Robot Portraits

Sometimes I get so bored teaching the same class dozens of times, so I'll throw out the day's curriculum to try something new. Portraiture is common in grade school art, but not ROBOT portraits! I gave my teacher ed students a 12x18" piece of white paper, and instructed them to walk around and "collect" textures by doing rubbings with crayons. Then they cut out basic shapes and created these fun creatures. I showed them a pin from Pinterest of vintage Russian robots. As they worked, I noticed they had extra rubbings, so encouraged them to do a collaborative robot on larger paper. Each student had to add one piece to the new robot. I think it turned out well. Seeing them all on the wall, the project begs for extension: naming of the robots, discussions about personality and expression, writing prompts galore. I think it would be fantastic to follow up with a 3D project, too. Trying to create a small robot out of wood pieces, or model magic.