Many Faces to Love

Activity Overview

As very young children develop their capacity to represent the visual world, one of the first things they grow into is the ability to move from named scribbles (assigning stories and labels to abstract scribbling) to pre-schematic drawing (the use of clear and simple symbols that represent the child’s thinking). The first pre-schematic drawings to emerge are usually people, represented as circles with simple features and sticks for arms and legs. As young children develop more awareness of themselves, they also learn how symbols can be important stand-ins for others they are thinking of, even if they are not present. We also learn in these early years that although we have commonalities in our faces, we are each unique, and we learn to appreciate that uniqueness in ourselves and others. In the following activity, children are inspired by the work of Ferris Plock and Giuseppi Arcimboldo to practice their symbolic skills through the playful motif of food faces.

What You Need

• Happy Face, Sad Face on Epic

• Many Faces to Love Slideshow

• Aiken Drum song/draw-a-long

• Snacks - fruit, crackers, cheese, vegetables

• A plate

Steps

1. Share the song/draw-a-long Aiken Drum with your student - you can listen along to the story song here, or sing it as you create your own creation.

2. Show the Many Faces to Love Slideshow featuring creative ways of arranging food into faces and present the idea of doing the same thing at snack time.

3. With your student, build faces with your snacks at the table. You might like to sing Aiken Drum again as a structure for organizing turns and slowing down the process of building the face.

4. Take a picture of your student’s food artwork before eating up your snack!

5. Read the text Happy Face, Sad Face on Epic as a way to continue encouraging interest in faces.

Guiding Questions

• What do you notice about these pictures, and how Ferris Plock made a face with food? Can we do that too?

• What is Aiken Drum going to look like today?

• How can we make sure our Aiken Drum can (see, hear, taste, sing)?

• Can you make a picture of me with your snacks? Of yourself?

• How are you and I the same? How are we different?

Extensions

• Repeat this activity in new ways to make self-portraits and portraits by using materials such as blocks, natural materials or toys.