I decided on an end-of-the-year project for first grade that has the students drawing their self-portraits in MS Paint. The illustrations will be combined to form a collage that will be printed for each student.

We’ve used MS Paint once with the students but it wasn’t really a detailed drawing so I wasn’t sure how well this would work with the little ones.

After our first session, I am extremely impressed. These children are very focused on creating their portraits. Mirrors were handed out so they could check hair, eye, skin color. (It’s rather humorous to watch students hold the mirror up to their arm in hopes of getting a better view of the skin color!)

We talked about how the picture is a close-up view of each child – a shoulders and head shot. I modeled drawing a large oval for the head then we worked together to do it. Eyes are the hardest so that was our focus for the first session. We’ll have a couple more weeks to complete this. I can’t wait to see the finished portraits!

Here are a couple samples in various stages of completion.