Early Childhood Studio Lesson
First-Grade Excitement
Under the Big Top!
Beth Hubbert
Teaching my first-grade
students a fun and expressive lesson about portraits
resulted in a highly creative
experimentation with oil pastels
and collage materials. Prior to this
lesson about portrait art, we studied
self-portraits and
created a self-portrait drawing from
observation.
The focus of this
lesson is using the
art of the circus as
a starting point to
spur our imaginations. Students moved from observing themselves for their self-portrait,
to using their imagination to make
an expressive clown portrait.
First Class
The lesson began with viewing art
prints with the circus as the theme.
We discussed the different elements
of the circus experience. Much
excitement began as the students
related their own circus adventures.
Amid the excitement, I began to
focus on the role
of the clown in
the circus. I talked
about how clowns
entertain us with
the expressions
on their faces. I
related how we can communicate
how we feel just through the movement of our facial features. We do
not even have to speak!
Students moved from
observing themselves
for their self-portrait, to
using their imagination
to make an expressive
clown portrait.
I began to make faces at my students and asked them to try and
tell me what expression I might
be making: happy, sad, glad, mad,
surprised, sleepy, gloomy, etc. They
started to guess and then mimic
me as we played this game using
only our eyes, nose, mouth, and
cheeks. We touched our faces to see
how they feel when we make these
expressions. At this point, students
were motivated to create when I told
them that we would be making an
expressive clown portrait.
Students each chose a bright color
of 12 x 18" construction paper. Using
a black crayon, they drew a large
circle or oval for a head. I also taught
them how to draw a “frown” and a
“smile” placed on top of each other
