Primarily Art with Mrs. Depp: "Selfie" Portraits

Back in October we had Red Ribbon Week. This is a week where the guidance counselor talks to the students about the dangers of using drugs. I support this endeavor by having my kindergarten, 1st and 2nd graders make posters. Red Ribbon Week is celebrated nationwide and there are catalogs in which ribbons can be purchased for students to wear. Choices can be made as to what slogan to put on the ribbons. Our guidance counselor chose "I ❤️ My Drug Free Selfie."

This was perfect as my curriculum has a unit on self portraits. With k & 1st I read the story below. We talked about and practiced different faces we might make according to our mood or how we were feeling at that moment. I briefly talked about how bad drugs were, leaving most of that lesson for the guidance counselor to do. We talked about "selfies" and I demonstrated what they were by using my cell phone.

I thought having students do their self portrait inside a cell phone frame would work out really well. When I get these "brilliant" ideas I usually Google free coloring pages and the item. That is how I got the cell phone frame. Then I photocopied it onto card stock. Students made their "selfies" and cut them out for display. Click here for details on how I teach self portraits.

With my 2nd graders I wanted them to have more of a challenge. In addition to self portraits the curriculum includes communication with the community. My interpretation is for students to make posters. I also wanted them to learn about making bubble letters.

Below are rubrics for making a poster.

Also some examples of the right and wrong way to make a poster.

When I teach bubble letters I start out by lightly drawing the letters for the word and leaving some space between each letter. I call this the bones of the letter. Next we need to put some skin or a bubble over the letter and then erase the bones. Since we don't see our bones through our skin.