From Third Graders to Centenarians

I am usually one to switch up lessons year to year often but there are some that I love to teach year after year due to their popularity, success, and wealth of learning objectives covered. This is certainly one because the results never cease to crack me up!

I believe I modified this lesson from School Arts Magazine and added a writing assignment.  Third grade students looked at portraits of centenarians and identified changes the body goes through when we age.  We review proportions of the face and add the wrinkles, and age lines that would age our self-portraits to 100 years old (Though I will say some of these guys look a few years shy of that age).  We continue with practice mixing skin color and adding shading onto a human face with watercolors.  Unfortunately these photos didn't fully pick up the subtle shading my students added.  I am always impressed by their use of watercolors.  It is a difficult medium for anyone to master!

After we finish our portraits, we discuss how 100 years is quite a while for all of us and there is a lot of time and events that can fit in between.  We brainstorm some things we will like to achieve by the time we are 100.  Students then complete an accompanying writing piece on what they want to do by the time they are 100 years old.  They often write about where they want to go to school, what they want to do when they are older and where they want to travel but every year we also have some mansions, 100s of puppies and other imaginative goals sprinkled in!