Artist Trading Cards

Grade 4 students had a blast with this year’s Artist Trading Card unit. They inquired into the central idea of investigation leads to possibilities under the theme of Sharing the Planet.

The students started off the unit by investigating a variety of materials and mixed media to find out which mark making techniques they enjoyed working with. They kept a record of their experiments in their sketchbooks to use as a reference.

 

As the students continued investigating techniques, they were introduced to Artist Trading Cards or ATC’s. Artist Trading Cards are 2.5 x 3.5 inches and are created for a variety of reasons using multiple layers and different mediums. Most importantly, Artist Trading Cards are meant to be traded.

This year Grade 4 students had an exciting opportunity to trade their cards with a school in Iowa, USA. They were absolutely thrilled to send their cards overseas from China! The students were required to donate one card to send to the United States and donate another card to trade with Grade 4 students at our school. They were able to keep the rest of their collection.

Their next artistic challenge was to create a series of cards based on a specific theme, message, or global issue of their choice. They designed their cards with their message in mind and chose specific materials from their technique investigations.

The students did a fantastic job creating quality Artist Trading Cards with a variety of materials and special messages. They had so much fun trading and receiving cards from a different country and each other. I can’t wait to do this unit again!