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Category Archives: fourth grade

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… →

American Landscape Paintings–3rd/4th Grade

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This watercolor painting depicts a flowing blue waterfall surrounded by autumnal trees and a bridge in the background, capturing the charm of classic American landscape paintings.

 American Landscapes  The 3/4s learned about Colonial times and Westward Expansion.  The students watched a video about American landscape artists during the 19th century and they painted their own landscapes.  One of the goals was to use inspiration from the environment to create a painting.  The students chose a landscape scene from pictures of America.  Painting lessons include how to add texture with a fan brush, how to mix colors and how to add shadows on a mountain. I showed … Read more… →

Egyptian Profile Pictures– 4th/5th grade

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A profile picture of an ancient Egyptian queen featuring hieroglyphic borders on the top and right sides, suitable for 4th/5th-grade projects.

Egyptian Profile Paintings:The 4/5s have studied ancient Egypt in their social studies class.  In Art class, they are using the standard proportions of the human face to draw each other in profile.  Then, they are adding typical ancient Egyptian headdresses, clothes and jewelry to their portraits.  Finally, they are drawing some hieroglyphics to finish the picture.

Editorial Cartoons

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A large figure labeled "Deficit" chases a smaller figure labeled "House," which repeatedly says "work." Text below reads, "The deficit will catch up to us sometime." This editorial cartoon humorously highlights the looming financial challenges.

Every year, students in grades 5-8 participate in a local contest called the Yahara River Writers Contest.  There are categories in poetry, editorials and editorial cartoons.  In art class, we study editorial cartoons.  We analyze cartoons for their use of exaggeration, symbolism, irony and point of view.  Cartoons for the Classroom has an amazing selection of lesson plans for studying editorial cartoons.  There are over 200 printable cartoons with questions and explanations about them.  We also watch this video The … Read more… →

Name Designs– Inspired by Islamic Art– 5th/6th grade

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A vibrant geometric pattern with intersecting lines and shapes in blue, green, orange, and yellow tones, inspired by Islamic Art.

In this project, we studied the repeating patterns found in Islamic art.  These students have studied about Islam in their Social Studies class.  This project also ties into geometry and math.  I have been doing this project for a few years now, and the results have always been stunning!  I originally found this lesson in an old School Arts magazine from the 90’s.  Last year, I posted a tutorial with steps to achieve the designs.

Keith Haring Inspired Figures– 4th grade

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Inspired Figures in a colorful abstract image of humanoid shapes, one with a question mark over its head, surrounded by arrows. Keith Haring's influence is evident in the lively and playful design.

These are drawings by 4th/5th graders.  Who was Keith Haring?  What is gesture drawing?  The 4/5s learned about the artwork of Keith Haring and practiced figural drawing.  In pairs, the students posed for each other and practiced gesture drawing and longer posed drawings.  Then they drew stylized people, kind of in a cartoon-like way.  We read pages from this book about Keith Haring and analyzed the meanings of his artwork.  The kids were encouraged to add their own symbols to … Read more… →

Pacific Northwest Coast Masks– third/fourth grades

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Handmade reindeer mask with red nose, red ears, and brown eyes with white accents on a gray background, inspired by the Pacific Northwest Coast Masks.

The third/fourth grade classes made paper mache masks.  We used inspiration from the Pacific Northwest Coast masks and viewed a video about their culture.  Here are the steps we used. Start with a papermache mask form (we used some from Nasco). Then, add appendages with newspapers, LOTS of masking tape, pieces of cardboard, yogurt containers, etc. So much fun to build up a mask! After all the parts are very secured with tape (and I mean lots of tape, MORE … Read more… →

Pointillist Trees- third/fourth grade

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A Pointillism painting of a river, tree, green landscape, and a small boat under a clouded blue sky.

We learned about the artist Georges Seurat by reading Scholastic Art magazine. Students identified and described Pointillist paintings.   They created a Pointillist painting of trees showing dimension and form by color mixing. Step 1:  Introduce the work of Georges Seurat.Step 2:  Choose a smaller sized piece of paper.  We used 9 x 12″.  Lightly sketch a landscape with pencil. Step 3:  Using a paintbrush, Q-tip or pencil eraser, dip the end into paint and dab dots of color on your picture.  … Read more… →

Abstract Trees Inspired by Piet Mondrian

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Painting of an abstract tree against a colorful sky, with a white swing hanging from one of its branches.

Fourth and Fifth Grade 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. 1.  Show images of Piet Mondrian’s abstract trees.  Discuss how he started out with realistic trees, then they became more and … Read more… →

Sumerian statues– Fourth/Fifth grades

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Three hand-painted clay figurines, each holding an object, with simple facial features and bright colors, evoke the charm of Sumerian statues.

We learned about Sumerian art.  The students drew Sumerian statuettes and we also made some figures out of clay!  These statuettes are characterized by large, staring eyes, clasped hands, cylindrical bodies, expressionless faces and bodies devoid of gender differentiation. They have religious and cultural meaning and we will investigate this in class.

Nonobjective Line Drawing– 3/4s

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Nonobjective pencil drawing with various shaded geometric shapes and lines.

Third/Fourth Grade:  The students learned how to identify realistic, abstract and non-objective art.  The 3/4s worked on a non-objective graphite drawing.  Using only shapes, lines, texture and value the students drew an interesting non-objective design.  Non-objective art is art that has no recognizable objects.  Value in art is the degree of lightness or darkness.  The students completed a value scale using pencil.  They learned how to create contrast by placing dark shades next to light shades, rough texture next to … Read more… →

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