Tutor cue sheet

SAYWelcome, everyone, to the very first ever Masters in the Making. You are our very first artists, which makes today a bit special. Here is what is going to happen this morning. We are going to meet one of the boldest, most colourful artists who ever lived, a man called Henri Matisse. We are going to learn his secret trick for making art. And then you are each going to make something to take home: a vase, made out of paper, with real flowers standing up inside it.

SAYBy the time your grown-ups come back to collect you, you will have made a real piece of art with your own two hands. So let's get started.

DO: Hold up the finished example vase. Then point at the still life running down the middle of the table. "That is what we are going to be looking at all morning."

ASK: Has anyone heard the name Matisse before? (Say it together: mah-TEESS.)

WATCH FOR: Names on tags before you start. Get everyone seated and settled before slide 5.

SAYThis is Henri Matisse. Henri was born a long, long way away in France, in the year 1869. Now think about how long ago that really is. It is more than a hundred and fifty years ago. Your parents were not born yet, your grandparents were not born, even your great-great-grandparents had not been born. And out of all that time, Henri grew up to become one of the most famous, most colourful artists in the whole history of the world.

SAYAnd here is the one belief that ran through his whole life, from his very first painting to his very last.

KEY LINE: He believed colour should be FELT, not just seen. That one idea is the whole workshop, and we come back to it again and again today.

ASK: What colour feels happy to you? What colour feels angry? What colour feels sleepy?

WATCH FOR: Take three or four answers, no more. Keep the pace up, the making is the main event.

SAYBefore we go any further, I want to show you four pictures. These are four of Henri's most famous artworks. And here is the amazing thing about them: he made every single one out of nothing but coloured paper and a pair of scissors, exactly like the ones in front of you.

SAYSome of these hang in the biggest, grandest museums in the world, in London and New York and Paris. People buy a ticket and line up just to stand in front of them.

ASK: Do any of these look familiar? Have you seen one before, on a poster, a tote bag, a book cover, or a cushion?

DO: Point to each, take a guess or two, what could it be? Keep it light and quick. It plants the seed that we are about to make art the very same way he did.

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JEN - ADD THE REAL IMAGES: drop a real picture of each into the four dashed boxes (I could not include them for copyright). Where to find them:

1. The Snail (1953) - Tate, London (tate.org.uk, search 'Matisse The Snail').

2. Icarus, from 'Jazz' (1947) - MoMA, New York (moma.org).

3. Blue Nude II (1952) - Centre Pompidou / search 'Matisse Blue Nude II'.

4. The Sheaf / La Gerbe (1953) - LACMA, Los Angeles (lacma.org).

Tip: save the image from the museum page, then in PowerPoint delete the box and Insert > Picture in its place.

SAYHere is the real Henri, in two real photographs. They were taken about fifty years apart. So on the left, that is young Henri as a young man. And on the right, that is old Henri, near the end of his life. On the left he is standing up at an easel with a paintbrush, painting the way most artists paint. But look carefully at the photo on the right, because something has changed about the way he is working.

DO: Point at the later photo and let them notice he is sitting down, not standing at an easel. Do not explain why yet. It pays off on slide 25, during the make.

ASK: What is different about the way he is working in these two pictures?

SAYHere is something amazing about Henri. When he was young, he was not going to be an artist at all. He was training to be a lawyer, sitting in a dusty office copying out boring papers all day long.

SAYBut when he was nineteen he got very sick and had to stay in bed for weeks and weeks. To cheer him up, his mum brought him a box of paints. And the moment he started painting, he fell in love with it. He said it felt like finding "a kind of paradise". He gave up being a lawyer that very year, and never looked back.

ASK: Have you ever tried something brand new and just knew straight away that you loved it?

WATCH FOR: Keep it to a minute. Hold onto this: he found art from a sick bed. It comes back later when he is old.

SAYBefore we go further, let's picture the world Henri grew up in. Back then, art had rules, and there was really only one accepted way to do it: you copied real life exactly. The sky had to be blue, the grass green, and everything drawn perfectly first. That was simply what everyone believed art WAS.

SAYAnd Henri was taught every one of those rules in strict art schools. Here is the surprising part: he was brilliant at them. He could paint a bowl of fruit so real it looked good enough to eat. Hold that thought, because Henri is about to do something very daring with it.

ASK: If someone told you there was only ONE correct way to draw a tree, would you believe them?

JEN - ADD AN IMAGE: an early, realistic Matisse so the kids see the 'before'. Good picks: 'Woman Reading (La Liseuse), 1895' or 'The Dinner Table / La Desserte, 1897'. Search on Wikipedia, save it, then replace the dashed box.

