Continuous Line

Fourth Grade
2 Class Periods

Continuous Line Cityscape, Fourth Grade Art Lesson

Prior to this lesson, students had a lesson that described the five types of line and how to vary that line to create more lines.  We used this lesson as a follow up to that lesson to help them think about line in another way.  I came across this lesson plan from a fellow colleague who has her own blog called One Crayola Short.  I give her complete credit for this lesson and only blog about it to share the creative results my students were able to come up with for it.

Day 1:
We began this project by discussing analogous color schemes (3 colors next to each other on the color wheel).  Students were allowed to pick one of the following analogous color schemes for their composition:  orange, yellow, green or yellow, green, blue or green, or they could choose between a warm or cool color scheme.

Students were then given a demonstration on how to create shapes from the construction paper to create a cityscape.  Students could create buildings, trees, and cars from the paper.

Day 2:
Together as a class we examined a book called Follow The Line by Laura Ljungkvist.  The drawings in the book use a continuous line for each page.  We used our fingers to trace the line and discuss how the pen never leaves the paper when drawing the line.

Students were instructed to use a black sharpie marker to create a continuous line in their cityscape. They had to think about how they would add windows, doors and other details without lifting their marker.  This step required more concentration than they had expected, but they also had so much fun creating the details.  For students that were a bit hesitant, I had them practice on a piece of scrap paper before tackling their final project.

Student using black sharpie marker to draw a continuous line.

Student Examples: