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Creating a Personal Symbol

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students inquire about visual arts by creating an artistic etching. For this symbolism lesson, students identify the work of Keith Haring by researching the web and analyzing images. Students utilize linoleum or wood to create an etching...
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Coil Vessels with Symbols

For Teachers 8th
Eighth graders explore symbolism in Renaissance art, use ceramics vocabulary, and demonstrate craftsmanship in working with clay.
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Understanding Symbolism in Canada's History

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students identify the patriotic symbols of Canada, and locate them in the media and other locations. They create a new symbol of their own and explain how it relates to Canada specifically.
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Symbols and Signs

For Teachers 4th - 12th
Students draw lines and symbols to express emotions much like the work of Keith Haring. In this drawing lesson plan, students use markers, boards, newsprint, scissors, and more.
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Plains Indians Pictographs

For Teachers 1st - 3rd
Young scholars explore methods of written communication. In this Plains Indian instructional activity, students create pictographs representing everyday modern life after observing the pictographs used by the Plains Indians. Pictograph...
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The Science of Color

For Teachers K - 5th
Learners use the scientific method to explore how to make different colors with paint. They problem solve ways to darken and lighten colors without using black and white paint. Students hypothesize how to create new colors, and describe...
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Medieval and Renaissance Art: Botanical Symbolism

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students study the significance of flowers in art from two periods. In this Medieval and Renaissance art lesson, students research the presence and meaning of botanical illustrations in twelfth, thirtieth, and fourteenth century...
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A Leopard Doesn’t Change Its Spots

For Teachers K - 5th
First, introduce rank badges, which were used during the Qing Dynasty. Then, the class will work together to uncover the meaning of the images they see. They'll examine and research the meaning behind the symbols found on Leopard Rank...
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Flags

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students explore flags. In this social studies civics lesson plan students listen to Flags of the Metis by Calvin Racette. Students identify examples of symbols used in the 21st century. Students research information about flags, design...
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Symbols to Sculptures

For Teachers 3rd - 12th
Learners take a 2 dimensional drawing and make it into a 3 dimensional form. For this art lesson plan, students base their work off of Keith Haring, and view slides and a video of other 3D art.
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Line and Expression - 3D

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Students watch a video and slides to view Keith Haring's work of 3 dimensional forms based on 2 dimensional imagery. In this 3 dimensional forms lesson plan, students analyze symbols and discuss lines, sound, movement, and emotions.
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Solving Fractions with Manipulatives

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students use candy bars, beef jerky, and brownies to represent different fractions. Students also use colored multi-link cubes or blocks to illustrate the same representations of fractions. Students work with a partner to create diagrams...
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Now You're Speaking My Language; Deciphering the Symbols of Early Civilizations

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students explore early attempts at written language. In this early civilizations lesson plan, students investigate first attempts at written communication. Among the civilizations covered are Mayan, Greek, and Egyptian.
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Pop Shop 1 - Symbol Making

For Teachers 2nd - 7th
Students design their own symbols based on their experiences and feelings using Keith Haring's method of bold, direct lines.
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Image Transfer and Printmaking With Clay and Under Glazes

For Teachers 2nd - 12th
What a creative lesson! Learners make sushi dishes using printmaking methods. They use a  variety of techniques including those involving under glazes and clay. There are instructions and pictures to make this process easy for both...
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Lesson: Paul Chan: "Score for the 7th Light"

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Music, art, and poetry coalesce in a single exhibition, and in a single lesson. Critical thinkers analyze the Fluxus art movement as it's seen in the work of Paul Chan's 7 Lights. They consider the use of poetry and music in his...
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The Tarpaulin Project

For Teachers 4th - 12th
Students create an original expressive piece of art by manipulating tape on a tarpaulin. In this tarpaulin project lesson plan, students study Keith Haring and discuss how emotions and symbolic language can be expressed by art.
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Picture Writing

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders create symbols. In this visual arts lesson, 4th graders study cave drawings, Native American pictographs, and Aboriginal Drawings prior to creating their own communication without using words.
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Identity Boxes

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students create a "portrait" box that contains symbolic representations of their own identity.  In this Lucas Samaras and Joseph Cornell art lesson, students discover ways that these two artists used symbols and objects to represent...
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Warhol and Collaboration

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Students view images of Warhol/Basquiat collaboration and discuss them using the questions listed in the lesson. They work in groups to choose a theme or topic relating to American culture and discuss ideas about symbols that could be...
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Cardboard Radial Weaving

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Students explore cultural history by participating in an arts and crafts activity. In this weaving lesson, students identify the many cultures that used weaving methods and local plant life to create baskets and other useful tools....
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Create a Flock of Birds One Pinch at a Time

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students create Mexican Pottery Clay project. In this natural history/art lesson students construct their own clay bird. Students make connections between visual arts and reading to follow directions. Students also reflect...
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Ceramic Relief Portrait

For Teachers 8th
Eighth graders use draped slab and slab method to create a relief sculpture, adding coil and slab decoration. They study facial features and form them in clay. They study symbolism in Renaissance relief terra cottas.
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Pop-Up Pop Art, Tunnel book

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students study iconic symbols Keith Haring would make in his artwork. They invent a background for the images, and draw the characters. Students create a Tunnel Book and a Pop-Up Book based on their drawings.