Positive/Negative Designs with a Twist - 4th Grade

 

One week of school down after a week off for Spring break...  My Fourth Grades started some Positive/Negative designs before vacation.  I was inspired by the beautiful designs from Art with Mr.Hall.  Tuesday I took a look at them and thought they need something else... 

 

I decided to have them add some color and design to them.  I had the kids pick three colors of their choice.  Each negative space was to be designed using any combination of the three colors, line and shape. 

Detail close-up of student work

The students thought the original design was interesting but they really thought they were cool after they added their details to them!

 

Thanks again to Mr. Hall for the inspiration!  Enjoy the rest of the pieces!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Working on Perspective in the New Year

Happy New Year and welcome back to school!  This is what the chalk board at my 3rd-5th school looks like at the moment.  I have my 3rd-5th grades starting out the New Year with Perspective/3D lessons.  After teaching these lessons for two days now, I must say that the students are doing really well and they are very impressed with themselves.

 

My 5th grades are working on these One Point Perspective scenes that I found on Pinterest originally, but found that the lesson links back to our blogging friend Phyl!  I changed it up a bit.  They are only making the floor and ceiling blocks and the walls are stripes.  Time wise this will work better for us since we have 30 minute classes and I want this project to move along and not drag out.  When it drags out they lose interest, fast!

This project will serve several purposes, not only will they be working on One Point Perspective, but this will help them reinforce their ruler skills (which I'm sorry to say, for many of them is atrocious!)  I find that its not that they can't use the ruler correctly, they just can't be bothered!  The students are in a rush and are looking for a quicker way.  Well folks, we are not rushing through this one!  I am determined that by the time we are done my 5th grades will understand the need to use their ruler to draw their lines for this project and not rush through it!

 

These pictures are all my teacher examples since we are just starting them.  The kids love the floating action people!  I usually do a Keith Haring project with my 5ths to work on action people but I am going to forgo that project this year since I can get the action figure element in this project. 

First two steps for the One Point Perspective hallways

I taught this lesson step-by-step with my 5th grades.  I drew up these two big step-by-step tutorials and hung them up on my Smartboard so the kids could see them as we work.  It gave me the opportunity to go back to a step and point things out if necessary.

Steps 3 and 4 of the One Point Perspective hallways

The example has been hanging up on my chalk board since before Christmas break and the students have been excited to start working on it.  I expressed to them that their success with this piece has nothing to do with how well they can draw and everything to do with how well they listen, follow directions and use the tools I give them!  (I think that speech worked because they were all so on task during each step you could hear a pin drop!)

Our tools for this lesson. Simple but very important.

18" mat board strips, 12" rulers and 3" squares

Since our rulers were not long enough to be able to draw a continuous line from corner to corner, I cut up some mat board into 18" strips.  The kids found it interesting that even though the paper is a 12" square it was not in fact 12" from corner to corner.

– "Why is that Mrs.C?"

– "I do not know boys and girls because as I have told you many times before, I am mathematically challenged.  Maybe one of you can research this and let us know next week"

This is how math seems to me! Ha!

I ended up cutting up some 3" squares for the center square after trying to get one class to measure it out in the center.  After explaining and demonstrating and showing them in small groups how to measure this 3" square this is how I felt...

 

...And that was my gifted and talented class!  Mind you, some had no problem with it but enough did that it sent me into a silent panic that if this class had trouble measuring a 3" square to fit inside the center I was doomed trying to explain it to my other 5th grade classes!  So, I cut up a bunch of 3" squares and simply showed them how to wiggle and fit the piece until it matched up to their lines as close as possible.  It worked!  I did show them how to measure it with the ruler also and gave them the option of doing it either way.  Some measured and some traced the square.

So far all the classes are pretty pleased with the results and they are ready to start coloring them next week in class!

 

My 4th grades have started working on these 3-D cities. I had pinned this idea, I think last year, and decided to give it a try.  When I checked my pin to see where the original link came from, lo and behold I found that the original source was again, Phyl, from There's a Dragon in my Art Room!  (Ok, so now I am starting to think we could start playing 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon but with Phyl and art lessons! All lessons will somehow link back to Phyl! Ha! Ha!)

The 4th graders are doing really well with the lesson and are loving their results so far!  The kids didn't think they could do it, but when I broke it down step-by-step they saw that it was possible.  I told them that yes, some of it might be a challenge but that I would not have them do it if I didn't think they could succeed.  Again, I made a couple of really big charts with the steps so they were on display during the lesson.

Third grade is working on these simple One Point Perspective shape designs.  I do these every year with my 3rd grades and the kids love them!  This year we are going to give them an outer space theme.

So that's what going on in my 3rd-5th grade art room right now!  I will show you some of the finished pieces when they are complete! 

I'm off to do some crocheting! (It was either that or cleaning and crocheting won hands down!)  Happy Weekend eveyrbody!  :)

          

Color Wheel Pumpkins & Zentangle - 4th Grade

 

This lesson was inspired by this pin, I found on Pinterest some time ago.  I needed to do a color wheel lesson with my fourth grades but I wanted it to be something that would hold their interest.  Since it is Autumn and Halloween is just around the corner, I decided to go with pumpkins! 

