Activity Plan 3-4: Portrait Gallery

Capture personalities with a portrait gallery!

• PRINT
• EMAIL

Ready to Use Teaching Ideas: ART

Materials:

• books about cameras and portraits, including Click! by Shutta Crum (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Ltd., 2004), Faces by Anne Geddes (CEDCO Publishing, 1995), and Funny Faces by Nicola Tuxworth (Anness Publishing, Ltd., 2005)
• camera (digital, disposable, 35mm, or APS)
• resealable plastic bags
• chart paper and marker
• construction paper or poster board

Developing Skills:

• language
• observation
• fine motor

ACTIVITY

1. Collect books that are about cameras or include real-life photographs of children, adults, and families. Select one or two books that highlight the concept of portraits. Discuss the books and introduce children to the word portrait. Explain that a portrait can be a drawing, painting, or photograph of a person, family, or even a pet.

2. While looking at the portraits, discuss how some are full-body shots while others are close-ups of a person's face or a profile. Invite children to share their opinions about different photographs.

3. Inform children that they will be using a camera to make portrait photography of friends and members of the community. Record a list of adults in the school community that the children would like to photograph. Try to think of at least one adult to be the subject for each child. Next, assign pairs of children so that they may photograph each other.

4. Divide children into small groups. Review some basic rules for how to handle a camera. Encourage children to think about how they would like to set up their portraits. Would they like their subjects to sit or stand? Should the subject be photographed doing his or her job?

5. Once all of the portraits are printed, invite children to glue them onto colored construction paper or poster board. Suggest that they leave a border to create a frame. Provide time for children to dictate information about their portraits. Plan a special "gallery opening" to showcase the children's photography.

Remember: Waiting is difficult for children this age. Keep groups small so that they don't have to wait long to take their photographs.

TAKE-HOME ACTIVITY

Family Portrait. Send home drawing paper and ask children to draw a portrait of one or more of their family members. Invite children to share their work the following day.

Curriculum Connection: SOCIAL STUDIES

Meeting a Photographer. Plan a visit to a local photography studio, or invite a photographer to come in to share his or her 'work with the class. Help children develop interview questions to ask the photographer. Take photographs of the visit and develop a display to document the experience.

Risa Young is the former director of two early childhood programs in the New York City area, the Children's Aid Society's Greenwich Village Center and the Innovative Learning Center at the Long Island College Hospital. She has been a consultant to Early Childhood Today for more than eight years.

Robin Smith teaches K-1 at Chilmark School on Martha's Vineyard, MA. Her school has 58 children, grades K-5. 

Printable Activities: Create Bookmarks, Greeting Cards, Door Hangers with the Characters from Kung Fu Panda
Fun end-of-the-school-year activities, including the "Create Your Own Printable" activity, in which students can customize their own designs to create bookmarks, cards, and door hangers.

Hands-Down Learning; Arts and Crafts That Involve Tracing Family Members' Hands
Kids trace their family members' hands and make them into butterfly and spider drawings. They also compare hand tracings and sort them according to size.

Activity Plan 3-4: Artful Explorations
Children will learn about nature through collecting natural outdoor materials and printmaking in this ready-to-use teaching idea for three- and four-year olds. Activity: Art/Nature