Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Before and After Self Portraits, 1st Grade

Seeing this lesson, all framed out, honestly--makes me want to cry happy tears (or it could be the hormones from pregnancy--whatever!). The reason is due to the before and after effect these self-portraits have.

They are learning! I love it! The proof is there. See?


Lesson Procedures:

1. Give all students a "before" sheet. I make mine up on the computer and photocopy. Then, I label it, "Self Portrait drawn before instruction". I give each student a sharpie, and tell them to draw a picture of themselves.

They turn it in.

2. Hand out any size paper you want to have them do their self portraits on. The only thing I recommend you doing ahead of time is tracing their head's first. REASON BEING: If you have ever tried to get all 1st graders in a classroom to make something the same size--you know the chore that is. So, I cut out a little time and just did it myself. It's worth it, trust me.

3. Start with the facial features. Go through everything. They love to know all those little facts about where your eyes actually are, how far they are apart, where your ears should be, etc. Draw on the board as you teach. (They should be using pencil until you check it, and then we outlined with extra fine point sharpie!)

4. Continue on talking about different hair styles, etc...draw a few types on the board. At this point, you'll have to walk around and make sure they are all "getting it" and giving help for the more difficult hair styles :)

5. Continue on with the body. Talk about the body parts and things they typically used to forget when drawing their "old" people [I continually emphasize how good they'll be at people after this!], and how we DO indeed have necks, arms that flop down by our side and that don't stick out straight, fingers (and not dagger's!), etc.

6. Give them free reign to make them look like "them". I let them use markers to decorate their shirts and pants, shoes, etc.

Take everything STEPS. Trust me.

(Oh, and make sure you have multicultural crayons, too!)

This lesson may take a few weeks--but the results are worth it.

Just look at how far Mr. Blake has come:
(He was SO SO SO proud of himself! He kept saying, "I'm so good at drawing!")

7 comments:

Ashley said...

I love this lesson, I will probably try this with my first graders! Congrats on the baby, I too am pregnant and am in my third year of teaching art. How far along are you? Have you let any of the kiddos know yet? It's so fun being the art teacher, seeing all of the kids in school, and having each one find out.

Flor Larios Art said...

Great lesson...great results!

2 Soul Sisters Art Ed said...

Hey, I just added you to my Blog Roll List. I am an art teacher in Tallahassee, FL. Check out what we have to say- we are just getting started in the blog world….

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C-ya

Kim

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