Home Class Tools 50 Inspiring Fourth Grade Art Projects for Creative Kids

50 Inspiring Fourth Grade Art Projects for Creative Kids

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Fourth grade art students are ready for new challenges, like trying out perspective or exploring tessellations. These projects are all well within their abilities but will also encourage your students to push themselves to create cool new works of art they’ll be proud to take home and show off!

Collage of simple self-portraits done in bright colors (Fourth Grade Art Projects)
Cassie Stephens

1. Go colorful with Fauve portraits

Artists of the Fauve school favored bright colors and bold lines, so their work really appeals to kids. Use bingo daubers to make the portraits, then oil pastels and liquid watercolors to create the colorful backgrounds.

Learn more: Fourth Grade Fauves

Accordion-folded paper with a regular portrait when viewed from one angle and a weird version from a second angle
The Falcon Academy of Creative Arts

2. Fold zigzag selfies

Your fourth grade art students will be wowed by the illusion of this portrait project. They’ll create two different pictures of themselves on accordion-folded paper. When they unfold it, they’ll be able to see each portrait depending on the angle from which they look.

Learn more: Zig Zag Paintings

Painted nighttime winter scene with full moon and snowman and tree silhouettes (Fourth Grade Art Projects)
Tiny Art Room

3. Blend snowy silhouettes

Learn to blend tints and shades with these winter landscapes, featuring full moons and silhouettes of trees, snowmen, and other wintry objects.

Learn more: Snowy Silhouettes

Landscape drawings made with simple lines and bright colors
Jamestown Elementary School

4. Learn the parts of a landscape

Teach your students terms like foreground, middle ground, and horizon as they create these patterned landscapes. They’ll also learn to use warm colors to make some elements pop and cool colors when they want something to recede into the background.

Learn more: Landscapes

Collage of construction paper pirate ships with painted patterned backgrounds (Fourth Grade Art Projects)
Deep Space Sparkle

5. Sail mighty pirate ships

Students will have fun painting textured waves to back their fearsome construction paper pirate ships. Challenge them to personalize their sails with their own insignia too.

Learn more: Pirate Ships

Butterfly made with glue lines on foil, colored in with markers
Denette Fretz

6. Add texture with glue

Aluminum foil makes a really cool canvas for art projects. Use school glue to “draw” insect art, then fill in the colors with Sharpies.

Learn more: Butterfly Art

Kid-drawn background resembling The Scream, with photo of kid pretending to scream in front (Fourth Grade Art Projects)
Art With Mrs. Seitz

7. Put your students in The Scream

Munch’s The Scream is one of the most well-known pieces of art in the world. Learn more about the original painting, then have kids paint their own backgrounds. Finish it off by taking “Scream selfies” and pasting them on!

Learn more: The Scream

Boldly drawn tiger head with a rainbow background (Fourth Grade Art Projects)
Elements of the Art Room

8. Make Dean Russo–inspired animals

Dean Russo’s vivid pet portraits have become incredibly popular, and they’re exactly the kind of style that appeals to kids. This is another fourth grade art lesson that’s perfect for using bingo daubers to make the bold outlines.

Learn more: Dean Russo–Inspired Animals

Seahorse in pastel colors pasted on black construction paper
The Crafty Classroom

9. Assemble colorful seahorses

These dreamy seahorses are made using bleeding tissue paper to achieve the soft watercolor effect. When you glue them onto black construction paper, the colored panels practically seem to glow.

Learn more: Seahorse Art Project

Watercolor seascape painted on torn book pages with construction paper ships (Fourth Grade Art Projects)
Mrs. Jackson’s Art Room

10. Turn book pages into a seascape

Collect some old textbooks and turn them into bounding ocean waves! Dab the torn pages with watercolors, then add boats of various sizes to create the illusion of depth.

Collage of animals on cloth made using toothpaste batik method (Fourth Grade Art Projects)
Art Is Basic

11. Try a toothpaste batik

The traditional batik process involves wax, but this version uses a surprise substitute: toothpaste! Learn how it works at the link.

Learn more: Toothpaste Batik

Two figures sculpted from aluminum foil, with their shadows drawn below
Mrs. Knight’s Smartest Artists

12. Sculpt figures from foil

Turn a box of aluminum foil into cool sculpted figures. After your students make their figures, have them draw and shade the shadows the figures make.

