Port Portrait

Plan an imaginary cruise, using maps, studying other languages, and drawing scenes from your trip.

• 1.

  Identify exciting places your family or a school group, such as a language club, might visit on a boat or ship. Work together as a class, or in small groups, to plan an imaginary cruise. Plot the course of the trip on a map. Record the imaginary itinerary on a chart or calendar.

• 2.

  Make a portrait of your group waiting to leave one port on the cruise, using Crayola® Oil Pastels on construction paper. Depict the foreground and background scenery realistically, and show clothing appropriate for the climate. Blend layers of color in the background with a small piece of paper towel.

• 3.

  Describe the port scene and the feelings of each group member. Use vocabulary words that capture people's excitement and curiosity.

Benefits

• Children research and plan an imaginary cruise itinerary (tropical islands, fjords, rivers, iceberg watches) while studying topics such as languages, transportation, geography, oceans and rivers, or climates.
• Children use the technique of layering and blending oil pastels to depict the setting and cruise participants in one port on the voyage.
• Students describe the scene and group members' feelings with vivid vocabulary.

Adaptations

• Children write about an entire imaginary family or school voyage. Refer to maps, Web sites, and brochures. Ask children probing questions as they revise and edit their work.
• Continue a series of drawings of an imaginary cruise. Bind the drawings together and add words to describe events and sights. Write in each country's language if possible.
• Invent riddles about the setting in the portrait. Can other students figure out where the portraits were made?