The kindergarteners learned how to draw their self-portraits after they created a quick pre- sketch. Here they are comparing their finished paintings to their sketch. They used my ERASER method to help find the right placement and size for the eyes and ears. Then we measured against each feature to draw the lips, neck, and shoulders.
 | My step-by-step ppt showing each step of the drawing, painting, and tracing to make these kindergarten self portraits is available for download from TpT. Click here. |
Step One: Build a Face
 | I made a screencast tutorial for using my Build a Face Digital Game . It is designed in mimio software which you can download for free. The game is available on TpT. You can download the game here. |
Step Two: Practice Sketch
 | I demonstrate on the interactive board (over a digital version of this handout) how I would draw eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hair, and a collar to make my portrait. Then, students try their best individually to problem-solve their own sketch. I like to save these sketches and pull them out on the last day so students can compare. After their painting is complete I tape their sketch to the back of their portrait. |
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Step Three: Pin the Feature on the Face
 | I made a physical game to help my students learn about the placement of the features of the face. It is just like pin the tail on the donkey. I made version that you can print out big and assemble yourself here on TpT. |
Step Four: Draw the Portrait
| One of the ways I help my students find the right size and placement for their features is what I call, the ERASER trick. I have them physically place two erasers in the middle of the oval and draw a "rainbow line" above, and a "smile line" below to make the football shaped eyes in the center of the head. They might look a bit big at first, but many of these eyes shrink during the painting process when they accidentally fill them in with skin. We don't draw the nose until the very last step in the black marker stage since we're going to cover that space with skin color anyway. We also just fill the whole top of the head with skin too and layer the hair on the dry paint it next time. That way they can make decisions about their hairline by see how much forehead is remaining as they paint. |  |
Step Five: Color Mixing for Skin
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I put out containers of white with squirts of red, blue, and yellow (the primary colors) for students to stir up. We don't get too caught up in our exact shade. Instead we see that we're all made from the same ingredients.
Step Six: Paint everything else
This is the most stressful day of the project. The kids have 1/2 hour to paint HAIR, EYES, LIPS, and the SHIRT. We have to wash and dry our brush between each step, try hard not to drip all over the portrait, and understand where to paint as we paint.
This is the day that makes or breaks the lesson. HINT- Don't do this step the day before Spring Break (like I did once UGH!)
This is the day that makes or breaks the lesson. HINT- Don't do this step the day before Spring Break (like I did once UGH!)
There are no pictures available for this step of the lesson because I am too busy running around the room, coaching students, reminding them to dip their (brush) tip and do not drip, while putting out little "fires" created by messy fingers, happy artists pointing with drippy paint brushes, water cup spills as they splash around their brushes to clean them, etc. Even if I did think about taking a photo, my hands would be too messy to touch the camera. |  |
Step Seven: Black Marker
For this step, I DRAW-then THEY DRAW. I want to guide them through each step of the portrait to help them think and make thoughtful decision. I draw digitally so that I can show them what NOT to do. Then I hit UNDO and ask them if they can do that with their permanent black markers. That helps them slow down and avoid mistakes as they work. Sometimes we watch our superhero BLACK MARKER video for before we begin.
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Step Eight: Cut out
You would think this would be a very straight forward step, but kindergarteners have a way of surprising you. I've seen them follow black lines into the interior of the portrait and cut off ears, shoulders, and even heads. So, I give them a pep talk before we cut to try to help them focus on cutting away the WHITE paper. I pretend to cut the wrong lines and ask them what would happen? This prevents lots of mistakes. If all goes well, they may even have time to look at their before sketch next to (after instruction) art.
Finished Portraits on Artsonia
Click the image to see the finished gallery of Kindergarten Portraits on Artsonia
Digital Extension: Chatterpix
| | This year, my Thursday (PM) kindergarteners were a step ahead of my other batch so I planned a one-day digital extension lesson using their portraits. I asked the second graders who had art before Kdgr how I should set up the room for their digital project. They suggested and helped me do the configuration above so kids could sit on the mat with the iPad in their laps. This way I could see their screens and they can see me point to my mirrored iPad on the screen. |
The Plan: Speak through our Art
The kindergarteners have already started learning the Kindergarten song with their music teacher. So, we sang it again together using my audio recording and my visual lyrics sheet. These are both available for download on TpT here.
The plan was to download their portraits from the dropbox, load it into chatterpix, draw the line between their lips, and speak one part of the Kindergarten song.
The plan was to download their portraits from the dropbox, load it into chatterpix, draw the line between their lips, and speak one part of the Kindergarten song.
The Results: Super Cuteness
A few nerves and recording issues slowed down the process. So, the 10 minutes in each class remaining after setting up the portrait wasn't enough to record the whole song. However we have this super cute video to show for ourselves. Thank you to Mrs. Beane for lending another set of hands and helping to troubleshoot our time issue.
Here is the second verse sang by K-4 to our visitor from Oklahoma.
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