Dick Blick Art Materials
Start with a Circle...
The Golden Ratio. The Divine Proportion. Yup. It's math and art blended into one colorful activity. Young artists combine colored tissue paper circles and parts of circles to create geometric patterns. As a bonus, kids get to figure out...
Curated OER
Black Tiger Academy Martial Arts Fitness Unit – Lesson 4
“Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.”—William James. Black Tiger Academy’s martial arts lesson four of 20 introduces several other styles of martial arts and a little...
Curated OER
Family History Through Art
Students discuss various ways families and communities pass down oral and visual art forms to younger generations. This multi-subject introductory lesson prepares students to create a project about their own families.
Curated OER
Stained Glass Art - Activity 1
Students examine stained glass art techniques in this introductory instructional activity provided by Oregon Public Broadcasting. The unit emphasizes student created representations of stained glass art.
Curated OER
Animal Self-portrait Mosaics: A Visual Arts Elective
Out-lined here is a two-week procedure that has the class creating ceramic animal tiles that are metaphorical representations of their own personalities. They discuss animal images found throughout history, what they mean, metaphor, and...
Curated OER
Ancient Gold Working
Students create a sculpture inspired by the masks, pendants, or human and animal forms found in ancient Indian art of the Americas. They focus on the techniques of metalworking, especially repousse.
Curated OER
Magic Words, Magic Brush: The Art of William Butler and Jack Yeats
Students explore the influence of the landscape of Ireland on shaping the poetry of William Butler Yeats. They work in groups researching the growth of the Irish Nationalist Movement, Celtic origins, invasions, and the impact on the...
Curated OER
Elements of Art Review--SMART Board Jeopardy
Eighth graders focus on the elements of art with a secondary focus on the principles of art. They are assigned to a team to play Art Jeopardy. They take an exam. They use the internet as a resource for answers.
Curated OER
Portraits as Keys to History
Students create self-portraits using images and words. They discuss portraits from the Memorial Art Gallery, create a self-portrait collage usng images and words from magazines, and complete a worksheet.
Curated OER
Medieval and Renaissance Art at the Art Institute
Students examine several Medieval and Renaissance works of art, including painting and sculpture, at the Art Institute of Chicago. They use worksheets and discussion questions to enhance their interpretation of the pieces.
Curated OER
Looking and Learning in the Art Museum
Reflect on the art your class can view at a museum. In this art history lesson, students draw six elements of art. They discuss original art versus reproduction artwork and write about their thoughts of a museum. It would be wonderful if...
Curated OER
Reliving History through Slave Narratives
Helpful for an American literature or history unit, this lesson prompts middle schoolers to examine slavery in the United States. They read slave narratives that were part of the Federal Writers' Project and then conduct their own...
National Gallery of Canada
Memories of the Past
Explore contemporary American Indian art. After viewing a set of images, class members discuss the design elements of techniques present, as well as how these artists represent history and culture. Learners examine the parfleche and...
National Gallery of Canada
The Roots of My Family
Represent family history visually by requiring your young artists to create family trees that express balance and symmetry. Pupils examine works of art, research their family histories, and put together large family tree posters.
Incredible Art
Painting with Dots - Kirkland Style
Pointillism is the focus of a lesson that asks young artists to compare Vance Kirkland's painting style with aboriginal dot art, and then to produce their own piece of dot art.
Dick Blick Art Materials
EZ-Grout Mosaics
Young artists create 2-D art using air-dry clay and acrylic paint in this mosaic-making activity. Kids trace their design sketch on a clay slab, cut out the pieces, and after drying, paint and mount their tile design.
Curated OER
Realistic Impressions: Investigating Movements in the Visual Arts
You and your high school class can examine the idea of artistic movements with this activity. Explore various websites, compare/contrast paintings, after which the assignments are to complete a chart, and write an essay.
Smithsonian Institution
The Vocal Blues: Created in the Deep South of the U.S.
Bring the sounds of the deep South vocal blues to the classroom with a Smithsonian Folkways lesson. In preparation, scholars listen to and count the 12 bar blues patterns in several works and identify the I, II, IV, and V chords as well...
Curated OER
Visual Arts - Mexican Indian Yarn Painting
Have you ever seen a Mexican yarn painting? They're beautiful! Create a Mexican yarn painting with your class using this lesson plan. Start by discussing Mexico's culture and viewing different yarn paintings. After reading about...
Smithsonian Institution
Spirits Across the Ocean: Yoruban and Dahomean Cultures in the Caribbean Brought by the Slave Trade
Much of Latin American music owes its origins to the slave trade. Peoples from the Yoruban and Dahomean cultures brought with them the distinctive rhythms, time signatures, and eighth note patterns that now characterize Caribbean music....
National Gallery of Canada
Mastering One-Point Perspective
Cover one-point perspective through observation and practice. Class members examine several works of art that use one-point perspective, look at magazine images to find the vanishing points and horizon lines, and draw their own city...
National Gallery of Canada
The Tools of Perspective
Make a study of perspective in the real world. Learners examine and discuss works of art that show examples of perspective before trying their own hands at it. Using a grid drawn on transparent paper, class members transfer a view from a...
SoundTree
When The Saints Go Marching In: A Lesson for Middle School Keyboard Lab Students
After listening to a variety of interpretations of "When the Saints Go Marching In," partners compose and then perform their own renditions of this classic before joining a full-class jam session.
Curated OER
Lights! Cameras! Action!: Creating a Drama About the Lyme Art Colony
Discuss the lives of artists in the Lyme Art Colony in the 1900s with this resource. Young historians write and perform a short scene depicting individuals who lived in the Griswold boardinghouse, used by the colony artists. They use the...