SAYWe are going to watch a short film now, all about Henri. It is only a few minutes long. But while you watch, I want you to be a detective for me and hunt for two things. Number one: watch his hands. Number two: watch how he never draws the shape first, he just cuts it straight out of the paper.

BEFORE PRESSING PLAY, remind them: "Watch his hands. And watch how he never draws the shape first, he just cuts."

DO: Have tate.org.uk/kids/videos/meet-matisse already open in another tab. Do not fumble with the QR code in front of them.

AFTER: One quick question, "what did you notice about his scissors?" (They were huge, like dressmaker shears.)

WATCH FOR: Check the sound works before the children arrive.

LINK: https://www.tate.org.uk/kids/videos/meet-matisse

SAYNow here is the big idea that changed everything for Henri, and it is the most important thing I will tell you all morning. Henri decided he did NOT want to copy how things look. He wanted to show how they FEEL.

SAYThink about it. A happy, sunny day might feel like a shout of orange. A quiet, calm evening might feel like deep, deep blue. Being cross might feel bright red. Henri believed a colour does not have to be correct. It has to be ALIVE. It has to make you feel something.

KEY LINE: Colour is a feeling. That one idea is behind every single thing Henri ever made, and it is behind everything YOU are going to make today.

ASK: If your mood right now was a colour, what colour would it be?

SAYSo Henri did something very brave. He threw out the old, careful style completely, and he started painting with the wildest, boldest colours anyone had ever seen. Faces could be green. Skies could be pink. Trees could be red.

SAYAnd here is the best part. He was not the only one. A whole gang of his young artist friends felt exactly the same way, and they all broke the rules together. When people first saw their paintings, they were so shocked that a critic gave the whole group a rude nickname.

ASK: What do you think people called them? Take a few wild guesses before we turn the page.

WATCH FOR: Hold their guesses, let the suspense build, then reveal the nickname on the very next slide.

SAYHere is that rude nickname. A critic looked at all that wild, shocking colour and called the group "les Fauves". That is French for "the wild beasts"! He meant it as a nasty insult. But Henri and his friends loved it so much that they kept it, and that is the name we still use for them today.

DO: Say "fohv" together out loud, like a little roar.

KEY LINE, RULE 1 OF MATISSE: Colour does not have to be correct. It has to feel alive.

ASK: If you painted YOUR face today, what colour would you make it, and why?

SAYHave a really good look at these paintings. When they were first shown to the public back in 1905, people actually laughed at them. They pointed and said they looked messy, and unfinished, and ugly.

SAYBut here is what happened next. Those very same paintings that everyone laughed at now hang in the biggest museums in the world, and each one is worth more than a whole house. The people doing the laughing were the ones who got it wrong.

DO: Vote with hands. "Which one SHOUTS?" Count the votes out loud.

POINT AT: The green stripe running straight down her nose in The Green Stripe. Ask if anyone has ever seen a green nose.

WATCH FOR: If a child says "that's wrong" or "that's ugly", do not shut it down. Flip it: that is exactly what people said in 1905, and they were the ones who turned out to be wrong.

SAYHere is Henri's big secret about colour. Colours shout the loudest when you put them right next to their opposite. Red shouts next to green. Blue shouts next to gold. Purple shouts next to yellow.

SAYBut when you put two colours that are too similar next to each other, like two greys, they go quiet, they whisper. And Henri almost never wanted a whisper. He wanted his colours to SHOUT. That is the trick I want you to steal from him today.

DO: Read the four pairs. Let them point at the loudest.

TIE FORWARD: "Remember your loudest pair. I want to see it in your collage later."

WATCH FOR: This is the last slide before things get serious. Keep it light and fast.

SAYNow the story takes a serious turn, so I want everyone to listen very carefully. When Henri was seventy-one years old, he became very, very unwell. He had to have a big operation, and afterwards his body was so weak that he could not stand up at his easel any more.

SAYAnd painting, the thing he had done every single day of his whole life, for seventy years, was suddenly over. Just imagine that for a moment. The one thing you love most in the whole world, and you can never do it again. Most artists might have stopped there. But not Henri.

DO: Pause after "Most artists might have stopped." Let the silence sit for a beat. Then: "But not Henri."

ASK: What would you do if you could not do the thing you love most any more?

WATCH FOR: Keep the tone hopeful, not sad. This is the set-up for the best part of the story, not a downer.

