Me! Exploring self-portraiture.

One of the themes we’ve been exploring in our Playgroup lately is self-portraiture. The idea came about when I noticed a few children declaring, “look it’s me!” as they described their drawings. Below are some of the ways we explored the basics of portraiture together.

Books!

A trip to the library brought us Let’s Make Faces by Hanoch Piven. It’s a an excellent book with illustrations made completely of loose parts! It quickly became a favorite in our classroom, providing great inspiration for a variety of fun activities.

Light Table

I used a dry erase marker to draw a face shape on our light table. The children then used various objects to add features. It was great practice before making our clay faces!

 

Clay Faces

This is probably my favorite projects we’ve done so far! I set out a bunch of random items and provided each child with a ball of clay. The children rolled the clay flat, using their self-portrait mats as a guide (You can download the template here from Picklebum). They then selected loose parts to personalize their faces with features. It was such fun watching them try different faces and the final sculptures were just lovely and really reflective of each child’s personality!

self portrait creation with clay and loose parts

The Creative and Curious Playgroup

February has been a busy month for our Creative and Curious Playgroup kids. In addition to getting to know one another and settling into our new space, we have been establishing new friendships and exploring many fun activities. Here is a peek into what we have been up to.

Through our author study of Eric Carle, we’ve been discussing concepts of print and learning important literacy skills. We’ve shared many stories together, but our favorites have been The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? and Little Cloud. These are stories we have retold many times through song, our felt board and in our art!

During art, we have discussed Carle’s illustrations – pointing out the colors, textures and shapes we see within his work. Through a series of painting and collaging activities, we created our own Eric Carle inspired art.

After reading Little Cloud, we explored clouds in a few different ways. The children were most excited exploring how rain clouds work in a fun science experiment!

We also made our own puffy paint and created a cloud mural together.

We have been learning about the letter C – it’s shape and the sounds it makes. Using  our surprise ‘c’ bag as a prompt, we sang about items beginning with C and even created a C shaped caterpillar!

In the playroom, the children are most excited about the light table and having daily tea parties! We share cupcakes and tea daily as we learn about our friends. We’ve made play dough and ice paintings and much much more!

Puffy Paint

Water Color Resist Name

Water Color

Shape Puzzle

Painting Without Brushes

Painting Without Brushes

Ice Painting

Ice Paintings on Light Table

Ice Painting

Draing C Words

Making Playdough

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