Grade 4: Look Up, Look Down, Look All Around
Fourth graders are learning how artists use perspective to make flat drawings look three-dimensional. In their latest art unit, “Look Up, Look Down, Look All Around,” students discovered how the placement of lines and shapes can create the illusion of depth, making a picture appear as if it stretches into the distance.
Through close study of Renaissance masterpieces such as Raphael’s “School of Athens” and Perugino’s “Delivery of the Keys,” students learned how horizon lines and vanishing points help organize a picture, showing where the sky meets the ground and leading the viewer’s eye toward a single point.
Students then applied what they learned to their own perspective drawings, using strategies like overlapping, scaling, and positioning to show distance. Each piece reflected a unique viewpoint: looking down a hole, up at a tree or skyscraper, or down a hallway. The project encouraged students to experiment with how changing their point of view can completely change the story a picture tells.
Graland Country Day School
Graland Country Day School is a private school in Denver, Colorado, serving students in preschool, kindergarten, elementary, and middle school. Founded in Denver in 1927, Graland incorporates a rich, experiential learning approach in a traditional classroom setting, emphasizing the development of globally and socially conscious leaders who excel academically.
