Self-portraits

Self-portraits are a classic activity to do at the beginning of the school year.  They help the children reflect about themselves in a concrete way (they are looking at their features, considering their size, shape and how they relate to each other); but it also helps them come out of themselves as they see each others' work and discuss their similarities and differences.

In the fours' class, this year we used mostly natural materials (shells, acorns, pinecones...) to make a collage.

The first step is looking in the mirror. Observing our features; noticing shapes and colors. Paying attention to proportion, symmetry and distribution.

Choosing materials that best relate to the features they observed. Curly or straight hair? Light or dark?

Carefully placing materials on the oval. A lot of careful arranging happens at this point, and some substitutions are made once they see the materials in relation to each other. Maybe feathers work better for hair than for the mouth.

More looking in the mirror at this point. Are those shells really shaped like my eyes?

Once all decisions have been made, it's time for glue.

The Dubim 3s class, used drawings a starting point to create full body self-portraits with loose parts. The results are amazing and the process invaluable.

The Dagim 3s, on the other hand, put their focus on their faces and used drawing as their technique. One can see from the detail that a lot of thinking and observation went into these.