Self portraits-a record of growth

Once a  month the children in my class create a self-portrait and sign it with their name. This is an incredible way to document their growth and development.  You can see how they view themselves, their body awareness, their developmental stage of drawing and representation, and their ability to write their names.

Each month we create this portrait using a different art medium.  In September, we used markers.  In October, we used crayons, and this month, we drew the form with sharpies and then painted in the figure with block tempera paint.

In the past, I have had the children create frames for the portrait and we simply cover up last month's  image with  the new one.  This year, they traced their bodies and created name cards.  The portrait is hung under their names on their big body drawings.

At the end of the year, the collection of portraits is given to the parents in a book which is a collection of photographs and art samples from the year.  It is a treasured addition to this memory book.