1st Grade Presidential Posters

The week of the 2012 US Presidential election, my first graders started working on campaign posters. We viewed and discussed some of the campaign posters I collected on my Pinterest board. We talked about symbolism (red/white/blue, flag, white house, eagle, etc.) and design features including the composition, year, name, and portrait. I also used the famous Shepard Fairey "HOPE" poster to touch on copyright. (If you don't know the story, read a summary here.) The students' assignment was to think of someone they would like to be president- it could not be someone really running- like a family member, friend, or his or herself.

 

I didn't go over facial proportions, but we did talk about including all of the necessary features. It's amazing how many students skip noses and ears! We had a lot of self portraits, siblings, parents, and a couple animals. And, if you look a little below, you'll see that one student put me on her poster! This was a fun lesson, and fairly simple. The only needed supplies are paper, pencils, sharpies to outline, and crayons.