Mexican amate

You need:

1. 
   brown paper bag


2. tempera paint in fluoresecent colours and white


3. brushes


4. jar with water


5. black marker


6. coloured paper for background


7. glue or stapler

Amate is a way of making paper, done for centuries by Mexican Indians. Amate paper is made by cooking the inner bark of various trees. At the beginning of the 20th century the Nahua Indians of Mexico started making amatepaintings as a form of folk art, especially in order to exchange and sell them to tourists.

Show some pictures of Mexican amate paintings. Discuss the striking features: birds, flowers, bright colours and black outlines. A frame around the drawing with a pattern in bright colours too.

Tear the edges off the paper: use thumb and fingers on both hands and tear very slowly. Use a pencil to draw some (two or three) birds and flowers, add a patterned frame and paint everything with fluorescent tempera. When it's dry, outline everything with a black marker. Don't forget the name of the artist!


Paste or staple the artworks on coloured construction paper.

What's in your egg?

 

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A5 size 


2. charcoal


3. yellow sheet for background 


4. hairspray

A great lesson for Easter, to be done in several grades. 



Start this lesson with a yeaser: Imagine you break your egg on Easter, and it shows something very different than just the egg.... Draw this imagination with charcoal on a white sheet.

Give instruction on how to work with charcoal. Point out that charcoal stain quickly, and give students tissues with water to clean. Show that the charcoal stripes could be blurred by smearing. In this way the shadows on the egg can be made. Tell charcoal can be erased with kneaded eraser.



Let the children first practice to experience for their self how you work with charcoal.

Then they draw the two  seperated halves of an egg with that's what in it between them. The egg should not just hang not in the air, but has to lie somewhere on or in (grass, cloth or similar).



Fix the drawing with hairspray and staple or paste it on a yellow background.

Made by students of grade 3

Pastel planets

You need:

1. black construction paper A4 size


2. chalk pastel


3. hairspray

During our school project about Space, students of grade 5 made these fantasy solar system. Spheres were drawn with attention towards an imaginary light source creating light and dark values. Overlap was required to suggest depth. To suggest the endlessness of the universe, parts of planets had to be drawn at the edge of the sheet.

 

Draw circles by tracing round subjects or use compasses. Colour with chalk pastel. Note the technique of the chalk: colour, smear and blend until you're satisfied. Fix the artwork with hairspray.

 

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.

Winter forest prints

I found this lesson on Mrs. Knight's art class blog. Take a look on that blog to see more beautiful artworks.



You need:

1. ribbed cardboard


2. flat cardboard


3. woodsies


4. coloured construction paper


5. block printing ink


6. piece of plexiglass


7. roller

Students make a collage of trees, cut from pieces of flat and ribbed cardboard and woodsies. Tell them the cardboard can be used in two ways: from top to bottom or from left to right.

Shake the bottle of blockprint carefully to be sure oil will mix with the rest. Drip some paint on the glass and roll it out. Roll the paint on the trees. Put a sheet on top of it and press firmly with a flat hand. Make different prints, choose the best one to paste on a coloured background.    

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

Golden Christmas

Made by a student of grade 6

You need:

1. white drawing sheet 20 by 20 cm


2. ruler


3. pencil


4. silver and gold marker


5. black construction paper


6. 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, with gold and silver marker.  Paste the drawing on a black sheet.

Gingerbread man printing lesson

 

You need:

1. two pieces of linoleum 10 x 10 cm


2. lino knife


3. block printing ink


4. flat piece of plexiglass


5. linoleum roller


6. white sheets


7. lino press


8. scissors, glue


9. coloured paper

Draw a gingerbread cookie on both pieces of linoleum. Cut away the outlines of the first linoleum, and the background of the second one. Print in one or two (Christmas) colours and paste on coloured paper.

House in cubist style

By a student of grade 4

You need:

1. drawing paper A4 size


2. colour markers


3. pencil


4. ruler

Draw a house simplified house with windows and a door. Add one or two trees. Divide the sheet in with three horizontal and three vertical lines. Colour the surfaces with four different coloured markers.

 

You need:

1. black construction paper


2. scissors


3. kite paper


4. glue

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.

This lesson is about Sinterklaas, but can be done with Santa too, or any other person with a recognizable silhouette.

