4th Grade Picasso Portraits

The fourth graders have been learning all about the life and times of Pablo Picasso. Picasso is considered an artistic genius for many reasons, one of them being his help in the development of the Cubist style of art. We drew our self-portraits in a cubist style and then looked a period in Picassos painting life called the Blue Period. During this time Picasso was so sad and depressed that he painted mostly with different values of blue. Each student then chose a color to use in their portrait, plus black and white, to get values of that color. This color was based on their mood at the time. We learned that a Tint is a color plus white and a Shade is a color plus black. Using our colors, tints, and shades we created unique cubist portraits. I love them!

Fourth Grade Color Wheel

This is by far one of my favorite projects to do with my fourth grade students. We start by learning all about the color wheel: primary colors, secondary colors, intermediate colors and how to mix them all. Then, we make our own color wheel with... FROSTING! The students love it! I give the students some yellow, blue and red frosting and they mix the other colors of the color wheel. They spread each color on a vanilla wafer and make a color wheel. The kids have fun and learn a lot, and I get to eat the extra cookies :)

4th Grade Rhythm and Movement Projects

These are some of my favorite projects the 4th graders make. They are so bright and beautiful! We used our knowledge of Rhythm and movement to create the back ground and our knowlegde of proportion to make the figures. Way to go 4th grade!

4th Grade Proportion Studies

The 4th graders are starting a unit studying proportions of the human body. We learned that proportion can be broken down into two words: pro and portion. Pro in this case means "really good" like a professional athlete. Portion means "amount". So proportion means "really good amounts." When we draw proportionately the head is not too big for the body and the arms are not too long, the feet aren't too tiny, etc. When we draw proportionately everything should look realistic because the every part is the right size when compared to another part.

Here are some pictures of us practicing drawing with wooden drawing dudes. We are trying our best to make them in the correct proportions. Nice work 4th graders!

4th Grade Pottery

Good News! The 4th graders have finished throwing and glazing their pots. It has been a long process, but the kids have been patient hard workers. One of the incredible things about the Big Woods art program is that we have six potter's wheels for the kids to use. Each student gets to experience throwing a pot and then glazing afterwards. All of the pots look great! I hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed making them :)

Perfect Pumpkins!

4th Graders are finishing up their pumpkins still lives and boy do they look GOOD!! After adding value with sharpie, the students used water color to paint them. We talked about how important it is to really look at the pumpkins to figure out what colors to use. We noticed that the top of the pumpkin was lighter and more yellow than the darker bottom. We tried very hard to make our pumpkins look realistic. Mixing was greatly encouraged! They worked hard and it shows! I am so proud!

4th Grade Still Life

Alright, I can't for the life of me figure out how to make this picture turn the right way, so I am just going to live with it for now! Even though the picture is crooked, it doesn't change how I feel about the 4th grader's still life project. My feelings can be summed up in one word: PUMPED!! or maybe PUMP(kin)ED! haha. Anyways, the fourth graders have been working hard on their still lives. Mr. Sherman, a third grade teacher, was wonderful enough to donate a bunch of pumpkins for this project. We set up still lives around the room and the students could choose one to draw. They were then able to add details to the background. All of the drawings are looking great! And my favorite part about the project? The absolute silence in the room because the kids are so involved in their drawings. I love that! Way to go 4th graders! I know the finished product will be incredible!

4th Grade Molas

I love the way these Molas turned out! They are bright and colorful and look amazing! The fourth graders worked so hard to reach their goals of using at least 5 different types of line, lots of layers of paper, thoughful design, and great craftsmanship. Nice work fourth graders!

First Projects!

We're starting the year off with gusto here at Big Woods! The kids are all working hard and putting their creative minds in gear. Here are a few pictures of what we've been working on!

Second graders are doing a fabulous job on their collage cities! I am so impressed! We discussed the element of Line together as a class and made sure we knew which lines were vertical, horizontal and diagonal (kind of tricky!). We also talked about exciting lines like zig zag, wavy, and curved lines. They took all of their knowlegde about lines and began to cut out buildings and details for their cities. Nice work! We are going to add more line details later with a thin marker. I'm excited to see the end results!

Fourth Graders are working on a project celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. We are learning about the Kuna people who live on the San Blas Islands off the coast of Panama. The Kuna make beautiful works of art from layers of fabric called Molas. The colors and details are so vibrant and interesting... the kids love talking about them.

We started making our own Molas out of construction paper... I'll be sure and post when they are done! Looking good so far :)