Finding the Artist in Each Child: School-wide Self Portraits

In the first class with new students, I wanted to establish expectations, routines and learn as much as possible about students.... in 30 minutes. Faced with this challenge, I decided this year to have each student draw a tiny self-portrait. Considering time restrictions and wanting to have very limited need for demonstration of drawing skills, I asked all grades to use symbols of their favorite things to create a self-portrait. My example of myself had an upside down ice cream cone for my nose, macaroni hair, bicycle eyes, etc. The older students were asked to write a list of their favorite things first, giving them practice at brainstorming and planning for art-making.

The Kindergartners were asked to complete a slightly different task. The only symbol they were asked to use was an "Emoji". After a discussion of emotion & self-portrait, they readily drew an Emoji self-portrait.

In day 2 of this project, K & 1 are reviewing the color wheel, primary colors, secondary colors and using a one-color theme to discover that there are many values of the same color. With the choice of one color, they are moving about the room, finding their own seat, sharing materials and coloring their drawings with tints & shades of one color. This is also our first time using place mats. Not only are we building their confidence in art-making, but my own confidence in the ability to manage the time restriction.

Second & Third Grade are reviewing the color wheel and also learning about tints and shades and monochromatic color schemes.

In this very brief lesson, I am already able to identify children that need assistance with fine motor skills, need self-confidence boosters, can navigate the room for supply distribution and clean up and began a foundation for learning the vocabulary of art!

Finally, the finished note-card sized artwork is being glued together to create a wall-sized color wheel in which EVERY student will have his/her first work of art on display! Pictures to come...

1st Grade example