Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Fourth Grade

Superhero Self Portraits


The fourth grade self portraits were funny and whimsical. The kids had a great time designing the costumes and superpowers. We used simple ovals to build a complex shape- the human form. These were done with pencil and Sharpies.

Logo Design

This was the first in a group of three projects with a business slant. Students designed a logo with Sharpies on sheets of aluminum that they embossed and engraved.

Shoe Contour Drawing

As preparation for the clay shoe sculpture, students did contour line drawings of their own shoes, paying extra close attention to decorative details, laces, seams, and soles.

Clay Shoe



Using what they had learned from closely observing real shoes, students designed an original shoe prototype in red earthenware and glazes. This is one of my favorite projects of all and they get a charge out of it too!

Escher Tessellation

The more analytically minded kids really enjoy learning about M.C. Escher and his meticulous tessellations. We created our own by making a tracer from an index card and tracing it repeatedly and transforming some shapes into creepy creatures. These were done in pencil, Sharpie, and colored pencil.

Matisse Paper Collage

These vibrant and beautiful collages were inspired by the cut paper work by Henri Matisse. Students were asked to include examples of both geometric and organic shapes. A sense of unity was established by repeating shapes. We used fabulous Fadeless Paper and some fancy schmancy scissors in this project.


O'Keeffe Painting

Fourth graders examined the paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe and created their own by closely observing silk flowers, antlers, shells, and bones. These are watercolors.

Khan Landscape



These mysterious chalk pastel drawings were achieved with a nifty stenciling process. We looked at the bright and expressive landscapes by painter Wolf Khan as inspiration, borrowing his palette, horizon line, and techniques for creating a sense of space.

Board Game Design



Board game designs are an an opportunity for kids to show their creativity, ingenuity, and sense of humor. These are only the boards- kids also created game pieces, draw cards, spinners, and dice depending on the rules of their game. We used Sharpies and Prismacolor Art Stix, which are woodless colored pencils.

Comic



At the close of the school year fourth graders created comics with markers and pens. These could be humorous, like Calvin and Hobbes, or adventure-based, like Spiderman. Some cartoon techniques we explored include speech bubbles, action, onomatopoeia, simplified characters, outlines, and personification.

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