Unit Title: Family Portraits

Overarching Question: How do artists use detail to create puppets of their families?

Subject Area: Visual Art

Grade Level: 1st grade
Format: In-Person Learning
Time: 5 40-minute classes

Unit Focus/Overview:
The focus of this unit is to allow students to reflect on what the concept of family means to them.
Students will work on creating detailed puppets that resemble their chosen family members. To
some, family may just mean their parents, to others it could be siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins,
grandparents, guardians, or even pets. The overarching lesson is that every family looks
different.
Throughout this unit, students will investigate what they already know about the diversity of
families, and eventually share their own family stories. They will have the opportunity to look at
contemporary artists like Faith Ringgold, Chantal Joffe, and Carmen Lomas Garza. This is
important to provide inspiration to students who may feel as though their families or homes don't
conform to what society often shows in popular media. Last of all, while the use of puppets
creates dialogue, it also brings joy into the classroom. As Nicole M. Romanski says, "puppetry is
a natural bridge to play, imagination, experimentation, storytelling, and collaboration."

Unit Overview
● Lesson 1: Art Detectives
o Materials
▪ Color Pencils, Markers, Pencils
▪ Artwork
▪ Post-Its
o Objectives
▪ Students will be able to compare and contrast works of art by professional
artists
▪ Students will choose and share something with the class.
o Procedure
▪ Introduction: 3 R’s and Artist Greeting
▪ Students will look at contemporary artists Faith Ringgold, Chantal Joffe,
and Carmen Loman Garza as well as a selection of other artists like
Norman Rockwell, Cbabi Bayoc, William Hogarth, and Sunil Gupta. Each
of these artists depict family in different ways.
● “I heard that everyone here has been making picture frames and
talking about family in one of your classes. SO, in art class, we
will be creating little family puppets to go into those picture frames
that you can take home at the end of the year. BUT, before we start
drawing our own families, we need to become art detectives (who
look for clues) by looking at other family portraits first.”
 ● “First, let’s look at one together.” Show the class Carmen Loman
Garza’s family portraits. Work through the facilitating questions as
a class.
● Facilitating Questions (See, think, wonder):
o Who do you see in the image?
o How many people do you see?
o Who do you think they are?
o What are they doing?
o If you could ask them a question, what would you ask
them?
● “Now, every table will receive a different family portrait. Like we
did as a class, write or draw what you see, think, or want to know.
Make sure to write your names on your paper”
o Hand out the artwork to each table. Choose a student to
hand out the worksheets. Choose a couple students to hand
out the art materials.
● Ring the bell to get everyone's attention, “Now, everyone will get
one post-it. How many post-its will everyone get? ____ Then, you
will choose one thing you liked the MOST about the family
portrait that you looked at.”
▪ Conclusion: Before clean-up, reflection time! Go around the room and ask
each table if they want to share what they wrote on their post-it.
▪ Clean up Instructions: “Right now, everyone put your post-it on top of
your table’s artist family portrait.” Demonstrate with a post-it. Wait until
everyone does it. Collect it.
▪ “Once I play the clean-up song, put your worksheets in your classroom bin
and your materials back on the shelf.” “Where do you put your
worksheets?”_____ Put on the clean-up song.
▪ If there is extra time, ask if any students want to share more with the class.
● Lesson 2: Introduction to Family Portraits
o Materials
▪ Color Pencils, Pencils, Crayons
▪ “What does your family look like?” Worksheet
o Objectives
▪ Students will be able to articulate their knowledge and feelings about
family
▪ Students will begin to think about what their own families look like
o Procedure
▪ Introduction: 3 R’s and Artist Greeting
▪ Remind students about what we did last class: “Last class we were art
detectives, and looked at how some artists draw their families. Today, we
will think about what our own families look like. Does anyone remember
some things we saw?” (5 minutes)
▪ Show students our (Ms. Knue and my) families. Mention how everyone’s
family is different. (5 minutes)
 ▪
