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.

Pompom easter bunny

You need:

1. cardboard


2. scraps of construction paper


3. wobbling eyes


4. yarn


5. scissors and glue

These easter bunny is made of several colours yarn. Search for an online lesson on 'how to make a pompom'. Cut ears and feet out of brown construction paper, paste them on the pompom. Paste also two wobbling eyes.

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

Funky chicken

You need:

1. yellow cardboard


2. yarn


3. scrapbook paper


4. two wobbly eyes

Draw a chicken on cardboard and cut it out. Cut two double legs and glue them together with a piece of yarn between. Prick two holes in the body for the legs. Tie them down to the back. Cut two wings and a comb from the paper and paste them on the chicken. Draw eyes (or choose to paste two wobbly eyes), beak and mouth. Attach a piece of yarn to the head and hang the chicken.

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.

Patchwork landscape

By a student of grade 3.

You need:

1. white drawing sheets


2. tempera paint


3. brushes

This is an easy lesson in perspective for younger students. Talk about perspective and show the picture of the disappearing railway.

Do a step by step guide on the blackboard to make this drawing:





1. Put the sheet in the width for you.

2. Draw a wavy line on 2/3 of the bottom.

3. Place a dot in the middle on the top of the sheet.

4. Draw lines with a ruler from the bottom and sides of the sheet to the dot.

5. Divide the strips in squares.

6. Draw houses and trees on the horizon line.

After this the students can finish their artwork independently. Paint the squares all different and use different patterns. Stpale or paste the artwork on a coloured background.

Winter mittens and cap

Made by a student of grade 2

You need:

1. coloured construction paper


2. markers


3. white sheet


4. glue


5. scissors


6. oil pastel

Students draw a face on a large sheet of white paper and colour it with oil pastels. Be sure the eyes are not on top of the head, but in the middle. The space between the two eyes is as wide as an eye.

From coloured paper students cut mittens and a hat (or trace templates first and cut them). Draw patterns on the hat and mittens with marker. The patterns on both mittens should be similar, as well as the patterns on the hat.

Paste hat and mittens on the drawing. Make sure the thumbs point to each other!

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.    

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

Stamped polar bears

 

Made by students of grade 1

You need:

1. blue construction paper


2. pencil


3. tempera paint white and black


4. marshmellows


5. brush


6. glitter


7. glue

Show how to draw a polar bear out of simple shapes: circle, half of a circle (ears) and a part of a triangle for the body. Talk about the grey shadow under the head. How do you make gray? Tell students they have to stamp with marshmellows or brushes. Do not paint!

Students draw the head of a polar bear on blue paper. Use white to stamp head and body. Use grey to stamp the shadow. Paint eyes and nose with a small brush. Decorate the artwork with glitter.

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

Winter scenes

You need:

1. styrofoam



2. pencil



3. block printing ink



4. paint roller



5. flat piece of plexiglass



6. coloured paper

Explain the principle of printing. Why is it that people started to print texts and pictures?



Draw a winter scene with a pencil on the styrofoam. Squeeze out “toothpaste” amount of ink on plexiglass. Roll ink out. The ink is ready when lines appear. Ink should look wet.

Put the styrofoam on a newspaper. Roll one colour ink onto the foam, working quickly to cover all areas. Lay a sheet on top of foam and press with a flat hand. Take away the sheet and your print is ready. Let dry and cut it with about 1 cm around. Paste one or more prints on a white sheet. Decorate the frame with fingerprints.

Made by students of grade 2

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. 

.

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.

Printed mushrooms, group work

Group work by students of grade 3

You need:

1. piece of linoleum 15 x 15 cm


2. lino knife


3. block printing ink


4. flat piece of plexiglass


5. linoleum roller


6. white sheets


7. lino press


8. autumn leaves


9. scissors


10. glue


11. coloured cardboard

Draw a mushroom on your linoleum. Cut away the linoleum around the mushroom. Remember: what you cut away will not print. It is not important to carve deeply into linoleum, just enough so that carved area is lower than the linoleum surface. Always carve away from your hand, always keep your hand behind the back edge of linoleum. When you want to check your printing block, place a piece of paper on the linoleum and rub over the paper with a crayon. This will create a “rubbing” and will give you an idea of what the final print will look like.

Squeeze out “toothpaste” amount of ink on plexiglass. Roll ink out. The ink is ready when lines appear. Ink should look wet. 

Put your linoleum block on a newspaper. Roll one or two colours ink onto the linoleum printing block, working quickly to cover all areas. Lay the block on a sheet in the printing press and press. Take away the block and your print is ready.

To make a group work, all students have to cut out on of their their prints. Leave a white edge around the mushroom. Ask some students to make a collage of all mushrooms on  a piece of dark coloured cardboard. Paste some autumn leaves on the bottom of the collage.

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.

Halloween scene

Made by a student of grade 6

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size


2. liquid water colour yellow and orange 


3. brush


4. jar with water


5. black markers


6. black construction paper for backgroud


7. glue or stapler

This lesson is about silhouettes. A silhouette is a shadow, you can only see the outside lines. Show  some silhouettes or shapes made with your hands. Show that sometimes the light comes through openings in the silhouette, so it is not just black.

Make the drawing sheet wet and paint it yellow and orange with liquid water colour to suggest a sunset. Draw a horizon line. Draw a house or a tree, and draw Halloween things around. Colour the silhouettes black and let light where it can. Paste or staple the artwork on a black sheet.