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.

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. 

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Dutch canal houses groupwork

Part of the groupwork, made by students of grade 4

You need:

1. white drawing sheets


2. tempera paint


3. brushes


4. pencil


5. glue plakkaatverf

After a request of Amy Baldwin, art teacher in Millington, my 4th graders painted Dutch canal houses for the Empty Bowl fundraiser in Millington (Mi).

Before starting to paint, we talked about the Dutch Golden Age, a period roughly spanning the 17th century, in which Dutch trade, science and art were among the most acclaimed in the world. In this century many of the typical canal houses were built, in that age used as store houses. We looked at pictures of canal houses, discussed the different kinds of gables (neck gable, trep gable, bell gable) and details of the houses (windows, year it was built, stairs).



Every students gets a sheet of paper and has to draw a line on 8 cm of the bottom - this is for the canal. On the left side of the sheet there must remain a white strip of 2 cm (to paste all paintings together).

Every student draws his own canal house. Stop drawing after 5 minutes, to avoid drawint to many details. Paint the house with tempera paint. Mix colours, or for even better results: take two colours of paint on your brush and mix a little while painting.

Paste all paintings together to make a long street. Paint the canal. You might even add the words  'Groeten uit Holland'!

Click to see full site.

Dutch December skyline

You need:

1. black construction paper 20 by 20 cm
2. chalk pastel
3. coloured pencils
4. white sheet A4 size for stencil

Draw a skyline with roofs of Dutch canal houses on the white sheet. Cut it. Choose a colour to stencil with. Rub chalk on the stencil. Use a tissue or your finger to rub the chalk off the stencil on the black sheet, to create the soft looking skyline.
Turn the stencil and take another colour to repeat this process. Students may also exchange the roof with your neighbour, to get different skylines.
Draw a moon with chalk pastel. Draw windows in the houses and colour them with a yellow and/or white pencil.

I love Holland

Made by students of grade 6

You need:

1. two pieces of linoleum of 12 by 12 cm
2. white drawing paper
3. lino knives
4. block printing ink in red and blue
5. flat piece of glass
6. linoleum roller
7. lino press
8. cardboard in red and blue
9. scissors
10. glue

What are typical Dutch things? Make a word web with the children. Think about cheese, canal houses, tulips, wooden shoes, cows etc.

The children create a drawing on a scrap of paper with the theme I love Holland. Not too many details, because the drawing will be printed. The drawing has to be copied on both pieces of linoleum. It doesn't matter if they don't match exactly; this is even fun while making a two colour print, because the drawing seems to shift a bit.


Use different linoleum knives. Cut the drawing from the first piece of linoleum. Cut the background from the second piece of linoleum, leaving the object. Lines within the object should be cut too.

Shake the bottle of blockprint carefully to be sure oil will mix with the rest. Drip some red paint on the glass and roll it out with the lino roller. Make 2 prints of your work on a white sheet. Rinse the linoleum clean and make 2 prints in blue in the same way.

Repeat this process with the second piece of linoleum: 2 prints in red and 2 in blue. There will be 8 prints if you're finished.

2 pieces of linoleum, 2 colours, 8 prints

Finally use one or more of those prints to make a two colour print. This has to be done by inking piece 1 red and printing it on a blue print of piece 2. See picture below.

Let students choose their best prints and let them decide how many prints they want to use for their final artwork. Cut the prints with 1 cm white aound them. Make a composition on blue or red cardboard and paste the prints with 1 cm between them.

Final composition I love Holland, by Malou, grade 6

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.

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.

Birds in the style of Corneille (2nd lesson)

This lesson about Corneille is almost the same as the lesson I posted a few days earlier. However, drawings in this lesson are made with oilpastels by students in a lower grade.

You need:

1. white drawing paper A4 size
2. oil pastels
3. coloured ink
4. brushes
5. jar with water
6. coloured paper for background
7. glue or stapler

Life and work of Corneille

Guillaume Cornelis Beverloo (1922 - 2010), Corneille, was a Dutch artist who is born in Belgium and died this month in France. He is buried in the same cemetery as Vincent van Gogh, a painter who was highly admired by Corneille. As a painter Corneille is an autodidact. In his early years, he painted realistic: still lifes, people and landscapes.

In 1948 Corneille was involved in the creation of the CoBRA Group, a group of Danish (Copenhagen), Belgian (Brussels) and Dutch (Amsterdam) artists. Even writers and poets belong to the CoBRA group. The artists' group leaves only three years, but has been the basic for the work of Corneille. According to Corneille, the CoBRA artists want to express themselves on a expressionistic way, like children, by playing unprejudiced with colours and shapes.

