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. 

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My Many Colored Days Emotions Writing

Learning to express one's emotions is difficult. My class has worked for weeks talking about what actions make us feel different emotions. I have tried to model and be clear of expressing how I feel when a child disappoints me or makes me feel proud.  

Why?

Well, because I have many students who are unable to express their feelings. And, at times, resort to hitting or yelling to express their needs. I knew that I needed to support them but also to give them the words to share appropriately about their emotions.  

This week, we are working on including emotions as writers. I decided to incorporate My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss into our learning for Read Across America.  This book seamlessly weaves color and emotions.  

I created these sentence starters for my class and used this template to create a Many Colored Person. The students simply placed tissue paper onto the template and I laminated it.  This could also been completed by using contact paper.

Here are the finished mobiles.  I love how it brightens our room.

This was a perfect way to talk about our many colored days.  

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Star Wars Inspired Bulletin Board

It's Red Ribbon Week at our school. This year's theme is Respect Yourself which aligns perfectly with our school's exceptions; Be respectful. Be responsible. Be safe.

Our door this year was inspired by Star Wars.  Each child created a folded Yoda. I originally found the idea for this craft from Origami Yoda but modified the craft to better suit the needs of my students.  

How to Make Yoda:

Fold a brown construction paper into thirds.  

Fold down to create the robe. Glue it shut. 

Use green #Astrobright paper to make Yoda's face.  

Add face details with black marker.

Happy Teaching! 

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Earth Day Mobiles - Freebie

We've had such a wonderful time learning about our environment in preparation for Earth Day.  I was able to use two wonderful resources to help me teach.  If you have not done so, go purchase Earth Day Activities and Crafts by A Year of Many Firsts and Fran Kramer's Friends of the Earth unit.  You will not be disappointed.

As a culmination of our learning, we created these Earth Day mobiles using washable markers and a coffee filter.  After our Earths dried, I used contact paper to preserve them for their memory box later. 

The next day, we brainstormed ways how we could take better care of our Earth and wrote our Earth Day Promise.  The kids did such a wonderful job applying their new learning into their promise.  I thought you might like to try this with your class too.  Click here for your freebie.  Enjoy!

Happy Teaching!

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