Artful Assessment

Grade 4 Social Studies and Visual Arts Lessons

The Portland Museum of Art is fortunate to have a Depression-era mural on view; Waldo Peirce’s Woodmen in the Woods of Maine was first located in a post office in Westbrook, and is now on display in the Museum with its original door and wall paneling. Woodmen in the Woods of Maine shows lumberjacks hard at work in the woods and celebrates the lumber industry as one of the primary economic forces in Maine. In the social studies lesson, students study Peirce’s mural and Maine’s 16 counties, explore the various industries across the state, and document what they have learned through murals and photographs. The visual arts lesson involves discussions of various aspects of the painting including its size, purpose, subject matter, and original location, as well as its role as public art. After discussing the challenges of fitting an image into an odd-shaped space, students will create their own mural designs for an architectural space about Maine life and people.