Time-travelling Art Course

This course is designed to combine art history, creative projects, and role-play. I believe that bringing different activities together around one theme is the most efficient, effective, and enjoyable way to learn. Children will be completely immersed in exploring a specific period of history, making the past come alive through imagination and creativity.

Each workshop will begin with a short physical warm-up to get the blood flowing and fuel our brains with oxygen.

Then, we’ll gather in front of the projector wall to explore images from a particular historical period, discuss them, and play guessing games.

Next, we’ll bring what we’ve just seen and discussed into the creative process. We use the images as inspiration and the techniques of past artists as guidance, but always create something uniquely our own. Sometimes it will be a collaborative piece for the whole group; other times, children will make individual works to take home.

Finally, we’ll dive into role-play. For each session, I’ll prepare a set of character cards for the children to draw at random. With these characters from the historical period we’ve explored, we’ll play out scenes where we review what we’ve learned and practise a little theatrical improvisation—solving quests, acting out charades, guessing riddles, performing small tasks, or simply immersing ourselves in a sensory relaxation activity

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Autumn term plan - Ancient World

Building a time machine
1-3 sessions

Materials available for kids during the session: cardboard, PVA glue, wooden circles, tempera paint, pencils, paper, textiles, ribbons, beads, jute twine or yarn, ribbons, measuring tape (sewing tape).

Topic Time
During our topic time, we learn about inventions using the example of Leonardo da Vinci. We look at pictures of his drawings and plans and try to guess what each invention was meant to do. We will also look at pictures of some silly or unusual inventions and discuss them. Then, we’ll make suggestions about what would be nice to invent, and finally, we’ll start working on our own invention – the time machine!

Crafting Time
During our crafting time, we’ll learn:
- how to plan our work,
- how to work as a team,
- types of materials,
- ways to connect different materials,
- ways to measure time.

Role-Play Time
At the end of the session, we’ll play a little role play that will help children recall what we’ve just learned. We are going to test our time machine by going just a little bit back in time, and everyone will have a chance to play the teacher for a couple of minutes.

What to Bring
If you have any cardboard boxes, toilet paper rolls, kitchen paper towel rolls, small random items you don’t need, pretty-looking junk, broken cables, switches that don’t work, or anything with buttons that doesn’t work (but please, no toys), feel free to bring them along. These are not mandatory, but they can be very useful and fun for our projects!

What to Wear
Children should wear clothes that they don’t mind getting messy - especially socks. I’ll encourage them to take their shoes off, and their socks will most likely get stained. Please make sure they have at least one pair of “art socks” that can be marked with paint. The same goes for clothes: bring an old and unwanted T-shirt from Mom or Dad to wear over their outfit, or simply dress them in clothes you don’t really care about. If you don’t have anything suitable, let me know and I’ll provide an old, washed T-shirt or something similar. Most importantly, please don’t send children in their favourite or fancy clothes to art lessons.

Journey to Prehistoric World
1-3 sessions

Materials available for kids during the session: cardboard, PVA glue, masking tape, craft paper, tempera paint, oil pastels, watercolour paint, watercolour paper, tempera paint sticks, chalk, charcoal, clay, modelling instruments, pencils, papier-mâché paste, wooden sticks, wire.

Topic Time
During our topic time, we learn about prehistoric world and the earliest art forms such as cave paintings from the Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave in France, The Cave of Altamira in Spain, and some other caves that have antient images. We look at pictures of cave paintings, and pictures of ancient sculptures and try to figure out why ancient people created these images - what their lives were like back then, what they did, and why they mostly used black, red and white colours. We also think and discuss why people began creating images in the first place and whether we can call it "art".

Crafting Time
During our crafting time, we’ll:
- learn about materials: charcoal, red-chalk, chalk, air-dry clay, acrylic markers, acrylic paint, oil pastels, and watercolour paint.
- recreate a cave painting as a team project
- create a small antient animal sculpture as an individual project
- make a watercolour portrait of an ancient human, an ancient animal, or a self-portrait as if we were an ancient human

Role-Play Time
We are going to help our new friend the little boy, who lost his pet sable-tooth tiger, to find it and not to get eaten at the same time.

What to Bring
Just your creativity and imagination!

What to Wear
Please let your kids wear clothes they are comfortable getting messy in. This could simply be a big T-shirt over their clothes and some “art socks” (old or already stained ones), but it’s best if they also wear trousers that can get dirty. I find aprons not very helpful, as we don’t always work at the table — we often paint, glue, and sculpt right on the floor.