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.

A journey through space

You need:

1. white drawing paper A5 size


2. crayons


3. black paint


4. brush


5. toothpick


6. coloured construction paper

As part of a school project about the Dutch astronaut André Kuipers and his space journey, students scratched these drawings.

Colour the entire drawing sheet with crayons. Choose the colours you want, but don't use black or white. Then Paint the entire sheet black and let dry. Scratch a space scene with a toothpick. Paste the artwork on a coloured background.

All artworks are made by students of grade 3

Snowmen mandala

You need:

1. white drawing sheet 


2. compasses


3. scissors 


4. crayons or oil pastels 


5. indian ink


6. brush

Step 1.

This lesson is a variaton on 'Autumn leaves mandala'. Click the link for full description.

Focus in this lesson: make sure the snowmen are really coloured white with crayons or oil pastels, otherwise they will turn completely black with ink after step 2.

Step 2.

Crumple the picture into a ball. Make flat again. Paint the entire drawing with indian ink. Rinse the ink immediately after it in the sink and let the work dry. The ink will rest in the folds of the paper  and creates a great "antique" effect.

Made by a student of grade 3

Peaks and valleys

Made by a student of grade 2

You need:

1. 
   drawing sheet A4 size
   
   


2. 
   crayons in bright colours
   
   


3. 
   watercolour paint
   
   


4. 
   brushes
   
   


5. 
   jar with water
   
   

Discuss with the students the difference between hills and mountains. When do we call something a mountain, when a hill? What does the top of hills look like? And what about the top of a mountain - this can be a sharp point or eroded and round, depending on the age of the mountain. 

Show students step by step how to draw a landscape with hills and mountains. Start with two wave lines Start with two wavy lines on the bottom of the drawing sheet. Draw diagonal lines down from the lowest points. Draw some high mountain peeks behind the hilss and draw a sun behind the peeks.

Fill the mountains and hills with patterns. Use crayons in bright colours. Each mountain should have its own pattern. Paint the mountains and the sky with watercolour paint. Patterns and lines will resist the watery paint.

Sunflowers in five different materials

You need:

1. sunflowers or pictures of them


2. white drawing sheet A1 size, cut in strips of 30 by 65 cm


3. five different colouring materials, like colour pencils, tempera paint, watercolour paint, oil pastels, crayons, coloured ink, aquarell pencils etc.


4. brushes


5. pencil, ruler


6. coloured paper


7. scissors

Look with the students at some sunflowers or pictures of them. How thick is the stem, what can you tell about the leaves, how are the petals divided, what colours do you see in the heart of the flower, etc.

Divide the sheet with thin lines into five strips of 13 cm high. Draw some sunflowers. Make sure the flowers themselves are drawn at the demarcation of the strips. Make sure too that in each compartment at least half a sunflower or leave is drawn.

Choose five different colour materials. Use in every compartment a different material. Consider yourself the order of the materials, for example from bright (markers) to less bright (aquarelle pencils).

Paste the work on a coloured background. Or cut the five compartments and paste them with some space between on a coloured background.

Made by students of grade 5

African adire

Made by a student of grade 4

You need:

1. white drawing paper A4 size


2. crayons


3. liquid watercolour


4. brush


5. ruler


6. pencil

Yoruba women in Nigeria make a type of resist-dyed cloth that they call adire. They make some adire by folding, tying, and/or stitching cloth with raffia before dyeing. This is called adire oniko, after the word for raffia, iko. They also make another type, adire eleko, by painting or stenciling designs on the cloth with starch. Both types are dyed in indigo, a natural blue dye.

The dye-resistant starch can be either painted freehand or stenciled onto the fabric. When freehand painting, the artist usually paints a grid of squares or rectangles onto the fabric first. Then she fills these squares with geometric and representational motifs.

Stenciled patterns are even more diverse. New motifs, both geometric and representational, are constantly being created. They can include everything from simple shapes to elephants, keys, letters, and skyscrapers. The metal stencils are made by men, who sell them to the female adire artists.



Show some pictures of african adire and discuss them. Show African symbols and talk about their meanings.



Students use pencil and ruler to divide their sheets in squares of 5 by 5 cm. Draw with a yellow or white crayon symbols and/or patterns in these squares. Paint the sheet using coloured ink.

Three spring flowers, three materials

 

Made by students of grade 3

You need:

1. three white drawing sheets 10 by 10 cm


2. coloured origami sheets 12 by 12 cm


3. coloured cardboard 14 by 38 cm


4. tempera paint


5. brushes


6. crayons


7. colour pencils


8. tulips, daffodils, bluebonnets or pictures of them


9. glue

Students scetch three different spring flowers on three sheets of 10 by 10 cm: bluebonnet, tulip and daffodil. Colour the flowers with three different materials: crayons, tempera paint and colour pencils. Paste the drawings on coloured origami sheets and paste them then on coloured cardboard.

