Layered Family Portraits Part 2

Do Now: Draw yourself if you were the tallest person on earth.

Today the 1st and 2nd grade finished part 2 of our layered family portraits. 

First, we drew portraits of our family on tracing paper using only black marker.

Then, we took our tracing paper portrait...

...and our colorful picture from last week...

...and layered them together!

I hope you enjoy these beautiful portraits as much as we did!

Family Collages 

Do Now: What was your favorite part of our apple picking field trip to Ochs Orchard? Draw a picture and write one sentence.

"My favorite part of the apple picking was picking apples."

"I love apples so much. I love apple picking too. I love apple picking. Apple picking was fun and I love it."

"My favorite part was when we were going on the bus and we were the second to last ones when it was time to go back to school."

"I couldn't reach the apple. I was embarrassed so I just laughed and asked for help."

Today, our 7th grade volunteer led the 1st and 2nd grade lesson. She suggested we make a collage! Students were told to look for pictures that represented their family. For example, if your family has pizza night every Friday, you can cut out a picture of a pizza! That pizza would represent your family tradition.

Here is my example:

1. Boy making a silly face: My family loves to make silly jokes when we're together!

2. Glasses: My entire family wears glasses

3. Bowl of broccoli: My family - especially my mom - is very healthy. We try to eat lots of vegetables.

4. Purple flowers: My dad is a wonderful gardener. He loves looking at botanical gardens.

5. Popsicle: Because my mom is so healthy, we don't get to eat that many sweets! One treat my mom used to let me eat a lot was popsicles.

6. Map: My family loves to travel, and my dad is very good at reading maps.

7. Camera: My family loves taking photographs- we have pictures all over our house!

8. Netflix: Whenever I go home to visit my parents, we love to watch movies together.

The 1st and 2nd graders did a wonderful job representing their families. Take a look at their work below...

Different Families

Do Now: Draw yourself as a robot. Would you have any special powers?

"I can make sculptures. I am a show robot."

"My robot could open drinks and hold many stuff"

"My robot can do everything."

To start off class, the 1st and 2nd grade read one of my favorite childhood books  - "People" by Peter Spier. 

This book talks about, well, people, and the many similarities and differences between us. Though we all celebrate holidays, we celebrate different ones, and though we all have activities we enjoy, we all like to do different things. 

For our project today, the 1st and 2nd graders were inspired by both the message of "People", as well as the illustrations. 

The whole class made drawings of the same things, but each pictures ended up different! Each student received a piece of paper divided into 4 sections, and were told to draw something specific in each rectangle.

In the top left corner, "My family's favorite activity is...."

In the top right corner, "My family's house looks like this..."

In the bottom left corner, "A holiday my family celebrates is..." 

And in the bottom right corner, "My family's favorite food is..."

At the end of our lesson we reflected on how different everyone's pictures were, but how beautiful and interesting they looked all together!

Family Photo 

Do Now: What is one thing you did over the weekend? Draw a picture and write one sentence. 

"I went to swimming lessons"

"On the weekend I went to New Jersey and on Saturday me and my friend went to Chuck E. Cheese and my friend is named Alana."

"I went on a Stevie Wonder concert. We helped the recycling people." (read more about the concert here)

"On Saturday I went to Saturday Club." (Read more about Saturday Club here )

Now that the 1st and 2nd grade has finished our Intro to Art unit, we are beginning our next unit: Families. The 1st grade is studying families in social studies, beginning with the concept of the Nuclear Family (members of your family who live in your home with you) and the Extended Family (members of your family who do not live in your home with you).

We began by reading the book "Family Photo" by Dana Meachen Rau. This quick read shows a large family getting ready for what seems like a family photo - on the last page, we realize that the little boy arranging his family is actually organizing them to take a photograph of him!

For our project today, we made "Family Photo"-inspired pictures. Instead of a regular family portrait, the 1st and 2nd graders drew pictures of themselves taking photographs of their families! 

Look closely at each drawing to find the artist holding a camera...