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.

Skaters in Dutch landschape

Made by Brittany, 11 years old

You need:

1. light blue construction paper
2. dark transperant glossy paper
3. glue
4. flour
5. colour pencils
6. scissors

Beautiful photographs of Dutch landscapes and skaters on frozen water, are the inspiration for this lesson. There are many of these pictures on the internet (search for 'hollands landschap schaatsen'). Show some of these pictures and discuss them. Take a light blue sheet (or paint one) and paste and paste in the middle transparent dark, glossy paper on it; this is the ice. Cut a circle from a white sheet and paste in on the light blue sheet. Make the white streaks on the ice by drawing lines with a glue stick and sprinkling flour over it; shake the rest of. Draw a windmill or a landscape. Draw some skating people on another sheet and colour them with bright colours. Cut those skaters and paste them on the ice.

Made by students from 10-11 years old

Splattering fireworks

You need:

1. black construction paper
2. toothbrush
3. tempera paint
4. spoon
5. straw
6. photo of a building or skyline
7. scissors

Choose an internet photograph of a famous building or skyline. Print it and cut it out carefully. Put the picture or a black sheet of paper. Dilute white tempera paint with water so it is fluid. Dip the toothbrush in the paint and knock the adhering drops off. Take a teaspoon in your writing hand and the toothbrush in the other. Scrape with the spoon on the hairs of the toothbrush in your own direction. This way the hairs of the toothbrush will spring back, while they release splashes of paint. Practice this first on a scrap sheet. Now splash around your image. Near the image you splash closer, further away you splash thinner.

When you are finished, gently take the image away. You'll see the silhouette of the building.Let your work dry before you do the second step. Dilute some tempera paint on a saucer with water so it is thinner. Leave one or two drops of diluted tempera on your artwork, but not on the silhouette. drupjes verf op je werkstuk vallen, maar niet op het silhouet (put your image back to the sheet if necessary). Blow through the straw at the paint drops in different directions, so you'll get fireworks. Do this as often as you like. Be careful, there should not be coloured paint on your silhouette. Paste your work finally on a coloured background.

This lesson is origanally from Art Attack.

Fireworks rockets

Fireworks, by children from 11-12 years old

You need:

1. tubes from Pringles
2. long wooden stick
3. construction paper in different colours
4. scissors
5. glue
6. wide tape
7. wire

Paste black paper around the tube. Decorate the rocket with stars, dots etc. cut out of coloured paper. Make a cap from a circle and paste it on the rocket. Fix the stick in the tube with wide tape. Take small tape to fix a piece of wire in the tube; this is the sliver.

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

Christmas quilt

By Charmaine, 11 years old

You need:

1. white drawing sheet from 20 by 20 cm
2. ruler
3. pencil
4. finepointed black marker
5. red or green marker
6. black construction paper
7. white marker
8. glue

Children divide their sheet with ruler and pencil in 16 squares from 5 by 5 cm. In each square they draw a Christmas figure: tree, candy, snowman, skates, mitten, sock, candle etc. These figures have to be coloured , just like a checkerboard: alternately the background is red or the figure is red (or green). When ready, outline all figures, details and squares with a black finepointed marker. Paste the drawing on a black sheet and outline it with a white marker.

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.

Stained glass in Mondriaan style

You need:

1. black construction paper 20 by 20 cm
2. tissue paper in green, red and white
3. white pencil
4. ruler
5. cutting blade
6. cutting mat
7. glue

Discuss stained glass. How did the craftspeople of yesterday make stained glass? How do they make it today? Show some paintings of Mondriaan. What colours did he use? What forms do you see? Children are going to make a little square or round stained glas window out of paper. The style must be like Mondriaan, colours must be like Christmas. Give each student one sheet of black construction paper. First children must choose their form. When they choose a round form, they have to draw a circle with compasses. Cut this out. Draw another circle about 1,5 cm out of the edges; this is the frame. Children who chose the square, draw also a line about 1,5 out of the edges. This is the frame. Draw squares and/or rectangles in your window using ruler and a white pencil. The lines must be 1 cm wide. When ready, draw crosses in the rectangles that have to be cut out.

