Parker Looks Up is quickly becoming a classroom favorite picture book. The book, about a visit to Washington, DC’s National Portrait Gallery changes Parker Curry’s life when she views First Lady Michelle Obama’s portrait.
From Amazon.com:
When Parker Curry came face-to-face with Amy Sherald’s transcendent portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama at the National Portrait Gallery, she didn’t just see the First Lady of the United States. She saw a queen—one with dynamic self-assurance, regality, beauty, and truth who captured this young girl’s imagination. When a nearby museum-goer snapped a photo of a mesmerized Parker, it became an internet sensation.
If this book is in your plans, here are some of our favorite interACTIVE activities to go along with it. In this blog post, you’ll learn:
(click on any subheading to jump to that section)
Epic & Flipgrid Sticker Activity for Parker Looks Up
In this activity, we compared Michelle Obama with Parker from Parker Looks Up. First, you’ll want to make sure that you’ve created an Epic account. Think of Epic as the Netflix for books. It’s free for educators and is an incredible resource. Start your account by clicking here.
A quick search on Epic for Michelle Obama will return lots of options - including “Read to me” (where the book is automatically read aloud). Here’s a link to the entire collection!
We researched Michelle Obama, learning about her life and work. Then we went on to read Parker Looks Up. You can purchase a copy by clicking right here. After reading the book, we used Flipgrid to describe both individuals. You can add some fun into the mix by having your students use the Flipgrid stickers. Have them search for “hat” and “sunglasses.” They will find a similar pirate’s hat and sunglasses as what is in the story. Students can use these to become Parker! Check out our tweet below to see an example from our class and download the free worksheet from our TPT Store by clicking here or the image!
VR Museum Visit to View Michelle Obama’s Portrait at The National Portrait Gallery
To take things to the next level, why not provide your students with the chance to visit The National Portrait Gallery exhibit featuring Michelle Obama’s portrait? Check it out below or click here to visit it yourself and share with your students.
To provide access to this exhibit via Microsoft Teams, Canvas, Google Classroom and more - share this link with them: https://goo.gl/maps/e9WGCBY9wVu6L1fK8 or click below!
Selfie Portraits: A Flipgrid Portrait Activity for Parker Looks Up
In this activity, our students learned about Michelle Obama prior to reading Parker Looks Up. Then, we took the VR Field trip (above) to visit The National Portrait Museum to view the painting for ourselves. We also took time to learn about the artist. You can find detailed information at this link:
Then, for some added fun, we created portraits of ourselves. Students can snap a photo of themselves, then add it to the instapainting generator. Click here to check it out! Once they have generated their instapainting, they can compare their portrait to their picture using Flipgrid. Have the students upload both versions, using the Flipgrid Shorts camera’s effects (click photo sticker) and use the pause feature to toggle back and forth between the two. Students can then comment on their classmates videos to generate discussion.
Want to try this activity? Grab the Flipgrid Topic from the discovery lab by clicking the button below!
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For more tips, tricks and lesson ideas for making learning more interACTIVE, check out our books The InterACTIVE Class and Flipgrid in the InterACTIVE Class on Amazon!
