3rd - Before/After Self Portraits

My third graders take the first day of this project to draw the best self portrait they possibly can.  The next time they come to art I take them through a series of pictures on a slide show - each picture I ask them questions and trace different parts on the board.  For example - I put up a picture of my niece when she was a baby - I trace her head and then put a line through her eyes horizontally.  I ask the students where on her head are her eyes - they of course see they are in the middle.  I proceed to do this with her nose, mouth and ears.  The next picture is another picture of my niece at around two.  I start again as I did when she was a baby.  This helps the students understand that the eyes really do belong in the middle of the head and the hair fills up the top of the head.  The last picture I do is of President Obama - I choose him because he has very short hair and the picture is straight on.  I repeat the steps above to really sink in the proportions of the face.

After this exploration the students start a new self portrait using their new knowledge.  I walk around the room and fold heads in half to check for eye placements!  Most students will be really close.




When the project is over the students open their paper and compare their drawings - many students are shocked that they put their eyes so high!

3rd Grade Self Portraits

It is part of our curriculim that each grade level do a self portrait.

Students Learned/Practiced:
- Proportions of a face
- Shapes and details of facial features
- Problem Solving
- How to handle frustration/asking for help
- Observation of colors/textures

For third graders, I choose to do a realistic self portrait.  I first had them draw the best picture they could of themselves - a 'pretest' if you will.  I looked at those and was impressed by what I saw.  The only thing they really needed direction on was where to place their facial features!

Next time they came we observed ourselves in mirrors and looked at each other to figure out where our eyes really are on our head, along with our nose, mouth and ears.

The students took this new information and started a final composition.

CD Lyric Covers (6th)

As a way to really work on composition I developed this lesson using students favorite song lyrics and designing a CD cover for that song.

Students Learned/Practiced:
--Transferring words to pictures
--Brainstorming
--Abstract thinking
--Composition
--Layering

Students first picked a song of their choice. I told them the song could be any song they wanted at long as their parents would approve -- it could have bad words in it because those words will not show up on their cover. The idea that their song might have bad words in it and be okay was obviously thrilling to them. So, they printed out their lyrics and then we went through a couple of songs that I had picked for myself. One was called, Table for Two by Caedmon's Call. I choose this song because it has obvious picture words like, 'pancake, soccer, rock, window'. I read it to the class and we underlined all the picture words. Next I did the song Be My Escape by Relient K. I choose this song because there are no obvious picture words so the pictures were going to need some abstract thinking. The chorus repeats an idea of 'getting out of here, I feel into a rut that I feel into by mistake' So, I showed them how I took this idea of 'getting out' and thought about how do I get out/leave a place.

The students then looked through their songs and underlined ideas/picture words. They took these and made at least 4 thumbnail sketches. From these we talked about how to make their favorite sketch better -- composition -- how to fill up the space in a better way.

Once they decided on a composition they liked they received a final piece of paper in which they drew their sketch and then colored it layering 3 different colors of colored pencil. The students didn't exactly understand why I asked them to layer the colors until I showed them the different between one color and 3 -- they all agreed the color was much richer!

The students were not to put on any words from the lyrics, the song title or the artist -- as one of the examples shows -- not all remember that expectation. The Cd's above are for the songs Our Song By Taylor Swift and the other is Waiting on the World to Change By John Mayor