Art Projects to Teach Elementary Students About Artists

Help teach your grade school student about the light, colors and textures of Claude Monet's Impressionist paintings with hands-on art activities. Go outside and have your child create "en plein air" like Monet did. Encourage him to create a garden scene from your backyard or go to a park to sketch. Use paint, layering the colors with chunky blended brush strokes, or give your child colored chalk to smooth onto a piece of white poster board. Another option -- to help your young artist to learn about brush strokes and colors -- is to "finger paint" with clay. Have your child draw a landscape onto a piece of cardboard. He can smooth pieces of modeling clay onto the board, creating a textured surface that looks almost like paint -- minus the mess. A Monet-inspired lesson plan on the Incredible Art Department's website provides a rubric to assess the learning of your budding young Impressionist.

Get big and bold with print projects in the manner of Andy Warhol. Teach your child the concept of multiples and create several slightly different images from one design. Have your child "draw" a portrait of a famous figure from popular culture -- such as a musician or sports star -- onto a flat sheet of Styrofoam with a toothpick. Cover the design plate with a thin layer of nontoxic ink or tempera paint, using a paintbrush. Turn the plate over onto a piece of white construction paper to make a print. Repeat the process on other colors of paper. When the prints dry use markers, crayons or chalk to create highlights or add embellishments. If you are looking for an easier alternative, use ready-made stampers instead of making your own printing plate.

Explore the night sky through more than a scientific perspective with an art activity based on the famed Vincent Van Gogh work "Starry Night," as shown in a lesson on the Incredible Art Department's website. Show your elementary schooler a reproduction of the swirling, whirling textured work. Use tempera paints to create a similar night sky on a piece of cardboard or poster board. Fill in the foreground with a city silhouette. Your child can draw the top of a "town" across the middle of a piece of black construction paper. Have your child cut the silhouette out and glue it to the bottom of the dried painting. Change up the activity and try a similar style with other outdoor scenes.

Art isn't only on paper. Instead of sticking to paper and paints, add in a lesson on 3-D artists. Explore the art of the ancients and have your grade school student sculpt her own mythical figure out of modeling clay. If you want a more modern take on the human form, try a sculpture activity based on Alberto Giacometti's "Walking Man." After showing your child a photo of the real thing, give her modeling clay to create a tall thin person. An alternative to this activity is to use craft wire and form a "walking" figure. Bend and wrap the wire into a human form. Cover it with kitchen foil or mold clay on top.