Claude Monet’s

Garden of Japanese bridge

Materials:

Liquid watercolors
Oil pastels
Watercolor paper

Use cold colors for the water, plants and tree reflections.

Using green oil pastels guide children to draw the bridge (ask them about shape, size, on what it
reminding them- this bridge looks like ladders). Now draw the flowers (talk about shapes, colors,
smells, size)

1. 2.

After you finish with this part, teachers will help them to wipe the paper using very wet towel.
 If children are older, teacher can guide them to do it by themselves, but preset them and explain
that wet paper is very easy to split.

Now it’s time for watercolors. Begin with some splotches of turquoise, then use blue, bits of
purple and make sure to leave top and bottom green. Finally add green at the top for the trees
reflection and on the bottom as grass. You can add salt for the texture (OPTIONAL)
Materials:

  Cardstock Paper
 Fingerpaint
 Painters Tape or Masking Tape

For this craft we will need some masking tape to make your bridge,
cut the tape in half to get thinner strips.

You want to form the shape of the bridge using the masking tape,
you can do this for younger children.
Press down to make sure that no paint will come through the tape.

Give children an image of Monet’s bridge over a pond of Lilies and a

paper to blend on.
Using fingers, begin to dab the colors onto the paper. Go ahead and
dab over the bridge.

Encourage children to cover their entire sheet of paper. It will create

a more dramatic effect when the tape is removed. EPMHASIZE THAT
THEY SHOULD DAB THE COLOR NOT SMEAR THE COLORS.

Let your project dry.

When it’s dry, teacher remove tape carefully and slowly.

Be careful as you pull the tape, you will start to see the shape of the
bridge.
I didn’t wait long enough and the tape began to pull up the paper as
well. It’s ok, still looks great, but not as crisp.

All done!

Monet’s gardens

Materials:
12" X 18" white construction paper, pencils, tempera paint in the
following colors: yellow, green, blue, red, orange, yellow, pink,
violet, brown, and white, acrylic paint in the following colors:
blue, white, greens, white, pink, and yellow, blue watercolor,
tempera and watercolor brushes, small sponge pieces

Hand out white paper and pencils. Have students Draw a horizon line across the
paper and part of a pond.

Put some yellow tempera in a tray and
sponge pieces across the horizon line
remind them that they do NOT want the
showing through is fine. Also, remind
brush, swiping it across the paper.
have students "hop" their
and fill in the grass area. I
entire area solid. Some white
them not to use the sponge as a

Add some green paint to the tray and have the students repeat step 2.
Add some bushes above the horizon line, using the sponge.
Add some blue tempera to the tray and have students hop their sponge
in the paint to mix the blue in. Use this color to hop the sponge
across the horizon line to add a shadow. Also, have students add some
of this color on one side of each bush to create a shadow on each.
Put some blue and white acrylic in a bowl, side by side. I tell the
kids NOT to mix the colors. Rather, they pick up a little of each
color to paint the pond. I have them make "waves" in their pond by
making small brush strokes. By not mixing the blue & white, they get
the effect of the light hitting the water.

Use fingers to paint flowers.

Monet “Sunset in Venice”

Materials:

All colors of rainbow :)

Yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, green

Talk about rainbow and sunset, what colors we can see in the sky.
Is the sky always blue?
Can we see some other colors?

Observe this painting and talk about the colors in the sky

Talk about the order of colors. Present colors to the children in

same order as it’s on the painting ( RED, ORANGE, YELLOW, BLUE ).
Notice that building silhouette is not the same in the water
reflection.

Fold paper in a half and explain to children that they will color the
upper half first until the middle of the paper, first we color the
sky.
Which color do we use first?
Start with red, DAB THE SPONGE ON THE PAPER, don’t leave any white,
next color is orange, dab it also little bit over red to blend colors
nicely.
After orange, use yellow and in the end add blue. When children are
finish open the folded side of the paper and press it over painted
side to create mirror effect and to get paint transfer. Open it and
reveal mirror image printing.

Using sponge and brown color carefully add some silhouette of the
buildings on the upper half and just gentle few dabs on the water as
building reflection.
Paper plates/ cardboard Lilies in the pond

For this use harder surface, such as paper plates or cardboard.

Look at the colors of the pond and lilies.

Give acrylics- blue, green, yellow

Smear the colors together, so we can see the traces of each color.

Cut the circles for flowers, leaves and paste in onto paper.
Roll a Matisse

Introduce Matisse’s work to children, observe his art and ask them which colors did
he use, shapes, etc.

For this you could have printed version, drawn or prepared for cutting, also older
children you can let them to draw by themselves. Use dices from Chinese math class
(i borrowed from my teacher), let them roll and mark which number they got.
They will have the shape of the background and all of the things the should draw.
Make Matisse mural

Color the pages

Let children color how they like, ask them to color every section differently. Print every page in 4
copies. Give one copy to each child, you can choose different ( below you have more options).
When you combine it all together, it will be cool mural which you will use to create a board to
present outside.
Flower printing

Use some mat as base where you will paint over the flowers. Observe the flowers and you can
color with the colors as it is or you can let child choose the color, after they color it completely,
use hard paper and press over the flowers. Do not move the paper, because they will blur the
colors. Teach them parts of the flower- STEM, LEAF, PETAL, ROOT, FLOWER
Dot painting

Materials:
Cotton swabs
Crayola watercolors
Temperas
Painting paper

Lightly draw some circles on your paper in an interesting arrangement.

Dip cotton swab in water to dampen it.
Be careful not to soak the cotton swab completely (same if you use other types of paint)
Rub the swab in the paint.
Using the drawn circles as guide, dab the paint on the paper to create series of colorful dots.
Continue covering all circles.
Fill in the blank areas in between the circles to create vivid circles and swirls.

You can use any shape or object as an inspiration.