You want to save all these free art lessons for 4th grade including my fun new beach glass art lesson. Also, look at my page Free Art Unit & Curriculum Grades 1 – 8 for more ideas.
Too, look at my pages The Best Fourth Grade Homeschool Curriculum | Tips and Recommendations and Seashore Beach Watching Unit Study and Seashore Lapbook.
I wanted to introduce something completely new and fun. Having seen some neat pictures made from arranging beach glass and adding a little detail with fine line pens I knew we had to try it.
The best part is going through your glass and using some creativity to imagine what each shape could be.
Whether you stick with a very simple image, use a few pieces or include a lot of colors and shapes into the image, your child’s creativity will soar.
Beach glass art is a great lesson for abstract and contemporary art.
Be sure to study more about this type of art and artists like what characteristics make it abstract, the names of abstract artists like Pollock and Kandinsky.
ART BOOKS FOR KIDS
Too, look at these fun art books for kids.
10 Favorite Art and Artist Books for Kids
Whether you’re studying about an artist and style of art, add these fun books to your home library or add to your art unit study.
I have put on my little round hat (which I wear often, in fact), combed my white beard and put on my best navy-blue suit. I am wearing my favorite necktie, too. Surely, you can see at once that I am a painter. I am so pleased that you have come to spend the weekend with me, to hear me talk about myself and my friends-- they are painters also. What I am about to tell you is my own true story-- the story of my life and my work. You will have to step back with me into the past-- before you were born, yes, but not so very long ago.Let me introduce myself to you. My name is Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
The nineteenth-century Dutch artist discusses his life and work in a letter to his nephew.
The fifteenth century artist talks about his life and work as if entertaining the reader for a weekend.
Artist and naturalist Arnosky explains his techniques, and shares his enthusiasm, for drawing natural scenes and animals.
Linnea has been in Paris. And she has visited the painter Claude Monet's garden! She even stood on the same little Japanese bridge that Monet painted so often in his pictures. In Paris, Linnea got to see many of the real paintings.
Now she can understand what it means to be called an Impressionist, and she knows a lot about Monet's life in the pink house where he lived with his eight children.
Twenty-five years after its original publication, this celebration of the wonder of art is available once again in an enlarged keepsake edition. The joy and inspiration Linnea discovers in Monet's garden will be eagerly embraced by a new generation
of readers.
Vasya Kandinsky was a proper little boy: he studied math and history, he practiced the piano, he sat up straight and was perfectly polite. And when his family sent him to art classes, they expected him to paint pretty houses and flowers—like a proper artist. But as Vasya opened his paint box and began mixing the reds, the yellows, the blues, he heard a strange sound—the swirling colors trilled like an orchestra tuning up for a symphony! And as he grew older, he continued to hear brilliant colors singing and see vibrant sounds dancing. But was Vasya brave enough to put aside his proper still lifes and portraits and paint . . . music? In this exuberant celebration of creativity, Barb Rosenstock and Mary GrandPré tell the fascinating story of Vasily Kandinsky, one of the very first painters of abstract art. Throughout his life, Kandinsky experienced colors as sounds, and sounds as colors—and bold, groundbreaking works burst forth from his noisy paint box.
Famous Paintings: An Introduction to Art for Young People
Few subjects have more immediate appeal to children than animals, and few methods of teaching students to appreciate fine art have proven more successful than those of educator Gladys S. Blizzard. In COME LOOK WITH ME: ANIMALS IN ART, she makes the most of children's natural curiosity about animals to introduce them not only to twelve magnificent works of art, but also to a whole new way of encountering art. Using an approach which is as fun as it is effective, the author deftly guides her young audience toward their own understanding of and delight in the world of art. The works featured in ANIMALS IN ART represent a variety of styles which students will encounter again in museums and in books: the muscular realism of Rosa Bonheur's "The Horse Fair", the delicate romanticism of Martin Johnson Heade's "Cattleya Orchid" and "Three
Brazilian Hummingbirds," the bold abstraction of Henri Matisse's "The Snail." They also represent an intriguing menagerie of beasts, from the mysterious deer and horses stampeding across the wall of Lascaux cave to Paul Klee's whimsical heart-nosed cat dreaming of a bird.
