EngageNY
Final Performance Task: Sharing Visual Representations of Position Papers
It's time to put down those pencils and celebrate! Scholars share the visual representations of their position papers with the class. They participate in a gallery walk to view each other's work, writing a piece of praise for their...
Huntington Library
Light in Painting
How do painters use and manipulate light in their artwork to give emphasis and establish mood and emotion? Pupils will analyze a few examples of landscape and portrait painting in order to explore the how light is used in art, and will...
Smithsonian Institution
The Birth of an Icon: Learning and Performing the Origins of the Drum Set and Early Jazz Drumming in New Orleans, Louisiana
Bass drum, snare drum, tom-toms, cymbals. Perched behind their drum sets, wielding their drum sticks and wire brushes, drummers lay the grove and are the heartbeat of a band's performance. A dynamic lesson introduces young musicians to...
Curated OER
Art and Sole
A series of four lessons encourages learners to engage in all sorts of artistic activities. They participate in creative movement, serve food, sing songs, recite poems, and create a bust of themselves. What a fun and exciting series of...
Learning to Give
Teaching Playwriting in Schools
The world is a stage, and so is your classroom! Hone the skills of the next generation of Tony® award winners with a set of exercises, reference pages, writing prompts, and excerpts from famous plays.
Curated OER
Art in the Mail
The "mail art" phenomena was started back in the 20's with the Dada and Fluxus art movements and revitalized in the 60's. The principle of mail art, is free exchange and artistic expression. Learners study these facts and then create...
Curated OER
Understanding the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)
How did our universe really begin? Explore the Science Big Bang Theory and Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) with this multiple activity-based lesson that demonstrates that the increase of density due to the decrease of temperatures,...
Mary Pope Osborne, Classroom Adventures Program
Dinosaurs Before Dark
Young readers travel back to the time of the dinosaurs in this literature unit based on the story Dinosaurs Before Dark. Intended for use with upper-elementary special education learners, this resource provides reading comprehension,...
Curated OER
Lesson: Emory Douglas: Revolution in Our Time, Part 2
I love lessons like this because they let kids see the power of art, poetry, and activism in times of social injustice and unrest. They'll analyze the art used by Emory Douglas in the production of the Black Panther newspaper and...
EngageNY
Launching the Text: Building Background Knowledge of the Jim Crow South
Pictures and photographs help build background knowledge about a topic. Scholars participate in a gallery walk to learn more about the Jim Crow era of US history and the desegregation of schools following Brown v. Board of Education....
Florida Alliance for Arts Education
Theatre Arts
What skills do storytellers employ to bring to life the characters and events in their tales? After listening to a recording of a Haitian folk tale, class members consider how tone of voice, pace, and gestures can be used to enliven a...
Brown University
Culture Connect: Experience the Culture of the World
A rich series of activities introduces learners to the concept of culture by closely examining the behaviors, practices, and art of three distinct peoples: the Highland Maya of Guatemala, the Hmong of China and Southeast Asia, and the...
Curated OER
Chapter Tableaux: Visualizing The Call of the Wild
Do your young readers have difficulty visualizing what they read? Although the activity described here is for The Call of the Wild, the strategy could be used with any narrative. At the conclusion of each chapter of Jack London’s novel,...
Evergreen Exhibitions
Leonardo da Vinci: Machines in Motion
Motion is the focus of ten hands-on activities that challenge scholars to build machines invented by Leonardo da Vinci. Following several steps, small groups work collaboratively to recreate machines including levers, pulleys, wheels,...
EngageNY
End of Unit 2 Assessment, Parts 1A and 1B: Fishbowl on Screen Time and Adolescents
Here's a surefire way to ensure that class discussions go swimmingly! Using the resource, scholars participate in a Fishbowl activity, forming two concentric circles in the classroom. As the group on the inside of the fishbowl discusses...
Norfork School District
Habits of Mind
Why do artists create? To solve a problem, of course. Young artists work individually and then in groups to create observational, imaginative, and narrative drawings in response to an assignment that requires them to employ all 16 Habits...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Pilobolus
After reviewing dance-specific terminology and watching a clip from the dance troupe Pilobolus, learners create dances of their own. They pair up and use the teacher's cues to create creature dances that exemplify mood and shape. Any...
EngageNY
Making Inferences: The Fall of Saigon
Get hooked! Reel in and hook scholars to the unit with a slide show, text-based activity, and reading exercises. To increase curiosity, learners read only small pieces of Panic Rises in Saigon, but the Exits Are Few. Readers use the...
BBC
The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky
Over the course of six lessons, scholars try their hand at composing and dancing after a thorough examination of the famous ballet, The Nutcracker, by Tchaikovsky. Participants watch and discuss the performance of two dances, create and...
National Center for Families Learning
The Summer Fun Summer Learning Dramatic and Story Reading Unit
What's the difference between story reading and story telling? Participants in a summer enrichment program learn all about the difference as they listen to famous speeches, engage in dramatic readings, and craft their own short stories...
Smithsonian Institution
Songs, Sounds and Stories from the Georgia Sea Islands
American music is the result of the influence of many cultures, including the traditions brought by the African slaves. Young scholars study the polyrhythms, the call-and-response format, and the vocal improvisations of the Gullah...
Curated OER
The Box
Learners of any age can participate in this imagination and improve development activity. With the use of a small box, they work through a series of questions or situations posed by the teacher. Each group uses the box to create short...
Teaching Tolerance
Journalism for Justice
Roll the presses! Or at least have your class members participate in the time-honored tradition of the student press by creating their own newspapers or journalist pieces on a social problem. After conducting research and collaborating...
Quaver
World Percussion — Latin America Project Book
What's the most popular music style in Brazil? What about Cuba? Or the Dominican Republic? An immersive project teaches young learners about the salsa, the samba, and the merengue with research assignments and dance performances.