My 4th grade students love this project, so I have done it for several years. Each year I tweak the plan a bit to add in more meaningful learning. This year I also switched to Crayola mixing watercolors and love the vibrant colors!
0 Comments
Some of my fourth and fifth grade classes that had time at the end of the year got to make model magic monsters. They love model magic! The only requirement was that they start with a pinch pot for the body. They created all sorts of crazy monsters! They had white model magic and colored it with markers.
Fourth grade ended the year with clay. They made pinch pot birds using air dry clay and then painted them with tempera cakes. I had clay birds, pinch pots , and coil pots all over my room at the end of the year. My counters were stacked with clay projects! Without a classroom, I would not have been able to have so many classes create with clay all at the same time.
Fourth grade made beautiful bouquets using complementary colors for their flowers and mixing tints to add value. They were excited to mix paint and were very successful with the project. It was a wonderful project to boost self esteem in the art room. So many students were worried that they could never do this project when we began. But I broke it down step by step and they were successful. I gave students circle tracers and told them their flower petals should touch or go beyond the circle in order to get nice large flowers. They had to paint each flower a set of complementary colors and of course, they loved mixing their tints when painting. They made symmetrical vases and created a light to dark scale, then outlined flowers with oil pastel, next chose background paper, then chose table paper, made stems and leaves, glued it all together and finally used a chalk pastel to create a shadow under the vase.
Fourth grade students discussed the art of Salvador Dali and surrealism. They drew their own animal with extended legs in the foreground, and then added middle and background to the drawing. Students were encouraged to place their animal in an unexpected setting, just as Dali's Elephants in the desert. The animals were traced with sharpie and colored with markers/water. The background was outlined with colored markers and chalk pastel. There was an extremely high success rate with the objectives and the students really enjoyed the project.
Fourth grade students learned about the Pop Art of Andy Warhol and how he loved to experiment with ways of making art. They looked at some of Warhol's serigraphy and we also discussed positive/negative space. I was so excited to be in a classroom this year, so I could teach students about the process of screen printing. Students designed stencils and used complementary colors of paper for printing. They printed the negative stencil first and the next week printed the positive stencil. The last week they chose their best prints, cut them out and then glued them to a background. The art room was filled with excitement and mess! I taught students to wash their screen when they were done and then clean up their areas. Everyone was on task in the midst of all the chaos. We used embroidery hoops for screen frames, silk screen material, crescent board for squeegees and newsprint for stencils. The newsprint stuck to the screen after the first pass of ink and students printed 4 times with each stencils.
This fourth grade lesson is full of science connections. Organic shapes, resist, color mixing and salt absorbing water just to name a few. To begin the lesson, students viewed two leaves side-by-side on the screen and made observations like a scientist. They worked in groups comparing and contrasting the two leaves. We used crayons to draw a variety of leaves and also made sure to demonstrate space through overlapping. They were to fill the space with leaves and then the excitement began. Students used watercolor paints and experimented with mixing all kinds of colors. They learned the wet on wet technique, lifting color and adding salt to their colors.
Fourth grade students learned about Molas made by the Kuna of Panama. The Kuna are famous for the bright cloth panels and they are a part of the blouse worn by the women. Mola means shirt or clothing. Mola are made up of geometric designs as well as incorporating figures of sea animals, birds and flowers. Our Mola inspired art was made with brightly colored construction paper. The challange was drawing the central figure large enough for our large paper (12"x15"). Many of the sutdents incorporated symbols or images to create more of a story within their art.
Fourth grade students did a review of line and how it can show movement. We also discussed symmetry in shapes. Students created a symmetrical silhouetted shape using black paper, then added lines showing movement. They were given a choice of medium to add color. They were able to use chalk pastel, oil pastel or markers with water.
Yes it is spring, but we are still wrapping up with winter paintings! Most of my fourth grades will be finishing this project after spring break. We look at some famous landscapes and discuss what the artists have done to create the idea of space in their paintings. We also look for clues as to the season of the paintings. When the students get to some winter scenes, they pay close attention to the color palettes. Students are learning some new watercolor painting techniques while demonstrating space. They learned how we can block areas to keep them white (our trees) until we are ready to paint them. Students learned wet-on-wet for the sky and dry brush for the tree bark. Here are a few examples from my class that is finished.
