Overview
Fourth-grade students experience Arts instruction through the broad integration of arts throughout the school day, as well as through stand-alone visual and performing arts lessons that happen throughout the week. Stand-alone arts lessons are taught by you, the classroom teacher, and via instruction from itinerant visual and performing arts teachers. Fourth grade also marks the first year of specialized instrumental music instruction (violin, clarinet, trumpet, and flute) offered in SFUSD.
In fourth grade, students create through various stimuli (music/sound, text, objects, images, and symbols). Students are incorporating and considering the ideas, contributions, space, and feedback of their classmates. Fourth-grade students answer open-ended questions and are adding more details to develop their own creations. They are able to talk about what they did and what thinking went into their creative process. They listen to one another and appreciate different approaches and artworks.
Priority Standards
What students will know, what students will do, and what thinking skills students will develop to apply and transfer artistic understandings that endure within the discipline, leverage deeper understandings, and/or support readiness for success at the next grade level.
In fourth grade focus on these critical areas:
Exploring the cycle of creating, presenting & performing, responding, and connecting to works of art
Expressing with increasing creativity, complexity, and depth through 2D and 3D visual art
Expressing through creative movement and creative expression
Creating music through instruments, voice, or with objects
Instruction: Signature Elements
Below are signature elements of SFUSD Arts instruction that students should experience regularly throughout fourth grade as they develop as artists (visual artists, dancers, actors, musicians, and creative thinkers).
Open-ended Inquiry Exploration
Students respond to/investigate an image, a rhythm, a dance, or media using an inquiry-based set of questions. Questions might lead students to perceive or determine what message and/or mood is being communicated. Suggested thinking routines and resource: 4 Cs and Elaboration Game, sentence starters.
Creating: How artists work and what materials they use
Students investigate their own selves and cultures. They also investigate cross-cultural approaches to storytelling and creating works of art that connect to and reflect community and culture. Students explore and invent art-making techniques and approaches. They collaboratively set goals and produce artwork, performances, and exhibitions that are meaningful and have purpose for the makers. Students are engaged in multi-week creative investigations and technical projects/performances. During the creative process, students consider and revise artistic works based on peer feedback.
Presenting & Performing: How artists share artwork with others
Fourth-grade students explain and demonstrate how personal interests, experiences, ideas, community, and culture relate to creating and performing. Fourth-grade students perform and create finished works of art with expression and technical accuracy. They use discipline-specific art vocabulary to describe personal choices and present artistic work to peers as an audience who reflect on the presentation.
Responding: What we can learn about ourselves and our world by observing art
Through observation, fourth-grade students infer information about the time, place, and culture in which a work of art was created. They create in response to community and social issues, and they are incorporating other content areas in artistic work. Students are using specific vocabulary to interpret art by analyzing characteristics of form, structure, context, and the artist’s life. Fourth-grade students are learning about the roles and responsibilities of a curator or producer; they can explain the skills and knowledge needed in preserving, documenting, and presenting artwork.
Connecting: How art helps us understand the lives of people, of different times, places and cultures
At this age, students compare and contrast multiple personal experiences when participating in or observing an artistic work. Students come together to make one artwork or performance. They are considering multiple ways to create, and appreciate different approaches and the variety of ideas coming from classmates. Groups of students are investigating and collaborating to generate new ideas - taking risks and experimenting with various materials and tools to explore personal interests.
Structured Talk & Reflection Throughout
At the beginning, middle, and end of the time, students respond to open-ended questions, use turn-and-talk, gallery walks, and closing circles to view, celebrate and ask questions about peers' work. They also have moments to pause and also reflect on their own process. Closing discussions: “Tell me about what you created” What did you notice when you saw your classmates’ work? When your classmate made music, what made you go wow? What surprised you? What would you do differently next time?”
Materials
Below are items you should have to support your students' Arts instruction (make a copy). If you are missing anything from the list, please first contact your site administrator or site Arts Coordinator. Every school has an Arts Coordinator who can guide you and support you in accessing lessons or purchasing your classroom materials for the arts. If they are unable to resolve the issue promptly, please contact Emily Aldama or Ronnie Machado from the SFUSD Arts Team. Your Checklist (Make a copy for yourself)
- Projector with speakers or large screen with Apple TV
- Materials for drawing in black and white: Pencils, Pens, Black felt-tip markers
- Materials for drawing in color: Colored Pencils, Crayons, Markers
- Paints: Watercolors, tempera paint, or paint crayons
- White drawing paper - 9x12, 12x18, or 18x24
- Color papers: Color copy paper, construction paper, and/or colored tissue paper
- Scissors
- Tape
- White glue, Glue Sticks
- Any type of clay (Model Magic, Airdry clay, or modeling) and plastic utensils, toothpicks, etc. for clay tools
- String or thread
- Cardboard
- Brown paper bags
- Objects to draw: shells, leaves, seed pods, rocks, blocks, toys, etc
- Drying rack or area to store art
PERFORMING ARTS (Dance, Music, Theatre):
- A space clear of furniture/obstacles where students can move freely and safely
- Speaker / CD player
- Projector / Whiteboard / Smartboard
- Hand Drum
- Instrumental music tracks for movement
- Chiffon Scarves
- Ribbon sticks
- Chart paper/index cards
- Markers, pencils
- Painters’ tape (optional)
- Any song, (Melody, Lyrics); internet
- Rhythm Sticks
- Classroom percussion/rhythm instruments (shaker, bell, hand drum)/found sound sources
- Known poems, nursery rhymes, songs
- Various classroom instruments (if available)
- Rhythm cards and manipulatives to represent note values (e.g., popsicle sticks, paper cutouts, etc.)
Planning Guide
There is no planning guide for fourth-grade Arts.
Reflection Questions
- How are students' developmental needs, communities, and experiences being reflected and honored, or how could they be?
- What opportunities do you see for developing equitable access & demand, inquiry, collaboration, and assessment for learning?
- What are the implications for your own practice? What strengths can you build upon? What will you do first?
Want More?
Standards
Frameworks to Support Arts Instruction
Contact the Arts Team
This page was last updated on May 18, 2023