Exaggerated Expressions

Respond to literature by creating soft sculpture portraits depicting strong emotions.

• 1.

  Read or write poetry, a play, story, or historical account in which a character displays a strong emotion. Look in a mirror to try to duplicate this emotion with your own facial expression. Notice how your features-eyes, eyebrows, nose, lips, forehead-look when you imitate the emotion.

• 2.

  With Crayola® Colored Pencils, sketch a large real, imaginary, or animal body from the work you read on oak tag. Use Crayola Multicultural Crayons and Markers to show skin tones. Add details and create a background that relates to the figure with Crayola Crayons and Markers. Fill the paper with patterns and textures. Use black marker to outline important parts.

• 3.

  To make a soft sculpture face, use about 5 inches (15 cm) at the toe of a pair of clean, recycled pantyhose. Fill with synthetic fiber stuffing. Knot opening of the pantyhose to keep stuffing inside.

• 4.

  Cut thread with Crayola Scissors. Thread a needle, knot the ends, and stitch through the pantyhose and stuffing to create exaggerated facial features. The face emerges as you sew. For eyes, push the stuffing down and stitch in an oval. For a nose, pinch and make small stitches back and forth. For nostrils, stitch one opening at a time in a circle. To create a lower lip, pinch a small amount of fiber and stitch up and down. Repeat for an upper lip.

• 5.

  Pull the opening of the pantyhose to the back of the head and stitch closed. Stitch yarn to the head to create hair and cover the stitched area.

• 6.

  Use Crayola School Glue to attach the head to the paper body, and to attach recycled jewelry, buttons for eyes, chenille sticks, and other adornments.

Benefits

• Students read or write literature in which strong emotions are expressed. They name these emotions and then observe how their own facial features change to express them.
• Children make a large, detailed 2-dimensional drawing of a character and setting from the literature.
• Students explore soft sculpture techniques to create a 3-D face that exhibits the character's exaggerated expression and breaks away from the drawing.

Adaptations

• Close adult supervision is required to ensure safety when students use sewing needles.
• Children create a torso or an entire body in soft sculpture. Or they make a paper maché body with head, arms, and legs in soft sculpture. Their creations are part of the process to assess their understanding of the literature.
• Students work together to create all the characters in a play. They use public speaking skills to retell their characters' stories to each other or to class visitors. <i>This lesson plan was adapted from ideas submitted by Becky Crowe of Las Vegas, Nevada, for the 50 States - 50 Weeks Dream-Makers® series.</i>