Studying Claude Monet gives pupils an opportunity to start to understand the Impressionist art movement. He is often called the father of Impressionism. His style of painting, as it is so imprecise and unrealistic, gives students a real chance of producing something lovely.
Tate Kids asks and answers: Who is Claude Monet? As an introduction to the artist.
Claude Monet’s Biography from Freeschool
School aged projects are shared across the web, see:
Top 19 Claude Monet Art Projects for Kids collected by or created by the Artsy Craftsy Mum.
- Cupcake Liner Lily Pad
- Fingerprint Bridge Artwork
- Magpie inspired Watercolor Birch Trees
- The Stroll Coloring Printable
- Monet Poppies Collage
- Flower Print & Scrape Painting
- Monet Seascape Painting
- Miniature Monet Landscapes
- Monet’s Pond Craft
- Water Lilies Crayon resist Art
Claude Monet Facts for Kids, from the Kiddle Encyclopedia, shares quite a big and very interesting set of images depicting some of Monet’s art works. This site is well worth looking at for sharing the images with a class, the chosen images are spaced across his lifetime.
If you have access to oil pastels in school, Water Lilies from Projects with Kids looks great with a salted watercolour background and oil pastel lilies.
The TES shares a lesson plan created by Travellerintime with a review: “Great level of practical detail to support teaching children to recreate the impressionist style, and ideas for how you could take it further.”
Making Art Fun has a water lily pond lesson plan concentrating on light.
The TES share a great Winter Art resource created by kmed2020. It is not all studying Claude Monet but gives a good variation for comparison. of impressionism against realism.
Sometimes, teachers get so focused on presenting a project, or artist, that the actual teaching of techniques falls by the wayside. This can be especially true at the elementary level. Instead of approaching our curriculum as a set of “projects,” we should be thinking about the skills and techniques that go into those projects.
