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One of my most popular kids learning activity series is Art History for Preschoolers. Kids love exploring grown-up topics, like Art, and the works of the masters, are incredible creative inspiration for them. One of my personal favorite artists is Claude Monet. If you loved my Monet Inspired Water Lillies Sensory Bin, but are looking for more Monet Art for Kids ideas, you can find options for a complete artist study, for preschoolers to teens, below.

Impressionist art is inspiring for many beginning artists. The use of free brush strokes is acheivable by even the youngest of artists, and the vibrant colors used by Monet make him a great focus of study for kids. Using different mediums and techniques, kids from preschoolers to teens can create works inspired by the landscapes Monet is most famous for.

Below, you'll find a list of my favorite Monet Inspired Art Activities for Kids - I've labeled them by medium and age level to help you find what works best for the kids in your care.

Monet Art for Kids Featuring Water Lilies

Monet Water Lilies Sensory Bin | Playground Parkbench - A colored rice sensory bin perfect for toddlers and preschoolers

Claude Monet Inspired Water Lilies | Messy Little Monster - Toddlers can recreate Monet Art using finger paint, a paper plate and cupcake liners.

Water Lily Pond, Monet Style | Art Project for Kids - Elementary students can re-create Water Lilies with oil pastels and liquid water colors.

Monet-Inspired Water Lily Pond Art Project for Kids | The Bird Feed NYC - Preschool and early elementary artists can recreate Monet's Water Lily Pond with a paper plate, crayons, paint and glue.

Impressionist Claude Monet for Kids | Playground Parkbench - This simple technique is acheivable for preschool and kindergarteners, using paint on foil.

Monet Water Lilies Art Project for Kids | Projects with Kids - Preschool artists can recreate Monet art with water colors, some salt and oil pastels.

Monet for Little Ones | ArTree - Recreate Monet art with toddlers and preschoolers using basic supplies, like crayons and water colors with this wax resist technique.

Monet's Pond | It's Art Day - Elementary and middle school artists can build Monet's Pond by layering different mediums for depth and texture.

Process Art for Kids Inpsired by Claude Monet | Montessori Nature - Preschoolers can recreate Monet art again and again with this cool manipulatives set-up.

Monet Water Lily Craft for Kids | School Time Snippets - Elementary artists can recreate Monet art using this construction paper collage technique.

Other Monet Inspired Art Activities for Kids

Claude Monet's Garden 1st Grade | Smart Class - Early elementary artists can recreate Monet's Japanese Bridge with oil pastels and liquid water colors.

Monet Craft for Kids | The Crafty Classroom - Toddlers and preschoolers can recreate Monet's Japanese Bridge using a resist technique and finger paint.

Tissue Paper Monet Poppy Collage | Meaningful Mama - Kids of any age can recreate Monet's Poppy Fields through tissue paper collage.

Birch Tree Watercolors | Deep Space Sparkle - This project is perfect for older elementary school artists, using resist techniques and watercolors to recreate Monet's Birch Tree inspired works.

Flower Print + Scrape Painting | Playful Learning - I LOVE this super cool technique using real flowers and scrape painting to create Monet inspired art. Kids of all ages are capable of this one.

Which ones will you try with your little artists? What's your favorite Monet painting? Looking for more? Be sure to check out my complete Art History for Preschool series. You can find all of those process art activities for kids, and SOOO many more on my Art for Kids board on Pinterest.

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10+ Awesome Monet Inspired Art Activities for Kids

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One of my most popular kids learning activity series is Art History for Preschoolers. Kids love exploring grown-up topics, like Art, and the works of the masters, are incredible creative inspiration for them. One of my personal favorite artists is Claude Monet.

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Picasso for Kids - Zany Portrait Art Project

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Jul 25, 2021 - Children will love this picasso for kids lesson where they will make a picasso art project! This zany picasso portraits for kids is a is easy and FUN!

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13-oct-2020 - Another project in my big Art History unit with my students is finally all displayed and ready to be shared! The two above were chosen fo...

