Art Book Page 8: About the Artist

Students will investigate how they see themselves as they create a self portrait for their art book.

By Maryanne Messier

What You Need:

• 8 1/2 x 11 white construction paper
• crayons
• glue
• About the Artist Handout
• 12 x 18 large colored construction paper

What You Do:

1. Talk about what we look like. What are things that we find on our faces. Talk about hair color, eye color, etc.
2. Maybe even bring out prints from famous artists and talk about the self-portrait that they created. Remind students how they included eyes, nose, hair, eye brows, etc.
3. Have students then look in a mirror to remind them of what they really look like.
4. Allow students, with their crayons, to draw a picture of themselves. They only have to draw their faces, but they can draw their whole body if they so chose.
5. When they have completed that, they need to glue their portraits to one side of the large colored construction paper, on the other side have them glue their handout.
6. As they watch you sample the handout on the board, have them fill in their names, ages, and the school they go to. This is nice because they can practice writing.
7. Once they have finished filling in the handout, have them put their names on the back, date it, and you are finished with the art book.

► Go to the Conclusion

Related Lessons and Resources:

► About the Artist Handout
► The Art Book – Index

 

The Art Book is a special series of lessons from Maryanne Messier, a teacher from Janesville Wisconsin. “This Art Book theme was created to help art educators by giving them another form of assessment. So many times we as art educators find it difficult to assess a child’s progress when projects are sent home. By using portfolio assessment it is easier to judge a child’s progress because you can see it from beginning to end. The idea of the art book came from a colleague of mine, Mary Jo Paup. She developed the “book” idea while working towards her masters. When she told me about the idea I decided to use it with my kindergartners. I used the Janesville School District’s Art Curriculum as a basis for each project page. It was a challenge but well worth it. The beauty of portfolio assessment is that it starts in kindergarten and can follow them through their elementary career. As the child grows so do the books and the lessons. If you decide to use this form of assessment in your class, I hope your class enjoys these lessons as much as mine did. -Maryanne Messier

 

Some images are courtesy of Teach a Fish Homeschool.