Seventh grade ELL students at Lewiston Middle School recently wrapped up a Side x Side program integrating a literacy unit based on the book “A Long Walk to Water” by Linda Sue Park with mixed media bookmaking. Led by teaching artist Jill Osgood, students learned how to use watercolors with crayon resist and collage to

Sixth graders at Thomas J. McMahon Elementary School in Lewiston recently wrapped up a Side x Side program that was a collaboration between FoodCorps service member Ms. Guion, sixth grade teacher Ms. Stambolis, and Side x Side teaching artist Sarah Boyden. Students learned about pollination and decomposition and used drawing, watercolor, and collage to create characters for

Sixth graders at Lyman Moore Middle School recently wrapped up a Side x Side bookmaking and physical theater program led by teaching artists Anne Ackerman and Gretchen Berg. Integrated with a science unit on climate change, students worked with Ackerman to create alternative book forms to capture their research on Earth’s vanishing ice and visualize ice melt

Students at Lincoln Middle School have a beautiful and educational new mural hanging in their stairway! Created by seventh graders during a 2019-2020 Side x Side program, the mural, titled “What is Biodiversity?” was a collaboration between teaching artist Laurie Downey and teachers Ms. Backus, Mr. Lindsay, and Ms. Cabral. The program was integrated with

Project ARTiculate is an arts integrated cross-curricular mural program developed by Side x Side to strategically serve youth across all three Portland middle schools during a pivotal developmental time. Creating site-based murals provides an opportunity for students to acquire and demonstrate the 21st Century skills of collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking while addressing core content, leadership, student empowerment,

As part of a “Pathway to the Plate and Beyond” expedition at King Middle School, the seventh grade Moosehead team collaborated with Side x Side teaching artist, Laurie Downey, on a mural which asks the expedition’s essential question, “How can King Middle School reduce its food waste?”
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