Once Upon A Time . . .

Fourth Grade
Name Logos
Using a thick sheet of tin, which is similar to foil you might have at home, but more durable, fourth graders create an eye catching logo for a company. We use their initials as the text, including bright colors, striking design, and simple layout in the style of real logos. We etched and engraved into the tin with our pencils, but commercial tin foil would surely get punctured. The one part you can take from this project at home is that sharpies are transparent, and, once dry, won't smudge when drawn on metal. The colors look lovely and vibrant, so try drawing on foil with sharpies!

Clay Shoes












This unit draws from the previous one, including the company and logo aspects into the creation of a prototype shoe. We first do an observational drawing of our own shoes. Then, paying close attention to details like the sole, tongue, toe, laces, stitching, straps, logos, and embellishments, we design a new shoe to create from clay. We built these shoes from red earthenware, but if you don't happen to have a kiln at home, you could try it with air dry clay. Crayola Model Magic is one example- it's easy to find and may be painted or colored with marker if desired. The marker looks a bit sloppy in my opinion, but if you want to avoid mess I think it's the way you'd want to go. These shoes are close to a toddler shoe size in real life.


Self Portrait Eyes
The eyes as a subject for self portrait make a nice transition into learning to draw realistically without being as intimidating as a whole face.I took pictures of the students' eyes and also provided mirrors to assist. We talked about the different ways our eyes and eybrows change shape when we make facial expressions, and also identified the eyebrow, lash, lid, pupil, iris, sclera, and tear duct so each of those details could be included in the drawings. For a bit of fun, we crafted some glasses from construction paper and glued them onto little bits of corrugated cardboard, to lift them away from the eyes and leave a shadow, like real glasses might.