4th Grade About Me Grade 4 Self Portrait Art Project Art Lesson Back to School
Looking for a 4th Grade About Me art project that teaches real self-portrait skills while helping students share their identity, interests, and favorite things?
This 4th Grade About Me Self Portrait Art Project combines portrait drawing, identity, favorite things, symbolism, art history, and creative self-expression into one meaningful Grade 4 art lesson. Students create a self-portrait surrounded by illustrations that represent their favorite activities, foods, books or movies, animals, places, personal qualities, and other details that help tell the story of who they are.
Instead of making a self-portrait that only focuses on physical appearance, students learn how artists can communicate personality, interests, experiences, memories, and identity through facial features, clothing, colors, objects, symbols, and meaningful details. The final artwork becomes a visual story about each student — which makes this an especially fun choice for Back to School, Meet the Teacher, Open House, All About Me units, classroom community building, and beginning-of-the-year art.
This Grade 4 self portrait art lesson gives students plenty of creative choice while still providing structure for kids who freeze when someone says, “Just draw yourself!” Students can use one of the included portrait templates or draw their own portrait, and the Build-a-Portrait page provides choices for eyes, noses, ears, and mouths to help students confidently design their face.
And because fourth graders definitely have opinions about their favorite things, there is LOTS of room for personality in this one.
THIS RESOURCE INCLUDES (Non-Editable PDF & PPT)
- Grade 4 About Me Self-Portrait lesson plan
- Suggested visual art standards
- Teacher preparation and instruction guide
- Critical-thinking questions
- Self-Portraits anchor chart
- Favorite Things brainstorming and drawing handout
- Background artwork template
- Multiple portrait templates
- Build-a-Portrait facial feature choice page
- Self-Portrait artwork page
- History of Self-Portraits student reading page
- Visual step-by-step art tutorial
- Fast-finisher portrait coloring activity
- Detailed art rubric
- Bulletin-board display sign
- Draw and Design activity
- KWL chart about self-portraits
- Read & Respond passage about the history of self-portraits
- Reading-comprehension questions
- Read & Respond answer key
- Explore Line activity
- Gray Scale Exploration activity
- Line Zen Doodle activity
- Shapes and Forms activity
- Mandala Design activity
- Emphasis activity
- “What’s Important?” writing activity
- Unique identity writing activity
- Self-Portrait writing activity
- Creative portrait story writing activity
- The Message reflection activity
- Elements & Principles artwork analysis
- Likes and Dislikes Compare & Contrast activity
- Goal-setting page
- Look at Mediums reflection
- Artwork reflection pages
- Peer Feedback page
- 3 Stars & a Wish reflection
- Artist statement pages
- Finished artwork example
- Projectable visual and text step-by-step teaching pages as a PDF and PowerPoint
- BONUS link to video demonstration
The lesson is designed as an interdisciplinary resource with art-making, reading comprehension, writing, reflection, and artist statements included.
