Portraits and Self-portraits

What a week! Every class that saw me this week practiced a fire drill- very important since we're all the way up on the 3rd floor. With one 5th grade class, we were about to do our practice run when all of a sudden the REAL fire alarm was going off!!

Despite having to spend time practicing we still had time to finish our self-portraits. I asked kids to review their work and check that they had used a variety of materials, had an interesting background, had added a few extra details this week, and had their NAME on it. It will be so exciting to put these up on the wall next week in time for our back-to-school night. Here's a hodge podge of efforts from the "red" table from various classes:

 As this was the first finished project, I wanted to make sure that kids who finished at different rates would have plenty to do. So I took the Frida Kahlo and Mona Lisa posters that I had first use to compare and contrast the differences between a portrait and a self-portrait, and pinned them to the wall with two empty speech bubbles attached. I asked kids to imagine what the two ladies would say to us or what they would say to each other. They were invited to get a paper from the free-draw table and create a Frida and Mona cartoon for me. At the end of the week I sorted through the submissions and picked a winner from the 3rd grade, using his idea to fill my speech bubbles. Frida says, "Mona Lisa, Why did you smile in your picture?", and Mona replies, "Frida, I'm not telling because nobody knows!". His original submission included an extended series of "pleases" and "Noooo!s". I also chose a few runner-ups who will receive a little prize, and gave all kids who had made a thoughtful submission a few extra points on their projects. I was really excited that a few children brought back submissions they had done for homework!!

For my little ones, I introduced the free activity table for those who finished. I have paper, crayon boxes, "chunky rainbow" crayons, plastic tanagram shapes, and wooden pattern blocks. It was beautiful watching them have free creative time, drawing, arranging shapes, and building. One 1st grader called me over to see what he had made with the blocks, and said, "Look Ms. Elcin, I made YOU!":

What an excellent validation for me that he had learned the idea of portrait and self-portrait, and also that my students are beginning to feel comfortable with me as their new art teacher!