Wednesday, June 27, 2012

When I Grow Up - Self Portraits


Recently I started teaching some art classes out of my home to children in grades K-6th. Previously I was an art teacher for K-2 grades in Las Vegas.  It was something that I had thought about doing right after I was married. We had visited Beau's relative and his daughters were showing us their artwork they had created in an art class they were signed up for. It sounded like such a great idea to do private lessons from your home.  At the time I didn't know where to even begin setting up something like that. Life started happening and it got set to the side. (I ended up substituting for a boys lock down school instead... hmm how did that happen?)  

Now 10 years later I've started homeschooling and have seen how much my kids love it when I say it's time for art. They have some of their mother's blood in them. :)  I've enjoyed finding lesson ideas on the internet to try out with them and have found some inspiring sites from some awesome art teachers.  




I decided it might be fun to teach a few art classes to other homeschoolers and friends.  It would give my kids some more interaction with other kids and summer seemed to be the perfect time to try it out. So we gave our first class a go.

Our first lesson was imaginary self portraits. They were to decide what they wanted to be when they grew up and do it as a self portrait.  I used a lesson from Deep Space Sparkle.  I love her site. She has so many great ideas and lesson plans available. My summer art class has kids in it ranging from Kindergarten to Fifth grade.  That can be challenging to find something that will fit the different skill levers but when you do it's fun to see the variation.

The little first grader above wanted to be an artist. I love her finished picture with lots and lots of windows because "artists need lots of light."  After she finished her entire picture she had to add paint splotches to her painting on the face, hands and shirt, because "Artists get really messy and get paint all over them."  It's been a lot of fun for me to get back into teaching something I love so much. I'm excited to show off the rest of our art through out the summer.

1 comment:

Nicole said...

I'm a homeschool mom too. :o) I also thought it would be fun to invite other homeschool kids over for art classes. I now host "Friday Afternoon Art Classes" It's so much fun and a great way to end the week. Thanks for posting your When I Grow Up Self Portraits....it's exactly what I want to do for our next Friday Afternoon Art Class. :o)