Curated OER
Digital Story Book
Students create a photo story. In this visual arts instructional activity, students choose a sentence about a specific topic, create a picture to go with their sentence, and take a digital photo of their picture. The teacher...
Curated OER
The Basic Shapes of Everything
Young scholars explore basic shapes in art. In this sketching instructional activity, students discover that art is created from basic shapes. Young scholars determine the basic shapes in a picture and recreate the image.
Curated OER
Mayflower Craft
Students create a Mayflower craft object. In this visual arts lesson, students cut out sails and waves from construction paper and glue Popsicle sticks to the sails.
Curated OER
Creating Hope: Making Butterfly Stamps
Learners create foam ink stamps. In this Holocaust lesson, students discover the history of the Holocaust and why butterflies represented a symbol of hope during those times. Learners use BalsaFoam to carve out a butterfly...
Curated OER
Roman and Early Christian Art
Third graders explore pattern, texture, balance, symmetry as they examine Roman and Byzantine art in the four lessons of this unit. Details of the major art works studied are placed into a booklet for presentation to the class.
Curated OER
History Close to Home: Creating Your Own Special Museum
Students create their own museum exhibit. In this museum creation lesson plan, students research their local history so they can decide on a theme for their exhibit and what objects they will use in order to design a museum exhibit. A...
Curated OER
Looking At French Decorative Arts: Symbols in Marquetry
Students create a design based on an animal symbol from another country. In this design lesson plan, students study a French cabinet and research and discuss its symbols. Students will then create their own marquetry design based on an...
Curated OER
Land Art
Students use natural materials outside to create a work of art. In this land art lesson plan, students plan their sculpture inside in one day and create it outside over a period of 2 days.
Curated OER
Henri Matisse
Students compare a "realistic" piece of art with an "abstract" piece of art. In this visual arts lesson, students listen to a mini-lecture about Henri Matisse. Students examine the characteristics of "realistic" and "abstract" pieces of...
Curated OER
Word Art with King's Words
Students investigate equality and racism by creating a word art project. In this civil rights lesson, students discover the life of Martin Luther King Jr. and create a word art project using the Internet site Wordle Web. ...
Curated OER
Sand Painting
Students explore Navajo traditions and art. For this sand painting lesson, students discuss Navajo rituals and traditions prior to designing a sand painting that is representative of the Navajo ideal of the hozho.
Curated OER
Creating a Comic Strip
Learners examine various comic strips for their elements of humour, plot, drawing style, and basic design; they then create their own comic strip.
Curated OER
Sense Poems
Students explore 5 senses poetry. For this poetry writing lesson, students visualize a special day and brainstorm related vivid adjectives and phrases. Students create mindmaps of the five senses to go with their...
Curated OER
Acrylic "Shingles"
Young artists of all ages create texture using dried slabs of pourable acrylic paint. They experiment with texture by turning a liquid into a solid and finally into a 3-D work of art. This lesson uses easy-to-find materials, and the...
Curated OER
Picturing Text
Learners, through observation and discussion about the Coffin of Djed Mut, make connections between hieroglyphs and the English writing system. They create their own visual story using symbols that represent words.
National Gallery of Canada
My First Print
Practice printmaking with a fun instructional activity. After observing images, class members use the listed materials, such as stamps and sponges, create their own prints. They experiment with layering, pressure, and paint colors.
Curated OER
Wynton's Tune
Students examine the serigraph, "Wynton's Tune," by artist Faith Ringgold. They discuss the painting, listen to jazz music, create a drawing that tells a story inspired by their favorite music, and write sentences describing their artwork.
Oglebay Institute
Post-Impressionism: Van Gogh Drawings
Turn your young artists into little Vincent van Goghs with a lesson on brush stroke style and color blending. Pupils practice the painting technique by sketching various shapes before recreating a van Gogh piece or creating an original...
Curated OER
Personal Flags
Here is another in the fine series of art lessons from this excellent source. In this one, children create personal flags as expressions of their own life symbols and links between the student and the environment. The materials needed...
Curated OER
Pizza Biography
A biography writing instructional activity with a tasty twist! Kids create a "visual biography" in which each pizza slice represents a paragraph, and toppings represent supporting details. They learn research techniques, note-taking...
AMCO
Whimsical Figures
Clay is a wonderful and expressive medium for learners of any age. Kids get creative as they make whimsical figures out of clay. A hyperlinked materials list, images of each step in the process, and helpful tips makes this a great art...
Perkins School for the Blind
Taking Turns
For small children or learners with disabilities, learning to wait patiently and taking turns is very important. In pairs, two children with visual impairments take turns asking for, waiting for, and playing with a musical...
Perkins School for the Blind
Counting in Tactile Journals
This is one of those great ideas I totally love. Youngsters with visual impairments practice counting and left-to -right sequencing by counting out a set number of edible objects from the left and putting them in a bag on the right. They...
Perkins School for the Blind
Baseball
Baseball is an American pastime, super fun to play, and can be made accessible to learners with visual impairments. Instead of taking to the ball field, your class can learn the rules of the game by playing a small three-dimensional...