches

What do you need?

• drawing sheets A3 size *
• painters tape in several widths
• liquid watercolor paint in red, green and yellow 
• brushes
• tempera paint  
• stencil brush
• old shopping card/customer card
• saucers and jars

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

Before:

Look at birch trees. What do you see?   

 

• straight white trunks
• 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 it. 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.  Stamp leaves at the top of the trees using the stencil brush. Do not mix colors, but use several colors at the brush at the same time. 

Step 5

Hang up! 

Works of art made by students of grade 1. 

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.

Moon behind tree

Made by a student of grade 6

You need:

1. white drawing sheet 
2. charcoal
3. chalk pastels 
4. indian ink
5. brush 

Use a saucer to draw a moon in the center of the sheet. Colour it with yellow chalk pastel. Colour the rest of the sheet grey using charcoal: around the moon it's brighter than further away.
Draw a branch and paint it with Indian ink.

Patterned tree

Made by a student of grade 6

You need:

1. drawing sheet 21 by 27 cm 
2. ruler
3. pencil
4. colour pencils
5. fine black marker 

Draw a grid from 3 by 3 cm. Trace a sourcer for a circle. Draw a tree and be sure the branches are within the cirle. Draw patterns in the the tree using a fine black marker. Colour the squares in the circle in warm colours and the other squares in cool colours. Be sure the difference between under and above the horizon line is visible.

Source: Tiny Artroom. 

Autumn birches

Made by a student of grade 6

You need:

1. drawing sheet
2. masking tape
3. tempera 
4. stippling brushes
5. charcoal
6. chalk pastel 

See photos of birch trees and discuss the salient feautures : the long white stem, the gray black lines as a result of the horizontal peeling the bark, the many autumn colours of the leaves. Talk about the colours of the leaves on the floor: in front uou see a lot of different colours, and looking further away they merge into one colour.

Explain how to work with a stippling brush: no mixing colors, but put the brush in several colours at once and then stamp lightly. 

Paste from above a number of strips of masking tape on the sheet in various lengths. Draw a horizon line. Stamp the bottom in several autumn colours, merging into one colour near the horizon line. Stamp the remaining leaves in the trees. There may be green there too! Leave the artwork to dry and then colour the sky with chalk pastel. Pull the masking tape off carefully . Draw with charcoal the specific birch dashes .

The Xmas tree isn't green

You need:

1. two drawing sheets A4 size
2. liquid watercolour paint
3. brushes
4. jar with water
5. tissue paper
6. scissors
7. glue
8. pencil
9. gold or silver marker

Paint a background with liquid water colour paint. Use two dark colours and let them blend into each other, leaving some white on the sheet.
Choose three colours of tissue paper. Fold the sheets several times and cut triangles and squares. Take a white sheet and make it wet with a brush and water. Lay the pieces of tissue paper on the wet sheet. If the tissue paper is not wet enough, it won't bleed. If so, 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 when it is completely dry.

Artwork made by students of grade 4

Fold the tissue coloured sheet and cut triangles in several heights. Paste the trees on the 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 and draw a simple branch structure. Draw the trunks with a brown pencil.

Four season trees

 

You need:

1. four white drawing sheets A6 size (postcard)
2. Q-tips
3. tempera paint
4. coloured corrugated cardboard
5. silver and gold markers
6. fiberfill
7. glue

How can a deciduous tree tell you what season it is? What colours do they have in spring, summer and fall? What does a tree look like in winter?

Discuss these questions at the beginning of this lesson. Write on the board the colors in the spring heard (light green, green, white, pink - blossom), which belong to the summer (green, dark green, yellow) and the autumn colours (brown, orange, red, yellow). And in winter there aren't any leaves. left of course.

 

The students will make a tree for every season. The colours of the leaves have to show what season it is. The log is "painted" with a Q-tip, the leaves have to be may only be spotted. Remember that in fall there are a lot of leaves on the ground! Use fiberfill (snow) for the tree in winter.

 

Paste the trees next to each other on a piece of corrugated cardboard. Design it with gold or silver marker and write the seasons above the trees.  

Organisation:

Give each groep of six students an eggtray with several colours of paint. Give each student a Q-tip to paint the trunk. Per groep een eierdoos met de verschillende kleuren verf. Geef de leerlingen elk een wattenstaafje voor de boomstam.For the dots: one Q-tip per colour for common use.
 

Artworks made by students of grade 3

 

Christmas tree in strips

Made by a student of 11 years old

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. black construction paper A4 size
3. tempera paint
4. brush
5. advertising leaflet with Christmas decorations or aluminum foil or scrapbooking paper
6. glue
7. glitter stars
8. small piece of brown paper

Paint a white sheet with a broad brush and undiluted green tempera paint. Apply patches or streaks of different colours, to make the green sheet more vivid. Let the sheet dry.

