Curated OER
Language Arts:Similes That Make Us Smile
Students identify similes and create their own self descriptions using them as examples. After identifying characteristics associated with pictures of the sun, fish, and other items, they discover how those traits can be used as...
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It's Raining Cats and Dogs
Make a beeline to this activity. Prepare paper strips with the provided idioms to engage teams in illustrating their literal meanings. The drawings provide the impetus for a guessing game where class members compete to be the first to...
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Idioms: Get the Ball Rolling
Based on books written by Fred Gwynne, particularly A Little Pigeon Toad, this resource connects the language of idioms and figures of speech with visuals that make explicit the often humorous connections between the literal and...
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Review of Personification and Alliteration
Learners review personification and alliteration. For this literary devices lesson, students use personification and alliteration in a sentence. Learners draw a picture reflecting personification.
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Pretty Plants Point of View
Young poets use Kidspiration to draw a flower, personify the flower, and write a poem from the flower's point of view. Sharing these poems in small groups will reinforce learners' knowledge of personification.
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The Body Talks
Young historians examine the gestures of human subjects represented in Mannerist, Baroque and Renaissance paintings. After they play charades and attempt to match dialogue with body language, learners create a drawing that...
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
Reading Literature - My Last Dutchess
Draw back the curtain, add a spot of joy to your class, and let learners be instructional activityed by a close reading exercise that models how to develop an interpretation based on evidence drawn from a text. Robert Browning’s dramatic...
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Unknown Frost Poem Discovered
What? A long-lost poem from Robert Frost? Introduce your class to a poem recently found and published from Robert Frost's personal collection. The lesson includes background information on the author, the poem itself, and a list of...
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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.
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Design a Colonial Garden
Students explore botany by completing an art design activity in class. In this gardening history instructional activity, students identify the plants and crops utilized in the Colonial era for both food and medicine. Students utilize...
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Bodies In Motion: Shapes and Gestures
Students use geometric shapes to describe body parts. In this geometry lesson, students use geometry vocabulary as they discuss body parts. They practice drawing bodies using shapes based on a wooden model that is poised to show specific...
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How to Write a Biography
Looking for a great lesson on how to write a biography? Here, middle schoolers draw from magazine articles, novels, historical figures, and current events to choose a person, or character to write about in a biography. They follow a...
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Determining Importance
Students hone their skills at identifying the principle story in a work of art and text. Through discussion, students assess the central and supporting stories of a work of art that is characterized by multiple layers of action and meaning.
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El Greco: Drawing Tall People
Students create a masterpiece. In this drawing lesson students use a magazine picture to make a very tall person. The students cut the picture to stretch it out.
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Designing the New Silver Dollar
Students create a design for a silver dollar based on a historical figure. In this historical lesson, students choose a person who impacted history to memorialize in a custom designed silver dollar. In addition, students will create a...
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Joseph Stella Art: Line Designs
Students discover the focal point in pictures and create their own images using lines and space. In this art analysis lesson, students create a black dot on a white paper which becomes a focal point for the lines the student will...
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Elegant Art Nouveau
Students create an elegant drawing in the ornamental, decorative and luxurious style of Klimt. After viewing a Powerpoint presentation, students create several patterns on scratchboards.
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Contour Drawing - Portrait - Elements and Principles of Design Review
Students create portrait with contour line - drawing from observation, then contrast warm and cool colors - work with pattern and textures. They work wet in wet graded wash technique and develop skills in using elements and principles of...
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Navajo Rug
Students explore geometry in Navajo rugs. In this shape art lesson, students create a Navajo rug design using triangles and squares. Students investigate designs on the Internet and then create an original design.
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Antonyms, synonyms and homophones
Shed light on what antonyms, synonyms, and homophones are. In this lesson, upper elementary schoolers create pairs using an antonym, a homophone, and/or a synonym. Then they play an antonym matching game.
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Haring's Heroes
Learners collaborate to create a painting in the style of Keith Haring. In this subway art lesson, learners study the distinct style of artist Keith Haring and design a large scale canvas on styrofoam. They study the details of Haring's...
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Depicting Women and Class in a Global Society
Learners explore visual arts that feature women. In this women in art lesson, students analyze "Marquise de Miramon, née Thérèse Feuillant" by Jacques Joseph Tissot and "The Milliners" by Edgar Germain Hilaire Degas. Learners compare how...
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Literary Lingo
Students make connections between reading and writing. In this language arts lesson, students explore literary elements as they examine a number of texts and practice implementing figurative language into their writing.
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Drawing with Wire
Students identify visual arts by examining visual models. In this art analysis lesson, students discuss the history of Keith Haring by researching information on the Internet. Students view images showing Keith Haring's work and...