Kindergarten Rainbows and Self-Portraits!

Hello, friends! My kindergarten is wrapping up a self-portrait lesson and it's one that I've never done before with them. I'm super happy with the result and I wanted to share with y'all. Mostly I wanted to share some of the tips and tricks and things I learned in hopes that it may help you, if you decide to go down this rainbow/self-portrait path. 

But first, let's chat about where this lesson falls in my kindergarten line of projects. We start the school year in kindergarten with Line Sculptures. From there, we moved on to Dot Painting. Following this, we painted Rainbows! Now, in the past, I completed this Line Unit before moving on but the last couple of years I've mixed it up a bit. I will bounce back to those lessons but for now, we are painting. We've also not finished our rainbows (by adding the sun and clouds) but that will happen this week. 

My favorite supply for painting with kindergarten are tempera cakes. This is a little what my set up looks like. I always serve up paint (or have the kids get their own paint) on trays. This helps us carry the supplies easier and contain the mess incase there are spills. If you know me and my paint set up, then you know that we normally use dog dishes for water and a sponge. But sometimes we are using them for other things so this is my back up set up: water pot (these are my favorite and you can find them here, they are NO SPILL!), sponge for 'drying' our brush (sponges are called Dirty Ole Sponge Bob and I get them from the Dollar Tree) and a tray to hold the sponges (old sushi dishes!).

My tempera cakes are usually a mess. You can purchase tempera cakes in a set but they always end up getting crumbly or with a big hole in the middle. The tray the cakes come in is crap and a thing plastic. I noticed huge messes of paint left on tables a couple of years ago...which was from the thing plastic tray splitting and paint leaking out the bottom! So now I NEVER order the whole tray, just the refills like I do my pan watercolor paint. I love Prang's tempera cakes as well as Jack Richesons. I order all the colors in the rainbow. I use muffin tins and plastic condiment cups to create a palette for the kids. When we are painting our skin tone, the palette is changed to have only red, orange, yellow, white, brown and black. For painting rainbows, this is how I set up the palette. 

We spend a LOT of time listening to this song and this song as well as learning the ASL for all of the colors in the rainbow! Then we hit the ground running and paint our rainbows. 

Even in 30 minutes (the length of all my art classes), I always have early finishers! So early finishers are given another sheet of paper and told to paint a rainbow pattern. We wrap those up the following art class. 

Hot Tip: Cut 2" off the paper that you plan to frame that way it's ready to frame on traditional size construction paper! I plan to frame these self-portraits on black construction paper 12"X18".

The following art class, we learn what a self-portrait is! This video REALLY helped and we loved it! 

After listening, dancing and singing with the song, I demonstrated drawing a large self-portrait as the kids directed me. I asked "what should I draw first? What shape should I use? How big should I draw?"

Afterward, they were given paper and a permanent marker (I wished I would have had them use a regular black marker as the line would have been thicker). They did an amazing job! 

The following art class, we learned all about scissor safety! And how to carry and wear our scissors correctly. Below is a video on how I explain scissor safety to my students (if you cannot see this video, try viewing this blog post from your laptop):

After cutting out, kindergarten glued their selfies to their rainbow backgrounds!

This is definitely a project I'll be doing again! 

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Under the Sea: Snorkel Selfies!

Yesterday we had so much fun creating our Snorkel Selfies and I think everyone would agree that their favorite part was creating the bubble print backgrounds. In case you missed, here is the video!

Here is the list of supplies I used:

If you would like to join the fun today, then you can grab these supplies:

To join my live art class, you can find me on my Instagram or my Facebook page at 11am CT. Or you can watch later on my YouTube channel. New videos are added to my channel everyday so you might want to subscribe!

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In the Art Room: Super Hero Selfies in Second Grade

Here they come to save the day! Second grade selfies are on their way, y'all. I've been sharing with you the self portrait projects my students have been creating for their Artome art show. So far, you've seen my Royal First Grade, the third graders' abstract self portraits inspired by Sandra Silbertzweig and the fourth graders Romero Britto-inspired selfies. For second grade, I decided to do a take on this fourth grade lesson from last year. The kids LOVED creating these super hero versions of themselves so I just had to share this lesson. Here is a video of my fourth grade's lesson:

Like I said, I did alter this lesson quite a bit to fit the needs of my wee second graders. Lemme tell you how we made them.

I see my second graders for 30 minutes, twice a week. So this here lesson is broken down into bite sized bits. 

On day one we: chatted about Vincent van Gogh and Starry Night. We spoke about creating movement and texture in our sky with line, shape and color. Using florescent oil pastel (my favorites are these), we created an evening sky. The following art class, we used watercolor in a cool cool palette to paint our skies. 

The following class, we chatted about cityscapes and silhouettes. I found that there are plenty of images of city silhouettes online if you just do a quick google search. I printed off several and placed them on tables as idea sheets. We used watered down black tempera paint and small brushes to create our cityscape. Larger brushes were used to fill in the silhouette. I watered the paint down a pinch as I find that it makes the paint have more viscosity. 

 

By the way, as y'all know, we ALWAYS have those early finishers. For my early friends, I had a wide variety of super hero idea sheets available. I tasked the kids to start sketching ideas for their superhero selfie if they happened to finish early.

 After the silhouettes were painted, I cut up a TON of Post-It notes into tiny pieces for the kids to use as windows. I thought they were a great color for windows. The kids glued those onto their buildings and resumed their super hero sketches.

By the third week, the kids had completed their oil pastel sky, watercolor painting, silhouette city making and window collage. We were ready for the best part: our super heroes! Since the kids had been practice sketching for a couple of days, they were feeling really confident about diving into this final phase of their masterpiece.

 To insure that their heroes would be a good size, I asked that the kids trace a circle for their heads. From there, we chatted about using shapes to create out bodies: rectangles for the torso and shapes for the arms and legs. 

We also talked about masks, capes and symbols. When the kids were finished with their super hero, they traced them in Sharpie. Before coloring, we chatted about finding our skin tone. We also talked about limiting our color palette to three colors for our super hero costume. Checking out Superman, Spiderman and Ironman really helped them understand the idea of a limited palette. 

Once complete, the super heroes were cut out VERY CAREFULLY before being glued into the cityscape masterpiece. The kids were so thrilled with their hard work... cannot wait to see them in a frame at our art show! I'll let you know how they look and how the art show goes. Until then!

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In the Art Room: Romero Britto Inspired Self Portraits

If you follow me here, then you already know that all my kids are currently creating self-portraits for our upcoming winter art show with Artome. I shared what my third graders are up to here (Y'ALL. THEY ARE TURNING OUT SO AMAZING). My second graders are making a variation of this Super Hero Selfie project that I did with my fourth grade last year...I'll be certain to share those with you soon. My firsties are becoming royal with these Royal Self Portraits while kindergarten is doing a variation of Ain't Gonna Paint No More selfies. Because the Artome frames fit 9" X 12" artwork and I usually have my kids work twice that size, I've had to really rethink and adjust some of these projects. I'll be sure to share them with you in the near future. To get the ball rolling, I thought I'd share with you this videoed Romero Britto lesson and the fourth graders' results. 

In case you don't know, Romero Britto is a Brazilian neo-pop artist who lives in Miami. I have shared his colorful work with my students when we did this project:

My fourth grade kids are so great at creating colorful designs and patterns that I thought this project would be perfect for them. 

 But I had to give 'em a little inspo first...

Before diving in to the video:

Here's what we cranked out the first day!

They did a bang up job and were pretty stinkin' proud. I teach doubled up fourth grade classes (meaning there are about 35 kids in the room). After doing the first portion of the video independently at our seats, we returned to the floor with clipboards, our papers and pencils to do a guided drawing together. I really liked having them watch the video as there were less interruptions. I did pause it every now and then to reexplain or allow the kids to catch up.

Once we were finished drawing on the floor together, the kids had mirrors at their seats. I told them that the guided drawing was a kind of template for them that they should alter and change once at their seats. I encouraged them to really study their faces, freckles, glasses and details and add them to their selfies. Once completed in pencil, they traced over their lines in Sharpie.

I really thought the kids would get further along than this...but they were so into drawing their likeness that I didn't want to rush them ahead. Next up, I'll provide them with some pattern idea sheets for them to draw their designs before adding color. 

I really can't wait to see how these turn out!

I have noticed that teaching self portrait drawing to older kids is pretty tough. Not cuz they can't handle it but because they are so hard on themselves! So I really REALLY discourage any erasing until they are back at their seats. I tell them that it is "just practice" and that they are learning something new...and to go easy on themselves. Only when they return to their seats are they allowed to change and erase...but I don't allow them to get another piece of paper. When I had a students say, "I don't like mine," I asked, "what do you not like?" When she replied with an "everything!" I told her to pick one thing she liked the least and we worked on that. Then we picked the next thing and we worked on that. Within five minutes, she was much happier with her drawing. It's a process with this age group. You gotta do what works without letting them throw in the towel. 

