Curated OER
Lesson: Allison Smith: What Are You Fighting For?
Trench art is a nontraditional art form created by soldiers in trenches during wartime. Artist Allison Smith connects her art to the American Revolution and the question: "What are you fighting for?" Kids examine her art, how it connects...
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Lesson: Elizabeth Peyton: Artist's Community: The Real
What is real or imagined? The lines of beauty reality, and imagination are blurred in Elizabeth Peyton's portraits of her community. Learners analyze her use of artistic technique in conveying real and imagined communities. They then use...
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Lesson: Elizabeth Peyton: Pictures of Royalty: The Imagined
Elizabeth Peyton is an artist who creates images of people (often famous) that she doesn't personally know. These images become part of her imagined community. Learners analyze her work, her community of imagined friends, and then create...
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Lesson: Mary Heilmann: To Be Someone
Kids consider the pure abstraction and minimalism found in Mary Heilmann's work. They analyze several of her pieces through critical discussion and then think about her use of a song title as the title of her exhibit. Learners then use a...
Science Companion
Simple Machines Design Project
Make your work as a teacher a little easier with a physical science project on simple machines. After introducing young scientists to these devices and identifying their different uses around the school, this project engages...
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The House
Oú est la cuisine? Several activities are suggested here to develop and further vocabulary acquisition for your beginning French speakers. They draw pictures of different rooms in a house and place objects around the room. Then, using...
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Bouncing Bubbles
Students complete a variety of activities exploring the joys and science of bubbles. They listen to the book "Bubbles Bubbles" by Mercer Mayer, create a bubble picture using Kid Pix, and explore blowing bubbles. Students experiment...
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Lesson Three: Refining Ideas and Making Choices
Fourth graders review and refine their sculpture ideas considering whether to depict a figure (or object) in action or involved in an event, whether to construct an environment, or whether to work symbolically (without a figure).
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Tour + Workshop = DESIGN: Shape
Ask elementary pupils to explore shapes in everyday objects. They will discuss the elements of design and describe the shapes they see in visual images. Students will then design and "build" a new 3D shape. Finally they will show and...
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Junk Sort
Students analyze objects by one or more attributes. In this sorting lesson, students use manipulatives and string or yarn to create a sorting game. Students read books and items from the classroom to sort.
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Symmetrical Shapes
Students find symmertical shapes around their school. In this symmetry activity, students create symmetrical shapes. Students print symmetrical shapes from Kidworks Deluxe and take pictures of objects around their school that are...
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Science in Focus: Force and Motion
Students explore force and motion through a series of experiments. In this physics lesson, students create and interpret speed graphs. They build an electromagnet and explain the factors affecting its strength.
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History in the Painting
Students examine the topic of art history. They identify objects that were created long ago and the artists that made them. They create a tile design of their own to be displayed at school.
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By Golly By Gum
Students identify the different steps in the scientific method. In this inquiry lesson, students determine the mass of the gum after chewing it for sometime. They explain what happens to the lost mass.
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See If You Can Draw
Students create works of art by solving art problems in this game for the elementary classroom. Pencils and paper are the suggested materials, but the instructional activity can be adapted in various ways for different levels and...
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Music to Your Ears
Students explore how the sounds made by everyday objects can be transformed into musical experiences, composing and performing musical pieces using non-traditional instruments.
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Wind Tunnel
Students examine how wind tunnels are used for research and development. In this aerodynamics lesson students are given instructions on how to develop different types of wind tunnel.
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Toilet Paper Tube Snowman
Students create "toilet paper tube" snowmen using toilet paper rolls, paints, pipecleaners, construtcion paper, wiggly eyes, and markers in this winter-time activity. The lesson is intended for the early elementary classroom.
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"The Beaches of Agnes": Planning a Video Self Portrait
Agnes Varda’s autobiographical “The Beaches of Agnes,” models for young filmmakers the cinematic self-portrait. Far from “old and plump,” Varda is a giant of filmmaking and will inspire your pupils. After watching a clip of this famous...
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Hands-on History of Pottery
Students make pottery in the same evolutionary order as archeology indicates. They begin with simple pinch pots and then move to plain coil pots, manipulative decoration, and surface decoration. For each type of pot they discuss the...
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Altered Books
Students transform a discarded book into a creative art work of art that encompasses a theme and utilizes a variety of media and techniques.
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Wonderful World of Bats
Students create a book about bats. They write a letter to a scientist containing questions about bats. They compare the socialization of bats to humans; compare the needs of bats to humans and other animals.
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Illustrated Words - colored pencils
Learners use images and lettering style to communicate the meaning of a specific word chosen for the composition. They make rich, smooth, layered areas of color using colored pencils.
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Handprint Angels
Students trace their hands onto white paper and cut them out. They create a holiday art piece by adding a "head" and a "body" and then decorating them to resemble an angel. (Their handprints become the wings.)