Curated OER
Box Bouquet
Students discuss the advantages and disadvantages of of annuals and perennials. They compare the structures of plants such as stems, roots, and leaves. They draw a chalk flower pot, cut it out and glue it to a background using Crayola...
Curated OER
Simple Sharps
If you want to play music, you need to learn how to read sharps and flats. Young musicians practice reading and playing these simple sharps. Each sharp is given a word that connects it to the note it is related to. For example: Charles...
Curated OER
Embracing Embossing
Students explore the technique of embossing through the use of aluminium foil and a three dimensional collage. In this embossing instructional activity, students create a sentence with the letters of the word stamp. Students...
Curated OER
Musical Terms
Are you starting a recorder lesson with your elementary students? Use this helpful slide-show, perfect for introducing basic music terms such as tempo, dynamics, pitch, and duration. Each slide provides a definition and example of the...
Academy of American Poets
Poems about Poetry
Learners of all ages hear the words “Today we’re going to start poetry” and begin their plans to drop out of school. It is not the teacher's fault! Use this resource to help young scholars understand the genre of poetry and why it is...
Smithsonian Institution
Affirmation, Assimilation, and Acculturation: Middle School
Latin American culture is deeply embedded in American culture as a whole. From the Latin rock scene in San Francisco to the hip-hop world of New York, Latin American artists have influenced every genre of modern music. Learn about the...
Curated OER
Word Play
Students examine the history of Chinese American artist Xu Bing. In this multicultural lesson, students collaborate in small groups to identify letters in the artist's work, and brainstorm how they would create their own images from...
Curated OER
Read More Than Words
Students, in groups, visually read photographs from the Farm Security Administration taken during the Great Depression. They analyze the photos and present their observations to the class.
Curated OER
Habitat Art: Florida Panthers
Students discover the lifestyles of a Florida Panther by investigating its habitat. In this wild animal lesson, students utilize the Internet to research the habits of a Panther and what their habitat is. Students create an...
Curated OER
Winter Through the Arts
Students read the book The Snowy Day and discover various winter themes. In this winter lesson, students develop movements to express the feeling of a snowstorm. Students also construct winter-themed art pieces.
Curated OER
Art -- The Secret to Freedom
Fourth graders create a coded message in a quilt. In this art instructional activity students demonstrate the communication used by the Underground Railroad. Students work in a group to make a quilt with a code in it.
Curated OER
Shakespeare Wall
Students create a visual notebook of a Shakespearean play by taking the actual written work, hanging it up on the wall, and highlighting various literary aspects of the play as they unfold.
San Diego Museum of Art
Atmospheric Perspective Watercolor Painting
How do artists create the illusion of depth and distance on a flat surface? Young landscape painters explore techniques like color saturation and detail placement that create atmospheric perspective.
Curated OER
The Fisherman and His Wife
Engage conversation and explore the journey as you challenge young readers to interpret the german folktale, "The Fisherman and His Wife" written by literary brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.
Curated OER
Thrilling Information: Music and Reading
Here’s a cross-curricular program music activity that uses Peer Gynt to engage class members. Groups take one section of “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” choreograph their section of the tune to represent the story as they imagine it,...
Learning to Give
Teaching Playwriting in Schools
The world is a stage, and so is your classroom! Hone the skills of the next generation of Tony® award winners with a set of exercises, reference pages, writing prompts, and excerpts from famous plays.
Curated OER
Writer's Toolbox
Present the class with a slide show that will give them a great head start in writing expository and narrative texts. The information is highlighted for easy note taking, well organized, and presented in a kid-friendly manner. It...
Curated OER
American Indian Art
Student complete a month-long unit on the symbolic and practical reasons for American Indian artwork. They explore websites, discuss elements of design, create an Indian backpack, Kachina Doll, weaving, sand painting, and totem pole.
Curated OER
Lange & Steinbeck: Pictures and Words
Students look carefully at and analyze a Dorothea Lange photograph and compare it with the migrant experience described in John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath.
Curated OER
Horse of a Different Color: An Introduction to Color in the Visual Arts
Students examine how artists use color to create a sense of depth in a two-dimensional space. They view and analyze prints, complete worksheets, and write a paragraph on how color is used to draw the viewer's eye to a central figure.
Curated OER
Elements of Art iMovie
Students are introduced to how to use the iMovie software. Individually, they write down their personal beliefs and feelings to use in their movie. To end the lesson, they use the elements of design to develop and create their movie to...
Curated OER
Create an Illuminated Alphabet Word Book
Young scholars create a class alphabet book. In this letter recognition lesson, students use line and color to draw an object whose name begins with a specific letter. Young scholars use adjectives to create a sentence describing the...
Curated OER
Art Lesson: My Symbol
Students explore and brainstorm the concept of symbols in real world applications and create a poem describing themselves. They design and paint a symbol that represents him/herself utilizing the technique of simplification to express...
Curated OER
Abigail Adams: Integrating Social Studies and Language Arts
Third graders increase reading strategies while learning about Abigail Adams and her role in history. In this Abigail Adams lesson, 3rd graders read about the American Revolution and Abigail Adams using all the balanced literacy...