Easter eggs with lines

You need:

1. cardboard egg shape 10 cm high


2. pencil


3. white drawing sheet


4. several colour materials, like markers, colour pencils, crayons, chalk pastel 


5. coloured paper 20 by 14 cm


6. gekleurd papier 14 cm hoog, 20 cm breed


7. glue


8. scissors


9. fine black marker 

What kind of lines do we know? Let students draw them on the blackboard: straight - horizontal, vertical, diagonal; angular, like zig-zag and curved lines.

Students have to make four Easter eggs. Ouline the template with a pencil. Draw straight lines in the first egg, curved lines in the second one and zig-zag lines in the third one. The fourth egg may is made with lines of their own choice. Trace the lines with a fine black marker. Colour them with four different materials: colour pencils, markers, chalk pastel and crayons. Cut the eggs and paste them on a coloured sheet.

Made by students of grade 3

Patterned hearts like Jim Dine

You need:

1. drawing sheet A5 size
2. crayons
3. liquid water colour
4. brush

Fold the sheet of paper into quarters. Cut a heart out of a piece in the hearts: Trace this heart four times with a pencil. Draw patterns in the hearts with crayons: stripes, circles, zigzag lines etc. Draw different patterns around the hearts.

Paint the whole sheet with liquid watercolour. The crayon will resist the ink.

My favourite animal

You need:

1. white drawing paper A4 size
2. watercolour paint
3. crayons
4. brushes
5. jar with water
6. coloured paper for background

Students made a drawing of their favourite animal in his own environment. The drawing was made with crayons and coloured with watercolour paint.

Both artworks are made by students of grade 1

Pimp Saint Nicholas

In the folklore of the Netherlands, Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas) is a yearly feast on the evening of December 5th. Sinterklaas celebrates his birthday by distributing presents to all good children. Half November Saint Nicholas comes with is steam boat out of Spain to Holland. With his helpers, a lot of Black Pete's, he visits schools, hospitals, stores ands families. Sinterklaas is dressed in a red toga, with a white slip under it. On his hat he wears a miter. Besides a steam boat, he has a white horse to transport himself. On this horse, Sinterklaas walks on the roofs, to throw children's presents through the chimney's.

You need:

1. white drawing sheets A3 size
2. pencil
3. crayons
4. scissors and glue
5. red construction paper

This lesson is about Sinterklaas's clothes. Sinterklaas is so tired of wearing that old dull miter and those boring black shoes; he has never had a fancy bow in his long white beard! Time has come to pimp the Saint!
Write some ideas on the chalkboard: a cap instead of a miter, braids in the beard, sneakers instead of black shoes, a flower toga or a cane with glittering stones or feathers. Of course our pimped Sinterklaas has no dull book anymore, but a cd-rom in a fancy case; he has an Ipod with the newest Spanish hitsongs and the latest cellphone. Everything is allowed, with one restriction: there must be one thing in the drawing that remains us of our old Sinterklaas!
Children scetch their pimped Sinterklaas and colour it with crayons. Cut all Sinterklazen and glue them on red construction paper.

Fall things

You need:

1. white drawing sheet 30 by 20 cm
2. pencil
3. ruler
4. crayons
5. liquid watercolour
6. brush
7. jar with water
8. coloured paper for background
9. glue

Practice the student's measuring skills by letting them draw a 5 cm grid on the drawing sheet, using a ruler and pencil. Trace the pencil lines with crayons. Draw crayon lines along the outer edges of the paper. Create a pattern of returning autumn drawings in the squares. In this lesson is chosen for diagonal lines.
Trace the outlines and details of the drawings with crayon. Paint the drawings and background of the squares with liquid watercolour. Be sure the regular pattern is also to be seen in the colours..
Paste the artwork on a coloured background.

Made by a student of 11 years old

Cool web, big spider

You need:

1. white drawing paper 20 by 20 cm
2. left overs of white drawing paper
3. yellow crayons
4. liquid watercolour
5. thick brush
6. jar with water
7. scissors
8. glue
9. black construction paper

Students draw a web with a yellow crayon. The easiest way is to first draw diagonal lines from the corners of the paper. Then draw more lines from top to bottom, left to right. The lines must all go through the center. After this draw circles around the center, until the sheet is full.

Paint the sheet using liquid watercolour ink in cold colours. Take two colours. Leave the work to dry.

Draw some leaves with a warm colour crayon on a white sheet. Draw the veins. Paint the leaves with warm colours liquid watercolour. Let the leaves dry.

