The use of space during this stage varies greatly from beginning to end. Symbols are placed all over the plane. As the child's awareness develops the images begin to relate to the bottom of the edge of paper. This baseline is often shown as grass or a meaningful dark line. The base line is followed by a sky line shown normally as a blue line on or near the top of the paper.
Subject matter is placed between the two lines.
This demonstrates the child's awareness of up and down and how the child relates to its environment Sometimes multiple baselines are drawn with various symbols placed on them to express a more complex concept. It is not uncommon to see X-ray views during this stage. This is a method that allows the child to express the idea of something within another object. Multiple views - within one drawing two or more views are used to express a complex idea. This stage includes children from the fourth grade through the seventh and possibly the eight grade.