Curated OER
African Masks And Their Impact On Western Art
Explore the influence of African-style masks on Western art. Learners create individual masks using construction paper. They discuss and explore the techniques used to create these types of masks. The resource includes links to...
Curated OER
Alexander And The Wind-Up Mouse
Use drama techniques to recreate the story, Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse by Leo Lionni. They engage in problem-solving as they identify the roles they will fufill in their groups for the performance. This is a motivating way to...
Dick Blick Art Materials
Art Press Tools
Kids cast their own plaster tools to stamp image impressions and textures for tiles, pictures frames, and other works of art. Young artists can even create their own watermark to label their stuff.
Memorial Art Gallery
Art Alive! - Towing a Boat, Honfleur
Color, light and shadow, the placement and size of objects. These are some of the tools artists used to tell their stories. Model for learners how to read a painting by closely examining these features. The richly detailed packet...
TED-Ed
Getting Started as a DJ: Mixing, Mashups and Digital Turntables
What do Paris Hilton, Avicii, Diplo, and Cole Plante all have in common? They're DJs! Seventeen-year-old Plante is featured in a short video in which he demonstrates his art and encourages others who might be interested in pursuing a DJ...
Curated OER
1920s Variety Show
To better understand the cultural achievements of the Harlem Renaissance and become familiar with its major figures, class members examine a painting by Aaron Douglas and a poem by Langston Hughes and compare how the artists develop...
Dick Blick Art Materials
“Decalcomania” Glue Paint Symmetry Prints
Who knew you could paint with glue? After first adding liquid water color paints to bottles of white Elmer's glue and applying them to paper, students of all ages are then challenged to use their imagination and...
Dick Blick Art Materials
Painted Story Quilt
Creating story quilts is a great way to combine art, social studies and literature. Kids select a story, a published one or one of their own, to illustrate, paint on a canvas square, embellish, and mount on a felt backing.
Dick Blick Art Materials
No-Blender Pulp Painting
Like finger painting, this project is very tactile. Kids tear tissue paper into small pieces, add water, and mix up a pulp that can be pressed onto a canvas to create a colorful, textured painting.
Dick Blick Art Materials
Simple Suminagashi
Go ahead. Spill the ink! Combine the study of art, social studies, and science with a Suminagashi (spilled ink) activity that produces "unique and unreproducible" works of art.
J. Paul Getty Trust
Looking and Learning in the Art Museum — Lesson 1
To prepare for a field trip to a local art museum, art class members journal their initial reactions to a reproduction of the work they will focus on during their visit. The whole class then considers the artistic elements in the piece...
Curated OER
Twig Construction: Recycled Materials
Construction projects of any kind require learners to use spacial reasoning, creative thinking, and critical analysis skills. They design and make a twig/leaf structure out of natural and recycled materials. This project would be great...
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....
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 lesson. Explore various websites, compare/contrast paintings, after which the assignments are to complete a chart, and write an essay.
Curated OER
Souper Art
Turn your young artists into great marketing specialists with this fun lesson plan! They will turn ordinary soup cans into exciting choices for dinner by recreating the can label. This is a fantastic project to connect art, advertising,...
Curated OER
Quick Button Art
Here is another in this fabulous series of art lessons I've been reviewing! Artists of all ages design a wearable piece of artwork using special buttons that have a clear, removable top to them. All sorts of creative ideas are presented...
Curated OER
Lines and Patterns
Here are six outstanding art lessons on geometry, line, shape and form, light and shadow, line and pattern, and tessellation for you. Each activity is well-worth implementing with your art students. These lessons would be especially good...
National Gallery of Canada
Lumps, Bumps, Gritty, and Soft!
Texture can really add to a work of art. Explore texture through observation and practice. Learners view and discuss works of art by M.C. Escher. They then create their own texture samplers with six different materials.
Curated OER
Fabric Art
Do kids use problem solving skills when they create scrap art? You bet they do! After examining the art of Mary Katherine Lamb, they create their own pieces using recycled products and vintage art techniques. They watch a video about the...
Curated OER
Orchestra: Focus on Rhythm and Arranging
High school orchestra is a great place to play music, like The Star Spangled Banner. Upper graders create new rhythms to the old song and perform them with the class. They rehearse their updated versions of the song using their...
Brooklyn Museum
HIDE/SEEK: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture
Visual arts lessons don't always mean the children need to make art. Here, they will practice using their visual literacy skills to analyze four images through the compare and contrast method. The first two images deal with gender...
National Gallery of Canada
Self-Portrait, Mirrors and Metamorphosis!
Using M.C. Escher's Hand with Reflecting Sphere as inspiration, learners create their own set of self-portraits using various reflective surfaces. The lesson begins with a discussion about portraiture and ends with a presentation of work...
Curated OER
Night and Day: A Digital Art Lesson based on Monet's Rouen Cathedral Series
Think about your favorite place ... now, think about what it looks like at different times during the day. How does the change in lighting affect the colors you see? Young artists explore the tools available in digital art software to...
Incredible Art
1, 2, and 3-Point Perspective
Introduce drawing students to perspective with a series of lesson plan that detail how to draft images in one-, two-, and three-point perspective. Each exercise includes step-by-step, illustrated directions and examples.