How has the purpose, media, and style of portraits changed and/or stayed the same throughout time?

How has childhood, and the place of childhood in the national imagination, changed throughout time?

How might the background, clothes, facial expression, and body language depicted in a portrait reveal something about the sitter?

How might the style, subject, and depiction of the sitter reveal something about the artist who created the portrait?

Grades 4–8

Show students the image Attention, Company! and, as a group, discuss the artwork. Who is the boy in the image? What is he doing? Give students a cinquain poem template and have them write a poem using adjectives that describe this boy and verbs that describe things he might do.

All Levels

Activity 1
Provide students with a small printout of the work of art. Students will glue the image to a larger piece of paper and extend the scene using pencils and colored pencils.

Activity 2
Using any media that you may be exploring with your students, have students create a portrait of themselves with a game they enjoy. For older students, have them create a portrait of themselves as younger children with a game from their youth. Example: As a child I often had water-balloon fights with my siblings, so my portrait might be me holding a water balloon in front of our brick house near the water hose.