Mother Goose Time embraces a youngster’s first experience with art and does so in a way that isn’t overwhelming. As an example, a brief introduction to Pablo Picasso is found within the monthly theme of Friends and Feelings. The activity that accompanies this discussion encourages children to reflect on themselves, their families, and communities. The invitation to create builds on children’s spatial awareness as they create their own artistic interpretations of themselves.
Picasso Creative Art
Supplies
- Inspiration Photo*
- Paper Shapes*
- Background paper*
- Scissors
- Glue
- Crayons
- Mirror
*These materials are provided by Mother Goose Time.
Set Up
- Set out the Inspiration Photo and additional supplies.
- Set out the mirror so children can look at their own facial features.
Prompts
- What facial features do you see in the Inspiration Photo?
- How do you think the person is feeling?
- How will you build a face?
- Can you add any other details to the face?
- What shapes do you see?
Observe
- Did the child express any thoughts about the shapes?
- Did he compare them to his own facial features?
Our Experience
All three of my children thought this activity was fantastic. Utilizing shapes to create faces and gluing them in place was a minimal mess and easy to prepare art project.
Getting to use a handheld mirror was a great chance to practice making faces to mirror how they were feeling. They were able to watch how their mouths and eyes changed when we pretended to be happy, sad, or excited. We also talked a little bit about what parts of us looked like each other (family traits) and which parts of our faces were uniquely ours. For instance, my son has a scar on one cheek from a scratch from when he was younger. My daughter has a unique freckle.
My older two kids actually ended up sorting all of the shapes into groups and colors. My youngest was all about the glue. I think he used an entire glue stick on this project. 🙂 He very intently glued each shape to the paper and then added extra glue just to make sure it would stick. It cracked me up. I told him he didn’t need to glue more than once, but I’m not sure he’s convinced just yet.
I love how my youngest took the confines of the paper borders as more suggestion than rule. He enjoyed attaching the shapes onto the paper and having some of them hanging over the edge. His red rainbow shape extends beyond the edge of the left hand side of the paper.
I absolutely love seeing their creations. I have been advised that the artwork in the top right hand side of this image should be turned to be vertical. Live and learn! The ovals are eyes complete with mismatched pupils. The rainbow shape is a frown and the inverted triangle is a tongue sticking out. I absolutely see that, do you? I’m also pleased to report that the other two images are oriented correctly 🙂
The kids enjoyed this project so much that we branched out and read a bit more about Pablo Picasso!
Our Favorite Additional Resources About Pablo Picasso
Picasso and the Girl with a Ponytail
Artists Around the World Audio Stories from Around the World Stories
Join Us
I hope you’ll enjoy learning about the great artists with your kids!
If you are interested in reading more about our experience with Mother Goose Time, check out our curriculum page!
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Happy Learning!
As a blog ambassador for Mother Goose Time, I am happy to share preschool curriculum ideas, activities, and crafts with my readers. Mother Goose Time provides our family the opportunity to use their curriculum free of charge in exchange for honest and authentic stories based on our personal experience. 
