Why Self Portraits ?

by Debbie
December 1, 2020
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There are many reasons that teachers have children in a preschool setting do self portraits. Looking at the portraits and how children draw gives us some insight to how the child sees themselves. It also shows of the progression in fine motor skills and cognitive thinking. Below you will see Nayomi’s progression from August until now.

Here you can see what many three-year-olds present as art. Squiggly lines back-and-forth across the page. That’s very normal.

Now we see a big round head. We don’t see a body yet but we do see some arms and legs and eyes and ears. We still see the same squiggly lines from last month.

Now in October we see more body parts. I see a top middle bottom and arms. We see a smile. And we see a lot of lines coming from the top. Naomi said that is her hair.

In November Naomi chose to draw clothes on her person. She has a nose and hair as well and a SMILE. This tells me Nayomi recognizes that facial expressions show emotions.

And then we come to today self portrait. You can see Naomi has really find how to tune her motor skills since August. When I look at her eyes in the picture they almost sparkle even though they are one color. You can see heart shaped flowers. And you will notice that the squiggly lines are gone.

I hope you get as excited as I do when I look at documentation like this. This shows me that the way I teach is working. That children naturally develop when they are supposed to and they are successful. She would likely not learn this if she just had a coloring sheet. I can assure you I wouldn’t be able to glean so much information from a coloring sheet about Nayomi’s development. I can’t wait to see what “ Nayomi” looks like in May. ❤️

Why Self Portraits ?