National Gallery of Canada
My Abstraction
What makes a color warm, and what makes a color cool? Explore colors and abstract art through an observation activity and an art assignment. Learners look at images and talk about colors before making their own compositions with...
Curated OER
The Paper Dress - Circa 1968
You won't believe your eyes when you see these dresses made out of paper. Pupils create paper dresses by modifying a pattern provided by the teacher, and decorate the dress using 1960's style art. What a fantastic and motivating...
Curated OER
Hieroglyphic Art Project
Students translate words and ideas into pictures. They make a list of words or phrases that could be drawn as symbols. Students complete this as part of a project on Egyptian and other civilizations that used hieroglyphics. They use...
Curated OER
Shoe Shine
Young artists use Paintstik colors on paper, canvas, metal, fabric or another surface to create a work of art to be presented in a gallery. Students research the origins of the "Snakebasket" they are creating. These art lessons produce...
Lee County High School
Clay Animal Whistles
Investigate North Carolina pottery history by creating clay animal whistles, a traditional leisure activity in the region. They research a particular animal and jot down its attributes to include in their project. Find step-by-step...
KERA
Matisse and Picasso
Discover Modernism through the eyes of artists. Over the course of six well-thought-out lessons, learners examine works by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse while completing a range of collaborative and hands-on activities. A great resource!
Curated OER
Lesson Plan: Newsflash!
Fox Games is an Installation piece that allows observers to walk through a clay environment. Kids analyze the piece, considering storytelling and perspectives of light. They imagine how different the piece would look at various times of...
Brown University
Culture Connect: Experience the Culture of the World
A rich series of activities introduces learners to the concept of culture by closely examining the behaviors, practices, and art of three distinct peoples: the Highland Maya of Guatemala, the Hmong of China and Southeast...
Curated OER
Andy Warhol: Pop of Pop Art
Students create an original pop-art repetitive portrait based on a study of life and work of Andy Warhol. They are told that Andy Warhol, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Students discuss how Warhol used everyday objects and images...
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 lesson on using, holding, and creating brush strokes common to Japanese writing...
Curated OER
James Wyeth: Capturing Dance
High schoolers draw portraits of a dancer. In this visual-arts instructional activity, students study the work of James Wyeth online. They then watch a dance performance and sketch 10 - 15 pieces depicting dancers. Five of these sketches...
Curated OER
Allegory in Painting
Students examine how allegory is defined and used in the visual arts. They create a list of the arts, and list the objects, symbols, and figures that suggest each art category, analyze various paintings, and identify the allegorical...
Curated OER
The Journey of the Spirit
Learners discuss Scholastic Art Magazine issue on 'Artists Today' . They participate in a class discussion & watch a demonstration on the use of 'found objects' and ordinary materials (i.e. paper towels, leaves) to create surface...
Curated OER
Jazz Exploration: A Collage Project
Middle schoolers explore and experience jazz through collage. They listen to improvisational jazz, discuss the origins of jazz, then design and create a collage that shows jazz being played. This project will result in amazing works of...
Curated OER
The Language of Ballet
Here's a very well organized lesson plan on learning the terminology of ballet. Learn the names of some basic positions, and how to perform them. Learn the names, which happen to be in French, of basic movements in ballet. Not only are...
Curated OER
A Musical Composition Experience
Upper graders having skills in music performance will extend their abilities through creative musical composition. They'll use Finale 2000 to explore facets of music composition, they'll then compose a piece for their instrument in C, F,...
Curated OER
Critical Listening: Music Vocabulary
The school band or orchestra analyzes their own performance after exploring musical terminology. They listen to a classical piece and describe it using only words. They look up musical terminology and then use those words to compare and...
Curated OER
Expressions - Activity 1
Learners create wax sculptures of a full body using mathematical calculations and information gathered from a video in this excellent art project. The lesson can be used along or within the unit provided.
Curated OER
Shaping the View: Composition Basics
Students examine the elements of composition in various artworks. They analyze and discuss paintings, explore "The National Gallery of Art" website, identify the shape of compositions in paintings, and draw a diagram.
VH1
Lesson 2: Moulin Rouge
The pop movie Moulin Rouge was based on the opera La Boheme. Learners watch the last 30 minutes of each musical to compare and contrast social opposites. They'll first discuss the social differences of the main characters and how those...
Curated OER
Welcome to Top Score: Verdi's 'Don Carlos'
Students study the elements in the production of an opera including the personalities, ideas, and stage presence. They examine the skills that are necessary to be a performer in an opera in this series of lessons including making...
Curated OER
RHYTHMIC PATTERNS
Students explore rhythmic patterns. They create and perform the rhythms and use Cubase software to perform, record, and play rhythms for use in dictation exercises. They identify and count rhythm patterns
Classics for Kids
"Mars" from The Planets
Gustav Holst's The Planets provide young musicians an opportunity to examine how composers can create a suite: a collection of smaller pieces grouped to explore a single topic. After listening to "Jupiter," they examine "Mars" in...
Curated OER
Picturing Text
Students, 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.