1. Teaching Critical Thinking Strategies in the Classroom through Aesthetic ExperiencesExpressing Emotions By Kelly Olson

2. Objectives Students will: Discuss different works of art and how the artist(s) expressed emotions in their artwork. Listen to and act out a story about various emotions with their classmates. Discuss different emotions they have learned about through the art and literature shared in class. Choose an emotion to express on one’s face and capture it in a digital photograph. Use crayons and watercolors to create art that shows the emotion captured in their photograph. Write a sentence that describes the emotion show in their artwork and photograph.

3. Day 1: Artwork View and discuss emotions in the art collection from the website http://www.artsconnected.org/resource/102480/olson-art-collection-emotions

4. Day 1 (cont.): Story Read the story The Way I Feel by Janan Cain and discuss the emotions included in the story.

5. Day 2: Drama & Photography Students act out The Way I Feel as it is being reread. A digital picture is taken of each student showing an emotion of their choice.

6. Day 3: Create Art Students create a portrait using crayons and watercolors to show the emotion in their digital picture.

7. Day 3 (cont.): Writing Students write a sentence to describe the emotion shown in their digital photograph and artwork.

8. Day 4: Showcase Students share their final projects with each others through a class slideshow.

9. Rubric The rubric I designed to assess each students success and involvement in the project.

10. Resources Cain, Janan. (2000). The way I feel. Seattle, WA: Parenting Press, Inc. Minneapolis Institute of Arts. (n.d). Artsconnected: Tools for teaching the arts. Retrieved July 27, 2009 from http://www.artsconnected.org/ Slideshare. http://www.slideshare.net/

11. Final Thoughts I am excited to teach this unit to my students during the school year. I feel the use of art will enhance their learning by providing interest and enjoyment to the lessons. Students will learn about themselves and others through the artistic elements of the unit, thus strengthening their understanding of people and emotions.