Picturing The Distant Past

Students are read a story about a family living in the past. Individually, they draw a picture showing the roles and responsibilities of each family member. They also include a one sentence description and share them with the class.

Students describe the American Indian nations in their local region long ago and in recent past. They research religious beliefs, customs, and various folklore traditions.

Get crafting with hundreds of pages of art lessons! The plans are organized into topics, which include clay, drawing, composition and design, mixed media, painting, printmaking, and paper.

How do barns serve as a window to a community's past? Here are a series of lessons on the symbolism and historical context of barns throughout American history. Topics include community-building, in-depth primary and secondary source...

Landscapes by Justin Hayward (not the singer, songwriter, guitarist of the Moody Blues but the Wyoming landscape artist) are featured in a watercolor lesson that models how artists are able to create the illusion of depth on a flat surface.

Second graders create an immigration picture dictionary. In this immigration lesson, 2nd graders visit Pier 21 and discuss how it has changed Canada. Students also discuss how the lives of the immigrants have changed. Students create a...

First graders research the history of toys and games. In this toys and games lesson plan, 1st graders read books and look at paintings from the past and discuss the toys and games that were played. Then they paint themselves playing a...

Elementary schoolers examine Albert Bierstadt's Wind River Country, and examine the manner in which he created his paintings.  The terrific plan has an outstanding version of the painting embedded in it for viewing. Learners look at how...

Young scholars create log cabins out of strips of construction paper in this Art activity for the early-elementary classroom. Emphasis is placed on the study of how people live today versus in the distant past. A resource link is...

Learners research how early colonists lived. They investigate late 17th century colonist's lives from Massachusetts and Delaware. Using their research, students write historical fiction in the form of friendly letters between the two...