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Showing posts from October, 2014

Pastel Pumpkins - An Autumn Art Activity

    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.

Grade 4 Paint Chip Poetry

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.

Name Kaleidoscopes - Grade 4

Can I just say how much I love Pinterest!  I can easily say that 90% of my art lessons come directly from Pinterest ideas, including the one my class completed last week.  These are name kaleidoscopes.  The original idea came from the blog Artisan Des Arts, and I found it on Pinterest.  You can get the instructions here .       The idea is that students will use their names, and after flipping and tracing them 8 times, they will create a kaleidoscope image.  I am so impressed with how they turned out.  Even the students who "didn't do it right" ended up with beautiful, colourful additions to add to our display.  Here are only a few of the fantastic pieces from my grade 4's. Fiona Yae-Jin Mayalin Paige