All About Me
from the Start With the Arts Program
Age Range: 3-7 year old, preschool-first grade
Time Frame: One hour session
Activity Summary:
The all about Me activity gives young children the opportunity to explore and discover new means of expressing themselves. Young children can sometimes have difficulty putting their ideas, thoughts and feeling into words but can learn to express themselves through the arts. Through this activity, students will play with music, movement and use the visual arts to learn and discover about themselves.
Goal:
All About Me utilizes student’s skills to learn to express thoughts and feelings about things that are special and meaningful about them, developing a sense of self awareness and personal confidence.
Objectives:
• Develop confidence in sharing ideas about self and art work.
• Build vocabulary about collage and texture.
• Create a drawing and a collage that describe oneself.
• Use textured materials in new ways.
• Identify unique and special personal attributes.
State Standards:
Visual Arts 1-5; Music 1,3; Physical Education 1
Set Up: Cut textured materials into small pieces for the collages. Cut big pieces of paper for students to work with. Place it or the heavy drawing paper, crayons/markers on tables. Have one piece of paper, Crayons/markers at the instruction area for you to demonstrate making textures with crayons or markers on a drawing. Supply table with collage materials to select from
Procedure:
1. Welcome students. Bring them to sit in a circle. Encourage children to share something special about themselves to validate the importance of individual interests, ideas and feelings.
a. What’s your favorite food?
b. What is your favorite color?
c. What is your favorite animal?
2. Have them sing the name chant song, going around the circle tapping out their names on their laps. Each student takes a turn while everyone joins in.
3. Introduce texture. Have children run their hands or arms or the side of their faces across the clothing they are wearing. What does the material feel like? Continue the experience by having children feel their shoes, their desks or tabletops. Introduce a variety of collage materials. Distribute a sample to each child.
a. What does your object or piece of material feel like?
b. How would you describe the texture, smooth, rough, bumpy.
4. Demonstrate making textures with crayons or markers. Bring students to tables. Give them 10 minutes to draw a picture of themselves that shows a special interest or attribute they have. Remind them to find a way to include a texture in their drawing.
5. Bring students back to sit in a circle. Introduce collage. Collage is a French work that means to cut and paste. Show some photos of famous collages made by artists. Tell the students the name of the artist and what the artist was communicating (title) that created each collage as you hold the photo up. Demonstrate the collage process by selecting, cutting and or tearing and gluing. Remind children that the glued materials will not stay stuck until the glue is dry. Show children how to overlap items. Invite children to select and add collage materials to their drawings. They may want to make hair, a piece of clothing, grass or trees with the textured materials let the collage dry flat.
6. In summary ask each child to share with us a little about their artwork. What does it tell us about you? What did you like about today’s activity?
Materials:
1. Butcher role paper, heavy drawing paper, construction paper or poster board
2. Crayons and/or markers
3. White glue
4. Masking tape or clear tape
5. A variety of textured materials, such as wallpaper samples, cloth, aluminum, foil and other foiled paper, crape paper, ribbon, rick-rack, embossed and corrugated paper.
6. Photos of famous collages.
Resources:I like Me by Nancy Carlson, VSA Start With the Arts Activity Guide