Fourth grade discussed some of the jobs you can have in the art field. We looked specifically at logos that were created by graphic designers. We looked at some that would be familiar to the students and they also made great use of positive/negative space. Students loved talking about this subject and had a great time making observations about the various logos. Some we looked at were: Fourth grade culminated their color unit by creating a Dali bird project. They discussed art by Salvador Dali. Two of the pieces depict elephants with long stick-like legs. These became the inspiration for our project and I've seen versions of this by other art teachers. Students had to paint the background in color wheel order. They then drew five birds. One bird had to be primary colors, one was secondary colors and the other three birds were made up of complementary color sets. Students cut out their birds and glued them to the background. They added grass using oil pastels to mimic Monet's impressionistic style. They had learned that Dali was influenced by Monet. Finally, they added interesting lines as extensions of bird feathers and long legs similar to those of Dali's elephants. 4th grade was working on the difference between organic shapes and geometric shapes. They looked at the art of Reggie Laurent and had a great time imagining what all the organic shapes looked like in his artwork. They went to work making their own organic shapes with construction paper, and once they had a nice balance and variety of organic, they added geometric shapes. When their paper was full, they added lines with white oil pastel. Some of the shapes also contain patterns created with colored oil pastels. It took a little longer than I thought it would to cut all the shapes, but the students were 100% engages and the results are stunning.
4th graders studied Kandinsky's artwork. They made observations about the lines and colors they saw in the art. Students learned that music played an important part in Kandinsky's art. We discussed how line and color can convey emotion in art and made connections with emotion in music. Students drew lines to two contemporary pieces of music and within their groups chose the "best" one to add color. They looked at balance and variety as well as decided which one better conveyed the emotion they felt while listening to the music. Students were given a large variety of mediums to experiment with when adding color (they used their second page of lines to experiment). They absolutely love the day they get to experiment with so many different mediums! When satisfied with color choices and mediums, the added color to their best lines to complete their project.
Fourth grades learned about weaving and different kinds of looms. They love weaving and it is a great project to finish off the year. Students get into a rhythm, and each time I come to class they pick up where right they left off. It makes for some very quiet classes as they relax and weave to music. We finished these off by adding yarn hangers and beads to the stick at the top. A great video on teaching students some different techniques, like open slot, closed slot and rya knots can be found here.
Fourth grade students were doing research projects on animals and I decided to try a lesson I had done while student teaching. We packed a lot into the lesson. We looked at Frank Lloyd Wright architecture and discussed how it was organic. It was designed to blend with the nature around it, both inside and outside. It was designed with careful thought as to the people that would inhabit the building. We had some fabulous discussions about building a "fort" at home, the materials we used build them and what we liked about being inside them. We worked on making a connection between organic architecture and our "forts'.
Students designed an organic home for the animal they were researching. These were no ordinary homes! Students brainstormed what the outside would look like by thinking about their animal, habitat, food, enemies... The home also needed to contain things their animal might like, for instance, maybe a monkey would like a painting of a banana on the wall or maybe it has a couch designed like a banana! The animal was not to appear anywhere in the artwork. We would guess what animal lived there through clues. Students were to make use of value and blending with color pencils when coloring the final project. Students loved the project, but it dragged on a little too long just like my post! Lesson aligned with ELA Common Core unit "Animals are Characters, Too" We learned watercolor painting techniques in fourth grade! We compared/contrasted winter artwork in a PowerPoint first. Students noticed a theme in color palette choices and they searched for clues that demonstrated the use of space within each painting. Let the taping begin! "Why would we put tape on our artwork where we want our trees"? Students obliged me and made tape trees. "We're going to paint right over them, but huh"? We learned about washes and painted skies and then added some shadows in the snow. Love to see the light bulb go on when we finally take the tape off! Students learned about the dry brush technique when making the bark for their trees.
Lesson aligned with ELA Common Core unit "Literature Settings: Weather or Not" Fourth grade students reviewed positive and negative space. We also discussed complementary colors and symmetry. They used their cutting and creativity skills to make checkerboard collages demonstrating the element of art, space!
![]() Fourth grade students learned about the Aztec Sun Stone and made paintings inspired by the stone. They had a discussion about why the sun may have been so important to the Aztecs and then thought about why the sun is important to us too. They learned about the principle of balance and radial symmetry. Their Aztec Sun was filled with opposites: curvy lines/straight lines, warm colors/cool colors. After drawing their artwork, students used paint for color and outlined with a black oil pastel. Their artwork looked fabulous lining our hall along with third grade sombreros and art club papel picado. Fun Facts! *weighs 24 tons *about 12 feet across *discovered in Mexico City in 1790 *displayed in Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology *carved in the 15th century Wassily Kandinsky made paintings inspired by music of his time. Students created lines that demonstrated rhythm and movement while listening to music of their time. They listened to "Happy" and "Let it Go" and chose to draw with one or both pieces of music. For color, they experimented with a variety of media, and then decided how they would apply color. Students used the medium of their choice to express emotion in their art through color.
Lesson is aligned with the ELA Common Core unit "Tales of the Heart". |
Mrs. Kendell
I was a graphic designer for many years, and then decided to make the leap into art education. I taught elementary art for 8 years. Archives
May 2018
Categories
All
|