Students will have time to brainstorm/sketch what their own families look
like on the “what does your family look like?” worksheet. (20-25 minutes)
▪ If students finish quickly, take 5 minutes to have students share at their
tables. (5 minutes)
▪ Closing: Students will put their sketches in their class bin and put
materials away. (5 minutes)
● Lesson 3: Puppet Making
o Materials
▪ Skin colored color pencils/crayons
▪ Color pencils, crayons, pencils
▪ “Who is in my family?” Worksheet
▪ Reference sheet/checklist
o Objectives
▪ Students will indicate which family members they wish to include in their
family portraits
▪ Students will be able to identify and draw the different parts of a figure
which includes a face, torso, arms, and legs
▪ Students will be able to determine what details they need to use to
represent themselves and their family members (ie. skin color, hair shape,
glasses)
o Procedure
▪ Introduction: Artist Greeting
▪ Students will watch a short 1-minute video on puppetry (1:32-2:37):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kll7aLqgDpE
● Georgina Hayns is the stop-motion animation puppeteer of many
famous shows including Corpse Bride, Coraline, and Bob the
Builder. This video brings viewers behind the scenes in creating
puppets.
● Prior to watching the video ask students to focus on: “what are the
different parts of a puppet or a person?”
● Afterwards, as a class, students will share what they heard about
the different parts of a person/figure/puppet (face, eyes, mouth,
hair, arms, legs, etc.). This will be written on the board for students
to reference during the activity.
o Ask students: “Are these puppets stick figures?”
▪ Before going into the activity, briefly talk about how to draw a body. Gear
students away from drawing stick figures and instead show them how to
use shapes instead.
▪ Then students will have the rest of class to start creating their puppets of
their family (they will initially be limited to creating a maximum of 6
figures, including pets, but if they have time, they can choose to grab
another worksheet to make more). They will be given a reference
sheet/checklist to aid them if they need help drawing eyes, noses, mouths,
etc.
▪ If students are not done, they can continue working on this during the next
class.
● Lesson 4: Practicing Using Scissors and Glue
o Materials
▪ Scissors
▪ Glue
▪ Optional: Crayons, Color Pencils
▪ Cut and Paste Worksheet
o Objectives
▪ Students will be able to cut a variety of shapes
▪ Students will be able to glue without using too much
o Procedure
▪ Introduction: 3 R’s and Artist Greeting
▪ Students will go over how to use scissors and glue.
● Tips to using scissors: Scissors always face outwards, the dominant
hand holds the scissors while the extra hand holds the paper, and
only your extra hand should be turning the paper.
● Tips for using glue: “Dots, dots, not a lot!”
▪ Remind students about the 3 R’s (especially on respecting art materials)
before having them complete the cut and paste worksheets. These
worksheets have students cut out 5 separate shapes, then glue them
together to create either a pig or a rainbow friend.
▪ For students who work faster, they can choose to color in and decorate
their creation.
▪ The class will end with students putting their work in their portfolios and
cleaning up.
● Lesson 5: Finish Decorating, Cutting, and Glueing
o Materials
▪ Scissors
▪ Glue
▪ Popsicle sticks
▪ Crayons, Color Pencils (including skin colored ones)
o Objectives
▪ Students will be able to use their cutting and gluing skills to attach their
figures to popsicle sticks
▪ Students will recognize the importance of details in differentiating people
from each other
o Procedure
▪ Introduction: 3 R’s and Artist Greeting
▪ Students will go over how to use scissors and glue very briefly
▪ For students who are not done with their family portraits, they can
continue to work on them. Remind students that details are extremely
important and that they are what distinguish and make every person
unique.
▪ For students who are done, they can start to cut their figures out. To
students with a quiet thumb, I will walk around the room and hand them
popsicle sticks to glue the figures to.
▪ If time warrants, students can choose a color for their background.
● Artists Used

Faith Ringgold

Carmen Lomas Garza

Chantal Joffe

Self-Portrait with Esme in St Leonards,

2012
Norman Rockwell
William Hogarth
Sunil Gupta or Raphael Perez

Cbabi Bayoc
Georgina Hayns
● Worksheets
● My example: