Easy Project For PreK

Every year when we begin school its time to pull out the pencils and paper and make those self protraits again. This year we had the greatest pictures hanging up in our hallway at our elementary school.

These were amazing life size self portraits of our pre school students.

Teachers found rolls of butcher paper. Its huge,brown paper on a roll.

They rolled out a piece for each child the same size as they were. The students laid down on their piece of paper and another student drew around them. Some children needed help with this part but most did a pretty good job.

Then they had to cut around the edge of the outline. In some cases the teachers had to do most of the cutting.

Now the fun part. The children were given paints and they had to paint on their faces, eyes, hair, noses and then some clothes. I think what most impressed me was how this project helped them see that they had necks. They all had arms coming out of the bodies not out of their heads and legs.I found it put things in perspective.

Once all the finishing touches were on--shoes, pants, bows in their hair--they were dried and hung out in the hallway for everyone to see.

We have to do self portraits of the children every year to go through school with them. I liked this idea because it seemed to teach other lessons like perspective and how to manipulate the scissors and paint brushes.

I love hearing the other children's comments when they walk past them in the hall. It's really a fun and easy project.

Once the self portraits are finished, the kearning begins. Kids will notice how much bigger they are months later, an excellent attention grabber for a lesson on the human body. It can also be used for a writing prompt. The cut out portraits can be used for a comparison with animals, giving children an important lesson on perspective.