Grade 4 • Visual Art How to Support Your Child

Grade 4 Visual Arts

How To Support Your Child

At this grade level, students begin to grasp the purpose and meaning of making art.  Students are more aware of art vocabulary and processes involved with creating art.  The experience in the classroom is defined by introducing new forms of art-making and explaining why artists use specific techniques to answer art problems.

Investigating and exploring new materials, vocabulary, and processes enrich the learning experience:

• Take a field trip to an art museum.  Most museums have child-centered activities like scavenger hunts, mini-workshops where kids can make art related to a theme, or tours that allow for exploration that would be of interest.
• Keep playing and exploring: Be resourceful and use found or recycled objects to build a sculpture.
• Build on your child’s interest in art by applying what they learn in the classroom to the real world as well as their interests.  Artists exist in many forms (ex: cooks, engineers, architects, surgeons,  graphic designers, etc). Have your young artists investigate the world around them on a car ride by pointing out as many art forms that they can find.
• Build a curious mindset: Never stop asking “Why?” It is important to question an artist’s decision making.  Always ask how art can evoke curiosity, feeling, or story.
• Celebrate your child’s artwork – hang their drawings on the wall or save it in a folder.  That way, your child feels that their creation is important.