All new ideas for this year’s self portraits in elementary! Kindergarten and 1st grade drew themselves in their dream jobs. 2nd and 3rd grade did monochromatic Picasso-style portraits. 4th and 5th grade created self portraits in the style of Roy Lichtenstein/Pop Art.
This was a unit I did with my IGCSE class in the final weeks of the first semester. I wanted them to have the experience of working with a midterm exam topic to practice working within a limited time, similar to the final exam.
The topic was decay. We began by brainstorming the word, looking at the definition and collecting ideas for subjects pertaining to the topic. I had them do observational drawings of objects, both from my collection and from items they brought in.
After the students had several drawings, we narrowed in to the topic a bit more with a specified task: either to design a fashion garment inspired by decay, or to develop a final piece to be shown in an exhibition on decay. Once the students chose a direction, they began to develop their ideas from their original starting point drawings.
I did a workshop showing them different techniques for distressing paper and fabric to make it look old, worn and decayed. They explored these techniques in their sketchbooks and incorporated some of them into their final ideas.
The final piece was to be created during three one and a half hour exam slots. My students went into the exam knowing exactly which of their ideas they were going to recreate, what materials they needed and had thought out the steps for completion. There was an interruption of snow amidst the creating, so the midterm was not actually finished before the semester ended. Despite this small hiccup, I think all of them were familiarized with the exam process and the steps needed for taking a topic from the brainstorming stages to completion.
Gateway Art 