I like myself because…

Hynes Lakeview, 1st Grade| ELA | Theater and Visual Arts

Teacher Eren

For the past four weeks I’ve been working with two 1st grade classes to create an incredible display of 60 monochromatic self-portraits! The students first began with a lesson on drawing self portraits in pencil, followed with a layer of monochromatic watercolor, and finished with colored pencil and linework in sharpie. These portraits were mounted on a larger piece of paper with a sentence that their entire project was framed around, “I like myself because…”.

The students frequently expressed great confusion and sometimes frustration with the idea of making art with only one color. But sometimes, confusion and frustration happens when we are experiencing a challenge! A monochromatic painting assignment requires a student to explore how one color can be darker and lighter, depending on how much water you use when mixing the paint or how hard you press with the colored pencil. This is a skill I was excited to introduce to the class, and I feel the students did a great job!

But regardless of the pencils or paint, the core of this project was about writing. Before they could even begin, the students were asked to write a sentence that began with the words “I like myself because…”. As an adult, I find this task to be challenging and I know that I’m not alone in this feeling. I was deeply surprised to find that even in 1st grade, there are students that already find this a hard subject to talk about. To me, it was proof that projects and experiences that encourage students to reflect on the joy of their own existence are deeply important, especially at such a young age. I was happy to bring this project to their classroom, and look forward to finding more ways to encourage students self-worth.