SAYSo here is what Henri did, and this is my favourite part of the whole story. He did not give up. Instead, he invented a completely new way to make art, one he could do sitting in a chair or even lying in his bed.

SAYHe asked his assistants to paint big sheets of paper in bright, bold colours. Then, with an enormous pair of scissors, he cut shapes straight out of the colour. No pencil, no drawing, just cutting. And he pinned those shapes up on the wall to build his pictures. He called it "drawing with scissors", and "carving into colour".

KEY LINE: He made some of the most famous art of his whole life in his last ten years, from bed, with scissors.

DO: Walk the three steps on screen. Paint the paper. Cut bold shapes. Arrange the picture. Tell them that is exactly what they are about to do.

SAYLook closely, because this is a real photograph. That is really Henri, sitting down, with those giant scissors in his hands. And look at the walls all around him. Every one of those shapes is a piece of his art.

SAYAnd here is the incredible part. He is not doing a rough sketch that he will tidy up later. He is cutting the finished artwork, straight out, first go, exactly right.

POINT AT: The size of his scissors, and the scale of the cut-outs covering the studio walls.

ASK: How big do you think that shape on the wall is? (Some of them are taller than a door.)

SAYNow, Henri's studio was not a quiet, tidy room like you might picture. It was more like a jungle made of paper. He kept real birds in cages that sang while he worked. He had plants growing everywhere. And every single wall was covered, from the floor right up to the ceiling, with his huge paper cut-outs.

SAYImagine trying to do your homework in a room like that, with birds singing and giant art on every wall.

KEY TEACHING POINT, DO NOT SKIP: He PINNED the shapes, he did not glue them. He moved them around for days until it felt right. Tell the children they can lay their shapes down and shuffle them before any glue comes out.

ASK: What would you put on the walls of your studio?

SAYLet's look really closely at two of his cut-outs. This first one is called The Snail. Now believe it or not, it is just squares of colour, spiralling round and round, like the shell of a snail.

SAYAnd this one is called Icarus. Look how simple it is. Just a black body, one tiny red heart, and some little yellow stars on a deep blue sky. Almost nothing at all, and yet you know exactly what it is.

POINT AT: The Snail. It is just squares of colour spiralling round. Ask if they can follow the spiral with their finger.

POINT AT: Icarus. A black body, one small red heart, yellow stars. Almost nothing, and you know exactly what it is.

ASK: Which one would you want on your bedroom wall?

SAYAnd these are the real ones. Not copies, the actual artworks, photographed in the grand museums where they live today, in London and in New York. And I want you to know just how enormous they really are.

SAYThis one, The Snail, is nearly three metres wide. That is about as wide as this whole table we are all sitting around. Henri made it from his wheelchair, out of paper.

KEY LINE: Made from nothing but painted paper and a pair of scissors. The same two things you have in front of you right now.

SAYHere is a quick game before we start making. I am going to show you some of Henri's simple shapes, and I want you to call out what you think each one could be. And here is the most important rule: there are no wrong answers.

SAYThat is the whole magic of a simple shape. One shape might be a leaf to you, and a boat to your neighbour, and a bird to someone else, and every single one of you is completely right.

DO: Let them call out freely. Take every answer.

WATCH FOR: This is the confidence builder immediately before they pick up scissors. Praise the strangest answers the loudest. A child who feels clever here will cut boldly in ten minutes.

SAYRight, now I am going to give you Henri's four secrets for making a brilliant cut-out. Ready? Secret one: use bold colours, the ones that shout. Secret two: keep your shapes simple, no fiddly little details.

SAYSecret three, and this is the hardest one of all: do NOT draw first. Your brain is going to beg you to grab a pencil and draw the shape before you cut. Do not do it. Trust the scissors, just like Henri did. And secret four: fill the whole page, right out to the edges.

DO: Count the four rules on your fingers. Bold colours. Simple shapes. No drawing first. Fill the page.

TIE BACK: Rule one is the shouty colour pair they picked in the game.

DO: Play the NGA 'How to make a Matisse collage' clip as your demo.

LINK: https://www.nga.gov/stories/videos/how-create-henri-matisse-collage-kids

SAYBefore we make our real art, we are going to warm up our scissor hands, just like an athlete stretches before a big race. We will practise on scrap paper, so it does not matter one tiny bit if it goes wrong.

SAYWe are going to try four moves together. A straight cut. A curvy cut. A zig-zag. And my favourite one, snip and spin. Copy me in the air first, then have a go on your scrap.

