New York City Department of Education
Designing Euclid’s Playground
Create a geometric playground. Pupils work through a performance task to demonstrate their ability to use geometric concepts to solve everyday problems. The accompanying engineering design lessons show teachers how the assessment works...
Curated OER
Tiles, Blocks, Sapphires & Gold: Designing a Treasure Map
Young cartographers in groups hide treasure at school and then create a map to find it using pattern blocks and tiles. They make paintings with clues to create a visual representation of the location of their treasure. Groups present...
American Institute of Architects
Architecture: It's Elementary!—First Grade
Build an interest and appreciation for architecture in your young learners with this fun 10-lesson art unit. Engaging children in using their five senses, the class first observes the environment around them, paying special attention to...
Curated OER
Understanding Symmetry Through Visual Art
Have your class explore symmetry, radial balance and fractional parts in natural and man-made objects in their environment. Learners list examples and identify symmetrical and asymmetrical designs. Pupils are given a box of crayons and...
Curated OER
Paper Maché Mancala Game Boards
Seventh graders create three dimensional works of art from two dimensional plans, develop skills in papier-mach?? technique, utilize elements and principles of design to create 3-D form, and develop math/strategy skills in playing the...
Curated OER
Embossed Rose Window Designs
Students, after researching the history and foundation of Renaissance rose windows, access ArtEmboss to create an original window design. They employ a basic metalworking technique utilizing a soft metal. The design created incorporates...
MENSA Education & Research Foundation
Fabulous Fibonacci and His Nifty Numbers
Fibonacci numbers are not only found in the classroom but also in nature. Explore the concept of Fibonacci numbers through a series of lessons designed to gain insight into the mathematical reasoning behind the number pattern, and spark...
Curated OER
Equations in Motion: Design and construct a mobile
Students participate in a lesson that covers the concepts of solving equations and inequalities. To master the concept they must demonstrate visually and verbally how both sides of an equation must be balanced. They construct a balanced...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Angles on Kandinsky
Not only is Wassily Kandinsky fun to say, his art contains tons of angles. Learners discuss Kandinsky's music-inspired abstract art and four types of angles. They search one of his paintings for obtuse, right, straight, and acute angles,...
Curated OER
The Geometry of Paul Goble's Artwork
Students examine the concepts of geometry used by Paul Goble in his book Adopted By The Eagles. After analyzing Mr. Goble's work they create an original piece featuring symmetry, pattern, repetition, and other principles of geometry....
Curated OER
Create a Wrapping Cloth Design
Students create wrapping clothes using paper or cloth scraps being sure to find or make geometric shapes. They create a visually balanced composition including symmetry,and repeated patterns.
Curated OER
Symmetry with Shapes
Students analyze a symmetrical stamp design with an equal balance of light and dark to create a pattern in succession. In this shape design lesson, students review concepts of sign, symbol and language across cultures. Students analyze...
Curated OER
Flight Dreams - Folding into Flight
Combine measurement, following directions, physics, and art with one fun activity. Learners read a set of instruction to create three different kinds of paper airplanes. They measure, fold, and fly the planes, and record data and answer...
John Lentine
Butterflies and Bugs
Symmetry, line, shape, art, and math are all connected through a fun hands-on craft. Included are instructions to a classic activity, where learners create butterflies to show symmetry in nature and then discuss symmetry in math. It is...
Curated OER
Shapes Show It
Students use art to express emotion. For 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. Students use the computer program...
Curated OER
Weave Drawing - Pencils
Learners create a work of art based on a theme showing skill in pencil shading. They create a work of art showing value contrast to center of interest. They use math concepts to enlarge a composition using a grid.
Curated OER
A Vacation Expedition: Universal Design and Differentiated Instruction Lesson
Students plan a vacation to either a mountain, deep-sea location, rainforest or to the moon. In this vacation planning lesson, students research information about the location of their choice. They watch video clips on the SMARTBoard,...
Curated OER
Molas
Seventh graders apply their prior knowledge of the Principle of Balance to create a paper mola. Students examine a variety of molas, which are fabric works of art made by women in the country of Panama. To arrange the composition of the...
Curated OER
Wavelengths of Light
Explore physical science by participating in a visual spectrum experiments. Budding scientists identify the colors in the color spectrum and view the colors in class by utilizing cellophane, flash lights, and other arts and crafts...
Curated OER
Looking at Illuminated Manuscripts: An Illuminated Day Planner
Students examine a book of hours to compare it with a modern day planner. In this illuminated manuscripts lesson, students analyze a book of hours example from the 16th century. Students create their own modern day illuminated calendar.
Curated OER
Graph Paper Patterns
Young artists divide a piece of graph paper into sections using rectangles, squares, and triangles. They then fill each section with patterns of shape and color. Elementary graders describe how their patterns are organized. Secondary...
Curated OER
How Does Your Garden Grow?
Students create a design for a school garden. In this garden design lesson plan, students analyze what plants grow best in their school's climate and work in teams to design a garden. Students measure the existing space, determine the...
Curated OER
Shapes and Introduction to Geometry
Students make a quilt. In this geometry lesson, students discuss patchwork quilts and learn some different geometric shapes and patterns that are commonly used. Students explore designs with triangles and squares and then make their own...
New York City Department of Education
Chris’ Garden Dilemma
Make the connections between area, tiling, and multiplication. A performance task and associated unit presents the concept of area and makes the connection to multiplication. Pupils work through three major sections of instruction that...