" I Am" in Grade 1

     First graders have been looking at this piece titled "Self Portrait" by Judith Leyster and searching for clues about the woman through the painting.

Leyster, Judith. Self Portrait. 1630. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Web.

     To begin we simply worked on describing what we were seeing. Some observations were very keen. Others were just too funny. One student remarked "there's a napkin on her head!" and another believed she was holding a magic wand. Two students thought that she might be the Mona Lisa's sister. After a bit we realized that she was from a long time ago ( 1630 to be exact ) and that she painted this picture of herself... a SELF PORTRAIT! Not only is she showing us that she likes to paint, she's also showing off! We can tell that Judith has a lot of confidence because of her smile and how she is leaning back in her chair.
     To learn more about this painting visit
     http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/highlights/highlight37003.html

     Since Judith showed us that she likes to paint we were going to have to show Judith what we like to do. Here is one example by Erin along with an "I Am" poem she completed when she was finished.

I am Erin

I like dancing

I am beautiful

I try doing my hair

I am a nice person

Evan playing soccer in his self portrait

Dylan fishing in his self portrait