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Teacher Resources

Here you will find a list of books on portraits, and printables for activities.

These are books that deal specifically with portraits.  They can be supplemented with books on families and identity.  

Making Portraits

Use these printables to help students create a portrait of a friend, a family portrait, a self portrait, and a portrait with important items.

  • Portrait of a Friend
    Remind the students that if someone wanted a picture of themselves, they needed an artist to make it for them.  Put the students in pairs, and tell them that they are going to make a portrait for their partner.  Assign one to be the artist, and the other to be the sitter.  Remind them that the sitter's job is to stay very still, and that the artist's job is to make the bast portrait they can.  After 5 minutes, have the students switch roles.  When the students are done, have them exchange papers so that they keep the portrait that their friend made of them.
  • Family Portrait
    Ask students if they think all families look the same.  Ask them to count how many people are in their family, then turn and tell a partner that number.  Ask if they had the same number or a different number than their partner.  Tell them that Portrait of a Woman and Child is one type of family, and ask if their family portrait will look similar or different.
  • Self Portrait
    If available, pass out mirrors so that the students can look at themselves while they are making the portrait.  Tell them to think about the colors and shapes that they see, and what makes them unique.
  • Portrait with important items
    Encourage the students to think about what makes them special, what they love, their favorite things/activities, and what they are proud of.  Remind them that they can have as many items as they want, and that there were a lot in The Ambassadors but only one in Portrait of a Girl with a Parrot.

Additional Printables:

  • Word Search
  • Colouring Pages
Teacher Resources