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Artists who inspire – Yayoi Kusama – Art Lesson

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Jul 28, 2021 - I have been missing in action. Where have I been? Back in the classroom teaching. I have not been painting but there’s always an opportunity to be creative in the classroom. Recently we had f…

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Lesson Plans for kids k-12 Black History Month Alma Thomas

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Jul 27, 2020 - Use this special lesson for Black History Month or any time of the year.  Alma Thomas was an amazing artist that students will love to learn about.

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Apr 1, 2016 - 2nd grade learned about African-American artist Alma Woodsey Thomas and her abstract color field paintings. They learned that though the paintings weren't identifiable as objects, they could still be flowers or astronauts as she named them, because, "Alma said so." They loved that little bit of sass!   They got to work…

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Previous starry night display by the children in Van Gogh class 

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Previous starry night display by the children in Van Gogh class 

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A dramatized autobiography of the artist Vincent van Gogh talking about his work. He talks about how he drew and painted farmers and people who worked on the land in Holland, using dark colours to represent the gloominess of their labour. After moving to France he began to paint using brighter colours, drawing the landscapes and using nature as an inspiration for his work. Painting at particular times of day meant he was reliant on the light available and so he started to paint using quick strokes, using thick paint so that people could feel his paintings. He encourages the children watching to paint their impressions of things around them.

After viewing the clip, children could first explore using quick strokes and bold colours on paper. What effect do they think this has? Afterwards, children could be given a still life to paint, perhaps a vase of flowers, in the style of Van Gogh using quick strokes and lots of paint. Children could create frames for their paintings so they are able to take home their first Impressionist masterpiece. Alternatively, children could use the same technique to paint a natural scene.

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Vincent van Gogh - KS1 Art and Design - BBC Bitesize

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A dramatized autobiography of the artist Vincent van Gogh talking about his work. He talks about how he drew and painted farmers and people who worked on the land in Holland, using dark colours to represent the gloominess of their labour.

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Pablo Picasso - KS1 Art and Design - BBC Bitesize

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A dramatized autobiography of the artist Pablo Picasso, talking about his inspiration.

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Children could design their own plate but there works of art could come together to make a tree. Each individual but working together to create a bigger picture. Good for start of year to bond the class together

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Kandinsky inspired trees that could be linked to changes in the seasons

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Kandinsky inspired trees that could be linked to changes in the seasons

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This could be an effect way of create lily pads using printing

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Mondrian Lego idea - sorting primary colours 

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Mondrian Lego idea - sorting primary colours 

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Mondrian Art Lesson for kids | Piet Mondrian art | elementary art lesson abstract Piet Mondrian art

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Piet Mondrian for Kids! 🎨 | Art History for Kids

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Story about Katie going to to the art gallery and entering the painting "Starry night".

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Classroom/corridor display idea

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Art ideas

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A book read aloud "The Fantastic Jungles Of Henri Rousseau"

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Henri Rousseau, Surprised! | Art and Design - Your Paintings

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Idea for fine motor development inspired by Kusama polka dot pumpkin

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Inspired Artwork by 1st grade kids

This is a fabulous art lesson to learn about a current artist and an alternative way to create pumpkin art.

Not your everyday art.

The students explored basic design principles with opposites to create contrast within their composition:

3- warm colors (usually lighter) vs cool colors (usually darker)

I came across this art project over at Plastiquem.

The artwork explains itself, but here are simple directions just in case.

First the kids picked from either light/warm or dark/cool color papers to draw their pumpkin on.

Next, if they picked a warm/lighter color, then they painted with black dots. If they drew their pumpkin on a cool/dark color, they painted white dots on their pumpkin.

When painting the pumpkins we started in the middle of each pumpkin section. We dipped our thumb to make the larger dots, then a pencil eraser top for the next size, and then a pencil tip for the smallest size. If the students were able to follow those directions, their dot design really popped!

