J. Paul Getty Trust
Expressing Emotions through Art Lesson 1—Everyone Shows They Care
In a instructional activity that explores art and emotions, scholars analyze a piece of art and discuss which emotions it portrays. They go on to reflect on their own emotions and how they are similar to the feelings expressed...
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Describing Paintings: Calm or Stormy
Young writers use nouns, verbs, and adjectives to describe details in two paintings. One depicts a sunny landscape, and the other shows a cloudier view. They write a narrative inspired by the paintings, paying attention to transitional...
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The Art and Science of Impressionist Color
Discover Impressionist painting as students investigate the 19th century combinations of colors characteristically used. Students experiment with their own paintings, utilizing primary and secondary colors.
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Looking at Portraits: Literary Monuments
Examine artwork, research literature, and create art pieces for a monument to a literary figure. Young scholars analyze the sculpture Model for a Monument to Alexandre Dumas père and compare it to other well-known monuments. They...
J. Paul Getty Trust
Picturing a Story: Photo Essay about a Community, Event or Issue
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.
J. Paul Getty Trust
Exhibiting Common Threads
Artists working in different media often explore the same themes—to model how these same themes weave their way through different forms of artistic expression, scholars analyze images by Dorothea Lange, identifying key themes in her...
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Curator's Report
Students write a curator's report in order to persuade a board of directors to purchase an artwork for a museum.
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Personal Reflections
Students culminate and extend the Museum visit back into the classroom. They consider the choice Telemachus made to continue searching for his father. They relate the moral dilemma to their own personal experiences.
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Ceramics: A Vessel Into History
Learners evaluate the work of their peers using the criteria for value and meaning they developed. In this ceramics lesson, students evaluate their peers’ vessels in their journals by responding to the given questions...
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Telling Stories: Symbols of a Life
Art and literature can go hand in hand, they both are used to express elements of the self in a creative and interesting way. Budding story tellers interpret and analyze the narrative elements they find in a work of art. They focus on...
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Remembering Waiting
After a close study of the pastel drawing Waiting by Edgar Degas have the class imagine the story Degas may be telling through the body language and clothing of the people in the work of art. Your young writers then create a...
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Women
A close study of two works of art provides the introduction to this cross-curricular writing assignment. After comparing the clothing, facial expressions, body language, setting, and color in the two 19th century paintings Tissout’s...
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Witness to a Brawl
Using The Musicians' Brawl, middle schoolers first impressions and the effect the title has on a piece of work. Then they analyze the narrative elements to art and write a newspaper article for the painting. In this narrative art...
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Image as Metaphor
A Dorothea Lange photograph launches this study of metaphors. Using the questions provided, the class examines the image and the title to consider how Lange uses her photo as a metaphor. Class members then select an object they can use...
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Let's Talk About Painting
Discuss art and read Matthew's Dream. In this visual arts activity, students recognize that there are different styles of art, each with its own techniques. Use simple techniques to understand art and work at stations to...
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Colors
Students learn about the Impressionist painters' use of color and how it connected to early nineteenth century scientific theories about color. In this colors lesson plan, students explore combinations of primary and secondary colors,...
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Animals in Motion
Young scholars draw and sculpt animals in motion. In this artistic drawing lesson, students are introduced to art depicting arrested motion, then observe and sketch animals in motion and use the drawing as they create a balanced sculpture.
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Breaking the Chains, Rising Out of Circumstances
Students develop an understanding of art and history. In this instructional activity about sculpture and creating a mood, students will gain an understanding of a moment in history by observing art. Students observe busts, and paintings...
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Breaking the Chains: Rising Out of Circumstances
Study history through photographs. In this visual arts and history lesson, young scholars learn to analyze photographs to discover details about life during the Civil War era. Students write journal entries as if they are the...
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Classifying Plants and Insects
Art and science come together in a activity based on Flower Still Life by Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder. Learners classify plants and insects in the painting by color, leaf shape, size, reproduction, and season of...
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Depicting Motherhood in Family Stories
Students examine the roles of mothers and grandmothers by looking at black-and-white photographs of one American family and comparing that family's multi-generational story with their own. In this mothers and grandmothers lesson plan,...
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Objects of Adornment
Students identify adornments as a form of art. In this art and jewelry lesson, students view portraits of two historical princess noticing their adornments, then draw a person in their life focusing on the adornments they wear.
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A Story on a Vase
Students associate a hydria with Greek myths. In this Greek art and mythology activity, students examine a scene on a hydria, then choose a Greek myth to illustrate on their own painting.
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Debating the Bomb
Students research the repercussions of the development of the atomic bomb. In this history lesson, students read, reflect and discuss nuclear warfare and how it affected the population when it was introduced, as well as how it...