Learn more: Gesture Drawings in 3D

Collage of colorful folded paper patterns (Fourth Grade Art Projects)
Art With Mrs. Nguyen

13. Craft radial paper relief sculptures

Explore the concept of radial symmetry with this intriguing folded-paper project. Visit the link below to learn some basic folds, but don’t be afraid to try out creative shapes of your own.

Learn more: Paper Relief Sculptures

Pizza slices made of fabric and covered with colorful toppings
Cassie Stephens

14. Sew giant pizza pillows

Who’s ready for a pizza party? Let your creative juices (and taste buds!) run wild with this tasty fourth-grade art project that looks fun and delicious.

Learn more: Fourth Grade Pizza Pillows

Large wave painted in shades of blues and green (Fourth Grade Art Projects)
2 Soul Sisters Art Ed Blog

15. Mix paint for giant Hokusai waves

Japanese artist Hokusai is best known for his series of woodblock prints of Mount Fuji, including The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Fourth grade art students will enjoy mixing acrylic paints to get the proper shades to re-create this iconic marine scene.

Learn more: Hokusai Wave Art Lesson

Tessellated dogs bright colors with the image of a child's handing holding a pencil pasted on top
Art With Mrs. Seitz

16. Draw Escher-inspired tessellations

Get ready to see your students’ eyes widen when you show them M.C. Escher’s mind-bending illustrations. Then challenge them to create their own tessellations, which are repeating patterns that cover a page with no gaps or overlaps. It’s tricky, but oh-so satisfying!

Learn more: MC Escher Tessellations

Art showing a student falling backward with the feet and hands large in the foreground (Fourth Grade Art Projects)
Education.com

17. Put together free-fall foreshortening art

Fourth grade art students are ready to tackle some more advanced concepts, like foreshortening an object to produce the illusion of distance. These free-falling portraits emphasize hands and feet, creating an interesting, foreshortened perspective.

Learn more: Make Free-Fall Foreshortening Art

Portrait of a fourth grade art student made using words
Flying Crayons

18. Write typography self-portraits

Make some time in your curriculum for graphic arts like typography. This self-portrait is a combination of poetry and art, and the results are truly special.

Learn more: Typography Self-Portraits

Close-up of a dragon eye made with watercolor resist and colored pencil
Emily Kerbaugh

19. Shade close-up dragon eyes

Your fourth grade art students will develop a whole bunch of new skills with this project. Plus, those dragon eyes are simply mesmerizing!

Get tutorial: Dragon Eye Painting at Art With Mrs. F on YouTube

Abstract paper sculpture in red, white, and blue
The Art Room

20. Cut out Dubuffet sculptures

Dubuffet took great inspiration from watching kids create, eventually coining the term art brut, sometimes called outsider art. After looking at some of his work, ask kids to use paper to make a free-flowing abstract sculpture of their own.

Learn more: Dubuffet Sculptures

Four different patterned circles, split into quarters and reassembled (Fourth Grade Art Projects)
Kandinsky Inspired

21. Split and share circles

Collaborative art projects give kids a chance to work together and share their creativity. For this one, each student creates one Kandinsky-inspired circle and cuts it into four pieces. Then kids mix and match with each other to put together unique compositions.

Learn more: Concentric Circles

Colorful 3-D gems outlined and filled in with paint
Elements of the Art Room

22. Outline and paint 3D gems

Use the magic of crystals and gems to inspire students for this watercolor project. Show them the basic steps, then let them compose their own valuable collections.

Learn more: 4th Grade Gems & Crystals

Collection of clay sculptures of rocks with sea stars and urchins (Fourth Grade Art Projects)
Nic Hahn

23. Dive deep for undersea sculptures

Everything’s better under the sea, including these gorgeous clay sculptures. Use photos of tide pools to inspire fourth grade students to mold starfish, urchins, seaweed, and more.

Learn more: Underwater Clay Sculptures

Collage of drawings of various shapes, exploding out from a central point (Fourth Grade Art Projects)
Mrs. Knight’s Smartest Artists

24. Create a shape explosion

Here’s another lesson in perspective, this one focusing on the vanishing point. For a personalized twist on this idea, have kids sketch the letters of their name instead of using shapes.

