4th grade Clay fish dishes

 

4th grade clay dishes

Our 4th graders had so much fun turning simple clay into something “fin-tastic”! 🐟

We started with Crayola air-dry clay and learned how to create a basic pinch pot. From there, students carefully shaped their pots into fish dishes. Once the form was set, they sculpted details like eyes, tails, and fins, then used popsicle sticks and clay tools to carve beautiful scales and textures.

After letting their creations dry completely, the artists brought their fish to life with colorful acrylic paints. To finish them off, we added a glossy acrylic spray for that shiny, ceramic-like look.

It’s always amazing to see how each student starts with the same technique but ends up with a totally unique piece. So proud of their creativity and craftsmanship!

Georgia O'Keeffe flowers in 4th grade

 Georgia O'Keeffe flowers in 4th grade

We started off the lesson by viewing the many examples of Georgia O'Keeffe's flowers. I found a great video on YouTube for kids about her career and life to show the kids as well. 

Students were provided with various examples of flowers to choose from for their drawings. They could draw the whole flower or just part of it. I made viewfinders that they could use to help them pick and draw which section they wanted to use. 

Students sketched out their designs, colored them with oil pastels, and then painted the background with watercolors. I was surprised by how they enjoyed this lesson, and they are beautiful!

4th Grade Roy Lichtenstein self portraits

 4th Grade Roy Lichtenstein Self Portraits

I found inspiration for this lesson from Sara Gutkind. I just changed it a bit to fit the needs of my classroom. There are tons of videos for kids on Roy Lichtenstein on YouTube. I used the one on Safe Tv for this lesson. 

Students used a 12" x 9" piece of multimedia paper and drew a self portrait. Remind them to sketch lightly!! 

My 4th graders could use a stencil with circles to add the dots or draw them free hand themselves with markers. The last steps were to trace them with a black marker and color the background with crayons. They did such an amazing job!! 

Matisse paper sculptures

 Henri Matisse Paper Sculptures

I found this idea on the blog https://www.limerickeducatetogether.com/third-class-artists/ and revised it a bit. 

Taking inspiration from Henri Matisse's paper cut outs students created paper sculptures using construction paper, glue and water and a balloon. 

On day one students cut out organic and swirl shapes from 6" x 6" construction paper rectangles. They needed about 12 pieces to cover their balloons. 

                                         

 

      

On day two students covered their balloons with a glue mixture and their cut papers. Don't let them overlap to much or their papers will become to heavy and pop their balloon. This was really messy but the kids had a great time! It was hard for them to balance them on a cup so they just constructed them on the tables and then laid them on the art shelves to dry. 

                                                         



                                                      

                                                       

They loved the results!