My Kinder students created adorable kinder portraits with an added twist…crowns! It gave me the opportunity to break out my jars of glitter and allow my smallest students to express themselves through line and color (and a bit of sparkle!)
Drawing the Portraits
The process is pretty simple and requires few art supplies. Give each student a piece of white regular drawing paper (Sulphite Construction paper) and a pre-cut crown.
Note: I used the crown templates from my Art and Literature Art Lesson Plan booklet but you can create your own or have the children draw their own crowns directly onto their paper. I will say this: if you are short on time ( I have 35 minutes for kinder art), consider a template. It provides a great starting point for children.
If they all have the same sized-crowns, it makes drawing the face a bit easier. Also, in this particular kinder class, there are a few challenging (yet quite adorable!) children who would be overwhelmed without a starting point. Just something to think about and do what’s best for your students. Anyway…back to the fun stuff…
Set a tray of oil pastels and a few crown templates. Trace the crown near the top of the paper. Draw a big letter “U” under the crown. Start at the bottom left corner of the crown, make a big U up to the bottom right side of the crown. This is why I love the templates…everyone now has a good size face!
Continue drawing facial features, neck, shoulders and hair. I demonstrate how to draw these things but mostly I allow the children to create their own face. There is something about kinder lines that are so adorable; you just don’t want to tamper with their innocence!
Painting and Adding Glitter
Set a palette of tempera paints on the tables (I’m using the tempera cakes at the moment and LOVE them) and of course, water and brushes. Paint the whole piece. I try to encourage the children to choose different colors for the hair, crown and background, but well, sometimes a kid really gets into a color choice and they paint everything that one color. Again, it’s Kinder and cute, so enjoy it!
After everything is painted, it’s time for the GLITTER!!! (I use Spectra Glitter) Demonstrate how to “draw” with glue, making lines, shapes, etc. After they apply the glue to their crowns, they walk over to the glitter table where we sprinkle away. I usually do the sprinkling but they chose the colors and where they should go.
That’s it! Glittered Kinder Royalty!
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Adorable!
I’m a homeschooling mom (I used to work in a kindergarten class before my kids were born) and I just found your site. I just wanted to thank you for sharing all your wonderful ideas!
These are great! It really is amazing what kids can do at any age, especially when you don’t underestimate them!
These are beautiful. I wish my kindergarteners could or would create this quality work. My second or third graders should be able to handle it. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for another great idea, Patty. I am always hesitant to paint with Kinders as we only have 30 minutes. I see how you have made it accessible with tempera cakes and directed drawing so that every child feels successful. Great lesson!
:)Pat
I used to only have 30 minutes with my Kinders and that was only doable because I had them first thing in the morning and could prep in advance. Keep painting!
I just wanted to thank you for sharing your great ideas! Our daughter’s school is a brand new school (1st year up and running) and since everything is brand new and we are figuring things out- many of the parents are volunteering to help out. Several of us are stepping in to do art with the kids and this site is going to be so wonderful to reference!! We really appreciate it. I have had tons of fun looking through it already 🙂
This looks like so much fun! maybe a bit messy from glitter, but if you control that part, at one station, I’m sure it helps! I may try this at my new job! I will only have 30 minute classes, which is completely new to me, so I am ALWAYS looking for ways to make that time the MOST efficient for the students. (I will definitely keep templates in mind)
thanks for posting!
Thank you so much! I am doing fairy tales at the moment and am sick of simple paint the template activities. This would be so much more creative!! x
Hi! I ordered and paid for this lesson yesterday but have not yet recieved it. What do I need to do?
Thanks!!
Please check out Customer Support page for trouble shooting. https://www.deepspacesparkle.com/faq/
25 years of teaching art, highschool , then mid, now elem.words of advice, keep it simple. Have a back up poetry book like Where the side walk ends, to fill that extra 2 min. if you get cleaned up early. Day 1 we make name tags for the year. This year K is doing your Royal Ks, on day 2 of art. The first day we drew with large black crayons. Next class I will teach painting procedures. I won’t try glitter and glue (2 more procedures to teach). Tempra cakes are a life saver! I keep them in 1 inch tall cardboard soup can boxes from the grocery, passing 12 colors out at once to every table. I will add a small bowl of gold paint for crowns. Thanks for the great idea.
Hi there!
I’m in love. Absolutely adorable!
Would you be willing to share with me some ways to make this a permanent work of art?
How could I take 30 kinder “Royal Kinder” portraits and combine them into a one of a kind piece?
Thank you so much!
Pam
Hi! I wanted to teach this lesson but I wasn’t sure what face color you used. How did you get a skin tone color with tempera cakes?
Thank you,
Mrs. K
Hi Mrs. K
I use liquid tempera, not tempera cakes. I poured 3 different variatiosn of skin color in a plastic muffin palette: light skin tone, medium skin tone (add a bit of brown to regular skin tone) and dark skin tone (add more brown).
If you only use cakes, the kids will have to mix orange, white and brown together. This is not the idea solution for kinders. Instead, use chalk pastels for the skin.
Thank you! That makes sense! 🙂
I listened to you during our 2022 Teacher’s Convention and just loved your ideas and approach.
This is adorable!!! How do you do all that in 35 minutes. Won’t the paint still be wet when you glitter? I have 45 minutes and still don’t think I will have enough time.