Reflected Landscapes ~ inspired by Belynda Henry – Year 3 art lesson

Belynda Henry is an Australian artist from NSW who lives on a country property surrounded by a National Park which gives her plenty of inspiration for her abstract landscapes. She uses paints and pastels, brushes and palette knives to create shapes and textures of the natural environment.

Belynda Henry did a series of works in 2019 with reflections of the landscape in water. They were inspiration for our artworks.

Students used organic shapes in their landscape, painting and folding to create the mirror image reflection in the water. They mostly used muted colours and mixed some of their own hues.

Lesson plan aligned to Victorian Curriculum, learning intentions, success criteria, lesson steps, links to images and videos, including a video demonstration of the whole activity, discussion questions, student evaluation sheet, student examples. PDF download.

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Gorgeous Geodes~ Year 3

These gorgeous geodes use a mix of mediums: coloured paper, liquid watercolours, glitter, markers and paint sticks. This lesson was adapted from an activity on the Artful Parent website.

We watched a couple of videos about geodes: Types of Geodes & Where to Find Them and
What’s Inside These Rocks? – #sciencegoals for an understanding of how they are formed and discussed the natural shapes and colours, etc. Our artwork used the elements of shape, line, colour and value in an abstract representation of a geode.

Students began by choosing two pieces of coloured card in a light and dark tone of one colour. A shape was torn (best option to get a realistic organic shape) or cut from the darker tone which was then glued onto the lighter tone and torn or cut around. This was glued onto a large piece of white paper (we used A3 cartridge).

Using the lighter tone of the colour (for example, light blue) students drew concentric lines around the card shape, following the contours, repeating three times. The darker shade ( dark green for example) was then traced once around.

Next, watercolours (cake palettes or liquid) were painted around the marker lines, light and dark of the colour (watercolours can be watered down for lighter tone).

For the “glitter ring” I demonstrated to the students how to ‘draw’ with the nozzle of the PVA glue bottle and only squeeze very gently as they move it around while keeping it in contact with the paper whilst ‘drawing’ the ring of glue. They smeared it with on finger and then sprinkled on the colour glitter to match (or metallic gold or silver)

After that, some more thin marker lines were drawn and finally using paint sticks- two rings of the lighter tone using the edge to get a thinner line and the last dark line drawn thickly.

The geode shape was cut out and glued onto brown craft paper (we used packing paper) and cut around with around a 1cm border to represent to outer rock that the beautiful geodes are hidden in.

The geodes make a lovely display with all the different sizes and colour combinations!

Chocolate Bar model: Year 3/4

I did a unit on Pop Art and Andy Warhol to fit in with a Food theme a few years ago, and students made these models of a “Favourites” chocolate bar (obviously ‘popular’ food rather than healthy food!) The students had already created a digital Pop Art artwork using either a chocolate bar or an everyday food item, see here.

Students used a combination of air-dry clay and paper clay. They formed the shape of the chocolate bar (wrapper) with air dry clay, then painted it the colour of the background. They then used coloured paper clay (Magiclay / Modelmagic) to form the letters of the name of the bar and pressed it lightly onto the base.

To display these at an Art show I mounted them on white card and put them in a black frame.

Watermelon Smile Portraits~ Year 3 Introduction to Mixing Tints

I have seen this art lesson on a number of blogs and Instagram. I used this lesson as a simple way to introduce students to mixing tints (and talk about shades)

Students first drew a face shape large in the middle of an A3 portrait piece of paper (I demonstrated). They then drew a semi circle to cover the bottom half and drew the nose, eyes, eyebrows, ears and hair.

Three students shared a daisy plate pallet with dark green and white. First they all used the unmixed green to paint the round edge of the semi circle. Then one student scoops a big blob of white with their brush and mixes it in with the green for them all to paint the second line inside the dark green. Another blob of white is added to make a lighter green for the third line of green, slightly blending at the edges.

We had time to paint the face and a pair of hands that they traced and cut out.

Next lesson, students painted the background and shoulders. They could use tempera paint cakes or liquid water colours which dry fast. I had the red and white paint ready in daisy plates ready for mixing to paint the watermelon flesh. They used the red paint to fill the semi circle leaving a strip on the round edge to use white mixed with red to make pink.

Black seeds were painted with a thin brush and tempera paint. Then the hands were glued on with the thumbs to the outside, fingers over the edge of the watermelon.

Lesson plan with learning intentions, success criteria, lesson activities, examples.

Watermelons ~ Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera inspired ~Colour mixing tints-Year 4

Inspired by Frida Kahlo’s ‘Viva la Vida, Watermelons’ and Diego Rivera’s ‘The Watermelons’ students first discussed and compared the two artworks, then drew their own compositions of watermelons – whole, half and sliced, the shapes overlapping.

Looking at images of watermelons, we talked about the different colour values and how to make them using tints- adding white to a colour. (We discussed how adding black would make a shade, a darker tone of the colour to use for shadows). Students used the dark green first then added white to make tints to add the lighter tones and did the same with red.

Victorian Curriculum lesson plan with learning intentions, success criteria, lesson activities, focus artwork and student examples, Venn diagram comparison worksheet and student evaluation sheet.

‘STRIPE’ and Paypal are used to process payment. Please check you type in the correct email for link to be sent automatically. The link will also be on the CONFIRMATION page after you pay to download immediately. Any problems contact me at primaryschoolart1@gmail.com

Coral Reef Biome ~ Year 3-4 art lesson

Year 3/4 have been learning about different biomes in their classroom, and in art lessons we have been making artworks about various biomes too. These artworks are focusing on aquatic biomes, specifically coral reefs. For inspiration we looked at the illustrations in the book, ‘Hidden in the Sea’ by Peggy Nille, and the art of Melanie Hava, (@artofmelaniehava) an Indigenous artist from Queensland, near the Great Barrier Reef. We also did an artwork comparison with one of Ken Done’s reef paintings.

