Maureen Innes resources from early childhood to upper primary

Extension activities : lower primary

A coiled up snake

Need: thin card, paint, texture tool, thin ribbon or string, paintbrushes, palette.Draw a coiled up snake. Paint it and then comb patterns into it. Cut out the snake and hang it up.

Swirling String Pictures

Need: Sheets of paper, string and paint, old saucers, a paintbrush.
Fold a large sheet of white or colour paper in half. Then smooth it out again.
Cut two or three lengths of string. Then put two or three different coloured thick poster paints on to some old saucers.
Stir each piece of string into a different colour. Make sure they are completely covered with poster paint.
Lay the strings down on one side of the paper, Arrange them any way you like with the end poking out over the edge.
Fold the paper in half again with the string inside, then gentle smooth it down with your hand.
Hold the paper down with one hand and pull out the strings one by one by the ends. Carefully open out the paper.

Mirror Paintings

Fold the paper in half, and then ask the students to paint quite thickly on one side of the paper. Alternatively they can just paint in the middle, if they find the above too difficult. Fold the paper in half and press hard to impress a mirror image on the other side of the paper.

Beautiful Bubbles

Squeeze about one and a half cms of washing-up liquid into a plastic container. Add a spoonful of wet paint or ink and mix them up.
Add a few drops of water. Then blow into the mixture with a straw until it bubbles over the top of the container.
Lay the paper on the bubbles for a few seconds. When you lift it off you will see a pattern. Cover the paper with patterns.
If it doesn’t work the first time experiment with the bubble mixture. Add more water if it does not bubble properly.
If the colour is not strong enough to see, add some more paint or ink to the bubble mixture, as shown.
Lay the finished bubble painting out float on to some newspaper to dry. Make another picture while you are waiting.

Lower Primary Activity

Secret Drawings

Need: White candle or white wax crayon, white paper, dark coloured wash, paintbrush, newspaper to cover desks.

Draw a picture using a white candle or crayon on white paper. Press hard and make the lines thick.
When you have finished drawing, brush over the sheet of paper with a dark vegetable dye, food colouring or ink wash.
Your picture will appear because the paper will absorb the wash but the candle wax will not.

Middle Primary Activity

Am I hot or cold?

Discuss the difference between cool colours and warm colours. Have student choose three cool colours or three hot colours and paint them next to each other on a piece of art paper, blending the colours where they touch. Ask students to choose a scene that is appropriate to their colour scheme, for example sea creatures, a country landscape or buildings. Have them cut out images from black paper to create an appropriate silhouette.

*The Fauves

The Fauves were a group of artists who broke many of the traditional rules of painting. For this they were considered to be wild beasts. (‘Fauves’ means wild beasts in French.) But all they really did was paint things in different colours than they actually were in real life. Draw or copy a scene. Paint it in colours that are different to the real life colours.

*Air Art

Need: Art paper, watery paint or inks, straws, felt tip pens, newspaper to cover desks.
Put a drop of paint at the bottom of the page.
Blow through the straw, pointing it at the paint, and then blow the paint across the page.
Add more paint as you wish, to create more of the design.
Turn the page around and view it from each angle. Decide what it looks like. Use felt-tip pens to add extra line work to add more detail to the picture.
*Need: thin cardboard, wax crayons, ink or vegetable wash, paintbrush, newspaper.
Draw  a picture in bright-coloured crayons. Colour your picture carefully and make sure the crayons are thickly applied.
Brush a contrasting coloured wash over the whole page and over the drawing. This looks best with light coloured crayons and a dark wash or dark crayons and a light coloured wash.
Hang your picture out to dry.
*Need: Paper, acrylic paint, paintbrushes, palette, scissors.
Use an overhead projector to draw the outline of your friend’s face on the wall. Ask them to stand sideways so that the side of their face casts a sharp shadow outline on the paper.
Paint around the silhouette or draw around it and paint the line afterwards.
You could also try the vase/face activity by asking your friend to also turn to the right and drawing their profile again. When you glue them with a small space between them they appear to make a vase.

Upper Primary

*The Nightmare

Photocopy a photograph of your head. Cut it out and paste it in the centre of the page. Using dark watercolour paints, paint lines around the cut out add to create a scene that has a scary mood. Add figures or symbols to create a nightmare scene, using dark-coloured watercolour paints.
(If you slightly move your photograph on the copier while it is copying it will produce a warped effect.)

*Pointillism

Draw a quick outline sketch of a scene. Then use paint and cotton buds to make dots or small dashes to colour in the areas. Use three tones of the same colour in each area of colour, for example a light, medium and a dark blue for the sky.

*Vase of Flowers-Draw a vase shape approximately (teacher to indicate measurements depending on size of paper), making sure the top of the vase doesn’t come above the line. Draw five or six imaginary or real flowers. When drawing the flowers and leaves, make sure you make use of the whole space. Paint in the design with watercolour paints. When dry, trace over the design with a thick, black felt-tip pen.

*Strange Distortions

Some artists distort real images to create their artwork. Show students how Picasso paints his images from a number of different angles or how Salvador Dali melts or elongates his images. Have students attempt to draw an object or person using any of the following distortion techniques: melting, stretching, making some parts thin or fat, drawing something, cutting it up, reassembling it in a different way and rejoining the lines. The drawings are much more effective when they are painted.

Contour Painting

Using contour lines, draw a series of hills and then choose a strong colour to paint them. The very top of each hill should be the lightest tint of the colour you have chosen, and the very bottom should be the darkest. You should be able to see the colour change gradually on each hill.