1st grade Family Portraits and Still-Lifes

The nouns of art are so important and I really make an effort to focus on each one of them with all of my grade levels. This past fall, 1st graders spent time discussing the nouns of art. Having already touched on landscapes during October, we picked up with family portraits and potted plant still-lifes to round out our learning. The kids drew a portrait of their family on a sheet of fancied up copy paper (I drew a frame around the edge). I emphasized how shapes and lines are great for building people. We started with placing circles in the empty space for each family member. Then I showed how to build the neck, shoulders and upper bodies using lines. The kids soaked it all up and impressed me with their ingenuity!

On another day, the kids made still-lifes that were inspired by illustrations of potted plants (that came from a grocery store coloring book). We discussed once again using lines and shapes to build the pots first and then the plants. I encouraged my students to draw big and fill the space, plus include a background. 1st graders are so cool - they melt my heart with their work!

4th grade Modigliani Portraits

These portraits were completed over a 3 week time period and are the result of lots of perseverance! I feel like I turned into a coach for the first part of it, but that's totally understandable. Teaching kids how to draw portraits is no easy feat! And to compact it, I had them draw their portrait Modigliani style---long, swan-like necks, small mouths, long noses and (optional) empty eyes. I stressed from beginning to end that we were creating "likenesses" of ourselves and this seemed to ease some nerves. All that being said, I am very proud of my 4th graders!!

4th grade Egyptian Portraits

I cannot take full credit for the idea behind this project as I was inspired by a post I found over at Dali's Moustache. I would have never, ever thought to have my students do a portrait study in the Egyptian style! It was so fun (for me too) and the kids loved it. I think it was their favorite project all  year and I definitely think it turned out great! Before the project began, I introduced Hieroglyphics to the kids and allowed them to spend a day transcribing their name using the symbols. This was also a good way to get them wondering why we were learning about Egypt! It turned out to be an excellent hook!

Day #1: Students created a 12x18 weaving using construction paper strips. This took the whole class period and then some!

Day #2: We looked at a handout of Egyptian funerary masks and I guided the kids on getting all the facial features in the correct spot. Once that was complete, they were able to make design decisions as to what kind of headdress and clothing they wanted to include. When students were ready, they used a Sharpie to trace their work. I encouraged crayons for everything except the skin tone. The last step was to add a wash of thinned tempera for the skin color.

I love how this one looks like a super woman Egyptian!

Students finished up their portraits and/or weavings until our last week of school. The last step was attaching the portrait to the weaving (some students just couldn't bear to put the two together, so I didn't push it if they were really set on keeping them as separate pieces)