Painting the sea was also a lesson about tints by mixing white with blue from light to dark. We used Melanie Hava’s ‘A Reef Wonderland‘ as the inspiration for the sea with a light source from a circle. Students started with a white circle high on the paper, then gradually added more blue in concentric circles until the filled to the edges of the paper and top of reef outline drawn at the bottom.

After looking closely at Melanie Hava and Peggy Nille’s illustrations students add patterns of lines and shapes to the reef. They then draw 3-4 sea creatures in size proportion to each other on a smaller piece of paper (A4). These are coloured in with paint sticks or markers and patterns and details added with paint pens (like Posca)

Next step was colouring the sections of the coral reef with warm colours- we used Zart paint sticks/slicks, as they give the painterly effect, but dry quickly. Paint pens (like Posca) are used to add texture, patterns and plants.

Final step is for students to cut out their sea creatures, arrange and paste them onto the background.

Year 3/4 Victorian Curriculum aligned lesson plan: Learning Intentions, success criteria, links to artist’s work, learning activities, Venn diagram for a comparing two artworks, reference sheet with organic patterns for reef and plants, student self evaluation rubric, student artwork examples.

Australian bush animals~ Yr 3/4 mixed media art lesson

Year 3/4 project looking at Australian animal habitats and biome of temperate forests where koalas, possums, sugar gliders, quolls etc. live. Students viewed and discussed artworks by a local wildlife artist and then chose an animal (I had plenty of print out image photos to choose from – mostly koalas) and sketching it large on their paper. They then used dye wash for the negative space, before mixing colours to paint the tree and animal using brush strokes to help create texture.

Foam leaf shapes were embossed with lines and then printed around the animal. Extra texture was added with chalk pastels, like on the animal’s fur and especially a koala’s ears!

Lesson plan linked to Yr 3-4 Victorian Curriculum, learning intentions, success criteria, artist artwork (with link for website) for discussion, lesson activities and materials, evaluation rubric.

African Savanna Animal Silhouettes ~ Year 3-4 art lesson

This lesson is part of a series of lessons around the theme of ‘BIOMES’- (geographical area consisting of a biological community formed in response to the regional climate), this one being a GRASSLAND BIOME. There are many examples of African animal / savanna sunset silhouettes in stock photos and art, and was perfect for Year 3/4 skill set- drawing from observation, fine cutting, and arranging on a warm sunset background.

First we watched a video: The African Savannah – Virtual Field Trip and discussed this grassland biome, listing animals that live there. They viewed some examples of sunset silhouettes with African animals and students used pictures on Google of African animal silhouettes to draw just the shape outline of 2-3 animals and an acacia tree- all in proportion to each other- onto black cover paper (125gsm). The background was made with warm coloured food dye wash on A3 paper.

In the second lesson, the students fringed the edges of a long strip of black paper, then snipped pieces out at an angle to glue along the bottom of the sunset background for the grass. Next they carefully cut out their animals and tree, arranging before gluing down.

Mixed Media Landscapes ~ Yr 3-6

I did this project with Year 3/4, but would be really great do with Year 5/6 (11-12 year olds). Firstly, students viewed and analysed different types of landscapes by Australian artists, including Streeton, Drysdale, McCubbin, Namitjira, and Nolan.

Students began this project by choosing an Australian landscape type they wanted to depict. We sorted photos into the following categories: Beach, Bush, Mountains, Desert, River and Rain forest.

Students Began by mixing paint colours to match their photo to paint the background/ underneath layer of their landscape inside a sturdy box lid.

Next lesson they began to texture such as sand, tissue paper, bark, etc to the background- furthest away, moving to middle ground and then foreground. When complete they thought of an interesting title for their landscape and filled out a reflection/ evaluation sheet which was stuck to the back of the box.

Lesson Plan aligned to Year 3/4 Victorian Curriculum with learning intentions, success criteria, slides of Australian landscapes for analysis, analysis sheet, lesson activities and discussion questions, examples of student work, reflection/ evaluation sheet.

GRAFFITI INITIALS / Street art~ Year 3-4

When looking at Street at with students, there are some interesting discussions about graffiti and street art and the fine line between the two. Of course there is much street art that is done with permission or on commission, but some graffiti (not done with permission) can be powerful art too! And then of course there is the graffiti that is only considered vandalism because people don’t appreciate it as art.

We looked at the different styles and types of graffiti / street art including tags (nick name or initials), a throw (still using a nickname or word, but often done with block or bubble letters that are coloured in), a ‘piece’ (like a throw, but usually with more colour), a ‘piece’: (more time spent on the visual conventions of the design including overlapping letters in a style like wildstyle, bubble or block letters adding dimension to the lettering to give it more form, like shadowing, and colour graduation and combination); and stencils which the artist (looked at Banksy’s work) has pre-made a cut out to spray over onto the surface. (see Banksy Stencil post)

The students did a Seesaw activity to review terminology so they could match the terms with some some graffiti & street art images.

Using just their initials, students drew a tag, then explored thicker lettering styles, before deciding which one to use for their (master)’piece’.

A background of a brick wall was printed using foam blocks, and a large “dripping paint blob” was cut out to go under the letters. The lettering needed to be slightly overlapped or connected, outlined, have dimension added in the way of shadow lines and colours chosen to contrast the paint blob.

Lesson plan contains links to Victorian Curriculum, learning intentions and success criteria, rubric for student self assessment, links to useful youTube videos for the class, lesson steps and activities with photo examples, display photos of different types of graffiti (taken by me!) with explanation, and link to an online graffiti maker for early finishers.