Learning A lot from Portraits

Our first graders are beginning their journey with Portraits this year, finding out what makes a portrait a portrait. We have talked about the fact that when we want to recognize someone, we look at their face, helping us to understand that portraits are meant for us to focus on the face. We want to know WHO they are. What else can working through portraiture teach us?? Well, we learn proportion as we look at sizes of the features of the face, we learn shape as we discuss BEST shapes for each feature, we learn parts of the face and how they function, we think about physical differences between people, such as eyes, hair, skin, etc. We also look at how the face is balanced in a symetrical fashion. During the application of color, we learn about shadow and light on the face and how to blend color to achieve specific results. We experiment with texture and pattern as we fill in hair and clothing. Portraits are just too much fun! What are the wonderful ways you can use portrait in your classroom?