Title – Self Portrait with Favorite Things

By – Mary Breveleri

Primary Subject – Art

Secondary Subjects – Language Arts

Grade Level – 3rd and up

Materials needed: any size paper, pens, pencils, markers, anything you have available

Procedure:

Brainstorm and record favorite things of your students on a board or chart paper. You can include things like, favorite superhero, book, sport, movie, fruit, game, musician, artist, animal and so on.

Think of ways to represent them so they form a face, for example student might say “I used a basketball for a head because I play basketball and it’s my favorite sport. I used a donut and an egg for my eyes because those are my favorite breakfast foods.”

Design a face full of symbols and use markers to color it in. Encourage symbols for all features like hair, ears, lips, teeth, nose, eyebrows, cheeks, etc.

I actually have my students write about what they chose to represent them. I use a skeleton thought sheet with sentences like: “In my portrait I used ________ for my _________ because________________.”

I mount the portrait with the explanation for an eye-catching exhibit. (It’s cool to see what new trends the students are into.)

E-Mail

Mary Breveleri

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