One of the best parts of this week, has been watching the faces of my preschoolers as they learned about the Mona Lisa. I wasn't sure if it would go over their head. But it turns out that they enjoyed the entire lesson on Portraits. The activity from Mother Goose Time was the portrait flip book. Which they LOVED!
They spent the entire time after coloring flipping and making up stories about the different people they created as they flipped through the book. One of my students wasn't feeling the activity at first, and only colored the front. Until they were able to see what the book did after it was completed. Then he sat down and colored the book so that he too could make up a story about his flip book.
After working on the flip book we talked about difference between self portraits and portraits and I felt this was a good time to have the conversation about what we have that is the same, such as eyes, nose, teeth and hair. Then we spoke about what is different about all of these things. This is an important conversation to have because children see early the differences between all of us, avoiding speaking about it does nothing. But being able to celebrate the fact that all our classmates are different and awesome means that they know that being themselves and being different is truly OK.
Which is why the Mona Lisa portrait that came with the curriculum was so important. This was a painting of a woman that isn't smiling but she isn't frowning, she just sitting and being herself. They should see that being themselves is OK and I think a portrait project is the perfect way to illustrate this project.
The best part of the project was them telling their parents that they made the Mona Lisa and telling them all about it. If you are looking for a way to show children about the Louvre and to show them the Mona Lisa here is a link to the video I used with my classroom. They really enjoyed it, especially since I told them about all the things I saw when I went.
I hope you find a way to introduce Mona Lisa to your classroom and.....
Live Long and Keep Teaching!