Here is an activity used originally to finish off a unit on country life and nature. It requires learners to have a basic understanding of harvest, rural life, and autumn. They'll use what they know to construct dance movements showing...

Prepare class members for a discussion of Sonia Levitin's dystopian novel The Cure, by leading them on a guided imagery exercise designed to encourage visualization of written descriptions.

Fall is an amazing season and leaves are fantastic subjects for artists to examine. Young artists use leaves to create fall collages using the rubbing technique. 

A still life with tissue paper? Why not! Using Paul Cézanne's art as inspiration, learners create their own still life pictures by gluing various colors of tissue paper onto a paper or pattern.

Bring a lesson about Negro League Baseball to your Black history unit, or any other research unit throughout the year. While the lesson plan itself is simplistic, there are several good ideas that you could use, such as creating trading...

Students investigate different types of Native American Art. They conduct research using a variety of resources. They create art that recreates the pastel parfieche pouch and then explain the meaning as part of a portfolio. The lesson...

Students investigate the use of Milagro charms in different cultures. They conduct research using a variety of resources. Students create a shape that is meaningful to them and then copy the charm of magic and explain its significance to...

Students investigate the artwork and life of Paul Cezanne with the help of resources to find information about the Impressionist movement. They sketch a picnic drawing as a copy of Cezanne or use the principles to create an original idea.

Learners collect memorabilia and create shadow boxes in the style of David Stewart. They also compose a poem and explain their identity in an oral presentation. This is a rare lesson that works quite well for a variety of age levels.

Students discover the color wheel. In this color lesson, students find the primary colors, secondary colors, and contrasting colors. They look through the designs of super hero logos and create their own using what they know about...

Students 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...

Consider wax resist drawings as a way to bridge art and science. Learners view, discuss, and practice drawing insects or animals using waxy crayons. They pay attention to the creature's features as they create images with watercolor and...

The themes of The Great Gatsby are embodied in the images F. Scott Fitzgerald creates. To encourage reader interaction with the text, individuals create a symbolic representation of themselves, place themselves in the story,...

What is the artist's role in the post 9/11 world? How do artists use imagery to convey meaning in their work? After examining the work of Mughal artist Imran Qureshi, class members create their own work that uses combative imagery to...

Picture this. Class members follow in the footsteps of W. Eugene Smith, Dorothea Lange, James Nachtwey, and Lewis Hine by creating their own photo essay about a local event or issue.

Create clay whistles with your elementary or middle school learners. The project is outlined in great detail here, complete with step-by-step photographs, finished examples, a materials list, student handouts, and a rubric. Students...

Students observe how color creates the mood of a place, and generate sketches and drawings that capture their observations.

Young scholars explore different types of doors from an artistic point of view. In this creative thinking lesson, students look at different types of architectural doors and doorways and analyze them. They create a project of a door as a...

Use some provocative modern art to get your class considering stereotypes and the impact they have on us all. Your class will discuss the print art Indian Look-Alike by Melanie Yazzie and stereotypes in general before...

Incorporate sculpture into your art curriculum. To start, pupils discuss the artistic process and topics of marginalization. With the discussion in mind, individuals select images to inspire sculptures of people that they will present to...

Bring art and society together with this highly creative and interesting lesson. Learners research various uses of masks in ceremonies. They then create a ceremony of their own and a mask to go along with it. They film themselves...

Explore the making of a pinch pot using this resource. Learners discuss the properties of clay, including its molecular structure. Then, they make their own clay pot. As they work, they identify the techniques used to make a pinch pot,...

Students explore the challenges of creating a silhouette. In this silhouette lesson, students learn to produce a silhouette from a projected image. Students compare and contrast the making of a silhouette to a drawing or painting.

Portraiture, artistic expression, romanticism, and androgyny are discussed in a thought-provoking lesson. Upper graders first discuss and examine the history of portraiture and the elements common to the Romantic style. Then they turn...