Grade 4 Art Activities for a Unit on Monet

I'm looking for ideas that will satisfy the grade 4 art curriculum. I have an "active" class which will easily 'fry' me if I try to do something they perceive as 'boring' so I'm begging for your help! Feel free to add anything! - a website link, a file (see upload file below) or just a short idea - I'll be most appreciative! I'll add my ideas too so that we'll have them for the future (as you can see...I don't have any ideas, yet!).

From Derek - mock haystack in 40 minutes

If it's Monet you're trying to do then talking about working out of doors and painting very quickly because the sun is changing the colours is what you want. If your room has a lot of windows and you have some finger paints around then setting up a mock haystack (could get them to make the haystack) and then painting it as the sun passes for the 40 min period would be Monet to a 'T'.

From Travis - Powerpoint Offering

Hey all! During my last placement in grade 5 I created a Powerpoint presentation on the Group of Seven and had the students just give me their thoughts on the works I showed. I found that my entire class was very enthusiastic and eager to give their two cents worth. Also, the laptop and projector seemed to catch some kids interest as well. After the slideshow I reviewed some of the key elements that made a Group of Seven work unique. The students were then given the opportnity to create a work of their own in the style of the Group of Seven. This type of a lesson could easily be modified for any artist of your choosing. If you want a copy of my slideshow and lesson plan just email me tazgarde@rogers.com

Good luck!

Travis

Thoughts from Dr. Doug

I'd try and get in their shoes. The 'cool' factor may help. By this, I mean stressing the rebellious nature of Impressionism at the onstart, how folks thought it was 'out to lunch'. Analogies can be made to other artists from the past (Picasso) and then, it's very important to stretch this to contemporary artists. I'd extend this to musicians they know and appreciate today.

Therefore, storytelling about the 'rebel', Monet, in modern language at the onset might peak their interest. You could prentend you're him or I'd tell a dynamic and engaging story about this great, cool guy who was a rebel!

I'd keep the unit quite simple and have them copy his style early on and experiment with colours. They should display their work prominently in the school somewhere - either in the classroom or corridor. Create a gallery and invite the principal and VP, and other classes to view their work. I'd even invite their folks to come in.

If you or they know a local artist, what a great occasion to have a guest speaker for the 2nd class!! The 3rd class I might have each research a bio of an impressionist. Then I'd have a class or two where they might create a comic around his-her life!

Sounds like fun!

Lastly, I'd have them try their own Impressionist art or something inspired by it. Remember multiple intelligences? I'd vary activities and let them choose if they want to do a poem (verbal-linguistic), act out a scene from a Monet painting (bodily-kinetic), sing a song about Monet in hip

hop style (musical), etc.

Thay'd have ablast. Its all about motivation. Each lesson in the unit should be carefully planned, structured, and timed. Review cooperative learning under Resources on my website here: http://www.nipissingu.ca/faculty/douglasg/EDUC4464/resources.htm

From Aaron Smith

When doing Impressionism lessons in the past my biggest problem was that many students still wanted to include TOO MUCH detail in their own paintings. (Most elementary kids still hold Realism as their ideal when it comes to creating art, even if all your examples are a different style.) I often worked around this by giving them only large paintbrushes or, in some cases, sponges. This forced them to use larger blobs of color rather than wasting all their time on the details.

From Sue...

Hey, Thanks everyone, so far... - I'm thinking I might combine the ideas - During my next lesson (this Friday), I will show a powerpoint and model "art talk" for the first few slides and then I'll follow Travis' lead and get the students 'impressions'. For the culminating art class (probably next Friday), where I have a 100 minute block ... what about Art Centres -- Here's my idea... I'm thinking about having the students create three mini-monets on 4x5 card-stock paper (colour...the student's choice). They will rotate through three art centres during the period. During my Drama and Language Arts classes over the next week, I will also add many of Dr. Doug's ideas so the students have a good understanding of Monet and his paintings.

RATIONAL: SMALL CANVAS: I'm thicking a small 'canvas' (4x6) would not be intimidating and can be 'completed' in a shorter time. The students will also be able to show and protect their mini-monet's in a photograph page protector. NO-BRUSH PAINTING UTENSILS - I'm thinking of following Aaron's lead and not give the student's paintbrushes so there is a stronger focus on an "IMPRESSION" of a what they are seeing (or should I say, expression!). Although Monet did use a paintbrush and not sticks and sponges, I'm also thinking the sponges could provide a Monet-like effect for the image. The idea of limiting the painting time at each session goes back to how Money would try to capture the essence of the landscape in one setting.

Centre #1

-will have a mock haystack (creating that should be a lot of fun!!), a few choices of thick-ish paint and a thin tall wooden coffee stir stick to paint with. The students will use the stir stick to paint the haystack in the 15-20 minutes they have for that centre.

Centre #2

-students will be surrounded by Monet Water Lily paintings - and the students will be asked to paint their "impression" of any, all or none! For these paintings the students will be provided with make-up sponges that have very fine edges and points.

Centre #3

-Students will have an opportunity to paint a subject of their choice - I will provide landscape shots, more lily shots, flowers, and other examples from Monet's painting. For this station as well, they will get sponges but different ones from Centre #2.

WELL???? What do you think? Will this work?

Aaron Smith says:

I think the centres idea is a good one. The last time I taught impressionism I had 75 minutes to introduce Impressionism and have the students create paintings. I managed to pull it off and have each student create two (or in some cases three or four) paintings on 9x12 paper.

With your kids using 4x6 cardstock (good choice, as drawing paper gets soggy fast) they might finish all three centres early. In my experience the students should be content to just make more paintings (so I'd have more cardstock ready), although a wrap-up activity (perhaps something from puzzlemaker.com?) might also be useful.