Art Lessons for Grades 4 and 5

Project 1:
Reinforce the elements and principles of Art with natural materials. British artist,
Andy Goldsworthy, is an artist who is not only inspired by nature but creates art using natural
materials. His land art sculptures are intentionally temporary and left in their environment.

Project: Using objects from nature found outside, create a sculpture or design using different
examples of radial, symmetrical, and asymmetrical balance. Use different natural objects
that have contrasting colors or values to lead the eye around the artwork.

Goldsworthy’s process includes leaving the finished work in nature. He knows his work is only
temporary, later to be destroyed in its natural environment. (Examples of materials or objects
to use: Rocks, pinecones, sticks, leaves, twigs, flowers, grass)

Second Activity: Once your sculpture is complete, use drawing tools to create observational
drawings of your sculpture, from different perspectives. Additionally, if you are able to use an
adult’s phone, take photos of your natural sculpture.

Project 2:
Look and Learn
Walking around today, I noticed the budding plants everywhere. Magnolia blooms are fuzzily
emerging from sleep; tulip bulbs are persistently poking their noses out of sun-warmed soil.
This is a time of change. How is the world around you changing? If you make a drawing of
something today, will it be the same tomorrow? If not, how will it have changed?

With a few pieces of paper, fold yourself a small sketchbook. No need to staple. Keep the
pages together if you can. Does the paper you found have writing on one side? That’s okay,
it makes it more interesting.

Go outside with an adult or look out your window. Find a plant or branch or tree and observe
it closely. What do you notice? Draw the object if you can. What angle did you choose to
draw from? Why? What makes it interesting?

This is an observational drawing. It’s how we draw what we see in the world around us.
Notice – observe – draw.




Tomorrow, observe and/or draw the same plant or object. Has it changed? If so, how?
Are the shapes the same? Have the colors changed? Why did you pick this object?
Is it special or ordinary? Draw the same object every day for two weeks and by the end, you’ll have a record of growth. It’s almost like a stop motion movie. By April, you might be drawing a flower.

Enrichment:
If you can, ask your adult if you can borrow their phone. Take a picture of your object every
day for two weeks from the same angle and distance. Would the objects make a stop-motion
movie showing growth? Using a stop motion app, see if you can make a movie.
Email it to me if you can!


Project 3:

Picasso portraitsA lot of communication comes from body language, including gestures, postures, and facial features. What is communicated to us through her body language? Her facial expression? Think about different emotions, such as excitement, sadness, fear, surprise. Sylvette David is the subject and inspiration for Picasso’s painting, referred to as a muse. Who do you draw inspiration from? Who motivates you to achieve, whether in school, in sports, or in life? Who is your muse? • If you could paint or draw the portrait of someone you know, who would you choose? Why? Now, compose a portrait of this person, thinking about these ideas and emotions and using Picasso’s cubist style as inspiration.

Second Activity: Many Cubist paintings are very geometric. Can you identify the geometric shapes
that can be found within the painting? Now, compose a picture using only geometric shapes. Use as
many shapes from this painting as you can find, and other geometric shapes that you can find in your
surroundings. Bonus: This activity can be a drawing, or you may use scissors and glue and make a
collage using these geometric shapes.


Project 4:

Green Sea - Philip Guston

The Character of Everyday Objects • Philip Guston painted everyday objects like clocks and shoes as

if they were characters in a narrative rather than inanimate objects in a still life. Make a list of everyday objects you might find at your home or outside. Now choose two to three objects to play main characters in a dramatic scene. Make sure to give personality traits to the different objects. A book, for instance, might be shy and intelligent, or a sneaker might be silly and funny. Now using these characters, draw one larger picture, or draw a comic strip in which the objects play the main characters and tell a story with them through the drawings.


Second Activity: Guston taught himself how to draw by copying comic strips out of newspapers.
Discuss the similarities and differences between Green Sea and comic strips, using the funnies from a
newspaper for an example. Using characters in the comic strips and of your own creation, design a
new comic strip and change the meaning of the comic by removing or adding characters, objects,
and dialogue, as well as by altering the setting.


Third Activity:
When Guston went to art school as a young man, he piled the plaster casts that he was instructed to
draw into a heap to make them more interesting. Later in life, he frequently painted objects in big piles, some of which he collected from a local dump. Look for objects that you find visually interesting. It can be an article of clothing, sneaker, a toy, or a vegetable, for example. Arrange the objects in a big pile. What objects can be clearly seen? Which are partly concealed? What shapes are the objects in the pile and how do they fit together? What is the shape of the whole pile? Now, make a drawing or drawings from observations of the pile of objects.



Project 5:


Do you know what kind of tree this is?
It’s a cherry blossom!

Do you know where this painting is from?
It’s from Japan!

Can you tell what is hanging from the tree’s branches?
They’re poems called Haiku!

Haiku is a Japanese style of poem. The first line has five syllables, the second has seven, and the third has five, for a total of seventeen syllables.

The wind blows softly

as I gaze up at the tree

sweet petals in sight

This is an example of a Haiku. It’s a translation of one of the poems hanging in the tree!
Haiku talks about nature, about humans’ relationship with nature, and about what we think is beautiful. What do you think is beautiful?

First Activity:
Can you think of something beautiful? A tree? A plant? Your own sweet face? A favorite toy?
Draw a picture of your beautiful object. Color or paint it if you can.


Second Activity:
Write a Haiku on a separate piece of paper and cut it out.
Tape or glue your Haiku to your picture. Do this as many times as you can! Soon, you’ll have a picture full of visual beauty and poetry to delight your viewer.


For more information, please visit:

https://www.artic.edu/collection/resources/educator-resources/21-educator-resource-packet-flowering-cherry-with-poem-slips-by-tosa-mitsukoi