National Gallery of Canada
Make a Parfleche
Examine American Indian art and culture by observing contemporary art and creating original pieces. Class members discuss artwork included in the plan and use these images to help inspire their own work, which should represent...
Curated OER
The Hare and the Water: A Tanzanian Folk Tale
"The Hare and the Water," a Tanzanian folk tale, lends a global perspective to literary analysis. Learners spend the first two days reading and storyboarding. On day three, they examine folk tale elements (worksheet included), and design...
National Endowment for the Humanities
History in Quilts
Learners investigate the use of cloth-based art forms intended to pass down traditions and history. They research types of quilts, quilt characteristics and then identify how Freedom Quilts were historically used in the US.
National Endowment for the Humanities
A “New English” in Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart”: A Common Core Exemplar
To examine the “New English” Chinua Achebe uses in Things Fall Apart, readers complete a series of worksheets that ask them to examine similes, proverbs, and African folktales contained in the novel. Individuals explain the meaning...
Curated OER
The Art of Social Protest
Young scholars investigate how art and music define and unify a social movement. They decide how art and music can act as symbols of protest. They view both contemporary and historical examples of art as a tool for protest and design an...
Curated OER
Politics and Religion in 17th Century Dutch Art
Seventh graders examine different pieces of Dutch Art. They identify its social and political meanings by using cultural and historical information. They examine maps of the time period as well.
Curated OER
Art in the Middle Ages and Today
Students create a contemporary coat of arms and illuminated page. They study contemporary artists who combine text, symbols and images in altered books and create an altered book page of their own.
Curated OER
Cardboard Radial Weaving
Students explore cultural history by participating in an arts and crafts activity. In this weaving lesson plan, students identify the many cultures that used weaving methods and local plant life to create baskets and other useful tools....
Curated OER
Kente Straw Weavings
Fourth graders explore world culture by creating an arts and crafts project in class. In this weaving instructional activity, 4th graders identify the Kente culture and their uses for straw and other natural elements in their...
Curated OER
Animal skeletal design-reduction relief prints
Sixth graders compare and contrast various forms of artistic expression associated with specific groups of people, geographic regions, or time periods, specifically, art of Australia, and create art works using procedures borrowed from...
Curated OER
Sand Painting
Young scholars explore Navajo traditions and art. In 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
Rangoli - An Art of India
Students respond to image of a rangoli, identify viewing context for selected rangoli image and how this affects viewer's ability to understand the artwork, investigate cultural values and purposes of rangoli art, and design and make a...
Curated OER
Calculator Art
Students identify the relationships among different parts of a nation's culture. They discover elements of mythology, legends and values.
Curated OER
Chinese Minority Cultures
Seventh graders identify the elements that characterize culture in literature.
Students analyze the representation of Chinese minority peoples
through textbooks. Students identify and interpret the differences among the people of China.
Curated OER
The Power of Images
Students explore emotions represented in artwork. In this cross curriculum social studies and art lesson, students explain examples of political and social issues expressed in artwork by Dorthea Lang, Diego Rivera, Dan Eldon, as...
Curated OER
Making Faces: Understanding Artifacts Through Design Elements
Pupils examine and discuss drinking container artifacts from Jamestown. They view images of the artifacts, discuss their purposes, draw an original facial expression for a brown paper jug, and write a description of the facial expression.
Curated OER
Mapping the Mediasphere
Students compare/contrast the media messages they see in two different communities in their city. They list the elements of art and the principles of design in the photographs they have taken in those two different communities. They...
Curated OER
Print Advertising: Past and Present
Twelfth graders identify the way advertisements are constructed to influence out lives and our values. They review advertisements from the 1800s and 1900s and how they may have influenced people living in that time. Using this ad, 12th...
Curated OER
Abstract painting - Inspired by Textiles
Students compare and contrast various forms of artistic expression associated with specific groups of people, geographic regions, or time periods, specifically art of Andean cultures, and create art works using procedures borrowed from...
Curated OER
Integrating Japanese Folk Tales into the Classroom Using Japanese Kamishibai
Students study Japanese folk tales focusing on the traditional values and key elements. They compare the Japanese values with their own. They discuss Japanese art before designing a set of kamishibai on which they write a summary of a...
Curated OER
What is cooperative negotiation?
Tenth graders differentiate between positions, interests, and values. In this current events lesson, 10th graders analyze, in a response to literature, the failure of a fictional negotiation. Students demonstrate the ability...
Curated OER
The Map Cartouche
Students discuss the history and purpose of cartouches. They examine examples of cartouches and design an original example with symbols of their choosing.
Curated OER
Giving Thanks to Mother Earth
Pupils create an art project to be made into a laminated placemat to use during a classroom Thanksgiving feast. The lesson involves choosing at least three cutouts of elements of nature to glue onto a background page, drawing one picture...
Curated OER
One Dollar Around the World
Twelfth graders collaborate via ePals with another student from another country. They compare the value of a dollar with its power of acquisition in other countries. They list one dollar items and find the corresponding price in other...