Welcome to intermediate school! In 4th grade students learn a lot more about the elements of design. We really gain a lot of knowledge regarding art along with other content areas.
4th grader can: -Tell you what symmetry is -Identify various types of forms -Construct a clay animal -Identify monochromatic, complimentary, warm/cool and analogous color themes -Identify all parts of a landscape: foreground, midground and background -
Name Alien
Although it has a strange title, I LOVE making name aliens with 4th graders. We learn about symmetry to create a mirror image of our names in cursive. Then, you guessed it, we turn our names into aliens. One of the reasons this is one of my all time favorite project to do with students is because they think of the most creative and unique ideas to make their names look like aliens.
Oaxaca Wood Carvings
Oh how fun it would be to carve animals from Copal tree wood like they do in Mexico! However, we do the safer version by copying the beautiful carvings using clay. These wood carvings are known for being bright and colorful, and West Lyon 4th graders sure do an awesome job doing the same with their clay projects.
Color Theory
Our Color Theory lesson is packed full of lots of information essential to art education. We learn about 4 different groups of colors: monochromatic, analogous, complimentary and warm/cool colors. We also learn about symmetry and figure out a "magic" way to get our design to repeat on our paper. Try to guess what color theory is used in each of the projects above!
Greek Vases
To start off this project, we find out what Greek Mythology is all about. I'm so astonished, every year so many students know A LOT about this topic! We learn that back in the day the Greeks depicted stories on their vases, so we do the same on ours.
Poppy Poster
Every year, 4th grade is the class that gets to participate in this special project. In correlation with the American Legion Auxiliary we learn about the importance of the Flander's Poppy. We end up learning so much more about our veterans and our great country.
Super Cereal Teams
For a collaborative art project, teams of 2 are paired together to brainstorm a new cereal to be made. In art, we design the cereal box. We keep in mind marketing tactics cereal companies currently use. Our boxes need to have: a slogan, a mascot and visual representation of what the cereal looks like.
Color Wheel Names
As a review of the color wheel, students are asked to create a name or word of their choice in bubble or block letters. Their paper is divided into 6 sections so they can create a color wheel over their name. Students are required to mix the secondary colors for their color wheel.
Mexican Metal Tooling
Inspired by Mexican tooling, we create colorful tin ornaments. This project usually takes place around November/December, so students always seemed inspired by the holidays!