Curated OER
Teaching The Great Gatsby with the New York Times
East Egg, West Egg, the Valley of Ashes, and the green light. Bring Gatsby, the Jazz Age, and the American Dream to your classroom with a resource designed for teachers. Included in the treasury are six great teaching ideas for F. Scott...
Roald Dahl
The Twits - The Furniture Goes Up
Work gets done faster when people work as a team. The ninth installment of an 11-lesson unit designed to accompany The Twits by Roald Dahl combines character education with research skills and creative writing activities. The lesson ends...
Curated OER
There's Omegas in Those Hemp Seeds
A very well-designed lesson plan focuses on the many benefits of Omega Fatty Acids. Learners read some articles on omega fatty acids, then access a glossary that is included in the plan. They fill in terms along with their definitions....
Curated OER
Understanding Tiananmen Square
William Bell's Forbidden City is used as the basis of a study of China, Chinese culture and government, and especially of the events in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Class members select a topic for Internet research and then prepare a...
Curated OER
Mapmaker, Make Me a Map!
Here is a well-designed, very thorough lesson plan on mapping for very young children. Within the six-page plan, you will find everything you need to implement the lesson. They will identify various landforms found in Colorado on a map,...
Curated OER
Positive/Negative Bugs
Bugs can be creepy - and fun! Kids create a positive and negative design by repeatedly drawing a simple insect overlaid with a geometric shape. The outcome is really neat and will help build spacial reasoning, visual acuteness,...
Curated OER
Yellow Bird and Me
Upper elementary artists create works which demonstrate an understanding of the many elements of theater and the visual arts. This four-day plan combines many wonderful aspects of visual, musical, and theatrical arts into one very...
Curated OER
Platinum Perspectives
Students redesign a particular album cover of their choice in this excellent high school Art lesson plan. The lesson plan suggests using Adobe Photoshop and glossy inkjet paper for the final presentation of all products.
Curated OER
Clay Sand Castles
You can start off this sand castle art project by previewing the included architectural vocabulary. Learners explore images, the web, and books that show both sand castles and architectural design. They then get creative and make their...
Curated OER
What's Outside the Window
What do your students see when they look outside the window? This project lets their imagination go wild, and lets you see what kind of daydreaming they do best. They each draw, paint, and color an image of what they imagine as they are...
Curated OER
Egyptian Mummy Cases
Here is an activity I'd like to do with my class! They researching the ins and outs of Egyptian culture, hieroglyphs, symbolism, and art, then use what they know to create realistic or stylized Mummy cases. These cases need to include...
Kenan Fellows
What Element Would You Be?
Primo Levi wrote a collection of short stories comparing his life from Italy to Auschwitz to elements in the periodic table. Pupils read an excerpt from his book and research the characteristics of various elements. Then, they make a...
Curated OER
Follow the Firefly
Students read stories and create a replica of their main character by using "Neon Twistables." They fold several sheets of paper and create several scenes from their book. Students create a booklet, place a title on it, and design an...
Curated OER
Cover It Up!
Learners use their artistic skills to create a unique report cover that reflects the report's content. They combine their art and a written report to design an interesting and original presentation. The erasing technique presented can be...
Curated OER
Mysterious Plot Problems
Your readers explore plot patterns in mysteries by identifying problems first in Two-Minute Mysteries by Donald J. Sobol and then in The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. To gain access to the worksheets, graphic organizers and...
Curated OER
Graffitti
Here is a fun way to encourage a cooperative classroom, drawing skills, and creative expression. Each child draws a design or shape on his paper, then he rotates to the next child's paper where he adds to the previous design. When the...
Goethe-Institut
Well-Known Tale: The Pied Piper of Hamelin
"The Pied Piper of Hamelin" is the focus of a lesson designed to shed light on the importance of keeping promises. As a class, scholars take part in a discussion on the topic of honesty and consequences. Independent readers then take to...
Curated OER
We Love to Read!
Students find ways to share their favorite books. In this reading strategies lesson, students advertise books, create a top ten countdown, give a video book talk, simmer story stew, make book medals, play name that book, design a...
Curated OER
View Finder Painting
Creative thinkers create a paper "view finder." They place it on a magazine picture in different ways until they find an image to paint. They do this until they have drawn and then painted an entire paper filled with found art.
Curated OER
Mesoamerican Codex Books
Fifth graders use visual art as a form of communication as they create a codex book based on their knowledge of Mesoamericans.
Curated OER
Crayon Rubbing Flip Book
Young scholars use their hands to bend and reshape a floral wire (line). They record this experience using crayon rubbings which become the frames for their flip book.
Curated OER
Book of Little Things
Students inquire about visual arts by reading a children's book in class. In this Keith Haring lesson, students examine the book Nina's Book of Little Things and create their own drawings based on their personal life. Students emulate...
Curated OER
Storybook Art
Students read the book Swimmy, by Leo Lionni. They study his method of illustrating and then create an underwater scene of their own using the same method.
Curated OER
The Very Busy Spider Art Project
Students listen to the story The Very Busy Spider and participate in an art activity related to the book. In this story inspired art instructional activity, students use a Very Busy Spider printable and cut out the spider's...