In COME LOOK WITH ME: EXPLORING LANDSCAPE ART WITH CHILDREN art educator Gladys S. Blizzard introduces boys and girls to 12 magnificent landscape paintings. Through these carefully selected works and a thought-provoking text, the author guides students toward an imaginative new way of looking at art.This book is suited both for family reading and for sharing with a small group. Each full-color reproduction is accompanied by a brief biological sketch of the artist and a series of open-ended questions designed to make the most of a child's natural curiosity.
Now before I give you my simple how-to on creating art with beach glass let’s look at a lesson on the 7 elements of art and discover which ones apply to today’s lesson.
When you begin more formal art lessons you should start with the 7 elements of art and keep it simple, as your child matures you can go more in-depth into each one.
THE 7 ELEMENTS OF ART
1. Line- A mark made on a surface. Examples: Thick, thin, wavy, straight, dashed lines. Think about drawing hair (lots of lines) or a fence (straight lines).
2. Shape- An enclosed space that is flat. Examples: Circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, ovals. Look for these in a painting of houses or when drawing robots.
3. Form- A three-dimensional object that has height, width, and depth. Examples: Cubes, spheres, cylinders, pyramids. Think of a ball (sphere) or a can (cylinder).
4. Color- The visual quality of objects caused by the amount of light they reflect or absorb. Examples: Red, blue, and yellow (primary colors); green, orange, and purple (secondary colors).
5. Value- The lightness or darkness of a color. Examples: Dark blue vs. light blue, black vs. white, shades of gray. Think about shadows that make things darker.
6. Texture- How something feels or looks like it feels. Examples: Rough, smooth, bumpy, furry. Imagine touching sandpaper (rough) or a smooth glass ball.
7. Space- The area around, within, or between objects.Examples: Positive space (the objects themselves) and negative space (the empty areas around the objects). Think about how much space the objects take up in a picture, and the space between them.
Look at some of the fantastic free art lessons for 4th grade I found from learning about the great artists of history to watercolor lessons, drawing, painting, and more.
FREE ART LESSONS FOR 4TH GRADE
The Formal Elements of Art for Kids with free printable book– Great for if you want something offline to teach the basics.
Art For Kids Hub has all kinds of art lessons for aspiring artists.
Even if you don’t take your full run of courses through them you can use Easy Peasy All in One Homeschool for Drawing and Painting classes.
Teach Art at Home–Watercolor, pastel, charcoal, printmaking, and more.
Mr. P Studios – YouTube art lessons with many different art mediums and styles.
Garden of Praise- Art appreciation lessons on over 50 important works and artists.
Deep Space Sparkle has art lessons sorted by grade, subject, and technique.
Easy Drawings for Kids- Step Step Drawing is great if simple drawings are what you are looking to learn.
Createful Kids is great for learning art skills as well as art history as you paint, sculpt, draw, and more.
An important part of art lessons is learning not just the various skills but about the artists behind the styles-Artist Study for Kids: Learn About 8 Artists with Free Printables
And now let’s dig into this fun beach glass art lesson.
BEACH GLASS ART
You will need:
- Tacky glue or hot glue
- Cardstock, mixed media paper
- Colorful beach glass
- Fine line pens
First, cut your paper to the correct size for your frame so that you know what space you have to work with.
Be sure to use sturdy cardstock that will hold up to the weight of the beach glass.
Decide on what image you are going to create with your beach glass.
Try different placements with various colors and shapes until you get an idea of what image you want to make.
The fun is pouring over all the colors, shapes, and sizes to decide where each one goes and how to lay out your picture.
Once you are happy with your picture add a small dab of glue to the back of each piece and press it into place, let the glue dry.
Use the fine line pen to add little details like grass, strings, or whatever other little details your images need.
Place the paper inside the frame without the pane of glass and reattach the back.
