Miss Arty Pants: One Point Perspective

Fourth Grade Art Lesson One Point Perspective

I introduced fourth grade to the concept of one point perspective. I started by letting them take some guesses as to what it meant and they were pretty close with their guesses. Most of them based their definitions off of the word "perspective" and their knowledge that it had to do with how you see something.

Once we had the definition down, we put our knowledge to work. This lesson was also a good opportunity for me to show students how to hold and use a ruler as a straight edge. I think it is an important skill to have, especially in art, and without this demonstration, a lot of them get tangled up in their own arms! I had them make an eight sided shape somewhere on the top half of their paper and draw a small dot (or "point") anywhere on the bottom half of their paper. We discussed how to match up the corners from the shape down to the point and how to know which ones to draw and which ones would be behind the three-dimensional version of the shape if it were real.

We also took this as an opportunity to play with lines and shapes within patterns and designs. In each section created from matching corners to the point, they were to draw a different design or pattern.

The kids did a great job and were eager to show off their one point perspective skills during their finished early time too! Many of them played around with drawing more shapes and even letters in one point perspective! It's fun to see them take a lesson and run with it by exploring other options. I wish I had taken some pictures of their free time perspective drawings, they were pretty impressive!

Fall of 2014 Variation and Examples:

I taught the same great lesson to my 4th graders this year but I switched it up a little. This time, I offered them a challenge. If they did not want to do the 8-sided shape, they could do their name (or a word) in block letters...in One Point Perspective! A lot of the kids were excited about that option and accepted the challenge. Here are some of my (well, actually my students') results: