Art
Shadow Art
For this lesson you can use pencils, paint, chalks or any other artistic tools and of course, you will need sunshine! A clipboard comes in handy too!
Allow your children to choose an object and draw around the shadow. You can do this throughout the day and see how the shadow changes shape and position.
Dinosaurs
This artwork will bring your classroom back to the Mesozoic era.
These dinosaurs have been created using coloured balloons and card. Your children must create the legs, neck and tail, and stick them onto the balloons.
Click the image to see the resource.
Perspective Artwork
This is a challenging piece of artwork but the best always are.
As the image is quite complex, perhaps just draw one house with your class initially and see how it goes.
Inform the children that they are going to start with the house with the yellow roof (top left). Start by drawing the grass square. Make sure the square is rotated as shown in the image and the children are drawing light lines as they will need to be rubbed out.
Once the outline of the grass has been drawn, you can now draw the house. Draw a tall cuboid – The children may need plenty of practice doing this so take a scrap piece of paper. Rub out the grass lines that would be behind the house.
Once the children have drawn this, they must take a piece of squared paper (smaller than the grass area) and place it on top of the cuboid to create a roof. Ensure the corners are in line with the edge of the house and the grass corner.
Finally draw on the windows and door.
Characters
This tutorial demonstrates how to make a snowman, but you can create any character you like. Click to learn how…
Art Tutorials
This link takes you to an artistic website. The aim of the site is to develop the skills of young artists by providing them with video tutorials. The site is broken down into categories to focus of different aspects. A great resource for teachers to help develop the artistic skills of your children.
Snowy Mountain
This is a fantastic piece of landscape artwork.
This artwork makes good use of colours, lines and also introduces the concept of shadows.
Begin this piece of artwork by sketching the mountains, then colour the sky with a range of warm colours. Work your way down the painting and paint the trees and shadows last. Mix grey and white to create the shadows.
Pattern Landscape
Encourage your children to focus on patterns with this lovely landscape.
Each pattern represents the terrain it covers. If you begin with the definite black lines from the bottom and work your way up, you will find this a relatively straight forward piece of artwork.
First use pencil to create the black lines. Then create the patterns. Finally go over the pencil lines with thin black pen.
Click the image to get a closer look at the patterns.
Animal Patterns
This is a very effective piece of artwork when looking at the different patterns of animals.
The children will research different animal patterns, select the colours and shades they need and paint a background pattern.
They can then use tracing paper to draw their chosen animal and stick it over the patterned background.
Leaf Art
This is such a beautiful concept… bringing animals to life using nature.
The children will gather a range of leaves to create a piece of artwork. Ensure the leaves are different types, shapes, colours and sizes to get the most out of this activity. Autumn is always a great season to complete this activity.
Click the image to see more examples…
Cars
Allow your children to create and design a race car. This is a great activity when learning about different forms of transport.
You can set the activity as a challenge that the children must design their car so that it can roll. The designer who builds the car that rolls the furthest gets a prize.
Animal Silhouettes
These are beautiful silhouettes of animals that can be created by tracing round an animal of choice, cutting it out to make a template.
Once the template has been created, the children can add colours to a palette to create a background. Ensure the children don’t mix the colours thoroughly, as you want the colours to be definite in parts.
Once the colours have been mixed, placed the template on a white piece of card and then paint using a sponge. Remove the template and you have the image shown.
Note: To create grass, trees etc. you must create a new template.
Patterns
This is a very simple, yet very effective piece of artwork and has been created using an everyday object. Click the image to find out what the object is…
Matisse Inspired Artwork
You children can create this Matisse inspired artwork by cutting paper to create different textures.
Create a mind map of the various burger toppings and discuss ways to create those textures by using paper only.
Pineapple Art
This is a very simple, yet effective piece of artwork. The children will get pretty messy, but it’s worth it!
Add colours to a palette but don’t mix them thoroughly as you want the definite colours to be shown.
Story Silhouettes
This is one of the most creative pieces of artwork I have come across. Every piece is telling a story and every children can create their own story. Silhouettes, card, toilet roll and light. Click to get a closer look…
Paul Klee
Born – December 18, 1879
Paul Klee, a Swiss-born painter who greatly admired the art of children, who seemed to create free of models of artwork.
In his own work he often strove to achieve a simplistic piece of work, often by using intense colours, line drawing and using shapes.
To find out more about Paul Klee and to access a range of artwork examples to complete with your children, click the image.
Andy Warhol
Born: August 6, 1928
Andy Warhol’s works explore the relationship between artistic expression, celebrity culture, and advertisement that flourished by the 1960s.
To see a range of art examples that you can complete with your class, and instructions on how to create the artwork, click the image.
