My Two Sides, 4th Grade

 I have been trying to teach differently this year.  Instead of focusing solely on skill based art lessons, I am now attempting to take a more meaningful approach to teaching art.  This year my lessons will be focusing on the theme, My Place in This World.  The idea is to have students create art that relate directly to their life, their experiences, their feelings, and their world.

My fourth graders spent about a month working on these paintings. In this lesson, students created a self portrait that shows both who they are on the outside, and how they feel on the inside.  In order to understand the meaning behind their art, I am having all 2nd through 5th graders write artist statements about their work.

I really like these, and my students are very proud of their creations.  I am still learning to loosen up my teaching style, and allow for more creativity, but I think this was a good start to this years theme.