Self portraits boost self-awareness as you take a closer look at your strengths and features.

• 1.

  Think about your strengths. What attributes make you a good person? How can you build on these strengths? In what areas would you like to improve yourself?

• 2.

  Write a short description of yourself with Crayola® Colored Pencils. If your eyes could talk, what would they say about you? What traits and talents are you proud of?

• 3.

  Look in a mirror to help you recognize the shapes and placement of your facial features, head and hair, and shoulder posture.

• 4.

  With Crayola Oil Pastels, draw your own portrait with an expression that reveals who you are. If you wish to make a dramatic portrait, use black paper. Exaggerate facial features that you think are the most definitive by enlarging them and making them more colorful. Fill in all areas of the portrait with color. Blend colors with a fingertip. Fill any open spaces with objects associated with your strengths and talents.

Standards

• LA: Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiples avenues of exploration.
• LA: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
• LA: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
• LA: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade level topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
• LA: Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with relevant evidence, sound valid reasoning, and well-chosen details; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.
• VA: Intentionally take advantage of the qualities and characteristics of art media, techniques, and processes to enhance communication of experiences and ideas.
• VA: Select and use the qualities of structures and functions of art to improve communication of ideas.

Adaptations

• Students make a collage of personal interests and skills and have this collage accompany their self portrait.
• As a whole class, compose a list of interview questions to use when preparing to create a portrait of a team member. Working in teams of two, students interview their teammates and create a portrait. Compare and contrast the interview portrait with self-portraits. Is there anything that a partner's portrait reveals about you that you did not?
• Ask each students to trace an outline of his hand on paper. In each hand, use Crayola Oil Pastels to draw favorite activities or skills. Cut out the hands and display them on a classroom bulletin board.