Cut away the forms with the crosses. Cut carefully and use an iron ruler. Use your black window as a template to draw the forms of squares and rectangles on the three different colours of tissuepaper. Cut the forms out of the tissue paper with 0,5 cm extra for the adhesive border. Paste the colours alternately on the backside of your window.

Explosion in the bottle factory

Before
This lesson is designed to help explain the idea of abstract art. 

Paintings of trees by the Dutch painter Piet Mondriaan show the development of realistic painting to abstract painting clearly. The red tree (1908) is a realistic painting, Mondriaan painted what he saw.

The grey tree (1911) is more abstract, but the shape of the tree can still be seen.

The apple tree (1912) doesn't look like a tree anymore, unless you see this one together with the former paintings.

What do you need?

• black construction paper
• scissors and glue
• colored paper
• ruler and pencil

What should you do?

1. Draw a straight line halfway the black sheet. 
2. Cut three or four double bottles out of colored paper. 
3. Paste the bottles on upper half of the black sheet. 
4. Cut the remaining bottles into pieces and paste them on the bottom of the sheet.

Artworks made by students of grade 3. 

The longest line

You need:

1. white drawing sheet 15 by 15 cm
2. black fineliner
3. markers

I found this lesson on Artsonia. Start in a corner and draw ONE line, the longest line: curved, straight, zigzag, with angles etc. The line has to fill the whole sheet and you may not pick up your marker from the sheet! The line may not hit or cross itself. And, the most important: the line has to end at the point it started. So be sure you're back in the beginning in time!

When ready, draw with a pencil three or four geometric shapes on your sheet. Choose three colours marker per shape and colour them. Outline your shapes with the black fineliner.

Greetings from ... Holland!

And this is Holland too ....

You need:

1. white drawing sheet from 20 by 10 cm
2. markers
3. fineliner
4. ruler
5. pencil

Draw a horizon line about 2 cm from the upper edge. Put a dot in the middle of this line, the vanishing point. Draw lines from the bottom and sides towards that vanishing point. Make six lanes or more - this is the highway. Colour the highway with gray marker, leaving out the white stripes. Colour agriculturul fields besides the highway. Colour the sky. Draw a cityscape with high buildings and houses on the horizon and colour them with black and grey markers. Together with the lesson about the bulb fields, we have a nice postcard! Greetings from Holland!

Find it!

Waterpaint with finepointed marker

You need:

1. white drawing paper A4 size
2. watercolour paint or tempera
3. marker or fineliner

Paint organic shapes on you sheet with different colours. Make sure the whole sheet is full. After drying, take a black fineliner or marker and search for faces, animals or objects in your shapes. Outline them and add details to recognize your object or face!

Tempera with marker

Leaves pattern

You need:

1. white drawing sheet 21 by 25 cm
2. markers

Draw lines around your sheet a half centimeter from the edges. Divide the remaining square in 16 compartments from 5 cm by 6 cm. Draw a leave on construction paper and cut it out. Trace the leave in the 16 rectangles. Draw patterns in the leaves: take a pair for each pattern. Colour them alternately with two colours. Outline all leaves with a black fineliner. Draw a square in two colours around your work.

In the style of René Magritte

Rene Magritte is born in 1898 in Belgium. When Magritte is13 his mother commits suicide. She jumps in the river Samber and is found with her dress covering her face. This image has been suggested as the source of several of Magritte's paintings: people hiding their faces with several objects.
In 1924 Magritte became friends with members of a surrealism group in Brussels: André Breton, Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí. They influence Magritte's work.
Magritte gave his paintings a realistic effect of surrealism. He painted simple objects like a pipe, apple or tree, took them out of their ordinary environment and placed them in a special surrounding.
One of Magritte's most famous works is a very realistic painting from a pipe, with the text: Ceci n'est pas une pipe (This is not a pipe). The painting is not a pipe, but rather an image of a pipe. As Magritte himself commented: "The famous pipe. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it's just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture This is a pipe, I'd have been lying!"
Magritte forces us to think about art by putting us constantly on the wrong track. 

What do you need? 

1. drawing sheet A3 
2. brushes and jar
3. tempera paint
4. (black marker)

Instruction
Show Magritte's work and talk about surrealism. Ask students what they see in those paintings. Talk about realism and show realistic paintings. What are the differences between these two styles? How do you recognize surrealistic art? Show the painting The son of man and tell about the covered faces we'll see in a lot of Magritte's paintings.

