I love self-portraits! I had both my K's and 1st-grade work on self-portraits last year so having them start with self-portraits for the Art to Remember project was really successful for most of my students. I have given a whole lesson with step by step instructions earlier (click here). Just wanted to take the time to celebrate the successes in this lesson.
Day 1:
When teaching this lesson, I was sure to give little baby steps to the young artist. I would ask them to trace a circle... then say go. They would all run to their table, get the task done and meet back on the carpet for the next instruction. I repeated this for the drawing of the whole face. Once students were done in pencil they were asked to trace their pencil lines with bold, black marker.
If they were done early, they had a couple of minutes to play blocks... my favorite extra time activity.
Day 2:
I had the students watch the second half of the video focusing on coloring.
Students were able to match their skin color at a station before getting started on all the skin.
They were then able to color the irises, lips, hair, behind the teeth and shirt. I gave all my artist a choice of liquid watercolors, color crayons, or both for the background.
I had students 'ask 3 before you ask me' before moving to the background. They are so helpful to each other when asked to do this task. It really spreads out the 'help' and makes all students experts, not just the teacher.
Day 3:
Once the portraits were complete, I asked my 1st and 2nd-grade students to place their work on Seesaw before allowing me to send it off to Art to Remember. These artists were staggered as they finished so I was able to bring the kids out two by two. It was a great introduction to a new practice in class. Training went well!
I am a music teacher. The process versus product is huge for me too. I have my 6th graders do a product where they engineer an instrument out of recycled materials. The quality of their final product is based on many things (especially the completely random things they have to work with and the fact that they are working with no tools.) This past rotation the kids were extremely into it. They were testing all these materials trying to figure out things like: how would the air have to travel through this to make a pitched noise? How can I amplify the sound? How do I reduce the tension of the strings so the frame doesn't snap, while still making the strings tight enough to produce a sound? etc. If you walked into my room it looked like utter chaos- bizarre noises from every student (Especially the one who developed a horn out of a copper pipe), materials EVERYWHERE. However, if you looked closer EVERY kid in the class was engaged, they were working collaboratively, they were taking risks of doing something wrong and then figuring out why it didn't work. It was great. There was an aide in that class and she had lots of wonderful encouraging things to say, but I am always nervous about what people think if they only see the final product (which often is not very pretty.)
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