There was so much that went into impressionism that I spent the entire weekend reading art teacher blog, after art teacher blog compiling all the information I could fathom.
Then I asked myself, what are the three main things I want my kids to take away from a week worth of activities? My personal priorities:
- No Black Shading
- Painting in Strokes as opposed to the whole picture
- Color Coordination on the Color Wheel
I then dug through my incredibly deep well of Monet art ideas in their allotted section on my Pinterest page to pick out the four or five projects I thought would best represent my three main focuses for the entire week.
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Supplies for the Week
- The Dot by Peter Reynolds
- Crayola Markers
- Crayola Water Color
- Paintbrushes
- Art Box Easels
- Crayola Washable Paint
- Artist Palettes with mixing spaces
- Tiny Paper Plates
- Rulers
- Acrylic Paper
- Watercolor Paper
- Salt
The Activities
Day One: The Dot
Time: Approx 1 hour
After reading I had them draw a giant circle in the center of the page and told them to fill it with dots of varying colors.
The idea was to introduce them to the idea of scattering color in a creative way to make a bigger picture.
They loved the craft, though baby K who is three checked out after just about a tenth of the way through, while L’il A started to lose steam about three-quarters of the way through. Although B, at 8, started to grow tired of the activity I made him push through and in the end, he was so thankful for it.
After dotting the kids painted around their dots using watercolor. Li’l A decided to add polka-dots in her background, which had a pretty cool effect.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BkegFHcBLAA/
The kids were so proud of their work when all was said and done, and I think even after three weeks of pushing out unique works of art each day, Daddy still finds this one his favorite. Definitely a great start to the week!
Day Two: Waterlilies Take One
Time: Approx 30 mins
While I was out I thought perhaps I should buy some tempera paint, as a more sophisticated artist’s palette may call for more sophisticated paint. Though when all was said and done the washable tempera paints were incredibly runny and poor quality, driving us back to the loyal arms of our trusty Crayola Washable Kid’s Paint by the end of the week.
I started this day with a short introduction to who Monet was and what impressionism was in a quick slideshow.
- Blue instead of black
- Scattered strokes to make a picture (much like the Dot project from yesterday.)
- Mix colors on canvas instead of the palette
Then we watched this simplified version of impressionism to help the kids to see exactly what this artistic challenge was.
Today we are going to paint our own Florida versions ‘waterlilies’, we are painting a beach, I announced.
Once we had our easels set up the kids and I reviewed warm and cool colors, analogous colors, complementary colors, and split complementary. I wanted them to pick split complementary colors for their painting.
We drew a horizon line across the center of our picture and along the horizon line. Below the lines I asked the kids to use cool tones and white to fill in their water, just like the video
Then when that was complete, the kids were to complete with warm colors for the sandy beach at the top. We primarily used yellow, white, and splotches of orange for the upper portion.
It was fun to experiment with paint strokes. What does different pressure on the brush would do to the size of the strokes.
Day Three: Waterlilies Co-op
Time: Approx. 45 mins
we had great fun yesterday, and the kids beaches nearly all blue waters and nearly all yellow sands were adorable to boot. But we were still lacking the confidence to really get out there and play with varied colors and tones. I pulled out a sheet of watercolor paper, gave the kids a quick science talk on salt, and its effect on the body in a little science into our lesson for today.
After the talk, all four of us sat around the table each with our own paintbrush in hand. Everyone picks only one color from the watercolor palette, I instructed.
B picked red, A picked a light green, K picked purple, and I picked a light blue.
I then instructed B to fill his brush with as much paint as possible and scatter a few random strokes all over the paper. Then A, then K, then me.
Oh, I see! B exclaimed. The colors were starting to form a solid image, and taking on a beautiful tone all of its own, with vibrant streaks of red and green that really brought to life our new pond for our second attempt at Waterlilies.
I could see the light in all three children’s’ eyes as they gazed at their new creation in splendor. Then I asked, considering what we learned about salt today, what do you think will happen to our painting if we scatter it with salt?
It will soak up the water?
The kids took turns scattering table salt and grinding pink Himalayan sea salt and then we set it aside to dry.
I then handed out three mini paper plates to each child and had them pick their own color combination of choice. Then I told them to practice the same method with tempera paints covering the plates front and back. Suddenly they were scattering their stokes with great gusto and confidence.
When they were done they were super excited to check out what new element the salt had added to their work of art.
I later cut the plates and rolled them to resemble waterlilies. Then hot glued them to their water coloring background.
Day Four: Birch Trees
Time: Approx 90 minutes
For our final day with Monet we looked at his paintings of Birch trees throughout the seasons.
I talked about shading and perspective.
If the sun is to the left on what side of a subject would a shadow be painted? Would that be the same for all the subjects?
The kids drew three “birch” trees on a piece of computer paper with a ruler. I helped to add some branches of varying directions.
With a dark blue or blue-violet of their own creations, they lined the edges of their trees with shading. The branches added an extra challenge of critical thinking to the pot.
While those dried we pulled out another sheet of multimedia paper and draw a horizon line.
Both did an excellent job with the impressionistic technique to capture the pale blue of glistening snow.
“A” kept true to the method of filling the sky with gorgeous pink, purple and blue sunset with a “Christmas Tree” lining the horizon. The result was a setting taken straight from a Beatles song.
B wanted to capture the milky way so his sky came out a bit more Van Gogh than Monet, though incredibly captivating.
We watched a short YouTube Video for kids on Claude Monet while waiting for our paintings to dry.
We cut out our trees and glued them onto our paintings for a captivating finishing touch!
That is all for today in the House of R!
Planning to try these great works?! I want to see!! Feel free to post all masterpieces to Instagram, call me out @Homeschool2Unschool or tag it #H2UArtRoom
Homeschool To UnSchool 
I love these Monet activities for kids. The resulting art your kids created is so adorable.
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