One Teacher's Adventures

It's been awhile since I've posted, I know!  Here's a post I meant to write three weeks ago! My Grade 4's were busy at the beginning of December with this winter art project.  Their task was to show a snowman in two different ways.  We talked about perspective before they began, and I modelled some ideas to get them started.  I brought in a stuffed snowman, as well, for them to manipulate and move around.  I asked them to think of what it would look like from a bird's perspective, a worm's perspective, from behind, from the side, from far away, and from really close up.  I let them choose which medium they wanted to use.  Some painted, some used markers, and some used oil pastels. I love the images that they created.  Here are a few examples.     What do you think?  Let me know in the comments!

I've noticed that my last few post titles have had an overflow of alliteration, and I quite enjoy it!  Moving on, I want to share two new art projects that I've done with my Grade 4's.  The first is a pattern project that we did at the end of our patterns unit in math.  I found the inspiration from the blog Kid Artists , but changed it up a bit. First, we started by drawing wavy lines across the page vertically and horizontally. Next, in each of the spaces, draw an "X," making sure to reach all four corners of the space.   Once you have all the X's drawn, choose four colours.  The bottom space of all of the X's should be one colour.  The tops will be another colour.  The lefts will be a third colour, and the rights will be the last colour.  The wavier you draw your lines, the more distorted the pattern becomes.  They turned out beautifully!   The second project was inspired by the ...

I can't believe it's already November 17!  November has been a busy time for me, and I'm sure it's been busy for you too!  Here's a look at what's been happening in my class in November. Remembrance Day is always a reflective and thankful time for me.  I love talking with my kids about our freedoms and why we remember.  This year, I came across a post on Pinterest with some art projects inspired by Picasso's Peace Dove.  (I'm sorry, I don't know the original link, if you're reading this, let me know and I'll credit you.)  I decided to do an art project similar to the one I had seen.  First, we read the book "What Does Peace Feel Like" by Vladimir Radunsky.  It is a beautiful book with phrases from children answering the questions "What does peace feel/look/smell/sound like?" I asked my Grade 4's what Peace meant to them and asked them to think of sounds, sights, smells, and feelings that were peaceful.  I th...

    As I am not so artistically inclined, I use Pinterest to find almost all of my art ideas.  Last week, I came across this post about drawing pumpkins and decided that would be perfect for my Grade 4's. I demonstrated Holly's technique of drawing pumpkins and did some directed drawing with them, following her instructions.  After they understood the shading and highlighting technique, I gave them their simple assignment: draw a scene featuring a pumpkin.  They were only allowed to use pastels (chalk or oil pastels), no pencils! I love how they turned out, and they are a hit with the other teachers and parents at my school.  Check out some of the creations below.

This week, my class has been working on descriptive writing, similes, and metaphors.  Thursday night was out Meet the Teacher night, and I wanted the kids to create something visual to put up and impress the parents, and that's when I thought about Paint Chip Poetry!  I went to the local Wal-Mart and cleared them out of paint chips, and had my grade 4's choose a colour.  They then had to come up with 6 lines of poetry to describe their colour.  I asked them to consider the 5 senses and use rich adjectives and imagery so that their parents could see, hear, smell, feel, and taste their colours. We wrote some sample lines together as a class first, and then I let them go.  I was so impressed with the images they created, and they were a huge hit with the parents! Here are a few of the Paint Chip Poems that my grade 4's created.