Learn more: Shape Explosion

Collage of watercolor paintings with dandelion seed heads
Art With Mrs. Filmore

25. Float away with dandelion puffs

One look at these paintings and you’ll feel like you’re sitting in a sunny meadow on a warm summer’s day. Kids use the wet-on-wet technique to create those soft misty backgrounds.

Learn more: Dandelion Puffs

Six colorful donuts made from papier-mâché sitting on a silver tray
Wow Art Project

26. Snack on papier-mâché donuts

These donuts look yummy, but don’t be tempted to take a taste! Instead, drop by the link below for some donut art inspiration, then shape your own sweet treats from papier-mâché.

Learn more: Papier-Mâché Donuts

Drawing of a snowman, looking down from the top in a birds-eye view (Fourth Grade Art Projects)
Art With Mrs. Nguyen

27. Look down on birds-eye view snowmen

Viewed from the top, snowmen are just a series of concentric circles. Practice shading to add depth to each circle, then add a scarf, arms, and snowman features to finish it off.

Learn more: Bird’s-Eye View Snowmen

Colorful construction paper totem poles showing a variety of animals
Welcome to Art Class

28. Explore indigenous art with totem poles

Make this art lesson meaningful by learning why and how some Native American tribes make totems. Then have each student choose an animal that’s important to them and build their own class totem poles.

Learn more: Totem Pole Animals

Flat castle made of textured clay painted silver
K-8 Art

29. Construct clay castles

Have some royal fun with these textured clay castles. Metallic glazes and glittering pennants make this a project that really shines.

Learn more: Clay Castles

Penguin and hot chocolate mug painted and stitched on burlap
Art Is Basic

30. Stitch and paint on burlap

Here’s a project that’s likely different from anything kids have tried before. First, paint a design on burlap. Then, stitch on some embellishments with colored thread. The results are unique and awesome!

Learn more: Stitching on Burlap

Craft with recycled Shrinky Dinks (Fourth Grade Art Projects)
As for Me and My Homestead

31. Craft with recycled Shrinky Dinks

Turn recycling into a fun art lesson with DIY recycled Shrinky Dinks. This project allows students to repurpose plastic into vibrant, shrinkable art, teaching sustainability alongside creativity.

Learn more: DIY Recycled Shrinky Dinks

Doodle desert masterpieces
The Lost Sock

32. Doodle desert masterpieces

This project combines art fundamentals like concentric circles, contour lines, line variety, color blending, and watercolor control. Students start by sketching cacti and landscapes, then outline their drawings with permanent markers, filling it in with detailed doodles and color washes for a stunning effect.

Learn more: Doodle Desert

Sow succulent garden still lifes (Fourth Grade Art Projects)
Art With Mrs. Nguyen​

33. Sow succulent garden still lifes

Inspire students with the resilience of desert life. This project blends art with nature, as students study succulents and their adaptations to create beautiful, vivid artworks.

Learn more: Succulent Garden Still Lifes​

Create drip paintings like Pollock (Fourth Grade Art Projects)
Dali’s Moustache

34. Create drip paintings like Pollock

Dive into the action-packed world of abstract art with drip paintings inspired by Jackson Pollock. This project lets students splash, drizzle, and pour paint, embracing spontaneity and movement to create their own vibrant masterpieces.

Learn more: Jackson Pollock Drip Painting/Weaving Revisited

Craft mixed media leaf collages
Barley & Birch

35. Craft mixed-media leaf collages

Explore the beauty of nature with a twist by creating mixed-media leaf collages from photocopies. This project invites students to collect leaves, then use photocopies of these leaves as the basis for vibrant, layered art pieces. By adding paint, texture, and creativity, each collage turns into a stunning exploration of the natural world’s intricate patterns and shapes.

Learn more: Mixed-Media Leaf Art Collage

Make chalk pastel jellyfish art
Projects With Kids

36. Make chalk pastel jellyfish art

Brighten up the classroom with a colorful chalk pastel jellyfish art project. Using black paper, students will draw and color their own jellyfish, learning to blend colors and create light-and-shadow effects that make their art pop.

Learn more: Chalk Pastel Jellyfish Art Project

Explore paper-weaving techniques
The Kitchen Table Classroom

37. Explore paper-weaving techniques

Introduce students to the world of weaving with an easy and colorful paper-weaving project. They’ll start by cutting slits in one piece of paper and weaving strips of different-colored paper through the slits. This project not only teaches basic weaving patterns but also allows for creativity in color and texture combinations.

