National Arts Centre
Visual Metaphors in Scenic Design: Activity
As part of a study of how visual metaphors are used in set design, class members examine an image of designer Josef Svoboda's 3-D scale model for the opera Idomeneo, re` di Creta. They then find another example that employs a visual...
Curated OER
Telling Stories in Art: Symbols of a Life
Through a series of activities, learners are exposed to how artists use symbolic imagery to create the narrative of a subject’s life. They study The Birth of Alexander and some manuscripts kept at J. Paul Getty Museum. They then draft...
Curated OER
Analyzing Visual Symbols
Young scholars analyze and identify visual symbols in everyday life and during a museum visit. In this visual symbol lesson plan, students study associated vocabulary such as analyze and interpret. They find and note attention getting...
Simon & Schuster
Classroom Activities for The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
A 15-page packet includes detailed plans for three activities related to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. To gather background information, class members research topics and create a newspaper page reporting their findings. After finishing...
Curated OER
A Symbol of Protection
Young art critics consider symbolic protection as it has been used in various cultures around the globe. They view body art from the Marquesas Islands, looking for animals, letter, shapes, and patterns. They compare and contrast body art...
J. Paul Getty Trust
Shaping Ideas: Symbolism in Sculpture—Lesson 3
The final session in a sequential, three-lesson sculpture study designed by the education staff of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles has class members using the criterial they developed to critique each others' symbolic sculptures.
Curated OER
Symbols and Trading Cards
A silk rank badge was a symbolic emblem worn by high officials during the Qing Dynasty. Your class will get a chance to examine the details, symbolism, color, and design of such a badge as they make their own symbolic trading cards....
Curated OER
Lesson: Paul Chan: Alternumeric Fonts
Learning to analyze language, symbols, and codes is part of becoming a deep and critical thinker. Young analysts consider their ability to see hidden messages as they analyze the work of Paul Chan. There are two fully developed...
Denver Art Museum
My Animal Symbol
Here is an art instructional activity that combines visual arts and language arts into one very nice package. In it, youngsters study a fascinating painting called Painting of Bear and Sun Dances. They begin to understand the...
Curated OER
Signs and Symbols
Sixth graders carefully analyze a triptych of the nativity, paying close attention to the lines, shapes and symbols included in the artwork. They explore the role of the Catholic church in society at the time the piece was created and...
Curated OER
The Function of Music
Explore concepts of audience, purpose and symbols in this lesson from Media Smarts that asks students to consider all the functions of music. Through a series of discussions and activities, your class will brainstorm possible functions...
Denver Art Museum
Communicating with Symbols
Before kids analyze a Chinese dish filled with amazing images, they research the meanings of various plant and animal symbols. They use their research to decode the meaning of the expressive artwork on the dish and then use symbolism to...
Curated OER
Symbols of a Life
Pupils identify the narrative elements in a work of art and write their own narrative. In this narrative and symbolism lesson, students interpret narratives depicted in the given works of art and write a biographical narrative about a...
Curated OER
The Great Gatsby: Symbolic Story Representation
The themes of The Great Gatsby are embodied in the images F. Scott Fitzgerald creates. To encourage reader interaction with the text, individuals create a symbolic representation of themselves, place themselves in the story,...
Curated OER
Lesson: More Than a Dollar's Worth of Meaning
The Chinese, Dish with the Eight Buddhist Emblems contains symbols and visual references for learners to explore. They search for Buddhist symbolism on the dish and then they use their observation skills to locate and explore...
Curated OER
Lesson: Communication Through Clothing
As we all know, some clothing has a way of letting us know a little something about the person wearing it. Kids explore the idea that clothing can be a form of communication and artistic expression. They analyze a Native American textile...
Curated OER
What?s in a Picture? an Introduction To Subject in the Visual Art
Students identify clues that tell them about where, when, who and what they are seeing in art images. They work, step by step, through the layers of meaning, delving more deeply into these layers with each work as they progress through...
J. Paul Getty Trust
Shaping Ideas: Symbolism in Sculpture—Lesson 2
Young artists create a series of sketches of ideas for a sculpture, and using the criteria develop in the previous class, critique their sketches. They then choose one of their ideas and create their work of art.
Curated OER
Personal Peace Symbols
Eleventh graders produce a work of art that symbolizes peace and their experiences with it. In this peace symbolism lesson, 11th graders sketch symbols associated with peace view art examples of peace images. Students complete a...
Curated OER
Symbolism in Sculpture
Students use criteria developed in class to evaluate which of their own sketches would make the best symbolic sculpture. In this sculpture symbolism lesson, students work in pairs to create a sculpture and define its symbolic meaning....
Curated OER
United States Symbols
First graders identify symbols that represent the United States on a worksheet. In this United States symbols lesson plan, 1st graders identify 5 symbols on the sheet.
Walters Art Museum
The Symbolism of Allegorical Art
Introduce learners to allegorical art with four bronze sculptures by Francesco Bertos. After modeling how to recognize bias and allegory in Bertos' Africa, class groups examine the other three sculptures in the series before creating...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan: Before and After a Moment in Time
Think about a moment, frozen in time. Now take a critical look at the painting, Better, Homes, Better Gardens. This painting works to provide learners the opportunity to analyze art, critique artist's choices, and write a story inspired...
Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning
A Foundation for Implementation
Color is the focus of this amazing resource packed with math, social studies, science, and language arts activities. Kids create a color word wall and post symbols, graph the number of objects they find of each color while on a...