I’m crazy about our portrait unit in Kids Craft Camp. It so fun to see the kids begin to understand that pretty much everything is comprised of shapes – including faces!

I started off with a demo explaining how even our faces can be broken down into shapes. I asked the kids what eyes could be (circles, ovals, even rectangles if we wanted, etc.) and the continued on with the nose (move fav. answer was a triangle), the mouth and so on. The loved it and I could see the lightbulbs going on in their little creative heads.

We had a number or portrait projects lined up for this unit including cardboard faces (both big and small!). They kids picked from a variety of cardboard cut shapes to create their own little faces (you could have your little one cut their own shapes, I just pre-cut ours before hand for time constraints).

They then proceeded to make and decorate little puppets using bbq skewers as the body & popsicle sticks for the arms.

They even cut up scraps of fabric and made their own clothing etc. and finished it all off with a fun puppet show.

The students also played around with oversized faces made from cardboard cake inserts (you could also use pizza rounds).

Another portrait activity we did was to drawn the person who sat across from us. Upon hearing this one little girl mentioned to me that she couldn’t draw. So I reminded her about using shapes to make up a face. She quickly perked up, knowing that she could indeed at least draw shapes and quickly drew the most adorable portrait of her neighbor.

And of course we had to paint a few pencil holder heads (just in time to brighten up back-t0-school homework stations!) in our portrait unit as well.

Seeing what the students created was such a treat! Their creative minds are just exploding with ideas and I loved being able to be a part of their creative journey if only just for a week.

A reminder for those of you who have expressed interest in putting together a Kids Craft Camp yourself I’ve outlined the curriculum for you in a pdf in our online Kids Craft Camp (which also has 8 other activities complete with video for you to do at camp as well!). This can easily be adapted to the school year or for preschool groups, etc.

 

photography by Shannon Weight