I instructed the students to start by drawing six overlapping pumpkins.  Every time I was asked:  "Why do they have to overlap?"  In return said:  "Think about it."  They knew we were using the color wheel in order to paint them in.  Happily, there were a few students that quickly answered:  "Where the pumpkins/colors overlap we will get the tertiary colors, red-orange, blue-green, etc..."

 

The first steps looked something like this.  I reminded the students the major objective was to keep there colors in order of the color wheel starting with red.  They outlined their drawing with black Sharpie marker before painting.

If they had more than six pumpkins, they were to go full circle and repeat their colors from red until they were out of pumpkins to paint.  It took one 30 minute class to draw out, trace and paint their pumpkins.  Very few students needed extra painting time the next class.  The students kept asking:  "Can we paint the background?"  Mind you they are used to me always saying:  "Paint everything!"  "No, we are not painting the backgrounds this time."  I didn't know what I wanted to do with the backgrounds at that time.  Something that would give it some pizzazz!  Something that would make you say:  "Wow!"  When you looked at them.  So I thought about it all week.  I wanted a background element that would contrast with the colorful pumpkins.  I came across this pin.

That was my "AH-HAH " moment!  Zentangle the background with black Sharpie!  The black and white designs would be the perfect companion to the colorful, simple lines of the pumpkins!  When the students saw the completed sample they were very excited to start their own designs!  All the classes are doing an excellent job and loving the end results! Here are a few finished and in progress pieces from this week! 

  

 

Mixed Media Absrtacts - 4th Grade

At the end of the school year my 4th graders had just enough time for one quick mixed media abstract.  The idea came from someones blog.  I am so sorry, but I don't remember who!  If it's yours, please leave a comment and let me know so I can link this post to your blog!  The students started by choosing and arranging some newspaper shapes I randomly cut ahead of time.  Then I had them use the sides of mat board scraps to print black lines where ever it was pleasing to them.  Lastly, they printed circles by dipping plastic paint cups into blue paint.

 

We let them dry and in the following class I gave them oil pastels to add some more color to their pieces.  They were quick, easy, fun and the kids enjoyed creating them!  It was a great winding down project for our last couple of classes.  I think this year I am going to revamp it into a shape line lesson with my kindergartens and first grades.

 

4th Grade - Pulled Paint Castles

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This past spring I stumbled across a picture on Pinterest of a lesson from Mrs. Maynards Artroom.  Her sixth graders made these awesome pulled paint castles!  I loved the beauty and simplicity of the project. 

I created several practice examples before introducing this lesson to my fourth graders.  I cut  pieces of mat board into different widths.  The students created their buildings by pulling the paint across the paper.  Each table had plastic plates with cool colors.  I poured blue, green and purple paint into each plate.  Then demonstrated how to dip the edge of the mat board into the paint and pull it across the paper to create the sections of their castles.  The students loved how pulling the paint across the paper created a kind of color stain, almost like a tie-dye effect.  Some of the kids got so carried away they forgot to leave some white paper for the sky!  Those students cut the top of their paper to create the shape of the castle roof when it was dry.

The following class of students added details to their castles with black Sharpie marker, construction paper and crayons.  I created an idea packet of castles details, windows, doors, arches, etc...  The students had these to look at for ideas and inspiration while adding their details.  I'll be definitely using this technique again, the students loved it!

 

 

 

Collaborative Abstract Murals - 4th Grade

 

In April while our 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students were testing, I was out of my room in the mornings while they used it for small group testing.  The first Tuesday I was out of my room, I had only 15 minutes to prep before my first class...  What was I going to do?  There wasn't enough time to get everything together that I needed for the 4th graders new lesson....  I remembered seeing a blog post by Organized Chaos for some great collaborative murals she had just completed with her classes.  She saw the idea on Pinterest and mentioned that the lesson originated from a post on Experiments in Art.

So...  I grabbed 5 large table size pieces of bulletin board paper and started filling 12 cups with black paint.  I then laid each piece on top of the art tables and explained to the students that they were to start by painting circles or squares.  Once they had begun to fill the paper up I stopped them and had them connect all the shapes with any kind of line, straight, zig-zag, wavy, etc...  We let them dry over night.

The following day of classes I had each mural laid out on a table.  Pouring and mixing 40 different colors, each student chose one color which became their color for the whole class. They began painting in the shapes and spaces.  After 5-7 minutes, I had them switch tables until everyone painted on each mural with their chosen color.  We continued to do this for each fourth grade class (I have 6 classes of them) until the murals were completely painted. One day we worked on them in the hallway, as I didn't have room on the tables (we were finishing up another project) and everyone who walked by commented on how stunning they looked!  The kids are really proud of their group effort!  I am saving them to hang up at the beginning of the new school year.



 



I had them drying in the room clipped to the front of my shelves at the end of the day.

 

Close-ups of some of the murals.

 

This one is hanging outside the art room door.

 Another one is outside the school office.