Since 1950 Corneille lived and worked in Paris. His paintings are bright and colourful. The sun, women, paradise, trees and birds are recurring elements. He is particularly fond of birds. His artist name Corneille is French for 'crow'.

What to do?

Show examples of Corneille's work on the digital board. What issues do you often see in his paintings? What do you notice about his style? Discuss the salient features: bright colours, thick black outlines, few details, painted as if it was made by a child, an image that sometimes is not complete (missing parts at the edges).

Draw the outline of a bird with a black crayon and make sure this animal reaches at three edges of the sheet: it should be big! Colour the bird in bright colours and/or patterns. Paint the background with deluted blue ink. Glue or staple the drawing on a coloured sheet.

All artworks made by students of grade 3

In the style of Corneille

You need:

1. white drawing paper A3 size
2. tempera paint
3. brushes
4. paper towels
5. jar with water
6. coloured paper for background
7. glue or stapler

Life and work of Corneille

Guillaume Cornelis Beverloo (1922 - 2010), Corneille, was a Dutch artist who is born in Belgium and died this month in France. He is buried in the same cemetery as Vincent van Gogh, a painter who was highly admired by Corneille.
As a painter Corneille is an autodidact. In his early years, he painted realistic: still lifes, people and landscapes. In 1948 Corneille was involved in the creation of the CoBRA Group, a group of Danish (Copenhagen), Belgian (Brussels) and Dutch (Amsterdam) artists. Even writers and poets belong to the CoBRA group. The artists' group leaves only three years, but has been the basic for the work of Corneille. According to Corneille, the CoBRA artists want to express themselves on a expressionistic way, like children, by playing unprejudiced with colours and shapes.
Since 1950 Corneille lived and worked in Paris. His paintings are bright and colourful. The sun, women, paradise, trees and birds are recurring elements. He is particularly fond of birds. His artist name Corneille is French for 'crow'.

What to do?

Show examples of Corneille's work on the digital board. What issues do you often see in his paintings? What do you notice about his style? Discuss the salient features: bright colours, thick black outlines, few details, painted as if it was made by a child, an image that sometimes is not complete (missing parts at the edges).

In this lesson, students may only sketch very briefly, to avoid drawing to many details and to force them to work big. Allow them to scetch with a pencil for only 5 minutes. Children can also choose to sketch with a narrow brush and light yellow paint. This will automatically result in working big with little details. The yellow lines can easily be painted with different colours later.

Sketching with yellow paint

Scetch the outline of a cat or a bird and make sure this animal reaches at least three edges of the sheet: it should be big! Paint the animail in bright colours and/or patterns. Paint the background too. Leave the work to dry and outline everything using a narrow brush and black paint. Paint with black letters your name somewhere at the work, just like Corneille did. Glue or staple the painting on a coloured sheet.

All artworks made by students of 11 years old

Liquorice Allsorts

Made by Malou, 11 years old

You need:

1. Liquorice Allsorts
2. grey construction paper A3 size
3. oil pastels

Liquorice allsorts consist of a variety of liquorice candies sold as a mixture. These confections are made of liquorice, sugar, coconut, aniseed jelly, fruit flavourings, and gelatine. They were first produced in Sheffield, England. Allsorts are produced by many companies around the world today, and are most popular in Britain, continental Europe, and North America.
The Dutch name for liquorice allsorts is "Engelse drop", and in Finland they are called "Englannin lakritsi/laku"; both literally translate as "English liquorice."

Make groups of two children. Buy some bags of liquorice allsorts (I used one bag for six students). Divide the liquorice so so that each group can make a different composition of them.

Give the children a sheet of grey construction paper. I chose grey, because the oil pastels alle kinderen een grijs tekenvel. Grey, because the oil pastel colours will be slightly less bright, and the white of the liquorice allsorts will be clearly visible. Ask children to make a composition of the liquorice; they may be stacked also.

On the gray sheet students draw the liquorice extra large. The liquorice must really be blown up! Don't use pencils, draw directly with the oil pastel. The whole sheet have to be filled with liquorice allsorts, with parts of them on the edges of the sheet. Colour everything and look carefully to the light: which part of the liquorice has to be dark, and which part has to be coloured lighter? Vary in dark and light colours by pressing harder or softer.

And of course you may eat the liquorice after finishing your artwork!

Made by students of 10-11 years old

Dutch December skyline

The Dutch website juf Lisette has a lesson we do every year: the December skyline! 5 December is the day Sinterklaas visits all Dutch children to give them presents. You can read more about Sinterklaas and his Black Petes in the category Dutch folklore.

