Visual Arts Teacher Resources
Paint, draw, sculpt, capture and print to create. There is no limit to the mediums your budding artists may employ. Show your class assorted methods, examples and ideas from our visual arts collection to get their creative juices flowing.
Showing 3,120 resources
Curated OER
Street Art Project
Illuminate your playground with chaulk images. Young aratists use the web to research the work of Keith Haring. Groups then design their own piece of visual art and recreate their images on the school sidewalks of blacktop.
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What's in a Picture? An Introduction to Subject in the Visual Art
Learners discuss the subject and meaning of examples of visual art. They analyze various paintings found on the Metropolitan Museum of Art website, answer discussion questions, complete online interactive activities, and write an essay.
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Observe Earth Day with Art Projects Made from Recycled Materials
Creative hands-on art project ideas that are easy on the earth and easy on a teacher’s budget.
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Portraits, Pears, And Perfect Landscapes: Investigating Genre in the Visual Arts
Differentiate between the various genres in the visual arts world, particularly in Western painting. Your class can view and discuss, in small groups, paintings published on the National Galleries website. Then each student individually...
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Follow the Leader: Line in the Visual Arts
Students explore line in painting and drawing and examine how it is defined in the visual arts. Recognizing line in the composition of a number of art works and how it affects these works of art is the focus of this lesson.
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Portraits, Pears, and Perfect Landscapes: Investigating Genre in the Visual Arts
High schoolers define genre in the visual arts, particularly in Western painting and explain the differences between subject and genre. The genre of a variety of works of art is identified.
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Realistic Impressions: Investigating Movements in the Visual Arts
Students explore the idea of movements in the visual arts and differentiate between some of the most well known movements in Western art. The instructional activity focuses on what makes a painting an example of a particular movement.
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Animal Self-portrait Mosaics: A Visual Arts Elective
Out-lined here is a two-week procedure that has the class creating ceramic animal tiles that are metaphorical representations of their own personalities. They discuss animal images found throughout history, what they mean, metaphor, and...
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Repeat After Me: Repetition in the Visual Arts
Students explore one of the techniques artists often use to highlight important elements within a painting's composition and to move a viewer's eye around the canvass from highpoint to highpoint.
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Visual Arts - Mexican Indian Yarn Painting
Have you ever seen a Mexican yarn painting? They're beautiful! Create a Mexican yarn painting with your class using this lesson. Start by discussing Mexico's culture and viewing different yarn paintings. After reading about important...
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References to Antiquity in Visual Arts (1848 - 1914)
Examine the Latin and Greek language and civilization during the 19th century by exploring the mediums available then. Students examine scenes related to Greek and Roman literature and compare and contrast them.
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Realistic Impressions: Investigating Movements in the Visual Arts
You and your high school class can examine the idea of artistic movements with this lesson. Explore various websites, compare/contrast paintings, after which the assignments are to complete a chart, and write an essay.
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Drawing Portraits Using a Grid
A well-developed art lesson is always great to have around. This lesson on portrait drawing includes a full procedure, modifications, background information on artist Chuck Close, recommended websites, and a few thoughts from the...
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Carnival of the Animals and Aquarium and Magic Fish
Engage little learners in this moderately developed three-lesson plan unit on the composer Camille Saint-Saens and his piece "The Carnival of Animals." Each lesson plan includes a listening, discussion, and an art project to engage your...
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Give It All You’ve Got Heroes and Visual Art
Sure, your young artists probably know Van Gogh and Picasso, but are they equally as familiar with Frida Kahlo and Andy Warhol? Small groups examine the work of famous artists. Then, they create their own hero portraits in Cubist style...
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Writing About Art: Subjective vs. Objective
Explore objective and subjective writing in this interdisciplinary instructional activity, which brings language arts and visual art together. Middle and high school students examine the sculpture Head with Horns by Paul Gauguin. They...
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Yellow Bird and Me
Upper elementary artists create works which demonstrate an understanding of the many elements of theater and the visual arts. This four-day plan combines many wonderful aspects of visual, musical, and theatrical arts into one very...
TED-Ed
Building a Museum of Museums on the Web
Imagine stepping into museums across the world right from the comfort of your own classroom, and analyzing artwork in greater detail than you ever thought possible. Google Art Project has made this possible! Amit Sood briefly introduces...
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Visual Arts: Symbols That Stand for You!
Students explore symbols and what they represent. In this visual art lesson, students collect various symbols and discuss what they represent. Students create and discuss personal symbols which represent themselves.
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Visual Arts- 3D Self-Sculpture
Students construct three dimensional self-portraits. In this visual arts lesson, students use clay to create a self-portrait. Students make the clay and discuss their self-portrait.
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An Introduction to the Relationship Between Composition and Content in the Visual Arts
Students identify different kinds of narratives used in a number of art works, discuss artist's use of compositional elements to further the story and/or convey a message within a work of art, and explain relationship between composition...
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The Hello Goodbye Window: Visual Art
Students create a portrait of themselves with a grandparent. In this visual art lesson, students read the book entitled The Hello Goodbye Window and discuss the events. Students then draw a portrait of themselves and their grandparents...
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Using Pop Art Imagery to Inspire Healthy Eating
Create a visual art project about obesity. For this art lesson, 8th graders research and explain the importance of eating healthy and exercise. They document their eating habits in their journal and analyze it.
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Tissue Painting
Let's make colors! Your class will participate in a creative art project that introduces them to the concept of color blending and allows them to discover color combinations through exploration, trail, and error. First, the teacher will...