4th grade Lighthouse Prints

Backgrounds are sponge painted and have designs from colorful sand and seashells. 

Lighthouses are styrofoam prints.

4th grade paper sculptures

A quick project I did with 4th grade to fill in time while some of the students were finishing their weavings. Staple down a piece of paper, then bend, fold, curl, or twist it and staple the other end down. The students wanted to add design with hole punchers too!

4th grade op art weaving

To cut out the shapes, students glued their weavings to a thin piece of paper, so it would hold together enough for them to be able to cut their designs.

Fourth Grade Chalk Prints

These will be the background to the students' lighthouse prints. It's chalk shaved with a scissor suspended in water.

4th grade lighthouse prints

Fourth grade students study North Carolina architecture, so we looked at our famous lighthouses. Students drew their lighthouse onto a Styrofoam plate with a pencil and stamped with ink and a brayer. The background is a sponge technique, a shell stamped with black ink, and seashells glued on!

Styrofoam plate:

4th grade ceramic fish

I got this idea from Deep Space Sparkle. The children start by making a pinch pot and then 'scratch attach' eyes, fins, a tail, and whatever else they would like to add. I saw a few lantern fish!

student art

I love the fact that he cited the website the image is from.

fourth graders mix tints

I cant remember the website I saw this on, but the students loved it! After painting the snow, moon, and trees, we discussed the difference between shading and cast shadows. Then the students practiced mixing shades of grey to create the highlights on the trees and the cast shadows. I wished I could have found more room for individuality in this project, they mostly looked the same. Anyway, the students enjoyed it.

Fourth grade paintings

Circle paintings

Visit www.circlepainting.com for videos and instructions.
Students worked on large sheets of paper (18" x 24") in groups of four to create these cooperative learning projects.  We agreed to cut the pictures later so that everyone can have some of their art. They each get a color of tempera paint. One student paints a circle in the center, and they each use their colors to make designs from the center out.  The students really enjoyed working together on this!

Fourth grade work:

fourth grade 3D drawings

Students learned how to shade with oil pastels. Next they glued on details to turn their sticks into crayons, color pencils, paint brushes, markers, or chalk.

Fourth grade work

fourth grade African masks

This lesson was inspired by a colleague at Harrisberg Elementary School in Cabarrus County.

We studied some African masks from the Fang Tribe to learn about how these masks were made and how they were used.

Students used construction paper to cut out the features. We cut slits in the masks to make them round. Students used shredded construction paper for the hair!

Fourth grade work:

Fourth grade woven mats

This lesson was inspired by Mrs. Richardson's lesson at her Why Walk When you Can Fly? blog. Students wove their black and white mats. Next we learned how to make letters 3D. Students created their 3D names and pasted them on their mats. Students sprayed their pictures with watercolor in spray bottles!

Fourth grade art:

Art Club

We made these handmade papers in Art Club this morning, using recycled paper and flowers!
We used a paper making kit from a company called Paper Alice. I really can't say enough lovely things about her and her company. Her supplies work really well and they are affordable and durable.

The children blended their paper in a blender, added decorations and poured the mixture into a mold. Then we used a sponge to soak up the water from the paper. To dry and flatten the paper, we ironed it. Next week we will bind them into a sketch book!

fourth and fifth grade paper:

liquid watercolor + spray bottle = amazingly fun splatter art!!!

I bought these spray bottles from the dollar store. We will be using them today in the fourth grade paper weaving projects, but I'm sure I'll find a bunch more uses for them!

rubberband brushes

I made twenty four of these cool rubber band brushes over the weekend. It was an inexpensive project, you can find directions here.

They make awesome texture and they are pretty durable. I remember using a rubber band brush as a child in art class!

A lot of art teachers create sketch book for their students. I'll probably be using something similar with my art club members. I found some simple book binding steps online!

Courtesy of Barbara's Thought of the Day

Seasonal craft videos

I found some Youtube videos about cute halloween/thanksgiving/harvest crafts. They seem pretty ideal for 4th and 5th graders.

3D pumpkin link

layered pumpkin link

3d boxes

Students learned the difference between a shape and a form, and we practiced drawing boxes and cubes from different angles. After a session of practice, students redrew their boxes and decorated the area around them with line designs or tiny pictures.

The following class we followed up with a watercolor wash.

Fourth grade work: