Leaping 2 New Heights: 4th Grade-April/May 2013

4th Graders: 1-pt perspective:

see below for description..I couldn't get these 5 to go with the others!

4th Grade: Huichol Yarn Painting

4th Graders studied Huichol Yarn Painting (pronounced "We-Chol"). They learned that this is a traditional craft in Mexico. There is a Sante Fe International Festival each year which features Huichol Yarn artists. Students watched a video featuring a Huichol Yarn artist creating his art. Traditionally the string used is thin and it is placed into melted beeswax. Students at Davis used school glue instead of beeswax and yarn instead of string. We also used a cardstock base instead of a wooden one. Students viewed a video featuring many kinds of real Huichol Yarn paintings, some of which were very elaborate full of tradional legends of village life. Students learned that snakes, feathers, figures, birds, flames, sun, and the moon all were used heavily in traditional Huichol yarn paintings. Students were able to choose between using a traditional design or a free choice design for this project. This was also a free color choice project. I like how some students chose to do traditional colors for their subject matter and some used many different colors.

We also discussed various way to glue the yarn down. Some students "looped" while others cut strands and glued them side by side. It is highly interesting to see the various ways students got their yarn down. Students used wooden stylus tools (we call them "wooden sticks" ) to press the yarn down into the glue and also to push yarn next to each other, so as not to leave to many gaps. For this project...my students will love to know we went through an entire gallon of glue!!

I love the variety of design and color, as well as, the creativity of my art students.

Awesome job, 4th graders!!

4th Grade: Renaissance Shields

4th Graders also studies the Renaissance and created shield using traditional symbols. Read more about this art project under the post for 3rd grade.

Great Job on these shields!

4th Graders: 1 Pt Perspective

"Cloudy with a Chance of...."

4th graders became familiar with 1 pt perspective and how it is a very useful tool for drawing a picture in correct proportion. 1 pt perspective uses lots of math and creates awesome drawings that show a lot of depth! Students drew 3-dimensional cities and added a fictional element by creating objects falling from the sky. This project reminded us of the cool book "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" by Judi Barrett. A movie was created based on the books as well. How cool! Students thought of all kinds of things to fall from their sky. Some popular objects included: meatballs (um, of course!), pizza, soda (I think my 4th graders LOVE yummy food!) basketballs, baseballs, ipads, TV.'s, and flowers. Creative objects include: laundry falling from the sky, mint candies and video game systems..the sky is the limit (literally..with this project)

Students learned about: Horizon line, vanishing point, and converging lines (orthogonals). Students reviewed: right angles (90 degrees), vertex, line, measuring in inches

We did a step-by-step for much of this project. Students could draw falling objects directly on their city or draw them on a separate paper, cut and glue them on. Color was added using colored pencils and crayons. Students could darken city/street lines with sharpie pens. Circle stencils came in very handy for objects in a circle shape.