Kindergarten- Self-portraits with Emotion!

One of the kindergarten standards relates to emotions. We actually began this lesson with a little color theory introduction. I had 6 clear plastic cups filled with water and we used food color to mix the primary colors. It was such a visual way to see color mixing and the kids LOVED it! They were jumping up and down with excitement! I also read the book Color Dance to them as well.

The next day we talked about emotions. I had them make faces to show the different emotions. I then drew a face on the board step by step and had the kids draw along with me on their papers. I left the mouth and the eyebrows off. We then discussed how our eyebrows and mouths change with each emotion we show. I drew and example on the board of each emotion as we talked about them. 

The kids then chose an emotion for their drawing and finished their faces, adding hair and clothes to make it look like them. I explained that they were making a self-portrait. 

The next day we talked about how different colors show different emotions. The students then painted their portraits with watercolor to match their emotions!