I Am Beautiful (ECE)

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Subject Areas Arts
Themes Identity
Lesson Plan Series Art in Conversation Everything is Beautiful

Prism.K12 Strategies Identify Express
Grade Levels PK3-PK4

Materials

Large chart paper
Markers
What I Like About Me! by Allia Nolan
Construction paper
Colored pencils
Crayons

Lesson Overview

American painter Jacob Lawrence depicted and celebrated the lives and experiences of Black people. One way he did this was through painting portraits (pictures of people). Today, many Black artists, like Lawrence, make portraits that show positive images of Black people. These portraits show the rich and beautiful history and identity of Black people. In this lesson, students will:

Learn about portraits
Create their own self-portraits

Part 1: What Makes Me Special?

Introduce:

Read aloud What I Like About Me! by Allia Nolan.
After reading the book, ask students the following questions:
- What were some things that made the kids in the book special?
- What makes you special?
Explain to students that some artists create pictures called portraits. Portraits are pictures of people and can show us what makes someone special. Self-portraits are pictures of the artist themself.

Part 2: Studying Portraits

IDENTIFY:

Jacob Lawrence was a famous artist who sometimes made portraits of other people.
Have students look at Lawrence’s portrait, The Shoemaker. Ask students:
- What do you notice?
- What do you think makes the person in this painting special based on what you see?
Jacob Lawrence also painted a self-portrait, or a portrait of himself. Look at this self-portrait by Jacob Lawrence. Ask students:
- What do you notice in the painting?
- What do you think makes Jacob Lawrence special based on what you see?

Part 3: Creating Portraits

EXPRESS:

Explain to students that they will create self-portraits.
Ask each student to come up with one thing that makes them special or one thing they love to do.
Tell them to draw themselves the best they can. Their portraits should include the thing that makes them special or them doing the thing they love to do.

Share:

Create an art gallery for students to display their portraits.

Visual Context

Here are some artwork and images to further contextualize the content of the lesson. You can incorporate the images into your lessons or use them to build your own background knowledge.

Please note: Images are available to download only for personal, noncommercial use. For any questions about image rights and reproductions, please contact imagerights@phillipscollection.org.

man in workshop fixing shoes — Jacob Lawrence, *The Shoemaker*, 1945

painting of the artist jacob lawrence with in process painting in his studio — Jacob Lawrence, *Self-Portrait*, 1977

Additional Context

Lesson Context

Jacob Lawrence was a famous American painter who depicted and celebrated the lives and experiences of African Americans, and Black people more widely, through his art. Lawrence painted what life was like in the Black community and was deeply invested in portraying and educating the history of Black people.

Lawrence not only painted scenes from his neighborhood, but he also painted portraits of people. Some of these portraits were of himself, some of everyday people doing everyday things, and some of famous people such as: abolitionist and political activist Harriet Tubman, leader of the Haitian revolution Toussaint L’Ouverture, and social reformer and abolitionist Frederick Douglass. These portraits not only depicted the accomplishments and contributions of these people, but also provided, in Lawrence’s words, “something to be proud of, something to look up to.”

Key Terms

Portraiture: Art that shows a detailed depiction of a person.