DO: Demonstrate each cut in the air first, then let them try it. Straight, curvy, zig-zag, snip and spin.

THE ONE TECHNIQUE THAT MATTERS: Turn the PAPER, not the scissors. Say it twice.

GOLDEN RULE: The hand holding the paper always stays behind the blades.

WATCH FOR: Left-handers. Seat them at the end of the table so elbows do not clash, and check they have left-handed scissors. Check every grip, thumb on top. Fix grips now, not mid-collage.

SAYBefore we make the real thing, two quick games to loosen up our cutting hands, because the enemy today is trying to be too neat. Everyone grab some scrap paper.

SAYGame one, cutting to the music. I'll put some jazz on, and all you do is cut shapes to the beat. Don't try to make anything, just let the music move your scissors. Fun fact: Matisse loved jazz so much he named a whole cut-out book 'Jazz'.

SAYGame two, the two-minute flower. When I say go, you get two minutes to cut a whole flower, no drawing, no stopping. Then we do it a second time, even bolder and looser. It won't be perfect, and that's exactly the point.

DO: Cue up an upbeat jazz track before class (there's a clickable link on your 'Do this tonight' page). Call time on the two-minute cut with lots of energy, then go again.

WATCH FOR: Praise the boldest, fastest, weirdest shapes the loudest. This is where a timid cutter turns brave.

LINK (jazz for the music warm-up): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdWUj2NYDYQ

SAYRight, this is the big moment you have been waiting for. You are now going to do exactly what Henri did. Your mission is to make two bold collages out of the bright paper in the middle.

SAYCut your shapes straight out, remember, no drawing first, and fill both sheets right to the edges, with your shapes overlapping. And here is the exciting secret: a little later, those two collages are going to become the vase that holds your very own flowers. So make them bold. Remember your loudest colour pair, I want to see it.

DO: Put the bright paper in the middle within reach. Remind them to fill both sheets, edge to edge, shapes overlapping.

WATCH FOR: The child who makes one small shape in the centre of a big white sheet. Prompt them gently: "make me one shape that touches two edges."

WATCH FOR: The child who wants to draw first. Redirect, do not scold. Hand them a fresh piece and say "cut this one blind, just for me."

CHALLENGE: Can you invent a shape nobody else at this table will think of?

SAYIf you ever get stuck and don't know what to cut, look up here at Henri's own shapes and borrow one. Copy the spiral from The Snail. Try one simple figure like Icarus. Cut a leaf shape like the ones in The Sheaf.

SAYYou are not tracing or copying the whole picture, you are just stealing a shape you like and making it your own, in your own colours. Every great artist borrows shapes.

DO: Point at each one and name the shape to steal: a spiral, a bold blob, a bendy leaf, a simple body. Leave this slide up, or flick back to it, while they cut.

JEN - WANT MORE? You can add real photos of his most shape-packed works here or on a second copy of this slide: 'La Gerbe' (1953), 'Beasts of the Sea' (1950) and 'Oceania, The Sea' (1946) are pure shape libraries. Search the title + museum, save, and drop them in.

SAYYour first real job is to build a whole library of shapes to make your collage from, just like Henri kept a studio full of them. Pick your loudest, boldest colours, and remember, no drawing first, ever. Turn the PAPER, not the scissors.

SAYLet's do it in three quick rounds so nobody gets stuck. Round one, cut five big shapes, leaves and petals. Round two, cut three waves, stems or blobs. Round three, cut a handful of tiny little accent shapes. Don't worry what each one 'is' yet, just build up a big colourful pile to play with.

DO: Show the folding trick once: fold a piece, cut a shape through it, open it up so it matches on both sides. Great for leaves, petals and wings.

WATCH FOR: The child who cuts one tiny careful shape. Push them: 'big and bold, fill your pile, go!' Speed and boldness beat neatness here.

SAYHere is Henri's cleverest trick of all, and I want to show you. Watch. When I cut a shape out of this paper, look what I get: I get the SHAPE... and I get the HOLE it left behind. That is two shapes, from one cut!

SAYMost people throw the leftover bit in the bin. Henri never did. That frame with a window in it is a beautiful shape all of its own. So keep every single piece you cut today, the shapes AND the leftovers.

DO: Cut one bold shape out of a sheet in front of them. Hold up the piece in one hand and the frame in the other. Then lay them side by side so they see they fit like a puzzle.

KEY LINE: Nothing is scrap. Every cut makes two shapes.

SAYBefore you glue anything down, you are going to do exactly what Henri did. He never glued straight away. He pinned his shapes to the wall and moved them around for days until it felt just right.

