National Gallery of Canada
Who Am I?
Connect design elements and principles to identity a culture with a discussion and related art activity. After analyzing artwork in relation to design, class members talk about personal and cultural identity. Using items that represent...
Curated OER
If Paintings Could Talk: Art and Language
Middle schoolers learn about the artist Canaletto, play a vocabulary game, and create a landscape using collage technique. Background information on the artist is provided along with instructions for the game and vocabulary words to...
Curated OER
The Art and History of Japanese Calligraphy
Chinese and Japanese calligraphy is beautiful and significant in both culture and tradition. Engage your class in this expressive fine art form through a activity on using, holding, and creating brush strokes common to Japanese writing...
Curated OER
Cardboard Weaving
Fifth graders observe artworks of cardboard weaving for their art elements and principles of organization. In this cardboard weaving lesson, student create their own and compare artworks of the past and present. Students self evaluate...
National Gallery of Canada
September Gale T-Shirts
Focus on the principles of design with a wearable landscape art project. The plan provides definitions to share and art to examine. After students have a grasp of the principles, they draw a scene to eventually transfer onto a T-shirt....
Curated OER
Elements of Art Review--SMART Board Jeopardy
Eighth graders focus on the elements of art with a secondary focus on the principles of art. They are assigned to a team to play Art Jeopardy. They take an exam. They use the internet as a resource for answers.
National Gallery of Canada
Urban Scenes
Select a theme together to guide and inspire works of art. Class members view images of art and discuss the images of cities. After choosing a theme, individuals create posters that reflect and contribute to the theme. They can use paint...
Curated OER
Principles of Design
How to use the many design elements such as color harmony, percentage of size combinations, and lines of design are described. Composition of an attractive arrangement with a focal point is addressed. Also included, many descriptions. ...
National Gallery of Canada
Contemporary Reflections
Combine art and writing in a lesson about legends. After viewing Inuit art, class members examine their own cultural surroundings in order to write and visually represent a legend. Individuals are invited to take the creative reins when...
Curated OER
Contour Drawing - Portrait - Elements and Principles of Design Review
Students create portrait with contour line - drawing from observation, then contrast warm and cool colors - work with pattern and textures. They work wet in wet graded wash technique and develop skills in using elements and principles of...
Project Articulate
Textured Landscapes with Grant Wood
Explore the world of textured landscapes through the eyes of the famous artist, Grant Wood. Here is an elementary art lesson plan in which scholars learn about Grant Wood's life, view his work, draw their own textured landscape, and then...
Curated OER
Sports Action Figure
Fourth graders identify art elements and design principles in art such as movement, unity, space and color planning.
National Gallery of Canada
Lumps, Bumps, Gritty, and Soft!
Texture can really add to a work of art. Explore texture through observation and practice. Learners view and discuss works of art by M.C. Escher. They then create their own texture samplers with six different materials.
National Gallery of Canada
Designing Balance
Teach your artists how to incorporate balance into their work through discussion and action. After viewing and discussing several works of art, learners design a balanced image for a T-shirt and follow the step-by-step instructions to...
National Gallery of Canada
My Own Blanket
Invite your young artists to design blankets that express their own identities. Learners examine various pieces of art before brainstorming a few things that represent their identities. They use these ideas, in addition to symmetry and...
Curated OER
Art Basics Scavenger Hunt
Hand out this worksheet and lead your class on a scavenger hunt. Pupils look for examples of shape, form, balance, pattern, perspective, space, and depth. They draw and write about the examples they've found. A great resource to add to...
Brigham Young University
Computer Age
Theater arts class members get a chance to see how professionals employ tech tools. As they sketch, render, build models, and prepare presentations of the set design for a current show, learners either visit a professional theater or by...
Curated OER
Exploring Weather Conditions Through Painting
Your advanced class will paint a picture of a particular weather condition. In this painting lesson students describe elements of art in pieces of artwork. They analyze the weather and seasons in the artwork. The students use paper,...
Curated OER
The Hare and the Water: A Tanzanian Folk Tale
"The Hare and the Water," a Tanzanian folk tale, lends a global perspective to literary analysis. Learners spend the first two days reading and storyboarding. On day three, they examine folk tale elements (worksheet included), and design...
Curated OER
Lesson: A Garden Party of My Own
Kids look at a beautiful work of art to practice grammar, make connections from life to art, and sketching. They identify all the parts of grammar they see in the image, discuss what they see and do on a picnic, and then draw an imaged...
Curated OER
Elements of Art
Third graders discover elements in visual art. In this visual art lesson, 3rd graders explore the use of line, shape, and color in visual art. After reviewing works of art, students create unique art pieces. Technology resources provided.
Curated OER
Op Art and Contrast
Seventh graders create Op art designs by reading web information through FlingIt, mapping learned concepts with PicoMap, and creating how-to examples of their own Op art design by using Sketchy. They complete the lesson by creating their...
Curated OER
Mexican Metal Tooling
Metal work can be a wonderful way to expose learners to Mexican folk art. This resource provides all the necessary steps for creating Mexican metal tooling with your art class. Images, web links, recommended books and products make...
Curated OER
Ellis Wilson: A High School Art Lesson
High schoolers study the principles of design and element of the art of Ellis Wilson. They examine how art can create social commentary.