The Waves
This piece of artwork has been created using sheets of paper. The children will create waves like those shown in the picture. The holes can be created afterwards using a hole puncher.
Once the waves have been cut out, punched with holes on the ends and stuck down onto a blue background page.
They will then create the surfer and board using card and stick it on the waves. To create the water droplet effect, cut paper into very small pieces, glue them and then sprinkle onto the background.
The Cat
A great piece of artwork for your children to experiment with using shapes to create artwork. This artwork will also encourage them to find shapes in the world around them and decide which shapes best represent features. Your children could choose any animal.
Negative Reflections
This style of artwork is diverse and can be linked to a topic of your choice.
The children will need a black piece of card and a white piece of card to start. Stick both pieces together landscape as shown in the picture.
To create the shapes perfectly, the children will need a sheet of black paper, a sheet of white paper and a page of card to use to create the templates.
They will then draw the outlines of their chosen image on the page of card to create a template and cut it out.
They will then trace around the template of both pieces of black and white paper (not card). Once they have done that, they can stick the paper outlines on to the pieces of card. The white paper will go on the black card and the black paper will go on the white card. Children must ensure the bottom of each item is touching where the black card meets the white card as shown in the image.
Colourful
Inform the children that they are going to draw the outline of any object they wish. Encourage the children not to draw to small or too complex. Using a variety of colours, the children will colour the online then smudge outwards.
Tilly Willis Sunset
This is a very simple, yet very effective piece of artwork by Tilly Willis. Using a variety of colours and straight lines, your children will be challenged to create the depth of the image. I would recommend leaving space for the sun and the reflections whilst painting, or creating their effects using glitter.
The Swan
This is a beautiful piece of artwork created using paper and paints.
The background is easy to replicate but the swan takes a little bit more time.
Instruct your children to write the word ‘Swan’ in bubble writing in a similar way to the picture shown (wavy). Ensure the S is tall and resembles a neck. The letters W and A must be taller than the N. You can also make the N part of the tail by making it longer.
Once they have completed that, they must then create the curved head.
Sunrise
This a a very effective piece of artwork. Teach your children about use different lines and colours and lines to create depth.
Cave Prints
Create cave finger handprints using chalks and the smudging technique. Click the image to learn more.
Silhouette Artwork
Although this artwork is inspired by stonehenge, your children could choose any landmark they liked.
Getting to know me
A great idea for a lesson linked to ‘Ourselves’ or ‘Getting to know me’. The children have the freedom to draw whatever they feel is important to them in their silhouette. This is also a good way for the children to get to know each other – likes, hobbies and other details. Place all the artwork on display and let the children learn about each other like they were walking around a gallery.
Igloo
This piece of artwork was created during a ‘Houses and Homes’ topic. This piece allows the children to experiment with different lines by using chalks. It also encourages the children to blend and ‘mix’ to create different effects.
Peg Art
This artwork is a very simple and visually effective. The children can create their own mini animal or object, cut it in half and stick it to a peg. Very simple and you won’t need many resources.
Thinking Art
A variation to the above image and another great idea for a lesson linked to ‘Ourselves’, ‘Getting to know me’ and ‘Feelings’. The children have the freedom to draw whatever they feel is important to them in their silhouette. The children could also draw different thing that makes them happy, sad etc. linked to ‘Feelings’ in PDMU.
Whale Art
If your children are learning about marine animals or whales, then this is a resource for you. Created using a paper plate and template of card. Allow the children to create their own templates as the design will challenge them. You could also challenge your more able by allow them to try a killer whale design.
Winter Trees
This artwork is created by using masking tape and paint. First you mask a border around the card. Next your create the trees in any shape. Then you paint over the entire page. Finally you peel off the masking tape. Tip: Use shiny card as normal card tends to rip.
Raining
I love this piece of artwork. The children create streams of rain using different colours. This artwork also highlights how the rain interacts with the object (umbrella) in its pathway. The children can draw themselves and add in others objects too.
Peacock
A fun activity that is very simple to create. The children simply use their fingers to create the ‘train’. You can even go into more detail and create the ‘eyes’ on the end of the feathers.
Colour Mixing
Giving your children the freedom to experiment with colour mixing is important for their understanding. Too often we give the children the colours from the bottles and don’t give them time to learn the basics of colour mixing. This will enhance their skills and ability to use more appropriate colours in artwork.
Leaf Bugs
A fun autumn activity which allows your children to make use of the leaves falling down from the trees. Great for an autumn or mini beasts display.
Bookmarks
Allow your children to create funky bookmarks based on any area of interest using a square-card template.
Hot Air Balloons
A very simple yet very effective piece of artwork that can be simplified for Reception/Foundation. The children can design their own hot air balloons focusing on a repeating pattern. The teacher can make smaller and larger balloons to create the effect of distance in the display.
