Monet's Waterlilies

CLAUDE MONET (1840-1926)
WATERLILIES

Slideshare Presentation Here. This slideshow shows many examples of Monet's waterlily series. You may want to choose one to focus your discussion on initially, and then show them the rest of the slides.

Pronounced: Moe-nay
Art Style: Impressionism

Meet The Artist: Idea - Read the kids the Smart About Art book about Claude Monet (in art closet). 

Additional background info for you: here's a great link to a youtube video which is a quick overview of his life, about 4 minutes. Might not hold the attention of young kids but a great source of info if you are unfamiliar with Monet. Also here's another link to the wikipedia article about Monet, lots of great info in there for you.

Discussion Ideas: 

Show them the photographs of Monet's garden, Giverny (the first half of the slideshow), asking them to notice the plants and the pond. Then show the pictures of waterlilies that Monet painted (second half of the slideshow). As you get to the paintings, ask the discussion questions - (1) What's going on in this picture? (2) What makes you say that? (3) What more can you find?

You may want to bring out the following ideas: Impressionism was a style of art that attempted to capture nature in a single moment - a single impression. How do things change from moment to moment when you look at them? What are the things that create change in an image? (for example, light, weather, shadows…) Monet noticed how the same things looked totally different from morning, afternoon, night. He painted his beloved waterlilies over 250 times because he never tired of trying to capture them in all of the infinite varieties that light and season created for him.

Activity: There are a couple of fun waterlily projects. 

Option 1: 

Activity: Painting, cutting, gluing

Medium: tempera paint

Materials: blue/white/green/yellow/gold tempera paint, cardboard rounds, paper, a tiny amount of tissue paper,  bowls/cups for water, brushes, glue, scissors

1. Before you do the art history slideshow part, have the kids paint the cardboard round blue (this will be your pond). Depending on how adventurous you feel you could also give them white and green. Wiping the cardboard round down gently with a paper towel or baby wipe after they are done painting helps it to dry even quicker (my sample dried in about 5 minutes). 

2. After they paint the cardboard, have them paint a half sheet of paper with green (and maybe yellow) paint (they will cut lily pads out of this paper).

3. While these things are drying, discuss Monet (see discussion ideas above). 

4. When dry, have them cut lily pads from the green and glue them onto the pond. Use tiny bits of crumpled tissue paper to make flowers and glue them onto the lily pads. 

5. If you are feeling super ambitious and have time, they can paint a gold frame around the edge of the cardboard round.

Option 2:

Activity: Drawing and Painting

Medium: Watercolor Pastel

Materials: Watercolor pastels, watercolor paper, bowls/cups for water, brushes

I had the kids fill their whole page with color using the watercolor pastels (the more complex their color combinations, the better) - this should look very abstract - and then with water and a brush, turn it into a wash (the pastels dissolve when you brush them with water. A wash basically looks like a blob of color where you can't really see brushstrokes or pastel strokes.)

After the pictures dry a little (maybe 3 minutes or so), have the kids layer in simple shapes of lily pads, and flowers. You may want to try using OIL pastels for this last part because they may show up better.

Variation for older kids: You can also have the kids use tissue paper to make the waterlilies on the wash, which would mean having the kids cut the waterlily shapes out and then use Elmer's glue to attach them on the paper. 

Student Work:

Winter Landscapes (Monet)

CLAUDE MONET (1840-1926)

The Magpie 1868-1869

Pronounced: Moe-nay

Art Style: Impressionism

Art Terms: cool colors, light, shadow

Activity: Painting

Medium: Watercolor

Materials: liquid watercolors, watercolor paper, masking tape, cups/bowls for water, brushes, salt

(*this fantastic art lesson can be found all over the internet, but the specific process we used came from Deep Space Sparkle's version)

Slideshare presentation found here

Meet The Artist: Idea - Read the kids the Smart About Art book about Claude Monet (in art closet). 

If you opt not to read the Smart About Art book and would like additional biographical information on Claude Monet, here's a great link to a youtube video which is a quick overview of his life. This link from the Musee d'Orsay, where the painting Magpie hangs, will give you a great overview of the painting and its reception in Paris when Monet painted it. 

Discussion Ideas: Begin with the discussion questions - (1) What's going on in this picture? (2) What makes you say that? (3) What more can you find?

Other ideas you may want to bring out in your discussion: 
(1) shadows. To help make this discussion more concrete, I brought along a flashlight and a stick. With the lights off, I shone the flashlight on the stick from different sides, making it really clear that a shadow falls on the opposite side of the light source. It's nice to point out to the kids that all of your shadows in a painting will usually fall the same direction (if you are trying to make a picture that is realistic rather than abstract).

(2) cool colors. The colors Monet chose to paint this landscape are part of what tells the story of this painting - they are cool, like winter. Talk about examples of things that are cold and find those colors in this painting… (i.e. ice and snow - white and gray; shadows - blue; etc.)

Activity: Before you begin, it helps to tape a length of masking tape to every kid's desk. Have them use the tape to make trees on their papers, ripping tape to add branches with irregular edges (the torn edges of the tape). (*note: I was concerned that it was going to take a long time to distribute masking tape and that it would be difficult for kids to tear (I did this lesson for both second and fourth grade classes). It turned out not to be a problem - I walked around and taped a length of tape on the sides of everyone's desks (maybe 3 minutes); and all of the kids were able to tear the tape on their own.) Once their trees are down, have them draw a horizon line with a pencil. Then have them paint their sky with the liquid watercolor, and shadows with the same color. If you want you can encourage them to add in a second color (see sample below) *note: I used the liquid watercolors - love them. Every desk had a little plastic bowl and I alternated water, blue paint, and purple paint (we kept the tones cool for winter) in the bowls for the kids to share, which worked fine. Just make sure and remind them to rinse their brush in the water bowl before changing colors - or it might be a better plan to keep the brushes with the colors.. We sprinkled salt on the picture to create a snow-flaky texture (you can see this in the example above). I have since found out that using salt this way makes the picture not totally archival - FYI - but it's really fun to throw on and see what it does to the paint. 

Variation:

Instead of cool winter tones, use warm red, yellow, brown to make an autumn background if you are looking for a seasonal fall lesson. Maybe after the tape comes off the kids can use gold liquid watercolor to add a few gold leaves, still on the birch/aspen trees and on the ground.

Student Work: