Visual and Performing Arts Teacher Resources
Visual and Performing Arts resources foster different forms of creative expression, whether through drama, music, film, dance, or visual art, and teach students to value aesthetics. In addition, they provide learners with the historical and cultural contexts for events.
Hands-on activities can be used to introduce young learners to the concept of symmetry while an activity for middle schoolers connects art, advertising, and nutrition. Other lessons, activities, and videos permit students to discover the themes, values, and traditions of world cultures.
The arts have long been used to draw attention to and encourage response to important social issues, environmental concerns, and even the horrors of war. Here’s an article packed with suggestions for how to integrate the arts into science classes and this lesson connects science, math, and art.
No matter your subject area, Lesson Planet has teacher-curated resources designed to spark the interest of your students in the visual and performing arts.
Showing 10,680 resources
Oglebay Institute
Post-Impressionism: Mosaic Still-life
A still life with tissue paper? Why not! Using Paul Cézanne's art as inspiration, learners create their own still life pictures by gluing various colors of tissue paper onto a paper or pattern.
National Gallery of Canada
My Scene
Acquaint your class with line, color, shape, and texture through a study of artwork and an art activity. The resource includes images and information to share with your class before sending individuals off to sketch and paint...
Curated OER
Color Twist Game
Create your own version of Twister with this step-by-step lesson plan. Materials include canvas, acrylics, poster board, compass, and foam paint brushes. This is a fun art project that will also provide lots of activity and laughs!
Digital Wish
2D Project: Deep Space
Using a digital camera, Photoshop, and a desktop paint program, learners will explore perspective techniques. They apply perspective techniques to develop depth illusions within a scene. The lesson employs both traditional art and...
Curated OER
Patterns, Patterns, Patterns
Create geometric art in your classroom. Learners use a ruler to mark lines on their paper, they then trace a lid to create a series of circles. They color in each circle using two tones or colors to create an interesting visual...
Apple
GarageBand
Imagine there's a recording studio on your smart phone or tablet. Its easy if you try this tool. Imagine all the instruments you can play. Imagine there's no charge. You may say it's a dream, but you can join this band with just a touch.
Dick Blick Art Materials
“Rhythm in Layers”
Young artists learn to build rhythm into a design by repeating colors, shapes, and patterns in a 3-D sculpture activity.
Curated OER
Visualization: Cricket in Times Square
After reading The Cricket in Times Square chapter titled "Caught in the Kitchen," learners list three describing details about the characters and setting. Groups collaborate to find sensory details to support their character assertions....
National Gallery of Canada
Self-Portrait, Mirrors and Metamorphosis!
Using M.C. Escher's Hand with Reflecting Sphere as inspiration, learners create their own set of self-portraits using various reflective surfaces. The lesson begins with a discussion about portraiture and ends with a presentation of work...
Hildegard Center for the Arts
Mardi Gras Masks
Laissez les bons temps rouler! Create your own festive Mardi Gras masks with a lesson that provides background information on the celebration and instructions about constructing the masks.
Curated OER
Interpreting Photographs: Part One
Photography is a wonderful artistic medium used to express feelings, historical events, and nature. This worksheet provides three critical-analysis questions that require learners to take an in-depth look a photograph both physically and...
Curated OER
The Magic Opera
Introduce your young learners to opera by dressing up as Mozart and recounting some of the fascinating details of his life and music. After exploring the Metropolitan Opera's site for kids, the class listens to a reading of Kyra...
Akron Art Museum
Storytelling Resist
The illustrations of Ezra Jack Keats in The Snowy Day inspire young artists to examine shapes in illustrations and to use these shapes to create their own watercolor resist painting.
Curated OER
Photo Quilt Square
Build creative thinking and organization skills with a beautiful quilting project. Young photographers use a digital camera and computer to create photo transfers, which they will use to create a photo quilt square. They sew or embroider...
Curated OER
Focus on Harmony
Harmony is the focus of this band lesson. Upper graders play the Star Spangled Banner, while focusing on harmony, chords, and musical voice. This lesson includes several suggested cross-curricular activities.
Crash Course
Just Say Noh. But Also Say Kyogen: Crash Course Theater #11
Wigs, masks, demons, and Buddhism—what's not to love? All of these elements play a role in Japanese theater during the Middle Ages, a topic the informational video covers in depth. An engaging host shares an exhaustive overview of the...
Crash Course
Get Outside and Have a (Mystery) Play: Crash Course Theater #10
In the Middle Ages, theater left the church of moved outside to a secular stage. An interesting video describes the transition from pulpit to public venue, discussing common plot lines and other aspects of medieval drama. Animated...
Crash Course
Beckett, Ionesco, and the Theater of the Absurd: Crash Course Theater #45
Life doesn't make sense, so theater shouldn't make sense either. A video about the theater of the absurd, the 45th installment of the Crash Course Drama and Theater series, discusses the unique movement in theater history. An overview of...
Curated OER
Lesson: Scaled Up
Do you ever think about what it takes for an artist to create a larger-than-life sculpture? Kids examine the piece, Scottish Angus Cow and Calf as it relates to scale, scale conversion, and artistic craft. They then use scale conversions...
Contemporary Arts Center
Sultan and Donovan Printmaking: The Collargraph
As part of a study of printmaking, class members study the works of Tara Donovan and Donald Sulta. They go on to build a printing plate using glue, textured paper, and found objects.
Common Sense Media
Legit-O-Meter
Pop-ups, banner ads, grammar mistakes ... these are all signs of an untrustworthy website. With the handy Legit-O-Meter poster, scholars can now double-check their sources to ensure accurate, reliable information. The color-coded poster...
Curated OER
It's All About the Brushstrokes
Afte analyzing the painting, Autumn Poplars by Camille Pissarro, learners explore self-expression through painting techniequs. They disucss the piece, consider Impressionist painting, and then create masterpieces that represent a...
Curated OER
Lesson: Functional Fashion
Upper graders scrutinize the clothing worn by the vaqueros in James Walker's painting, Cowboys Roping a Bear. They pay close attention to the period style as well as the clothing functionality in the given context. Kids then design their...
Dick Blick Art Materials
Torn-Paper Collage Journals
Young writers personalize their journals by making their own. Whether they make covers for existing journals or make their own books, the activity encourages kids to express themselves in words and images.
