Students investigate how artists create a story that provides a message or provokes emotions in a single image. The ways in which the composition of a painting contributes to telling the story or conveying the message is examined in this...

Out-lined here is a two-week procedure that has the class creating ceramic animal tiles that are metaphorical representations of their own personalities. They discuss animal images found throughout history, what they mean, metaphor, and...

As part of a five-lesson unit on how television uses technology and film techniques to communicate meaning, elementary students create their own media productions that demonstrate their understanding of these concepts.

Students explore one of the techniques artists often use to highlight important elements within a painting's composition and to move a viewer's eye around the canvass from highpoint to highpoint.

Encourage scholars to retell their favorite short story or folktale, adding personal details to make it their own. After reading their book of choice several times, story tellers retell a tale verbally to their classmates. 

Encourage narrative writing with a clever exercise. Class members watch episodes from movies and describe what happened to a character, including details about the setting, plot, and characters. Writers then craft a narrative about a...

Embark on a journey of writing several different types of poetry. Fifth graders read several examples, and use the examples to model their own writing. Each poem is to be accompanied by a different art visual representation. In the end,...

You don't need to be planning a museum tour to take advantage of this graphic organizer that teaches kids how to read a work of art. The student version directs viewers' attention to the content, color, and composition, while the teacher...

Are you just about to teach persuasion in your class? If so, you should consider this short unit. In small groups, learners create a product, develop a magazine ad for the product, and pitch this product to the class using a visual...

Teach how graphic designers can use mathematics to represent three-dimensional movement on a two-dimensional television surface. Pupils use matrices, vectors, and transformations to model rotational movement. Their exploration involves...

Young learners discover kamishibai, a popular Japanese storytelling art, and explore how these Japanese folktales illustrate the country's cultural themes and values through discussion and storyboarding. 

A lesson spotlights the poem "Tamales on Christmas" by Christian Robinson. Scholars discuss their favorite foods and then examine a lively picture of a family preparing tamales. After listening to the poem twice, learners participate in...

Students consider works of art in their historical context. In this art in historical context lesson, students are encouraged to think about and record their prior knowledge of the historical period and to make inferences about the...

There is no doubt that learners remember what they have learned when they have a visual representation. Using an egg carton and candy bars, they explore the concept of fractional amounts. By having students cut the egg carton into parts...

Teaching documentary in your class? Inform your instruction with a guide meant to support teachers as they begin with documentary. The resource includes information on what a documentary is as well as documentary modes, elements, and...

Students interpret historical evidence presented in primary resources. In this World War I lesson, students examine World War I posters. Students investigate the use of propaganda strategies in the posters and discuss the visual metaphors.

Step into history and step out with a new understanding of events. These strategies bring a new level of understanding of key events by asking viewers to engage in and respond to projected images. Complete directions for the activity, a...

Eye contact, volume, pronunciation are all parts of a great presentation. Scholars create visual displays to clarify the claim for an upcoming presentation about whether the American Academy of Pediatrics should increase its screen time...

Visuals help clarify claims. Scholars create visual displays to accompany their end-of-unit presentations about water sustainability. Using blank paper and their notes from the unit, they put their creativity to good use and then...

Students paint, create, and crawl through their own tunnel. In this early childhood visual arts lesson plan, students will develop gross motor skills and engage in activities that promote physical exercise as they create and explore...

Make your classroom interesting by teaching or assessing through tasks. Deepen the understanding of Geometry and motivate young mathematicians. The task uses investigation with tennis balls and their container to prompt learners to...

Here is a turnkey instructional activity that walks young statisticians through the development and uses of conditional probability. From dice games to surveys, Venn diagrams to frequency tables, the class learns how a given can...

Let's get visual! Scholars embark on a gallery walk around the classroom to view quotes, images, and videos about historical and modern working conditions in various professions. They consider how working conditions have changed over...

Life is all about choices and consequences. Using a Cascading Consequences chart, scholars create a visual map of the effects of a particular choice or action related to water management. With their researcher's notebooks and copies of...