I LOVE this collage self portraits project. It was so much fun to make and the kids had a good laugh at the results. We call them whacky, yet beautiful. Just like people. I got the idea from an art project I saw at a friends house. I embellished it a bit here and there. I’d love to give the creator credit, but I don’t know who she is.
Steps
The steps are pretty easy. Basically, take a 9×17 piece of construction paper and hold horizontally. I pre cut heads, necks and chests for all the kids. I gave step by step directions for gluing them down. For the chest, the kids picked a pattern paper and glued on the template, then cut around the template. This kind of cutting is great for kindergarteners because there is a guide/barrier for cutting. After the body parts were glued down we added the border, which was made from pre-cut small squares from old magazines. I tried to pick colorful magazine covers for this part so the paper was a little thicker. After, I set up tons of magazine faces of girls, boys, men and women on the floor and the kids got to choose which ones they wanted to cut from. This was crucial because looking through magazines with a group of 16 five years olds is not the greatest. This way they could focus right in on the facial features they wanted to use. After all the facial features were glued on, Brigitte helped the kids find letters in the mags to spell their names and paste to their shirts. Last but definitely not least, the kids directed me on the hairstyle they wanted and I cut it out. A few did it themselves. I was okay with this since we had already spent a nice amount of time on the other parts. Another way to do it would be to paint on the hair. The likeness to the designers on some of these is pretty hilariously spot on. Super fun project and a great keepsake at home. I want to frame mine in a lucite box frame.
This was my sample.
hello meri,
first i want to thank you for stopping by my blog and leaving such a nice comment.
second, your blog and your ideas are so inspirational! wow! i volunteer to teach art at my girls’ school and found so many wonderful ideas to try. thank you.
i was on your blog for a long time going back as far as i could. i’m so glad to have discovered you!!!!
Thank you Teri!! How cool. Please stop by again. I LOVE your blog and look forward to all your new posts. Thank you! Please let me know how it goes with your girls. I’d love to see photos!
What a whimsical take on a self portrait lesson! I will definitely try this one out at some point. Thanks for sharing.
This is an awesome project. Thanks for sharing!!!!
awesome idea will be attempting this on Monday!
Cool! Good luck and please send me a pic when you can.
sooo creative and fun idea…if you don’t mind i like to make this project for my year 1 students. Thank u for sharing.
Hello, I LOVE your website and I don’t have kidlets! So much fun, creativity and cheerfulness 😀 I especially love it when you have instructions in case we don’t know what to do. This portrait project is brilliant!
(note: vertical instead of horizontal?)
Hi Meri! I can not wait to do this with my grade 2 class. The pictures are on your site won’t load. Any chance you can send them to me?
Thanks!
Just updated the post. It’s such an old one the photos disappeared so I had to grab them from pins. Sorry for the quality. Let me know if you have any questions. This is a great one for second grade! They’ll love it.
Thanks!