Next up, we'll add patterns of things that interest us (I used paint splatters and music notes in mine to give them some ideas) as well as color. 

I'll be sure to share our progress! Until then, feel free to use this video and lesson in your art teacherin' world. I'd love to see what your kids create! Shoot me an email if you do. 

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In the Art Room: Beautiful Oops Self-Portraits with Third Grade

Ah, self-portrait drawing. Call me an art teacherin' criminal, but 'tis not my most fave thing to teach. One of the reasons I don't love it is because I dislike seeing my students frustrated. I teach children at that perfect age where they think they can do anything and that everything is possible. However, I've noticed that when they inch on up into 3rd and 4th grade, that lovely thought begins to fade and self-doubt creeps in and settles for life. Such a bummer.

So when I came across these self-portraits on pinterest (I know, I know, I said "found it on pinterest" but I really did! And there's no further link than the one provided. However, if you happen to know this art teacher, I'd love to give credit where it's due. Thanks!). I loved this lesson for a coupla reasons: first of all, the kids only have to draw half of the face. This makes me happy because one of the biggest struggles I've found with children drawing a self-portrait is symmetry. They become fixated on drawing both sides of the face exactly the same (even though they're not!) and just work themselves up into an eraserin' tizzy. 

The other thing I loved about this lesson was that it provided a space for a big colorful background. And we had JUST the paintings for that!

Dunno if you recall, but my 3rd graders are the ones who had the incredible opportunity to sing a song for the book Beautiful Oops. Before hitting the recording studio in Nashville, we re-read the book and did some fun "oops" paintings. More details on that awesome fun here. 

For the creation of the Oops paintings, the kids were told that we were going to make a painting with no planned outcome in mind. We weren't going to worry about "mistakes" or "messing up". We were going to enjoy the painting experience and let our Oops'es speak to us. It was so much fun! To start, I showed the kids a technique of putting blobs of paint at the top of the paper and using old credit cards to drag the paint down. 

After that, we played a game where I drew a number and a line/shape name (like, for zample, zigzag/five) and the kids painted those. I've played this game with the kids before (deets here) and it's a great way to introduce abstract/non-objective painting. 

Once our paintings were complete, we hit the road and headed into Nashville for our session. We were surprised and thrilled to be able to Skye with the author of Beautiful Oops, Barney Saltzberg.

To ease the pain of the Perfectionist Portrait, I provided my students with a sheet to slide under their drawing paper. Using a clip board, they joined me on the floor with their two sheets and a pencil. Lightly the kids traced the guide lines provided under the sheet. Then we had a big long chat about facial proportions, features and what makes our faces so uniquely different from our friends. As we chatted our way through these topics, we drew our faces together. 

 I told the kids that this was just their basic steps. Once finished, they were to return to their seats with mirrors in hand and create their own individual likeness. They made changes to the expressions, added glasses, details for hair, freckles, you name it. 

Another thing...I'm always telling the kids, "Please color like my favorite band. In ONE DIRECTION." Which gets plenty of eye rolls from the kids.

The following art class, we read about Rembrant and I kinda introduced shading. I do believe it's a tough concept for 3rd grade. However, I like to throw stuff out there to see what lil fish are gonna bite. You can't go wrong over estimating kids, says me.

"I'm adding makeup to myself portrait." You know, with the amount of eyeliner I wear, who am I to judge? Love the variety of colors in her hair.

To set their delicate portraits apart from their bold paintings, the kids traced the edge of their drawings on a piece of black paper and glued it to their portraits to create a shadow. This was then thoughtfully glued to their paintings.

This kiddo nailed her hair and expression. NAILED IT. 

 Love everything about this one. 

In the original lesson I borrowed this idea from, the students wrote their names in the background. So I gave the students the opportunity to print their names with small pieces of cardboard.

 Or paint their names, in the case of this lovely lil artist.

 I love cardboard printing because of the bold exact lines it creates. I did ask the kids to attempt printing their names on scrap paper first before giving it a go on their paintings.

The kids were so stinkin' proud of these works of art! And I'm excited to jump back into the self-portrait pool with my other grades. What are some of y'all's most fave portrait lessons? I'd love to know. Til then!

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