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Category Archives: fourth grade

Abstract Oil Pastel Trees– 4th/5th grade

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Abstract Oil Pastel Trees with a black trunk and branches, surrounded by vibrant, multicolored background segments.

This is a lesson I teach every year because the results are so beautiful!  Each of the kid’s drawings just turns out wonderful. The 4/5s drew trees to complement their studies in Science class. How can line be used creatively to make a stylized picture?  How can oil pastels be used effectively?   The students aimed to use line creatively and made stylized art.  A focus of the lesson was color mixing, blending and layering of the oil pastel. Steps: Day … Read more… →

Surreal House Collages

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A surreal scrapbook-style collage featuring pets, makeup, home decor, and a woman with long blonde hair against a pink background.

The fourth and fifth graders learned about Surrealism for this project.  I started by showing them how to set up their houses using colored construction paper.  These pictures were LARGE.. the size of a posterboard.  The individual colored construction papers were 9×12″.  Each child started with 4 sheets of colored construction paper to set up their house.  Then, they flipped through magazines to cut out furniture and items for their houses.  After they had found a bunch of furniture, I … Read more… →

Grid Design for Sketchbook Cover

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Grid design featuring a multi-colored diamond pattern with cut-out letters scattered on top.

The 3rd/4th grade class used a grid format to design their sketchbook cover.  I am loving using grids in my personal artwork.  I am doing a series of grid mixed media paintings which you can see here, here and here, and oh yeah here too.   To prepare for this lesson, I drew a 1 inch square grid on a piece of 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper.  Then, I photocopied it for the class.  Here’s a trick.. if you cut … Read more… →

More Sketchbook Covers for Elementary School Art Journals

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Colorful drawing with birds, clouds, and candies surrounding the name "Jenny" in large, decorated letters. Ideal for sketchbook covers or elementary school art journals.

All of my classes have been busy making sketchbook covers.  Here are a few more assignments by grade level: 1st Grade Initials:I saw this idea at Art Projects for Kids. The background has crayon texture rubbings and watercolor paint. 3rd Grade:  The students wrote their names in cursive and then surrounded the name with repeating colorful lines.   4th/5th Grade Names:  They drew their names and then covered the negative space with patterns.  Similar to this idea… Name Tangles.   … Read more… →

Fabric Collages

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Colorful, patterned fabric collage with hearts, stars, and "Peace" text on a background of diamond shapes.

I never posted about these fabric collages that we finished at the end of the year last year.   The third and fourth graders made these. We worked together to paint fabrics! We painted with acrylic paints on muslin fabric. We sprayed the fabric with water to allow the paint to spread more easily. We made graffiti fabrics! We had lots of painted fabrics at the end. We even painted over ugly patterned fabrics. Then, we chose our pieces and cut … Read more… →

Body Pictures– Summer Camp

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A large paper with a child’s drawing of a person, decorated with various items and colors, is displayed in a classroom.

I am teaching 3 summer art sessions.  Each session is two hours long with one or two art projects.  For this session, I had 2 students going into 4/5th grade, 2 students who just finished kindergarten, and one student going into kindergarten.  It was a small class, which was perfect for this project, since the pictures were LARGE. To start, we traced our bodies on large butcher paper.  Then, we outlined them with markers and used collage materials (magazine images, … Read more… →

Secret Cities– 4th/5th grade

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A 5th-grade child's pencil drawing of tall buildings with flags, a small UFO, and a smaller structure in the background.

Secret Cities The 4/5s learned  how to draw 3-d forms and include shading and shadows.  They stacked these shapes to make a “secret city”.   I got this idea from way back when I was “interning/volunteering” at a middle school when I was in college.  The teacher there taught this lesson to her students.  She was a great teacher and I had so much fun learning from her.  The “internship” was something I set up with my adviser where I went into … Read more… →

Treasure Boxes– After School Art Class

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A hand holds a colorful small opened box with a decorated interior and exterior.

  We made Treasure Boxes at an after school art class that I taught this month.  The students were in grades K-6 (about 12 kids).    I picked up cigar boxes from a local shop and the kids were able to decorate them with the plethora of supplies I had. We used wall paper scraps, wrapping paper, magazines, stickers, scrapbook papers…. colored tape… Each kid could decorate the box however they wanted. I showed them pictures of Joseph Cornell‘s mysterious … Read more… →

Mosaics– 4th/5th grade

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A mosaic artwork featuring small, colorful tiles arranged in an abstract pattern with black, yellow, red, and white; a great project for 4th grade students.

The 4th/5th grade classes learned all about Greek and Roman mosaics, to complement their studies of Greek/Roman history.    In Art class, we made mosaics from ceramic tiles. The tiles were glued on to masonite board using wood glue (there probably is a better glue out there, but this is cheap and the pieces stick fine).   We also had some gems and stones available too.  Some of the kids who were motivated were able to use the tile nippers to cut … Read more… →

Parody of American Gothic– 3rd/4th grade

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A child's drawing of a yellow square character and a pink starfish character, parodying American Gothic, with a house in the background.

For this lesson, we learned about the artist Grant Wood and his painting “American Gothic.”  The kids read a magazine article about this painting (It was from the 90’s and I think from the New Yorker).  The students discussed what a parody is and saw many examples of parodies of this iconic painting.  Then, the students drew their own version of the “American Gothic”.  I highly recommend this series of books!

Cross Hatched Animals– Third/Fourth Grade

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A crayon drawing of a black panther walking on a surface with green grass in the background, showcasing cross-hatched animals typical of third-grade artwork.

Cross-hatching is fun, but a difficult art technique (at least in my opinion).   The third/fourth grade class picked out some animals from Zoobooks magazines and drew them in pencil.  Then, we looked at Brian Selznick’s books for inspiration. Wonderstruck  His novels are full of beautiful cross-hatched drawings, alternating with the chapters.  Plus, the two books I have read by him are charming and wonderful stories.  Read them!  You’ll love them too, I guarantee it.  They are listed below.  I think … Read more… →

Greek Vase Chalk Drawings– 4th/5th Grade

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A drawing of two decorative vases with intricate patterns, one orange and one beige, set against a blue and orange background.

The fourth/fifth graders have been working on some lovely Greek vase chalk drawings.  We learned about overlap, proportion and shadows, as well as how to use and blend chalk pastels.  This class studies Greek history in their social studies class.  The students also had the chance to make little pots out of clay or sculpey.  Sculpey does not work so well for coiled pots.  Have you found that?

Third and Fourth grade collaborative circle paintings

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A vibrant and colorful abstract painting with various shapes, patterns, and swirls in multiple colors, inspired by collaborative circle paintings often created by third grade students.

I was so excited to see this idea of Circle Painting!!   I first learned about it at Barbara’s Thought of the Day and then at We Heart Art.  Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. for this wonderful idea.  We are making several collaborative canvases with this technique and they are going to be raffled off at our end of the year school FUNdraiser.  The kids had a blast creating these paintings.  This is the first video I have edited … Read more… →

  • Banner with colorful artwork promoting an art shop featuring kindness coloring pages, artist activities, and resources for teachers.