Fold the black sheet and draw an oval as great as possible. Use this oval to draw a decorated frame. Cut this. Draw a silhouette against the fold of the resting piece of black paper, and cut it. Paste kite paper behind the fram, paste the silhouette in the middle of it.

Amsterdam by night

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size


2. liquid water colour


3. brush


4. jar with water


5. indian ink


6. straw


7. black and yellow construction paper


8. scissors


9. glue

Paint the white sheet blue or orange with liquid water colour; add water to get a brighter blue / orange above. Let dry. Drip some indian ink and blow it upwards with a straw. Cut a row of canal houses out of black paper and paste it on the coloured sheet. Cut and paste windows and a moon out of yellow paper.

Paste the artwork on a black sheet.

Artworks made by students of grade 4

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. 

.

Northern lights

You need:

1. black construction paper A4 size


2. chalk pastel


3. white wallpaper with texture


4. scissors


5. glue


6. fine black marker

I found this lesson via Flickr on Pinterest, but don't know to whom I have to give credit...

Show some northern light movies on Youtube. What can you tell about the colours? What movements do you see?



Draw a horizon line a little below the middle of a black sheet. Use different colours chalk pastels to colour the sea. Do not use too much chalk, so that it can be smudged.

Cut a strip of mountains out of black paper. Paste it on the horizon line. Use white chalk pastel to make snow on the mountains. Draw the northern light above the mountains. Smudge colours.

Draw a polar bear on an ice floe on the back of a piece of white wallpaper. Cut out. Draw details with a fine black marker. Paste the polar bear on the sea.

Finally paste the artwork on a bright coloured sheet.

By students of grade 5

Patterned leaves

You need:

1. drawing sheet A4 size


2. pencil


3. black marker


4. water colour paint


5. jar with water


6. brush


7. white pencil


8. coloured sheet

Draw contours of leaves with a pencil on a white sheet. Don't forget some half ones on the edges. Draw veins. Trace the leaves and veins with a black marker. Fill the spaces between the veins with as many different patterns you can.

Paint the space between the leaves with water colour paint. Leave a white edge around the leaves. Let dry. Paste the artwork on a coloured sheet and finish the half leaves with a white pencil on this frame.

Silly sandwich

You need:

1. drawing sheet 12 by 30 cm


2. colour pencils

Create a super size sandwich, stacked with all your favorite things to eat! The sandwich could be as crazy or realistic as you want them to be, just stack them high!

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.

Stitched face

 

A nice lesson to practice stitching on a sewing machine: stitch a face in one line on a drawing sheet!

Autumn leaves mandala

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size


2. compasses


3. pencil


4. oil pastels

Draw a circle with a diameter of 20 cm. Draw within about 1 cm another circle (the edge of the mandala). Cut out and fold into 8 pieces. Draw against one of the folds half of an autumn leaf using black oil pastel.

Fold the sheet and press firmly with the hands to get a print of the leaf on the other side of the fold. Trace this half with black oilpastel. Repeat this and draw the other three leaves. Colour the leaves and background with oil pastels in warm colours. Colour the edge with a nice pattern.

Outlined autumn leaves

Made by a student of grade 5

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size


2. liquid water colour yellow and red


3. brush


4. colour markers


5. glue


6. scissors

Paint a wet white sheet with red and yellow liquid water colour. Leave to dry.  Outline some autumn leaves on this sheet, cut them and paste them on a new sheet.

Choose three markers in wamr (autumn) colours and outline the leaves until the sheet is full. Draw the veins with a fine marker.

Blob creatures

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size


2. tempera paint


3. scissors


4. glue


5. black marker


6. black paper for background

Start by folding the white sheet of paper in half and open it up again. Then drop blobs of tempera paint in three different colours somewhere around the middle of your paper. Don't put the paint to close to the edges. Fold the sheet and press by firmly moving hands around. This movement will move the paint around more than just folding.

Open the paper and dry flat.

Look carefully at this creature. Outline the creature with a black marker. Look for typical shapes, like arms, eyes, ears etc. and trace them with a marker. The drawing should be totally symmetrical.



Cut the creature, leaving half cm white around the black lines. Paste it on a coloured background.

Made by students of grade 4