Learn more: Paper Weaving

Learn to draw landscapes in perspective
Art Projects for Kids

38. Learn to draw landscapes in perspective

Introduce students to perspective drawing with a landscape art project. They’ll learn how to create depth by drawing a road that narrows into the distance, along with trees that gradually decrease in size, resulting in a captivating scene that looks like it’s far away.

Learn more: How To Draw Landscapes in Perspective

Assemble 3D paper doodlebug insects
The Craft Train

39. Assemble 3D paper doodlebug insects

Create intricate 3D paper doodlebugs that spring to life on a leaf. This crafty project encourages students to design, color, and construct their own doodlebug using a printable template, fostering a blend of artistic creativity and scientific curiosity.

Learn more: 3D Paper Doodlebug Insect Craft

Create bird silhouette art
Arty Crafty Kids

40. Create bird silhouette art

Capture the beauty of a sunset with bird silhouette art. This project encourages children to observe color changes in the sky, blend paints to create depth, and use templates for striking bird silhouettes against a vibrant background.

Learn more: Bird Silhouette Art Project

Craft Victorian houses
Art With Mrs. Filmore

41. Craft Victorian houses

Dive into history and architecture by designing Victorian houses. Using colored pencils, students draw houses with detailed gables, turrets, and trim, learning about this historic style’s unique features.

Learn more: Victorian Architecture

Draw half portraits
Art Projects for Kids

42. Draw half portraits

Learn to draw half portraits with a step-by-step guide that simplifies facial features. This project encourages attention to detail in drawing one side of the face, making it perfect for understanding symmetry and proportions.

Learn more: Half Portraits

Sketch mythical dragons
Art Projects for Kids

43. Sketch mythical dragons

Unleash creativity by sketching mythical dragons, following a simple tutorial that breaks down the process into easy steps. This activity encourages students to play with shapes and details, creating their own dragon characters.

Learn more: How To Draw a Dragon

Paint a watercolor flower garden
Deep Space Sparkle

44. Paint a watercolor flower garden

This project invites kids to draw and paint a vibrant watercolor flower garden. Starting with simple flower shapes drawn on watercolor paper, they outline their designs with a white crayon or oil pastel before painting over them with liquid watercolors, allowing for a beautiful resist effect.

Learn more: Watercolor Flower Garden

Make bunny paper bag puppets
CraftyThinking

45. Make bunny paper bag puppets

Craft adorable bunny paper bag puppets using simple materials. This engaging project sparks creativity and provides a playful arts-and-crafts experience for kids.

Learn more: Bunny Paper Bag Puppet

Create winter tree silhouettes
Deep Space Sparkle

46. Create winter tree silhouettes

Capture the quiet beauty of winter with silhouetted trees against a vivid watercolor sunset. This project teaches color blending and contrast.

Learn more: Winter Tree Silhouette

Weave Mexican sun and moon artworks
Cassie Stephens

47. Weave Mexican sun and moon artworks

Craft stunning Mexican sun-and-moon weavings, blending metal relief art with colorful yarn weaving. This project celebrates Mexican culture and introduces students to mixed-media art, combining sculpture, painting, and weaving techniques.

Learn more: Mexican Sun and Moon Weavings

Craft folk art winter trees
Deep Space Sparkle

48. Craft folk art winter trees

This project has students creating vibrant winter trees using Sharpies and watercolors, embodying folk art’s charm. A simple yet engaging activity perfect for exploring line, pattern, and color techniques during the chilly months.

Learn more: Winter Folk Art Trees

Create funny balloon faces
Kids Art & Craft

49. Create funny balloon faces

Float into a world of laughter with funny balloon faces. With these adorable fourth grade art projects, kids explore their creativity by attaching colorful card-stock facial features to balloons to craft whimsical characters.

Learn more: Funny Balloon Faces Craft

Craft 4th grade snowflakes
Cassie Stephens

50. Craft papel picado snowflakes

Explore papel picado–inspired snowflakes, merging this traditional Mexican art with a fun, wintry twist. Students create unique paper designs, enhancing their cutting skills and cultural appreciation.

Learn more: Snowflakes

Keep the creativity flowing with these 4th Grade Writing Prompts.

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