Visual and Performing Arts Teacher Resources
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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.
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60's Pop Art: Multiples of Me
Students discover characteristics of Pop Art through slides and discussion of the 60's era and produce a pop art portrait of themselves using Clarisworks paint program and Hyperstudio.
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Art and War
Young scholars analyze art and war and the Futurist movement. In this art analysis lesson, students define manifesto and its role with artistic movement. Young scholars explore art as a response to political and social issues through...
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Recycling With Art
Students create works of art from recyclable materials. In this visual arts lesson, students investigate works of art created from recyclable materials. Students choose an emotion to convey and then create an art piece from materials...
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The Art of El Anasui: Creating a Mural with Discarded/Recycled Objects
Learners create murals that feature recycled objects. In this West African art lesson, students examine artwork by El Anatsui and his commentary on social issues. Learners then create murals in the style of El Anatsui using discarded...
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Sand Art Creation
Young scholars create a model of a geological land-form. In this art lesson, students will create a model of a land-form using sand.
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An Approach to Chemistry via the Analysis of Art Objects: The Scientific Method, Laboratory Safety, Light and Color Theory
Learners create a painting that clearly exemplifies the use of primary pigments to make secondary pigments. They demonstrate the distinction between value and saturation. They explain the affect of adjacent colors on each other and...
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Visual Art - Creating a Clay Pinch Pot
Sixth graders inspect various clay pots. They create their own pots and paint them in the horror vacui design.
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Looking at French Decorative Arts: Symbols in Marquetry
Students study symbols on a French cabinet. In this architectural design lesson plan, students examine the symbolism of the door panel on the "Cabinet on Stand." Students create their own unique design based on a symbol from another...
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Ellis Wilson: An Elementary School Art Lesson
Young scholars study the life of Ellis Wilson. They examine the use of simple shapes when drawing human figures. They examine how to incorporate pattern into a background setting.
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Arts in a Spin Qualities of the Baroque Style
Students examine the qualities of Baroque style by viewing a video about Bach. They listen to music of the era and explore the characteristics of excessive ornamentation, contrast and tension. They complete the included worksheets.
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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...
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Foil tooling - Oriental Art
Students view examples of copper tooling. They create a sketch the size of their copper. Students tape the top and bottom of the sketch to their copper and place a stack of newspaper under the copper. They trace all lines of their sketch...
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Art for All
Students select objects and arrange them on a Plexiglas sheet and go into the darkroom in groups of two or three and create a photogram.
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Greek and Roman Art
Sixth graders research ancient Greek pottery online and by watching a video. Then they make a vase design on newsprint and transfer it to cardboard, using crayons and India ink to create a design from their own life.
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The Arts: Monster Transformation
Students discuss monsters in both film and literature. They examine the characteristics and methods of killing them. Using pastels on black construction paper, they create half-face/half-monster portraits of themselves. The creations...
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The Cotillion or One Good Bull is Half the Herd, a Black Arts Movement novel by John O. Killens
Learners study late twentieth-century African American satirical literature as well as its cultural antecedents. they analyze and discuss, within the contexts of race and gender, the social criticism of the middle classes presented by...