Once the pumpkins were dry, we cut the pumpkins out and used the opposite warm/cool or light/dark color for the back ground. If their dots were black, then they created a triangle design background with white. You get the idea.

The kids learned many basic design and color theory principles and had fun.

Original artwork by Yayoi Kusama

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Inspired Artwork by 1st grade kids This is a fabulous art lesson to learn about a current artist and an alternative way to create pumpkin art. Not your everyday art. The students explored basic design principles with opposites to create contrast within their composition: 3- warm colors (usually lighter) vs cool colors (usually darker) I came across this art project over at Plastiquem.

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A short and easy to follow introduction to Lowry's style of painting and choice of subject matter narrated by Lowry himself. The artist explains his technique, how he selects his subject matter and what he is trying to capture through his work.

Lowry's work is highly accessible to younger children and creates lots of opportunities for discussing subject matter. Looking closely at his works and asking questions such as "Who might this be?", "What is he doing?", "What do you think is happening here?" will help children to unfold the story within the picture and inspire their imaginations. This could be followed by encouraging them to create their own Lowry-style scene, perhaps by rearranging a cut-up version of an original print and rearranging the figures and subject matter as they see fit. With some assistance and by re-watching sections of the clip, they can recreate their own Lowry figures in paint and progress onto landscape features as and when appropriate. By encouraging spatial awareness of their surroundings and taking an interest in looking closely at everyday objects and situations, children can learn to take ideas and inspiration from almost any situation before recreating it in their own way.

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L.S. Lowry in his own words - KS1 Art and Design - BBC Bitesize

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A short and easy to follow introduction to Lowry's style of painting and choice of subject matter narrated by Lowry himself. The artist explains his technique, how he selects his subject matter and what he is trying to capture through his work.

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A song inspired by the work of L.S Lowry

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Matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs (with lyrics)

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L.S Lowry Exhibition | The Lowry | Then and Now A Short Film

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LS Lowry, Britain at Play | Art and Design - Your Paintings

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Useful website with ideas and information about Alma Thomas

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This abstract art lesson let my students choose which painting format they wanted to try out - a circular or an vertical stripe one.

Alma Woodsey Thomas (1891 - 1978) was an African-American artist and teacher who lived and worked in Washington, D.C., and is now recognized as a major American painter of the 20th century.

Thomas is best known for her abstract paintings that she created after her retirement from a 35-year career teaching art at Washington's Shaw Junior High School. Teaching allowed her to support herself while pursuing her own painting part-time.

Thomas's early art was realistic, though her Howard professor James V. Herring and peer Loïs Mailou Jones challenged her to experiment with abstraction. When she retired from teaching and was able to concentrate on art full-time, Thomas finally developed her signature style. She debuted her abstract work in an exhibition at Howard 1966, at the age of 75.

You can read more about her Alma's life story on the National Museum of Women in the Arts website.

MATERIALS

Multimedia paper

Liquid tempera paint

Circle stencil

DIRECTIONS

If students chose to try Ms. Woodsey's circle painting, they had a stencil to first trace in pencil.

The circle was painted solid with tempera paint.

Dashed lines were painted around the circle until the paper was full.

If students wanted to do the vertical painting, they simply painted dashed lines, free form style.

FOLLOW UP PROJECT

Now it's easy to make a classroom mural to celebrate the creative work of African American artist Lois Mailou Jones.

All you need to do is purchase a Lois Mailou Jones Mural template from my PDF Shop, have each student color a page, and then tape or glue it back together according to included directions.

It makes a special work of art for your classroom, and because everyone takes part, a collaborative experience as well.

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Black History Artist: Alma Woodsey Thomas · Art Projects for Kids

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Alma Woodsey Thomas (1891 - 1978) was an African-American artist and teacher who lived and worked in Washington, D.C., and is now recognized as a major American painter of the 20th century. Thomas is best known for her abstract paintings that she created after her retirement from a 35-year career teaching art at Washington's Shaw Junior High School.

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An idea for Finger painting inspired by Alma Thomas, this could also be done as a collage and promotes talk about colour.