Art Institute of Chicago
Act It Out
Examine two works of art and use these pieces as inspiration for dialogues. The whole class discusses Renoir's Lunch at the Restaurant Fournaise and Toulouse-Lautrec's At the Moulin Rouge. Then, in groups of either three or ten, pupils...
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Puzzle Mystery
Students are given a small detail of a painting, give it a title, and try to guess what the whole painting is. In this painting lesson plan, students put all of their details together to make the full painting.
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Shapes Show It
Young scholars use art to express emotion. In this visual arts lesson, students explore the use of various colors and shapes in an effort to express emotions displayed in the Twelve Labors of Hercules. Young scholars use the...
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Puzzle Mystery
Pupils sketch and give a title to a painting which they are given a small detail of. In this painting lesson plan, students share their titles and try to determine the theme and subject of the full painting based on these clues. At the...
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Haring Inspired CD Covers
Students create CD covers from their music-inspired drawing sessions. They compare what they drew while listening to classical, punk and rap music. They scan their drawings into Adobe Photoshop and design their cover.
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Book Illustration
Students view a video and discuss what illustrations in a book show and don't show. For this observation lesson, students look at the details on a page in Alice in Wonderland and create an illustration.
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Pumpkin Carving for K-2 Students
Learners carve pumpkins, draw pictures and label layers of a seed, and write steps needed to carve pumpkin.
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Learning Empathy Through Art
Students create poems based on the Haiku form and research about WWII. Class discussion and classroom readings of student work finish this lesson. Emphasis is placed on Standards in the Arts.
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Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find": Who's the Real Misfit?
High schoolers read and analyze the short story, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," by Flannery O'Connor. They write a one-page response, explore various websites, take an online interactive journey, and write a final assessment paper.
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the Baroque Period
Baroque styles in music, together with trends in tone, melody, and form are summarized in these slides. The points given are short and relevant. There is only a small amount of information, so this would be best as an accompaniment...
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Self Portraits Part 2
Sixth graders explore the concept of Cubist art. In this visual arts lesson, 6th graders examine examples of Pablo Picasso's work and they create self portraits in Cubist style.
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Surrealism
Seventh graders research several surrealist artists, e.g. Dali, Magritte, etc., and analyze and compare their styles. They apply their knowledge to their own drawings in pastel of flowers and plants.
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Geometry: Practical Applications of the Distance Formula
Students, working independently and in groups, apply the distance formula to practical situations. After solving various problems, students in pairs design coordinate planes from the school blue print to measure the distance from the...
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Alligator Craft Paper Bag Puppet
Students make paper bag puppets. They use the puppets as a story teller and reader. Students use the puppets to ask questions during and after reading. They assemble their own puppet. Students use the puppets to introduce new themes,...
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Colors, Characters, & Clues: White Socks
Learners examine the process of making inferences. They define inference, view a Powerpoint presentation, and as a whole group locate clues in the pictures of a short story, locating written clues to reinforce their conclusions.
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Symmetry in Butterflies
Young scholars create a butterfly displaying a mirror image of itself to show that it is symmetrical. For this symmetry lesson plan, students go over symmetry in different shapes and identify patterns in butterflies.
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Exploring the Elements of a Japanese Garden Through the Book Arts
Students create book arts based on a visit to the Botanical Garden. They choose their own images to put into their book and answer discussion questions.
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Colors, Characters, & Clues
Students investigate inferences. They define inference, view a Powerpoint presentation, answer questions about a picture book, and identify clues throughout the story as examples of inferences.
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VISUAL ARTS
Students learn the historical context of mask-making explore the elements of the art form.
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Worksheet for Analysis of a Motion Picture
In this primary source analysis instructional activity, high schoolers respond to 14 short answer questions that require them to analyze the motion picture of their choice.
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Exploring Rembrandt's Chiaroscuro Technique Through Mosaic Design
Young scholars compare mosaic design and pointillism. They discover the meaning of chiaroscuro by creating paper mosaic designs in Rembrandt style.
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Jewelry: Then and Now
Fifth graders identify specific works of art as belonging to particular cultures, times, & places, recognize & apply elements of art, learn techniques for working with each material, critique artwork, & discuss how artwork...
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The Art of Description
Students apply descriptive language to identify the five elements of art and the basic lines, geometric shapes, and angles in Marie Hull's, Sharecropper. They explain how the elements of a piece of work contribute to the story it tells....
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Exploring Indiana's Natural Resources
Fourth graders complete a variety of activities as they study the European exploration of the Midwest, focusing on Indiana. They map the path explorers took, comparing the British with the French. They research why the explorers stopped...