Tear a trunk out of brown paper. Tear strips of the painted sheet that are about the same width. Place the paper strips on a black sheet in the form of a Christmas tree; the strips have to become slightly shorter. Put the trunk below the bottom strip and paste it. Paste the green strips, so that the trunk disappears partly under the lower strip.

Cut balls and a peak out of aluminium foil or advertising leaflets. You can also use scrapbooking paper. Paste balls and peak on the tree. Cut squares and rectangles (presents!) of coloured paper and paste them under the tree. Paste glitter stars around the tree.

Tree of life, like Gustav Klimt

You need:

1. black construction paper A4 size
2. thick gold marker papier
3. fine gel pens in metallic colours

Gustav Klimt (Austria, 1862 – 1918) was born near Vienna in a poor family. His father was was a gold engraver. This may have influenced Klimt in his use of gold in his paintings. In 1876, Klimt was awarded a scholarship to the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts . His work consists of paintings of mostly women, but also wallpaintings , drawings and collages. Klimt is much praised for the use of gold in his paintings.

Show some artwork of Klimt, and especially the painting 'Tree of life'. Discuss the distinctive features in the work: use of gold colour, the spiral branches, the bird, circles that look like eyes. Tell students about the symbolic significance of these motifs: the tree of life curls, just like in paradise, in all directions. On the lush branches grow flowers with eyes of wisdom and the paradise bird underlines the enchanting impact.

Give students a black construction paper. Let them draw the trunk of a tree that leads to curling branches. Fill the whole sheet with branches, of choose, just like the artwork above, a round shape. Fill the spaces between the branches with different patterns in metallic-coloured gel pens or markers.

Both artworks are made by students of 12 years old

Winter through my window

Made by Silke, 10 years old

You need:

1. brown paper strips from 2 cm wide
2. light blue drawing paper
3. oil pastel
4. tempera paint
5. brushes
6. glue

Draw a winter tree and a fence that gets smaller in the distance. Colour tree and fence with oilpastels. Paint snow on the ground, the tree and the fence using white tempera paint. Paste the brown strips on the drawing as if it's a window frame.

Trees in the snow

Made by Kiki, 11 years old

You need:

1. blue cardboard
2. oil pastels
3. glitter
4. glue

Look what trees look like in winter: no leaves, just the trunk and branches. The trunk is wide and runs smaller to the top. Branches are getting smaller to the top also. Children sketch with pencil one or two trees. The trees have to be coloured with oil pastels. Use more colours then just brown: with black, green or blue you can suggest texture in the trunk. Colour snow on the branches with white oil pastels. Of course there will be no snow hanging below the branches, it would fall down!

Use glitter to light up the snow.

Polish folkart Christmas tree

What do you need?

• white, red and green sheet 
• scissors
• glue

What should you do?

1. Put the red and white sheet together and fold them lengthwise. 
2. Draw half a Christmas tree against the fold and cut out. 
3. Take the white tree and fold it again. 
4. Cut some of the edges and cut patterns from the fold towards the edges (just like snowflakes). 
5. Glue the white tree on the red one and glue the complete tree on a green sheet.

Christmas trees collage

By Silke, 10 years old

I found this idea on Artsonia a collage of Christmas trees coloured with different materials on music paper. You need:

1. white drawing paper A4 size
2. different colouring materials, like crayons, oilpastel, watercolour paint, tempera, colour pencils, markers, aquarelle pencils etc.
3. music paper
4. chalk pastel
5. green paper for background
6. scissors
7. glue
8. black marker

Divide different colour materials in your classroom. One place with paint (water paint and tempera paint), one place with crayons and oil pastel, one place with pencils and markers. Children draw three overlapping triangles on a white sheet, the Christmas trees. These trees have to be coloured with different materials and patterns. The only colour they may use is green, in all its nuances. To colour, children have to take place at the table where the material of their choice is. When finished, the trees and patterns have to be outlined with a black marker. The trees (with the black outline) must be cut out. Then kids have to tear pieces of music paper and paste them on a new white sheet. Colour the background with light blue chalk pastel. Do not colour the music paper, just rub the edges with the chalk pastel. Paste the trees on the blue sheet and paste this work on a green background.

This work can also be done as a group work. All trees (or groups of trees) have to be glued then on a large background of music paper.

By children of 10-11 years old

Cubist Christmas tree

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. ruler
3. tempera paint
4. brushes
5. gold and silver marker

Children draw a simplified Christmas tree: a big triangle. Measure it from the middle line. After this, draw lines across the drawing sheet: from top to bottom, from left to right, from top or bottom to the sides etc.

The tree has to be painted with different green colours (mix them!). The background has to be painted with warm mixed colours. If dry, the lines in the tree have to be drawn with a silver marker, the lines from the background with a gold marker.