fourth grade Archives - Page 7 of 10 - Art is Basic

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Egyptian Sarcophagus Drawings– 4th/5th grade

By Marcia Beckett | November 21, 2012 - 1:59 am |July 5, 2024 drawing, fifth grade, fourth grade

This colorful drawing of sarcophagus features vibrant patterns and a stylized human head with long hair.

As much as possible, I like to tie in art projects to what the students are learning in their other classrooms. The 4th/5th grade class studies ancient civilizations and has a big unit on Egypt. In art class, I showed them a long slideshow about Egyptian art and architecture. Then, the students made a sarcophagus drawing. They all started with a shape tracer for the sarcophagus. I don’t often use tracers, but once in awhile, I think it helps to … Read more… →

Abstract Oil Pastel Trees– 4th/5th grade

By Marcia Beckett | November 2, 2012 - 10:38 pm |July 5, 2024 abstract, drawing, fifth grade, fourth grade, painting, science

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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

By Marcia Beckett | October 22, 2012 - 2:36 am |July 5, 2024 collage, fifth grade, fourth grade

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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

By Marcia Beckett | September 13, 2012 - 1:41 am |July 5, 2024 art journaling, fourth grade, sketchbook assignments, third grade

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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

By Marcia Beckett | September 10, 2012 - 1:05 am |July 5, 2024 fifth grade, first days of school, first grade, fourth grade, third grade

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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

By Marcia Beckett | August 15, 2012 - 3:20 am |July 5, 2024 collage, fabric, fourth grade, third grade

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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… →

Paper Pulp Pictures

By Marcia Beckett | August 6, 2012 - 1:54 pm |July 5, 2024 fifth grade, fourth grade

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A star-shaped paper craft made from layers of different shades of blue on a light background, showcasing intricate paper artistry.

At the end of the school year, we made more PAPER PULP PICTURES. This is such a fun project. I wrote all the step-by-step details on my blog last year. You can see the tutorial HERE. this girl made a 3-d paper pulp sculpture of a cat!

Body Pictures– Summer Camp

By Marcia Beckett | July 12, 2012 - 7:51 pm |July 5, 2024 fifth grade, first grade, fourth grade, kindergarten, mixed media, second grade, summer camp, third grade

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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

By Marcia Beckett | May 23, 2012 - 1:45 am |July 5, 2024 drawing, fifth grade, fourth grade

1 Comment

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

By Marcia Beckett | May 21, 2012 - 1:19 am |July 5, 2024 1st grade, after school, fifth grade, fourth grade, second grade, sixth grade, third grade

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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

By Marcia Beckett | May 8, 2012 - 7:20 pm |July 5, 2024 fifth grade, fourth grade, mosaic

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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

By Marcia Beckett | April 14, 2012 - 6:28 pm |July 5, 2024 drawing, fourth grade, third 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

By Marcia Beckett | April 9, 2012 - 10:14 pm |July 5, 2024 drawing, fourth grade, third grade

Perspective Drawings– third grade/fourth grade

By Marcia Beckett | March 18, 2012 - 8:02 pm |July 5, 2024 drawing, fourth grade, third grade

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A perspective drawing of a road flanked by colorful buildings and trees, with mountains and a sunset in the background.

Greek Vase Chalk Drawings– 4th/5th Grade

By Marcia Beckett | March 14, 2012 - 1:33 am |July 5, 2024 fifth grade, fourth grade

2 Comments

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?