Self Portraits in Kindergarten

Self portraits are perfect projects for anytime of the year. I love how they reflect the personality of the child but also teaches different types of art mediums.

Here are three different ways to create self portraits in your classroom. 

SELF PORTRAITS MADE EASY
For the past several years, I have been using this method for drawing self portraits.  Giving students a bit of a guide helps to create large portraits rather than small pieces of artwork. Once students learn this method, you can use them for other projects like this social studies lesson or this one.

We make Self Portraits Made Easy during the first week of school. Then, again at the end of the year.  Students are always astonished how different they look!

A photo posted by Mrs.Parker (@learningwithmrsparker) on Sep 23, 2014 at 3:49pm PDT

RECYCLED NEWSPAPER
For this self portrait project, you will need newspaper and markers. First, I prep the newspaper for my students.  Each student will need an 8x11 sheet of newspaper. I suggest that you use "fun" print like the comic section rather than the headline page. Students will draw their self portrait in pencil. Then, they will use a black marker to trace their drawing. Lastly, they will color leaving their face in print. Mount on a bright colored paper like AstroBrights to add a pop of color.

TODD PARR INSPIRED

For these Todd Parr Inspired Self Portraits, we read many of Todd Parr's books. We became familiar with his style of art. We noted that Parr used lots of bright colors. We also noticed that the faces were not the usually peach, tan and brown. Rather, people had faces of all different colors; even blue and pink! This got many students excited! Using AstroBright neon paper and construction paper from our scrap box, we made our Todd Parr Inspired Self Portraits. Adding them to a black construction paper gave them just the "pop" needed to stand out in the crowd.

These self portrait ideas are easy to prep and create any time of the year.