Every year, I like to end the school year with a special gathering for the families.  This year I decided to put together an art show to showcase our work.  Each student painted a self-portrait on a canvas.  We put out the tiki watercolors, the painted paper fish, a classbook of story plays, a few written pieces, their photo album, portfolio and a photo frame the students painted with a photo of the student.   It was such a joy to see the children share their work and the delight of the parents to have this opportunity to come to the classroom.

Painting the self portraits is really easy.  I purchased the canvas boards and paint at Michael's.  I selected the cheap acrylic paint in the bottles for 99 cents.  Do allot a few days.  It is really a four day process.

Day 1.   Have each student paint the background color.
Day 2.   I made a tracer of a head and shoulders.  (I noticed Michael's carries a cardstock head cut out that would work great for a tracer).   Each child traces the head on the canvas.  Then they paint it in with flesh color paint.  (These cheap paints have all the skin colors).
Day 3.   Paint hair, eyes, nose, and mouth
Day 4.   Paint shirt and background details.

So cute!!








Notice the yellow picture?  A student made this and added it herself to the show!  So cool to see the ownership!