SAYSo lay all your shapes onto your big background sheet and start playing. Push them around. Overlap them so they sit on top of each other. Let some shapes run right off the edge of the page. Fill it up until there is hardly any white left. And only when it looks alive to you, start gluing.

HOW TO ARRANGE IT WELL: Lay your BIG shapes down first, and spread your colours around so one colour is not all bunched in a corner. Then drop small shapes on top as little accents. Overlap them, turn a few at angles, and leave a little breathing room. You are looking for rhythm and movement, like the shapes are dancing.

DO: Point at the screen: shapes overlapping, shapes running off the edges, page full. That is what 'finished' looks like.

WATCH FOR: The one small shape marooned in the middle of a white sheet. Gently: 'give it some friends, and push one off the edge for me.'

SAYOnce your page looks full and alive, and only then, it is time to glue. Here is how real artists do it. Start with your big shapes on the bottom. Glue those down first. Then add your smaller shapes on top of them.

SAYA clever trick: slip a scrap piece of paper under each shape when you put glue on it, so you do not get glue all over the table, and swap it when it gets sticky. Press the edges down gently with your fingers. And if a shape pokes off the edge of the page, you can leave it hanging for a lively look, or flip the paper over and trim it. Both are proper artist choices.

DO: Remind them to cap the glue sticks between uses so they do not dry out.

WATCH FOR: Sort scraps as you go, big pieces back in the box, tiny ones to recycle. And remember Step 2, those leftover frames are shapes too, so don't bin the good ones.

SAYNow we are going to turn your two collages into a real vase. Watch my hands carefully, because there are two things you absolutely have to get right, and I am going to show you both.

DO: Demonstrate live with a pre-made pair of collages. Do not talk through it, show it.

CRITICAL, SAY IT TWICE: Glue the SIDE edges only. Never the bottom. If the bottom is glued the jar will not slide in.

CRITICAL: Draw the vase shape on the BACK of the collage, so no pencil line shows on the front.

KEY LINE: The glass jar holds the water. The paper is just the jacket. That is why your artwork never gets wet.

WATCH FOR: Glue sticks capped between uses or they dry out. This is where the mess happens.

SAYThis picture is going to stay up on the screen the whole time you are making. So if you ever forget what comes next, do not worry, just look up here and find your place.

DO: Leave this slide on screen for the whole make so anyone who loses the thread can look up and find their place. Point at it instead of re-explaining.

SAYWhile we finish up, let's learn three real artist words so you can sound like a proper art expert. Word one, collage. That is art made by cutting out pieces and gluing them down, which is exactly what you have just done.

SAYWord two, organic shape. That is a soft, curvy shape that comes from nature, like a leaf or a cloud. Word three, Fauvist. Remember the wild beasts? Fauvist means wild and bold with colour, just like Henri.

DO: Read each word, then make them find an example in their own work.

ASK: Point at an organic shape in your collage. (Curvy, from nature, like a leaf.)

ASK: Is your collage Fauvist? Are your colours wild enough for Henri?

SAYIt is time to show off your masterpieces. When it is your turn, you are going to stand up and hold your vase for everyone to see. And I am going to ask you just three quick things: what is it, what is your favourite bit, and one brave choice you made.

SAYAnd then every single one of us claps for you. Because every masterpiece in this room is different, and that is exactly the point. There is not a single wrong one anywhere on this table.

DO: One at a time, standing, holding their vase up. Three questions only: what is it, favourite bit, one brave choice.

THIS IS THE FLOWER MOMENT: Once their vase is finished, each child chooses their own stems from the still life in the middle of the table and fills their vase. Let them pick, do not pick for them.

WATCH FOR: Keep each child to about three sentences or you will run out of time. Everyone claps for everyone.

SAYLook at what you did today. You met one of the greatest artists in the whole world. You learned his secret. And you made a real piece of art with your own two hands, a vase of flowers to carry home. That makes every single one of you a Master in the Making.

SAYAnd if you remember one thing Henri taught us today, remember this: colour is a feeling. You do not have to make it correct, you have to make it ALIVE.

SAYAnd here is the best bit. Next time we meet, we are going to discover a brand new artist together. So this is only the beginning.

FLOWER CARE, TELL THE PARENTS: Top the jar up with fresh water tonight, and keep it out of direct sun.

DO: Take photos of each child holding their vase before they leave, for the parent email and socials. Check the consent sheet first for anyone who is not to be photographed.

DO: Hand out certificates as they go.