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Lesson: Mixing Metaphors across Current Events and Literature
Expression, current events, and art can go hand-in-hand. After analyzing a multi-media piece entitled, Trade Canoe for Don Quixote, the class explores their own expressive process. They create collages that show a current event or issue...
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Lesson: Elizabeth Peyton: Pictures of Rock Stars: The Imagined
Youth, fame, and beauty are marks of modern society. Artist Elizabeth Peyton has captured all three in her series of imagined rock star portraits. The class analyzes her use of technique, emotion, and imagination in each of six pieces,...
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Lesson Plan: Letting Go
Why would an artist destroy his own work? Kids examine the Malagan practice of creating and then destroying art. They talk about the cultural and spiritual significance of this practice, as well as how it relates to consumerism in...
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Lesson Plan: Breaking the Rules
Breaking the rules isn't always a bad thing, sometimes it pushes the boundaries of the imagination. Young art enthusiasts examine the Kevin Red Star piece, Knows Her Medicine Crow Indian. They analyze how the artist broke rules...
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Lesson Plan: Blending Observation and Imagination
Upper graders analyze the work, Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase by Maria van Oosterwyck. They consider the value of her paintings and how they are still relevent and sought after, 350 years after they were created. The blending of...
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Lesson Plan: Newsflash!
Fox Games is an Installation piece that allows observers to walk through a clay environment. Kids analyze the piece, considering storytelling and perspectives of light. They imagine how different the piece would look at various times of...
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Syncopated Duet
Young scholars work in pairs to compose a duet (with percussion instruments) that contains syncopated rhythm sequences. Each student will research a piece of music that they feel uses syncopation and will give a persuasive speech to the...
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Lesson Plan: Making History to Go
Learners use their higher-order thinking skills to understand how visual images have been used to tell stories. They analyze a Lakota tipi that tells a story through paint and artistry. They then make miniature tipis using butcher paper...
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Lesson Plan: Finding Treasures Within
Sherlock Holmes had fantastic skills of observation. Your super sleuths will examine the pattern, rhythm, texture, and color of a painting to uncover the symbolism beneath. A great lesson, that incorporates observation, art...
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Caves
Explore caves with your class! Your scholars will participate in scientific observation, research, inference and deduction, reading, vocabulary, and writing activities about caves with this lesson plan. This resource contains five...
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Teaching Appositives
Explore appositives, phrases that immediately follow the noun they modify, using sentence strips, examples, and collaborative learning. The class works together to identify appositives and use commas to properly punctuate them. Partners...
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Lewis and Clark
Students investigate Lewis and Clark. In this Lewis and Clark lesson, students search the Internet for information about Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery. Students use maps to understand the explorations and decide which...
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Community Helpers
The book, Doctor Ted is used to kick off this lesson on Community Helpers. Young learners make connections to their own life by dictating a story of their own, and inventing other jobs that Ted can do.
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Comparison of Snow Cover on Different Continents
Students use the Live Access Server (LAS) to form maps and a numerical text file of snow cover for each continent on a particular date and analyze the data for each map, corresponding text file to determine an estimate of snow cover for...
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Finding, Gathering, Saving Seeds
Students understand the importance of saving seeds. In this saving seeds lesson, students dry out seeds for later use planting. Students recognize that one plant may have many seeds.
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Understanding Tiananmen Square
William Bell's Forbidden City is used as the basis of a study of China, Chinese culture and government, and especially of the events in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Class members select a topic for Internet research and then prepare a...
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Lesson: Paul Chan: Alternumeric Fonts
Learning to analyze language, symbols, and codes is part of becoming a deep and critical thinker. Young analysts consider their ability to see hidden messages as they analyze the work of Paul Chan. There are two fully developed...
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Simple Machines IV - Levers
The principles of levers and simple machines are presented here. An easy-to-make lever is constructed by each group of scientists, and they use it to explore how this simple machine makes heavy things so much easier to lift and move. A...
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Simple Machines I - Inclined Planes, Wedges, and Screws
The principles and uses of inclined planes, screws, and wedges are the focus of a science lesson. In it, youngsters come up with every day examples of simple machines, and build an example of one in class. That project is then used to...
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Lesson Plan: Finding Your Path
Our art often reflects who we are as individuals and as part of a larger community. The painting Hopi Eagle Dancer reflects the history and culture of the artists who created it. Critical thinkers analyze the piece and then compose...
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Lesson Plan: Communicating With Body Language
The Olmec were an ancient people native to Mexico who lived from 1000-500 BC. Young artists examine the Olmec piece Seated Figure to analyze the use of body language to communicate a tone or feeling. They then use clay or play-dough...
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Lesson Plan: Carving Through History
Peek into the art and history of ancient Mexico by analyzing the artifact Stone Serpent Heads. Learners examine images of the piece, discuss its origin, history, and significance. They experience the carving process by creating similar...
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Lesson: Unmonumental: Yesterday's News
Upper graders are tasked with developing a social consciousness as they analyze the impact of the news media. They view a presentation depicting various media events in order to understand threshold moments in history. There are three...
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Lesson: Younger Than Jesus: Understanding, Looking at, Making Abstract Art
Before the class makes abstract art, they see contemporary examples and analyze them. They look at art made by abstract artists under the age of 33 then use similar techniques to create an interesting collection of their own. The lesson...