Make a spider of black construction paper. In the example above, the spider is made of a circle with a diameter of about 4 cm. Cut the circle in to the center and stick the cutting edges on each other so the center rises. Draw a cross on the back if you want to. Cut a smaller circle for the head, draw eyes on it and paste it on the body of the spider. Cut the feet: 8 strips of 8 cm by 1/2 cm. Glue the legs on the underside of the body. Make a fold inwards on the mid of the strip, and 1 cm from the end a fold outwards.

When the work is completely dry, cut the leaves and paste them on the web. Put the spider in the web by pasting the lower parts of the legs and the head.

Paste the artwork on a black background. You may draw the spider web lines on the background too.

Reflected canal houses

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. white crayons
3. watercolour paint
4. brushes
5. jar with water

Dutch canal houses are famous for their facades: stepped gable, neckgable, bell gable, clockgevel or spoutgable. Draw those five gables on the blackboard and discuss them. Search the internet for photographs of canal houses or let the students search them (search canal house or grachtenhuis).

Draw a line at 12 cm from the bottom of the sheet. Draw some low canal house with a white crayon. Draw windows, treps and doors in them. Paint every house with a different colour of watercolour paint. The crayon will resist the paint and become visible. Paint a simplified reflection of the house under the line. Paint water and air.

Learning letters

Made by a student of 7 years old

You need:

1. drawing sheet 20 by 20 cm
2. crayons
3. liquid watercolour
4. brushes
5. jar with water

Draw a 5 cm grid and copy it on drawing sheets. Give every student a grid sheet. Students use crayons to write big handwriting letters in the squares. Trace the lines of the squares with crayon too using one colour. Paint the squares with liquid watercolour.

In Holland we call those letters 'lusletters', 'letters with loops' if I translate is. The first letters children learn, at the same time as they start learning to read, are called 'blokletters'. Block letters?

How do you call those letters? Blockletters? Writing letters? Who can help me?

What do you see in the sea?

Made by Romyo, 7 years old

You need:

1. light blue drawing sheet A4 size
2. crayons
3. liquid watercolour
4. brushes
5. white paper for background

What animals do live in the sea? There's more then fishes: sea turtles, whales, crabs, starfish, coral etc.
All children get a light blue drawing sheet. They have to draw sea animals with crayons. When the drawing is ready, the whole sheet has to be painted with dark blue liquid watercolour. Crayon will resist. The light blue drawing paper and dark blue watercolour will make a beautiful deep blue sea. After drying you can paste the artwork on a white background.

April showers will bring us flowers

You need:

1. white drawing sheet


2. water colour paint


3. ruler


4. white crayon or oil pastel


5. paint brush


6. water

Characteristicly Dutch weather in spring is a weather type with showers, alternated with sunny periods. Those typical spring showers are called 'Maartse buien' (March Showers) in Holland, while English meteorologists speak about 'April showers who bring us flowers'. In this lesson children will draw typical spring flowers (tulips, daffodils etc.) during a rain shower.

Sketch some spring flowers on a white sheet. Make sure your lines are extremely thin. Use your ruler to draw white crayon lines with about one centimeter between them. Make sure your crayon has a sharp point. Paint your drawing with watercolour paint. Use a lot of water to make bright colours. The crayon will resist the water paint, so your shower will be very clear!

Snowflakes

Made by Marije, 10 years

You need:

1. white drawing paper A3 size
2. oil pastels or crayons
3. watercolour paint
4. brushes
5. glitter
6. glue

Show photographs from enlarged snowflakes or (even better): let students see snowflakes with a magnifying glass or microscope. Discuss the hexagonal structure. The children draw a few snowflakes on their sheet with oil pastel crayons. The flakes don't have to be complete, parts of the flakes can be drawn along the edges.

After this, the sheet has to be painted with diluted watercolour paint in winter colours. The oil pastels will resist the paint. When the work is dry, sprinkle a little glitter in in small dots of glue.

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

Autumn leaves with tissue paper

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 format
2. tissue paper in autumn colours
3. brush
4. jar with water
5. white crayons

Show different shapes of leaves. Discuss those shapes and the colours those leaves have in autumn.

Kids draw with white crayons different leaves on their drawing sheet. When finished, they tear parts of the different colours of tissue paper (not too small). Use autumn colours like orange, red, yellow and brown. Those pieces must be sticked by wetting the drawing sheet part by part and laying the tissue paper pieces in it. Watch out: no two same colour pieces next to eachother. Be sure the tissue paper is wet enough to bleed.

Let the artwork dry a little. When it's still moist a bit, pull of all parts of tissue paper. Wait until your work is totally dry and press it flat by laying it under a heavy book.