4th Grade: Skiing Snowman

Special thank you to Kathy here, for this fun lesson!  I used her step-by-step drawing for this lesson, but instead of using glue, we first drew in pencil on black construction paper, colored with chalk pastels, and then outlined with black oil pastel.  Kids had fun, and even though it is soooooooo messy while working, I just love the look of the chalk.

4th Grade: Gyotaku Prints

We have been learning about the ancient Japanese art form of fish printing, Gyotaku.  After watching a short clip (which the students thought was hilarious) here, we used printing ink, rubber fish, and large paint brushes.  Students were able to choose 2 colors of ink, plus a touch of silver ink.  They kept the fish flat on the table and painted the ink on with the brush.  Then we used thin white paper (not construction paper) and placed the paper on top of the fish.  After gently massaging the fish and covering all parts with their fingers, they pulled the paper off to reveal their print.  Second day, we learned how to write our name in Japanese, and added that a the bottom.

4th Grade: Japanese Woven Kimonos

This was a fun project for my students.  We spent one day learning a little history on the kimono, and I talked about how kimono designers get to choose colors and fabrics when designing these beautiful and functional works of art.  That same day, students printed designs on 2 different pieces of paper (9x12 white construction paper).  They used tempera paint and sponges to cover their chosen texture plate and then printed the plate right onto the paper.  The second day, we cut the printed papers into strips and they picked out more construction paper to weave their strips through.  The kimono is just two different woven rectangles glued together and the seam is covered with the "obi" or sash.  They embellished the sash with ribbon, and the last day they created a "hanko" or stamp with the characters of their name in Japanese kanji (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji) or katakana (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana).  All of our dual language students at my school luckily already knew how to write their names in Japanese, which made it easier- but that would be a fun lesson to teach as well!  I did all of the stamping at a printing station (using red ink and a brayer) once they carved their names into the styrofoam.

4th Grade: First Time Weaving!!!

All in all, it was pretty successful once we got rollin'! I showed them the video that everyone suggested, and you all were right- they LOVED it! :)  In the end, we just cut our strings loose and tied them together.  I had them pick out a background color of construction paper and they glued the weaving right onto the paper, then I staple mounted them to some white tagboard.  This was a 3-4 week lesson, and all of the kids had fun doing something different than the usual drawing/painting/collaging we usually do.  Every other grade level kept commenting on them when they saw them in the artroom ("when do we get to do that?")... :D

4th Grade: Paul Klee "Castle & Sun" Drawing

For this project I began by showing a PowerPoint about Paul Klee, discussing several works art that had geometric shapes and suns or moons.  I had circle templates of all sizes for them to pick from, and began by tracing either a sun or moon on black construction paper with white colored pencil.  Then, using the white colored pencil and a ruler, they began making their buildings.  They had to incorporate as many geometric shapes and patterns as they could.  I gave them the option of drawing either a castle or a group of skyscrapers (a little contemporary twist).  Being from the Chicago suburbs, many students chose to draw the Sears Tower in their picture. :)  Once their drawings were complete, they began coloring in shapes with oil pastels, and the last step was to outline every shape with a black oil pastel.  Their creativity on this projected really exceeded my expectations!  Here is a variation of this project from Dali's Moustache: http://dalimoustache.blogspot.com/2010/05/paul-klee-castle-and-sun.html