Big portraits

Last week we used the photo portraits I had taken of the children as the base for the children to draw a portrait... putting plastic over the photograph and giving them a permanent pen to draw around the outlines.

Thsi proved an interesting task... not only to see how thir fine motor skills were doing, but also to see their language development... following instructions of drawing around the face and explaining how this could be done gave me a wonderful window into their language comprehension.

All but one enjoyed this task very much, this due to a child feeling his motor skills prevent him from producing the image in paper similar to that he has in his head... this time I did the task for him... as i knew this was just step one in a long series of steps and I wanted him to be able to participate in the rest of the steps in what will be a group piece of art.

Today we put the  plastic portraits on the overhead and projected them onto a big piece of paper on the wall (which I had divided into 8 equal rectangles). The children worked in pairs to draw around the outlines of the portraits.

The child that has struggled the first week, struggled also this week... but this week really tried to have a go - so it felt like progress... next week I am hoping for an even longer try and also I think there will be completion of the task... I am feeling positive about it.

Once all eight portraits were pencilled in on the wall we took out the back paint...

Again they worked in pairs to go round the outlines...

Until all of the portraits were completed

This was a much enjoyed project by the children... and the one child that received adult support was pleased with that support, is proud to share that fact with others and feels included. It always concerns me about how much should we help children... and when I know that they can... then they are given all the encouragement they need... but when I feel the encouragement will not support, but will be an added pressure, then I feel I need to change my tactic and just allow the child to feel included and support until they feel ready. Its a tricky balance, and I feel that knowing and working with these children for almost 3 years has allowed me an insight that hopefully has given me the knowledge to support this child in the best possible way.

All of the children recognise themselves and comment on how beautiful their own portrait is, so the adult help of this one child has not phased the other children at all.. they have complemented each other a great deal which has been wonderful to hear.

As we have been doing the "Through the Eyes of the Child" project this week, the children have been working in pairs to and taking photographs of what is important to them... one pair for each morning this week (it's prototype week - where I am testing it out). The pair today took most of their photos of this session, and their final image for the show on Friday was from the session - as "this was important" to them.

Next week we will start with colouring the background.

The portrait project links to our Leonardo Da Vinci project...