Curated OER
Lesson Plan: Carving Through History
Peek into the art and history of ancient Mexico by analyzing the artifact Stone Serpent Heads. Learners examine images of the piece, discuss its origin, history, and significance. They experience the carving process by creating similar...
Curated OER
Asking Questions
Middle schoolers examine a painting that depicts a scene from the Underground Railroad. They discuss the painting and write journal entries and poems in response to the painting's themes and their impressions.
Odyssey of the Mind
Odyssey of the Mind Curriculum Activity: Performing Arts
The classical arts have made a lasting impact on our society and your advanced learners get to find out why. The activity starts as the children create a list of the arts found in society, they discuss how these art forms impact their...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan: Making History to Go
Learners use their higher-order thinking skills to understand how visual images have been used to tell stories. They analyze a Lakota tipi that tells a story through paint and artistry. They then make miniature tipis using butcher paper...
Curated OER
Visual Art: Independence Days Around the World
Students research patriotic holidays from around the world. After reading about their own country's independence day, they choose another country and examine the traditions and symbols associated with it. Using cardboard, ribbon, and...
Curated OER
Social and Cultural Issues in the Civil Rights Movement
Students watch videos, listen to speeches and analyze the information that is presented about the civil rights movement. They examine visual art of the period.
Curated OER
Art Show with the Masters
Learners contribute to a classroom art show. In this art appreciation lesson, students research the lives and works of artists from different ages. Learners write reports, recreate artwork of their researched artists, and participate in...
Curated OER
THE TRAVELS OF BABAR: An Adventure in Scale : Integrating Visual Art and Social Studies
Students comprehend how the use of color impacts a work of art. They research how a theme can be rendered in a variety of ways (words, music, visuals). Students analyze how an artist's choices affect the aesthetic quality of artwork.
National Gallery of Canada
A Cultural Portrait
Explore heritage and identity through an examination of art and a related project. The featured art, related to the African diaspora, includes several types of art created by different artists. Pupils consider their own backgrounds and...
Curated OER
Shoes and the Backyard Landscape
Your shoes get a lot of mileage in familiar places. Represent the places you have traveled the most with an art project based on a print of Indian People Wear Shoes and Socks by Juane Quick-to-See Smith. Kids trace their shoes and...
Washington University in St. Louis
Teaching Jazz as American Culture
Jazz and the City, Jazz and the Civil Rights Movement, Jazz and Gender, Jazz and Literature, Jazz and the Arts, Jazz and Film. Here's a packet of unit plans organized around themes that reflect American culture. Each unit examines how...
Broadway GPS
ALADDIN: Broadway's New Musical Comedy
Aladdin, Disney's Broadway musical comedy, is a magic carpet ride. Prepare your class for a field trip to the show with a study guide that is a treasure trove of activities, cultural connections, and background information.
Missouri Department of Elementary
Celebrate Your Culture
After a class discussion about celebrations and customs, class members draw pictures depicting special events from their family cultures. Next, they draw pictures of an event from a different culture and share their work with classmates.
Asian Art Museum
Create Your Own Samurai (Breastplate) Armor
Your class is going to love this activity. They get out their rulers, cardboard, and paints as they make Samurai breastplates. The simple art lesson lends itself to many different subjects such as, math/measurement, world history, and...
Qrayon
Inkflow: Think Visually!
Save trees! Save graphite! Save ink! Go paperless! Make a list, mindmap, sketch an idea. Import, scale, rotate, and add text to images. Save content into books and share your creations. All this and more is yours with a free visual...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Animal Farm: Allegory and the Art of Persuasion
Introduce your class members to allegory and propaganda with a series of activities designed to accompany a study of George Orwell's Animal Farm. Readers examine the text as an allegory, consider the parallels to collective farms...
Oklahoma City of Museum Art
Harlem Renaissance
Individuals expressed the Harlem Renaissance in diverse forms of art, ranging from poetry to photography to painting. Learners explore pieces using a carefully curated collection from the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. Included lessons ask...
Curated OER
Exploring Our Cultural Heritage Through Art
Students research the art of selected cultures. In this visual arts activity, students compose essays after they conduct independent research on the art of a culture. Students also create art proposals that feature the attributes of the...
Curated OER
Fantasy / Art Maps
Ninth graders analyze a fantasy art map by Jeremy Anderson, paying careful attention to the way the topographic features of the land are represented. They create a similar map of Sacramento that includes topographical features as well as...
Curated OER
Art On Trial (A Mock-Court Activity)
Students engage in a mock trial to decide if a work of prospective public art is "art" and accepted for a city park. They broaden their definitions of what "art" is. Students distinguish between opinion and informed judgment of art works.
Curated OER
Numbers In Art
Help develop an awareness of the natural and manufactured environment and relate the subject matter to young learners' lives. The interpretation of the meaning of art is reinforced and its application to self and other audiences is...
Curated OER
Teaching with Poster Art: World War I Posters
Learners interpret historical evidence presented in primary resources. In this World War I lesson, students examine World War I posters. Learners investigate the use of propaganda strategies in the posters and discuss the visual metaphors.
Curated OER
Abraham Lincoln and the Arts
Young scholars engage in a study of history and how the figure of Abraham Lincoln has evolved into a national cultural icon. They discuss the importance of his life and how he influenced the political landscape of America in the past and...
Curated OER
Collage and Photomontage
Tenth graders discuss collage and photomontage techniques and artists, and how the art form can convey cultural or current issues. They research a collage artist, then design a topical or personally symbolic collage. Present their...