First Grade Self Portraits

I've been at Dos Rios/Two Rivers Elementary in Springfield all this week and last. We're making projects to take home, and some to sell at the Springfield First Friday Art Walk in May! This was their project that they were able to take home to their families: Self Portraits! For the older kids (grades 2-5) I did a more involved lesson on proportions of the face, colored with sharpie and tissue paper.... read that lesson by clicking here.  For the Kinders and first graders, we did this version you see in the pictures.  Read on to see how we did this lesson!

Supplies:

• Multicultural construction paper, cut in 6 x 9" sheets. 

• black sharpies

• colored pencils

• background colored construction paper, 9x12"

• Small-ish rectangles of pattern paper (we used both wrapping paper and contact paper)

• construction paper hair colors, cut into smaller pieces...half or quarter sheets. 

• glue sticks

• scissors

This can be done in 2, 30-minute sessions, or one longer one. 

• Day 1: Teach them suuuuper basic proportions of the face.  Just show that the eyes go in the middle of the face, and show some ways to draw eyes, noses and lips. The first day, just draw the faces on the multicultural skin color papers, trace drawings with sharpie, and add some colored eyes (and whites of the eyes!) lips, and cheeks with colored pencils. 

• Day 2: Put it all together: cut a "shirt" rainbow shape out of the patterned paper, cut out the faces, add torn paper for the hair. Glue, glue glue. Then watch the cuteness happen. Love these!!