Week 1: Self Portraits in cut paper

I wanted to start the year off with some basics, and a self portrait is a great tool to gauge a child's art skills and interest. Plus you can compare with older and future images.  This was a pretty simple project. I just had them pick out paper, cut, rip and glue. Some drawing at the end.  I was really amazed at the ability to capture likeness in many of these.  They also did things I had not told them to do, like make their portrait in profile or use odd colors for skin etc.  A lot of them tore the paper for the hair which turned out great. Another interesting thing was that the younger kids seemed faster and much more uninhibited than the older kids who were more perfectionists.

K-2 portraits:



3rd and 4th grade portraits: