This lesson presents multiple pathways for students to share their identity, voice, and creativity through development of a unique asset (a “sprite” in Scratch) that is meaningful to them. Using a combination of written and verbal reflection, digital design, and classroom discourse, learners will practice communication, coding, presentation, and feedback skills that provide an important base for establishing a positive learning community.

Making faces using everyday objects and objects of significance to make portraits is an idea that comes from the artist Hanoch Piven. Hanoch Piven is an artist and author who has a beautiful practice of making highly expressive portraits using found objects! You can learn more here. Once you have created a face, try bringing them to life in Scratch using stop motion techniques. Moving from unplugged to digital provides the opportunity to expand your creative expression and transform your original creation.

To start this activity, first you’ll want to gather items you feel could make up parts of a face. The items can either have special meaning and/or represent something about you or your life, or they can simply be fun and interesting objects.

Worksheets to help learners imagine, plan, iterate, and reflect throughout all of the phases of their project’s development.