8th Grade Fingerprint self-portraits

For this project I really wanted something for the students who struggle to see themselves as amazing. I really started looking at work like this when I had a student who was out last year and I needed to write projects that could be made at home but I also wanted something for the student that left and impression for them. Something he could work on that made an important impact on who they are. As middle school students I sometimes feel that they focus a lot on them self but that they don't actually see all of the good things. In this project we focused on hundreds of attributes that describe a person. I then had them highlight their most favorite these would be used in their piece in a way that stood out for everyone to see. We then looked very closely at our own fingerprints. I would suggest printing the print on a balloon and blowing it up for all to see the details but we made do without that accommodation. After studying our fingerprints we sketched them and then redrew them for our final design. Once all of our lines were drawn in we traced them using our attributes and then added color.

Purpose of the project:
 - To teach students that words can be used to create art (typography)
 - As a reflective tool for students to observe their personality qualities and what attributes describe themselves.

 - To highlight their best attributes and shine a light on how amazing they truly are.

Students were graded on the following criteria:
 - The student has used words to create a line

 - They have included personal attributes that describe them self and have highlighted their certain attributes in a creative and unique way.

 - The student has a design that resembles their own fingerprint 

 - Craftsmanship: Make sure that their picture is done neatly.
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This year I decided to try this project with my 7th grade students. It worked out nicely and we had some really nice and successful images. As happens every year I found that the students really struggled to think of things to say about themselves but eventually we able to come up with plenty of positive things. As always we had many awesome projects.

7th Grade Lego Self-Portrait

This is such a fun project that I enjoy doing with my students. Not only is this a fun project but this is a great way to begin looking at the basic shapes of the body. I begin by discussing the different shapes of the body and then showing the drawing figure that I have. Then we begin discussing and walking through how to draw this person. Unfortunately, this year I had to have a sub teach the lesson but it seems that my students did an awesome job anyways.

                          Nanano U                              Mariana C                           Soshi A

                           Sara H                                     Sophie N                           Marissa W

Purpose of the project:
 - To teach students that shapes can be used in the creation of a person or object.
 - As a reflective tool for students to observe their personality qualities and how                                       they are perceived.

Students were graded on the following criteria:
 - The student has used basic shapes to draw a lego like person
 - They have included personal attribute on their person (like glasses, favorite sweater, etc) and have       colored the person.