Change & Identity

Grades 4-5

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Each lesson of our artworks journey relates to “Who am I? What do I love? Who could I be? And what have I learned about myself?," ultimately all relating back to the major themes of change and identity.

The overarching idea of our lesson is an attempt to change our students' perception of art utilizing themes of identity. Our students were confronted with their idea of art being successful when it is representational in nature, while learning proportion and other technical skills related to realism. We later introduced them to different more expressive forms of portraiture in order to soothe the frustration of lesson one and encourage spontaneity and freedom in art-making. 

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In lesson one, students created a self-portrait utilizing realism, a method of art they best associate with success, while learning proportion, observation, and using the pencil as a measuring tool. Lesson two and three then come in in an attempt to introduce more loose and expressive means of art the students were less likely to have experienced. Students made self-portraits in the form of a paper mask that they collaged with characteristics about themselves in order to tell the story “who am I”. Students learned about color, depth, and texture during the process of creating their compositions. Finally lesson three and four involved paper mache avatars made with the prompt “who could I be”. Students learned about the translation of 2D elements in their drawings into a 3D object, and painted their paper mache the next lesson with a brief demonstration on paint mixing, application, and a review on color theory. They then reflected on their journeys over the 4 weeks and talked about what they learned, likes and dislikes, and the harsh reality that art is sometimes painful, but it doesn’t have to be.