Winter Portraits in Second Grade

Self-Portraits are my favorite project to teach.  I try to teach a self-portrait in every grade, K-5.  I was talking about how much I loved portraits in my after school teen class when I realized I never actually drew, painted, or made a formal self-portrait myself until I was in high school... and even then, I was so apprehensive about drawing the portrait, I made a taco covering half of my face!

I started a self-portrait project in second grade just before Winter Break.  The goals of this lesson were to learn about famous artists' self-portraits, introduce students to proper facial proportions, and draw what you see.  When these students were in first grade, they constructed a Fall Self-Portrait. Better start planning Spring Portraits for 3rd grade!

See more on our Artsonia.com gallery!

Fun morning with Keith Haring and Roll a Haring free download

Second grade was supposed to start "People in Action" today.  This pivotal lesson teaches how to draw a human and how to make the body parts look like they are moving.  It has always been a part of my second grade curriculum and I refer to it a lot through the next few years of elementary school.

Well, I had seven kids out sick.  They were dropping like flies today.  I like to tie-in some Keith Haring with this unit, so I sort of skipped ahead.  I showed the class several of Keith Haring's paintings.  We discussed the action, the lines, the colors and talked about how the pictures made us feel.  Next, the class got to make their own Haring inspired picture by playing "Roll a Haring!"

I do not know what website I got the original document from, but it is pretty fun and easy to follow.  The kids roll their dice and pick a head from the corresponding number in the head column, roll again, have a torso, etc.

Then we traced our pictures with Sharpie, and colored with crayons!

They turned out so cute I had to get a group shot!  

Warm vs. Cool Clor Dinosaur Silhouettes and Free How to Draw Dinosaurs downloads

Second grade learns about warm and cool colors by watercolor painting colorful washes.  We thoroughly discuss why colors have temperatures and why artists use these different colors to convey feelings.

Being cart based, I opted not to have second grade use watercolor for their backgrounds - rather we drew interesting line designs with crayons and filled white space up with color.  We didn't get a chance to discover new colors that happens when mixing paint, but we did get the chance to categorize our crayons by temperature.

When our pages were colored, second grade practiced drawing dinosaurs.  I had put together some packets of dinosaur pictures as well as how to draw pages.  Here are a few pages I got from Dover Publications.
How to draw a Brachiosaurus 

How to draw an Albertasaurus

How to draw a T-Rex

We next discussed our parts to composition and created a prehistoric silhouette over our crayon designs with black construction paper.

Not quite Native American Kachina Dolls in Second Grade.

I sometimes cringe when I see a display of brightly painted African Masks, or paintings of patterned Native American scenes, but, I've also been able to fine validity in my own teaching of multicultural art.

Second grade's not quite Native American Kachina dolls is an example of this.  We started with deep learning of the Hopi Native Americans.  We watched YouTube clips of real Native Americans discussing their craft and the meanings behind their sacred art.  We visual analyzed several pieces, and applied this art to history. Second graders already understood the meaning of Kachina dolls, and why they were so important to the Hopi before they embarked on their own doll.

Students did not copy a Hopi Kachina, rather, they thought about something very important to them and designed from there.  Their stuffed dolls now hang in the hall.

The Art of Education just recently published a blog post on this same topic.  It mirrors my sentiments to a tee.

Practice Page: Children in Motion. Good sketchbook practice, handout, or worksheet for drawing actions.

Second grade is when I teach students how to draw people in action.  We start with robots and gingerbread men and study Keith Haring's art.  I use this worksheet to show the kids that when you draw a person, it is all just basic shapes.  It only makes a difference how you pose them.  I did not make this, but got it from a co-worker a million years ago!

First day art lesson for second grade - Hot Potato Self-Portraits, a success!

Second grade had been in school for four days already before they came to me- I am sure they didn't want to hear me discuss rules, routines, and basics of every corner of the room.  However, I was leery about jumping in with a project.  Instead, I decided to try an ice-breaker, and go from there.

We gathered in a circle and played a game of Hot Potato.  Only instead of a potato, we passed a garbage bag full of hats, necklaces, glasses, and scarves.  When the music stopped, the person holding the bag wasn't out, they just had to reach into the bag and pull out an accessory to wear.

I admit, it got a little loud.  Second grade was super excited, but they did a wonderful job following the game's rules and cheering on classmates.  I had planned for a 15 minute game which was also perfect to empty our bag.  Each student had at least one item to wear, with some sporting 2 or 3!

We returned to our new assigned seats.  Each child received a mirror and continued modeling their new attire.  I reviewed a bit of information about self-portraits, and asked the students to draw what they saw in the mirror.

The class remained engaged for 15-20 more minutes.  Some students had the chance to color, others did not.  Some kids were completely stumped at drawing hats, while others just went for it.  It was a lot of fun!

Feelings in Art Worksheet.

Feelings In Art Worksheet

I made a worksheet using popular masterpieces to help younger students talk about their aesthetic responses to artwork.  

Attached is my Feelings in Art worksheet.  Have students look at the subject matter, body language, and colors to help gauge how a work of art makes them feel.  There are no right or wrong answers, and it is interesting how students interpret different things.  I hope it starts a lively discussion for your class.

I apologize for not including my resources and for the fact that the worksheet itself isn't the most aesthetically pleasing!  Hopefully you will find it useful in your artroom.