"I.B. Postcard Exchange" 4th Grade

Simis is on its way to becoming an International Baccalaureate school, and our 4th graders had a chance to see what an I.B. art project might look like.  We exchanged 35 regional postcards with Jefferson Lighthouse Elementary 4th graders in Racine, Wisconsin.  They are already an I.B. school, and we compared the process they used to create their postcards with ours.  Simis students learned about spacing, foreground, middleground, background and a shading technique called modeling.  They all used india ink to outline their drawings and colored pencils to show light, medium and dark values.  The students picked 5 from each class as representatives to send.  The students from Jefferson Lighthouse researched and wrote a report about an artist of their choice in their homeroom.  They created a postcard showing a Wisconsin scene in the style of their artist in the medium of their choice.  Our 4th graders compared their more open ended approach and how it contrasted with how we made our postcards.  Here are some examples:

SIMIS ELEMENTARY

JEFFERSON LIGHTHOUSE