Being the big kids they are, I told the fourth graders that they could decide what artwork to choose for the art show. Their options were these tigers, inspired by Henri Rousseau, or their Fauvist portraits. We drew the tigers after reading The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau, where we learned that Rousseau was one of the best self-taught artists in the 20th century. He never had enough money to go to a jungle but he painted as though he did! His art had a very flat, dreamlike quality that critics originally made fun of, but ultimately he became a very famous and celebrated artist. He didn't even decide to start painting until his 40s! The students added paper and oil pastels to build up their jungles. Try not to be too frightened, the tigers are very nice!
We learned about positive and negative space for this project. I thought it would be really tricky for the students but they did amazing on it. The subject of the art is the positive space, and the background is the negative space. We flipped this on its head by using this Japanese design element to create white positive space and then black positive space. The result is really amazing, especially to see them all in person. We also learned some careful gluing skills! The students are really proud of these and so am I.
The fourth graders learned about facial proportions and drew themselves using mirrors. We didn't want to worry too much about getting everything looking perfect. We learned about Fauvism and how those painters were "wild beasts" with color. So I challenged the students to think like Fauvists-- and try some crazy colors! They aren't finished yet but they are looking so amazing I wanted to post a sneak peek!
Fourth graders are about the age where they need to learn a little cursive. To start this project, we all practiced our name in cursive. They we wrote it in cursive, traced it backwards, and turned it into a bug! Can you tell which bug is from which student? They colored them just like real insects. They are a creepy joy to behold.
The fourth graders learn about the state of Indiana all year long. We have already studied the geography of Indiana when we created our windows. This time we learned about a famous Indiana artist, Robert Indiana. We looked at some of his work and discussed the meanings. A list was created of 4 letter words that we find inspiring. Then the students created these designs. Some are coming home unfinished, but they are all showing great promise. I told the students they could always finish them at home with colored pencils if they didn't have colorful sharpies! I am inspired by their beautiful work.
The fourth grade has been working on two different projects to practice mixing tints and shades using paint. You may have seen the geometric shapes in the art show (or further down on this page- we did it last year as well). Then, the 4th graders made tints and shades of blue and created a sillouette project- using the blue as the night sky. The results are beautiful reflections of what our fourth graders have learned.
The students are learning about all the landforms present in Indiana. They sketched them on a map. Then they had to choose an area of Indiana and draw a picture as though they were looking out the window onto those landforms. The students drew these using foreground, background, and middle ground to create perspective and depth. Watercolor colored pencils were used to create these masterpieces and the students added water to take away details that were farther away from the viewer. I love looking out so many beautiful windows and celebrating our great state :)
We learned that Fauvism was a movement that loved bright, unrealistic colors. Before winter break, we worked on these quick foxes and used beautiful watercolor to paint them.
This year we started off fourth grade by practicing our names in cursive. What a worthy skill to practice! We used the lines created by our cursive names (forward and backward together) to create an interesting shape. With that shape, most of us created a bug from our names! The students tried combining two colors while coloring with colored pencils... creating colors like blurple (from blue and purple!) Can you decipher the name that makes up each bug?
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