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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

Comparing Cultural Holidays

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
A lesson examines the holidays, Día de los Muertos and Halloween. After an exciting clip from the movie Coco, class members review vocabulary and discuss what they know about Halloween. The conversation leads into the history of Día de...
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

Harriet Tubman: Secret Messages Through Song

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
A instructional activity all about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad introduces scholars to African American spirituals. By way of reading, speaking, and listening, learners discover, analyze, and decode African American...
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

Harriet Tubman: An Informative and Impressionistic Look

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Informational text and impressionistic art lead a lesson about Harriet Tubman. Working in teams, scholars examine a variety of resources. They analyze, compare, and contrast the work.  Using their research findings, pupils create an...
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

Harriet Tubman: Retelling History Through Dance and Drama

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Scholars listen to several pieces of music in preparation for a discussion about how instruments and lyrics convey emotions. With Harriet Tubman as the focus, small groups create an original song or dance. A reflection piece concludes...
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

Musical Harlem: How Is Jazz Music Reflective of the Harlem Renaissance?

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Bring jazz music and the Harlem Renaissance to light with a lesson plan that challenges scholars to research and create. Pupils delve deep into information materials to identify jazz terminology, compare types of jazz and jazz musicians,...
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

Baila! Latin Dance in the Spanish Classroom

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
One, two, three. One, two, three. Invite your language learners to practice the steps for researching and presenting information. Each small group has the task of explaining one Latin dance in full detail.
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Writing
John F. Kennedy Center

Writing a Myth

For Students 3rd - 6th Standards
Tap into the imaginative minds of young learners with a creative writing activity. After reading the myth Giants and Mosquitoes, this student guide supports young writers as they brainstorm and develop their very own creation myths....
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

Folktale Theatre

For Teachers 5th - 7th
Introduce your middle schoolers to a performance and movement activity that uses their favorite stories from fairytales and folklore. They practice basic acting skills, create dialogues with a partner, and then as guided practice,...
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

Jazz music, Dance and Poetry

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Students view video and become familiar with the type of movement in jazz dance.  In this jazz dance lesson, students write a cinquain about jazz dance.  Students recognize the elements of jazz dance and the type of music associated with...
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

Acting Up, A Melodrama: Performing Like Jo March and Her Sisters in Little Women

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Lights, Camera, Action! Pupils read Little Women and create, act, and direct a melodrama that Jo March and her sisters would enjoy. The lesson plan comes complete with resources for the educator on melodrama as well as examples for drama...
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center: Art Critiques Made Easy

For Teachers 9th - 10th
A tipsheet giving ideas on how to encourage students to think and speak critically about visual arts, music, dance, and even literature.
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center: Lift Every Voice and Sing

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Explore and analyze "Lift Every Voice and Sing" , a poem by James Weldon Johnson, which was set to music and is considered the "Black National Anthem."
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center: Masks and Aesop's Fables

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st Standards
This multi-media visual and language arts lesson plan offers intellectual, creative, and interpretive opportunities through use of books, music, and the internet. It offers complete grade-leveled lesson plans for grades k-4 which include...
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center: Writing Myths

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
With this lesson plan students can examine creation myths, then write their own unique story. Provides plenty of links to more information, an assessment rubric, and thirteen extension ideas!
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center: Lesson: Weather and Wind

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st
Here's an engaging activity to incorporate dance into your science lessons on weather! Students study wind, and various weather patterns, then create their own dance to illustrate what they have learned. Provides links to more...
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center: Lesson: You Too Can Haiku

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Here's a creative lesson for young scholars to examine various haikus, and Japanese culture, then write their own haiku poem, and illustrate it using watercolors! Provides plenty of links to more information, a thorough explanation of...
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center: Balancing Mobiles

For Teachers 6th - 8th
In this lesson plan, middle schoolers will apply mathematical, science, and engineering concepts to experiment with balancing levers. They will learn to classify types of levers to design and build a simplified mobile. Students will...
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center: Lesson: Navajo Weaving

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st
Intergrating dance into your social studies lesson on the Navajo culture will give your students a glimpse into another way of life. They will use their knowledge of loom weaving, Native Americans, and creative dance to express these...
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center: Brass Instruments and Pitch

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st
Students will enjoy making their own brass instrument with this interesting lesson plan. Objectives include what factors affect the pitch of brass instruments and what determines pitch.
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center: Elements of Fables

For Teachers 6th - 8th
This ArtsEdge unit on fables shows how to compare and contrast, read and write fables, and discuss the elements they contain. Has great links, definitions, and fable examples.
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center: Exploring Weather Conditions in Paintings

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Enrich your science instructional activity with watercolors! This lesson plan contains assessment criteria, links to more information, and step-by-step ideas to cultivate your learners' knowledge about weather conditions.
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Website
John F. Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center: John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

For Students Pre-K - 1st
One of the finest sites of its kind on the Internet, ArtsEdge is dedicated to supporting arts education through such initiatives as curriculum development, cross-curricular teaching, and technology integration. Find arts-related...
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Unit Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center: Migrant Workers Through the Lens of Dorothea Lange

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Using song lyrics and Dorothea Lange's photographs, students will explore the hardships migrant workers faced during the Great Depression.
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center: Lesson: A Listening Doll

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st
In this lesson plan, students explore the tradition of Pueblo "Listening dolls" and create their own version of this historical tradition. Also contains a rubric, extensions, and books to use as references.