Take a Closer Look

After viewing the work of American artist, Georgia O'Keefe, the fourth grade students were inspired to create watercolor paintings of flowers. The students viewed photographs of flowers, and in order to capture the details of each flower, they painted a zoomed in version of the photo.

Clay Cuisine

The Fourth Grade students sculpted their favorite foods out of clay. We learned that most students prefer traditional American cuisine, but some have other preferences, such as sushi, yum!

Russian Architecture

After viewing photographs of St. Basil's Cathedral and identifying the shapes, colors, and patterns in the building, the students created oil pastel drawings of buildings in a similar style.

Aboriginal Art

The Fourth Grade students studied the Aboriginal sand paintings of Australia, and they were able to identify the symbolism and the dot pattern in the paintings. Inspired by these paintings, the students chose an animal that symbolized their personality, and they painted the animal in the Aboriginal style.

Anansi Collages

The Fourth Grade students have been writing legends in their classrooms. In art class, we read the Ashanti legend of Anansi the Spider. The students were inspired to create collages of the legendary hero Anansi!

Presidential Portraits

In honor of President's Day, the fourth grade students created pencil drawings of presidential portraits. The students learned the importance of proportion and value in creating realistic pencil drawings.








Prior to creating the presidential portrait drawings, the students completed a practice grid.

MLK memorial plans

After viewing the following video clip that shows a detailed plan for the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial project, one of my students exclaimed, "This is WONDERFUL! It's like Martin Luther King Jr. cuts through the rock and lets all the people walk through freely." This is one of the many extremely rewarding moments that occur in teaching visual art.



In response to the video and a brief slideshow showing and describing MLK's biography, the students created pencil drawings:







Students were given the opportunity to share his/her drawings and to describe how we can act justly and promote peace without our own communities.

The Importance of Drawing Excercises

The fourth grade students are beginning a unit on drawing from observation.

We discussed the importance of carefully observing the object being drawing instead of drawing "stereotyped" images of objects. In order to prepare themselves for the final still life drawing, the students completed three drawing excercises:
1. contour drawing from observation
2. blind contour drawing from observation
3. value scale

Final still life drawings will be posted soon!

Paintings in the Style of Hundertwasser

The fourth Grade students worked in pairs to create watercolor paintings in the style of artist Friedrich Hundertwasser.

A Pleasant Surprise

As an elementary art teacher I tend to receive many drawings and notes from the students (I'm sure you other elementary teachers have the same experience). This note was an absolute gem, so I thought I would share it:

Making a Difference by Creating Art: The Fundred Dollar Bill Project

During Thanksgiving week, we tend to think about what we have and what we are thankful for. While it is important to be grateful and to reflect on our blessings in life, I believe Thanksgiving is a great time to think about needs others may have and how we can meet those needs. I heard about the Fundred Dollar Bill Project (www.fundred.org) while Reading an art education journal last month. The project was started by artist Mel Chin, who hopes to raise 300,000,000 "fundreds" (drawings of one hundred dollar bills designed by students) that he will take to Congress in an effort to exchange them for the $300,000,000 needed to neutralize the lead in the soil in New Orleans. Curently 30% of the children in New Orleans have lead poisoning, and this is a preventable problem. The students learned about Hurricane Katrina (many of them were very young when the hurricane hit in 2005), and they learned about the destruction the hurricane caused. The students were enthusiastic about wanting to help the children in New Orleans, and I was greatly blessed by their empathy and thoughtfulness in creating these "fundreds."



This students drew the "tree of good hope"






This student drew a house on wheels that he wants to bring to people in New Orleans who have lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina.






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xor8lqjtc4M