Monet Waterlilles Art Lesson

I just did this lesson last week for grades 1-5 and guess what? They ALL turned out cuter than cute!  I think this is a lesson that every student can be successful at.  That particular point is something I've been  trying to work towards in my lesson planning.  A good art lesson it seems, is simple enough that any student in the class can complete it and have it look decent.  It should also allow enough creative choices so that the more artistic students in the class can take the lesson and run with it.  Hard to balance, but I'm learning, slowly but surely.  This was a fun one.  And Monet is so classic you can't go wrong.  Here's how I did it:

Day 1: 

• Show pics of Monet's waterlillies - talk about THIS: Two inventions around the time of Monet really changed the art world and influenced what he was doing:

-#1: THE CAMERA - Now artists could branch out beyond super realism because a camera could do that for people now.  Hence, Impressionism. 

-#2: PAINT IN TUBES - Now, artists could bring their paint outside the studio, and paint out in front of their landscape subjects.

• Draw with COOL COLOR oil pastels (good opportunity to review the color wheel)...small strokes like monet, horizontal "water-y squiggles".

• Paint over it with COOL COLOR watercolors. 

Day 2:

• Explain basic PERSPECTIVE: Things get smaller as they get further away from you.  Their waterlillies should try to follow that rule. Have them make big, medium and small lilliepads and waterlillies out of construction paper, and arrange them with this perspective rule in mind, to give the pictures more depth.

Have fun!