Museum of Modern Art
Modern Art and Ideas
The Museum of Modern Art provides this educators' guide to Dada and Surrealism. Featuring the works of such artists as Jean Arp, Salvador Dali, Joan Miro, and Meret Oppenheim among others, the guide is ideal for art history and...
Curated OER
All the World's a Stage
Is the circus a form of theater? Read "A City of Clowns? What Else Is New?" to sway your class that a circus, is indeed, a theatrical performance. Critical thinkers compare/contrast various forms of theater and identify what makes the...
Curated OER
Compare and Contrast Poems vs. Lyrics
Combine your pupils' love of music with their growing knowledge of poetry! First, have them bring in their favorite songs for a discussion on word choice and literary devices. Then, use a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the...
Curated OER
Big Branding on Campus: Reading Informational Text
This New York Times "Learning Network" activity poses 11 questions on an article and video about commercial branding and marketing on college campuses. The related article, "On the Market: Thinking Critically About Advertising", is...
Curated OER
Considering Media And Meanings
Learners study reproductions of prints or murals. They interpret artworks supporting their conclusions with evidence in work and from contextual information. They focus especially on significance of artist's choice of mural or...
Curated OER
Modernism in Poetry, Painting, and Music
Are you teaching Modernism to your class? Connect different areas of artistic expression in the Modernist Era. Learners read T.S. Eliot, view art by Pablo Picasso, and listen to a Modernist musical composition. This final assignment is...
Curated OER
Compare and Contrast Art
Practice the skill of compare and contrast. First, show learners the different pairs of artwork in the project packet (included). Then, each learner chooses one of the pairs and finds the similarities and differences between the...
Curated OER
Using Art to Draw Us Together
Students build their own bridges or make connections to other peers, teens, adults/parents, senior citizens and people from around the world through various art mediums. Through this type of lesson students attempt to communicate in...
Curated OER
Art Attraction: Researching the Great Masters and their Works
Students fill out worksheets where they analyze and provide information about different artists, visual art, art techniques, design, and more. For this art lesson plan, students complete 8 worksheets.
Curated OER
Monet Water Lilies
Fourth graders recognize works of art from various cultures and identify the artist and culture. They view the artistic style and write a response to questions about the style. Students create a still life painting using the techniques...
Curated OER
Let's Create a Collage!
Learners create a collage and identify the various styles of artists and illustrators. They read Alphabet Adventure by Audrey Wood, illustrated by Bruce Wood and discuss his illustrations portrayed in the book. Students also create a...
Curated OER
Learning About Caldecott Winners
Students study a brief history of the Caldecott Medal and review a list of previous winners. They choose a Caldecott winner and complete a worksheet for each book they read looking for artist's medium, favorite illustration, etc.
Curated OER
Art Careers
Students explore art careers. For this career education lesson, students explore three different learning stations which simulate several art careers. Students construct a career book after this activity.
Curated OER
Artist in Schools Program
Students explore the medium of watercolor paints. They observe basic watercolor painting techniques (such as wet-on-wet, wet-on-dry and dry-on-dry). Then students experiment with these techniques on small squares of watercolor paper.
Curated OER
Artist's Choice: People
Students examine the different artistic styles of three artists and the stereotypes of women they represent in their art. In this art analysis lesson, students analyze the art of Willem de Kooning, Roy Lichtenstein, and Richard Hamilton...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan: A Miniature Game
Art inspires art, as children work to understand artistic forms that come from the imagination. They analyze the installation piece, Fox Games and then discuss the design process. They then use clay to create imaginative dioramas,...
Japan Society
A Remade Environment
Art is a wonderful way to express feelings of social unrest or change. Learners will examine the works of two contemporary Japanese artists, and how they each have used art to say something big. They analyze the work of Katsuhiro Saiki...
Curated OER
Maus Lesson Plan
The artistic choices Art Spiegelman made in his graphic novel, Maus, are the focus of an exercise that asks class members to compare classic comic book forms with Spiegelman’s panels and frames. Directed to specific pages and guided by a...
San Diego Museum of Art
Atmospheric Perspective Watercolor Painting
How do artists create the illusion of depth and distance on a flat surface? Young landscape painters explore techniques like color saturation and detail placement that create atmospheric perspective.
Curated OER
Notan Masks
Middle schoolers create Notan masks inspired by collages. This wonderfully-designed lesson expertly presents everything you need to do in order to successfully-implement this lesson in your classroom. The results are stunning, and your...
National Endowment for the Humanities
“House by the Railroad”: A Painting and a Poem for the Common Core
Introduce your class to ekphrastic poetry with an exercise that asks them to examine Edward Hooper's painting House by the Railroad and Edward Hirsch's poem "Edward Hopper and the House By the Railroad." After a close reading of the two...
Curated OER
Art Criticism: Understanding Wayne Thiebaud's Salads, Sandwiches, and Desserts
Analysis consists of an understanding and interpretation of evidence and elements found in any number of expressive mediums. Upper graders critique the work of American Realist Wayne Thiebaud through a series of excellent guided...
Odyssey of the Mind
Odyssey of the Mind Curriculum Activity: Performing Arts
The classical arts have made a lasting impact on our society and your advanced learners get to find out why. The activity starts as the children create a list of the arts found in society, they discuss how these art forms impact their...
Incredible Art
Skateboard Deck Graphics
Young artists don't need to be skateboarders to enjoy this assignment. Class members use the provided worksheet to craft 10 sketches that convey action or motion using no more than seven lines. They then select their three best ideas and...