What should you do? 

1. Sketch a portrait, just like Magritte did. It doesn't have to be someone special, just a person. 
2. Draw an object to cover the face. It has to be about as large as a face, so a piano or a coin can't be used! 
3. Paint the drawing and background. 
4. Outline the object with a fineliner if you want to let is stand out.

Artworks made by students of grade 6. 

Happy Halloween

You need:

1. orange construction paper
2. black construction paper
3. black fineliner
4. black marker
5. correction fluid
6. scissors and glue

Children are drawing a Halloween party at night. They work with black marker on orange paper. Brainstorm what things make you think of Halloween: spiders, skeletons, witchas, bats, black cats, dark, cemetary, pumpkins etc. Vandaag worden alleen contouren getekend. Wat zijn contouren en hoe teken je die? Every child gets an orange construction paper. Draw the width of a ruler on the top and bottom of the sheet. Draw a halloween party, using markers in various sizes. Use correction fluid to make eyes. Glue a strip of black construction paper on top and bottom of your drawing.

Puzzle trees

You need:

1. black paper A4 size
2. black paper 23 by 32 cm
3. oilpastel crayons
4. scissors and glue

Students draw with a pencil on a black A4 sheet a simple mountain landscape under the moon. Colour it with oilpastel crayons and outline the mountains and moon with black crayon. Show the students that the colour of the air around the moon is lighter. Use white and yellow to brighten up blue colours, or black to darken them. Make sure your colours in the air will blend.

When colouring is finished, turn around the sheet. Draw a tree on the back, with five branches: one tho the right, one to the right edge of the paper, one to the middle above, one to the left edge of the sheet and one to the left. Branches have to be small at the end and wide near to the trunk. You've got six puzzlepieces now. Cut them out and place them on the larger black sheet. Use the cut tree to check if your pieces lie well. Pate all parts on the black sheet, exept the tree of course. Maybe you can do something fun with it?

Spider web

You need:

1. white drawing paper from 20 by 20 cm
2. oil pastel crayons
3. black paint
4. brushes
5. toothpicks
6. coloured construction paper

In fall you will find beautiful spider webs in the garden and around the school. Especially when the morning dew is glistening on the wires in the sun, a web seems a work of art. In this lesson the students scretch a spider web with a spider, after they first have looked carefully at those webs. How is the web built? How many basic threads do you see? What does a spider look like? How many legs has he? How do they look? Colour a drawing sheet with oilpastels. Choose autumn colours, like orange, yellow and brown. Paint the entire sheet black and let it dry.

Scratch a spider web with a toothpick. Of course you may add the spider! Paste the artwork on a coloured background.

Haunted houses

You need:

1. white drawing paper A4 size
2. tissue paper in two colours
3. brush and water
4. black markers
5. white chalk pastel
6. hairspray
7. black construction paper for background

Haunted houses…. there are many exciting stories in the internet to start this lesson! Discuss the characteristics of a haunted house: partly collapsed, on a quiet place, spider webs, torture tools, graves, bats, black cats, ghosts etc. The background is made with tissuepaper. Kids have to wet their white drawing sheet with a brush and water. Strips of torn tissue paper are put on this - the torn edges must be on the paper, not the straight ones. Make sure the tissue papers overlap a little, so no white paper is to be seen. When ready, wet the whole sheet again. Take a look under one of the tissue strips to see if the bleeding is ready. If so, take of the strips. Then wait till the sheet is completely dry. With a pencil, kids sketch a haunted house on their coloured sheet. They have to thing about the fact that everything has to be coloured in black, so they have to draw just contours. When sketching is ready, the drawing has to be traced with a black fineliner. Then everything has to be coloured with a black marker. Ghosts are drawn in and around the house using white chalk pastel. Fix the ghosts with hairspray and glue the artwork on a black background.

Made by students of 10-11 years old

Take a walk with a line

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. markers
3. fineliner

Start with a thick black marker and draw an interesting line horizontally across the paper. Repeat your line with rainbow colors to show emphasis and repetition. Fill your paper up with interesting line patterns in the background. Use a black fineliner. When ready it seems the coloured line looks like jumping off the page. This could also be a nice group project. Children have to discuss with eachother about the places their lines will come together and continuing the patterns.