Children Playing

One of the nice parts of having a full week of school is that we have time for things like art. Our district adopted art curriculum for fourth grade is pretty good, and it allows people like me who have some background in art – but not a whole lot – to provide the students with some good lessons in this area.

Today we focused on both line and perspective. The students looked at several pictures on the theme of children from different periods. Their favorite was Children Playing by Pieter Breugel. This illustrated the “bird’s eye” perspective since the artist appeared to be observing the scene from above.

We used this painting as the inspiration for the lesson. I divided the class in half. We went out to the playground. First, some students played games of their own choice.

While they did this, other students drew them playing. They were encouraged to sketch quickly and to draw as many different play scenes as possible. 

After about 10 or 12 minutes, the groups switched.

When both groups had switched we went back to the classroom. On a piece of good paper, the students combined elements from their sketches to create a line drawing of our play ground.

Not Pieter Breugel, but still pretty good, I think!

Other than that, it was a pretty typical day.

Homework:  (1) Do spelling sentences for words 16-20. (2) Do “Complex Sentences,” pages 55-56 in the Practice Book. (3) Do the “Astronaut Review questions. (4) Do Island of the Blue Dolphins study sheet for chapter 14. (5) Do the multiplication worksheet. (5) Do “Factors” pages 65-67 in the Math book.