Third and Fourth Graders Search for Painting Ideas

Each student has already built a 16 inch by 16 inch framed canvas on which to paint. In order to find ideas for the canvases, the third and fourth graders have been going on excursions. The children have visited the middle school campus and the Mid-Pacific Institute botanical nursery. Our next excursion will be a trip to Manoa Falls!

The children are working hard to draw from their  observation of people, objects, and images in books. The Smartboard has proved itself to be an invaluable research tool and an excellent image-transferring tool.

In the above images, C.S. draws a fern while visiting the MPI nursery and B.O. uses charcoal to draw a friend sitting across from her. In the image to the right, S.H. receives help from classmates E.S. and A.S. to trace the outlines of a black-crowned night heron. One class has decided to focus their paintings on the native and alien bird species of Hawaii. Some students are paying particular attention to the endangered birds of the island.

Be sure to check the Art Photo gallery to the right to view more images of the students' ideas thus far.