You need:

1. construction paper A4 size in dark blue, yellow and black
2. paperclips
3. scissors
4. knives
5. cutting blade
6. glue

Draw the skyline of a street on the black paper. Add a tree if you want to, or draw a black pete near the chimney.

Put the black sheet on the yellow one and attach them to each other with four paperclips. Cut out the skyline; you'll cut two sheets at the same time. When ready, remove the paperclips and cut some windows out of the black sheet.

Cut a moon out of the rest of the yellow sheet. Stick the black and yellow skyline together and shift the black sheet one millimeter to emerge the yellow one. Look carefully to the position of the moon: you'll see the yellow edges there were the moon shines. Glue the moon on the blue sheet and glue the skyline below. Your December skyline is finished!

Black Pete in stained glass

In the folklore of the Netherlands, Zwarte Piet (Black Pete) is a companian of Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas), whose yearly feast in the Netherlands is usually on the evening of 5 December, when they distribute presents to all good children.
The character of Zwarte Piet appears only in the weeks before Saint Nicholas's feast, first when the saint is welcomed with a parade as he arrives in the country (in the Netherlands by steam boat, from Spain), and is mainly targeted at children, who come to meet the saint as he visits stores, schools etc. Zwarte Piet is black because he has to climb down the chimneys with the presents for the children.
Foreign tourists often experience culture shock upon encountering the character. Since the last decade of the 20th century there have been several attempts to introduce a new kind of Zwarte Piet to the Dutch population. These Zwarte Pieten have replaced the traditional black make-up with all sorts of colours. These multi-coloured Pieten are unpopular amongst the Dutch population and are not catching on.
Source: Wikipedia.

Stained glass is the name for a window glass that consists of pieces glass which are connected by lead. Discuss with the children where stained glass is still to be seen. Why do people make it, since we can produce a window out of one piece of glass? What is the effect of stained glass? Wat is lead? What is lead used for?

You need:

1. black construction paper
2. tissue paper
3. scissors
4. glue

Children are going to make a black pete in stained glass. Our lead is black construction paper. Draw a line around the sheet at 2 cm from the edge. This will be the frame. Draw a black pete in the frame with few details: face, cap and dollar are enough. Link this pete with some strips from 1.5 cm width out of the construction paper to the frame. Draw crosses in those pieces that have to be cut out. After a check from the teacher, the real cutting can start.

After this, the little windows have to be made. Put a piece of tissue paper behind a window of the frame and outline it with pencil. Cut this piece with an edge of 1 cm and glue it on the back of the window. Continue with the other windows.
Hang all artworks against the window!

Delfts blue plates

You need:

1. white paper plates without plastic coating
2. feltpens, fineliners of markers in different colours blue
3. examples from Delfts blue decoration

Delftware, or Delft pottery, denotes blue and white pottery made in and around the city of Delft (Netherlands) from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Delftware became popular and was widely exported in Europe and even reached China and Japan. Chinese and Japanese potters made porcelain versions of Delftware for export to Europe.
Delftware ranged from simple household items - with little or no decoration - to fancy artwork. Most of the Delft factories made sets of jars, the kast-stel set. Pictorial plates were made in abundance, illustrated with religious motifs, native Dutch scenes with windmilles and fishing boats, hunting scenes, landscapes and seascapes.

Nowadays there is still one factory in Delft that produces real Delftware: De Porceleyne Fles.
All plates, vases, bowls, teacups, tiles etc. are painted by hand here. You'll find a lot of photograps on the website of Porceleyne Fles (online shop).
See some of these photographs with the students and discuss what decorations they see. Discuss the different colours of blue and look how you can make a good illustration by just using blue. Show the students some plates with different edges and make them tell about the recurring motifs

What to do?
Students will design their own Delfts blue plate with a regular pattern around the plate and a free drawing in the middle. They have to use markers, feltpens and fineliners in different shades of blue. First practice a bit on the back side of the plate to see how the ink will flow. The edge of the plate has notches. Count them to know how many notches your pattern must have.

Dutch canal houses

Made by Anne, 10 years old

You need:

1. white drawing paper A4 size
2. indian ink or fine black marker
3. dip pen

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. earch the internet for photographs from canal houses or let the students search them (search canal house or grachtenhuis). Discuss the other features of canal houses: the stairs, the year, symmetry, windows, ornaments, shutters.
Tell children to draw a line on their sheet about 5 cm from below. This is the canal. At the end you can glue all drawings together to get a long street full of canal houses.

Sketch the houses lightly with a grey pencil. Indicate the places of windows, stairs, doors and shutters. Draw the houses with indian ink.