Students investigate how artists create a story that provides a message or provokes emotions in a single image. The ways in which the composition of a painting contributes to telling the story or conveying the message is examined in this...

Students explore the basic color wheel and the ways that artists use color to guide the viewer's attention through a painting's composition. A creation of a sense of depth in a two dimensional space and the effect of color on mood and...

Students are introduced to the concept of composition in visual art. They examine various compositional structures and practice identifying the focus of various pieces of art.

Introduce your class to ekphrastic poetry with an exercise that asks them to examine Edward Hooper's painting House by the Railroad and Edward Hirsch's poem "Edward Hopper and the House By the Railroad." After a close reading...

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 plan.

Learners 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.

Students view images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art web site, and list the objects and figures in the image. They discuss the way their eyes move around the canvas and take note of where their eyes fall, follow and finish. Students...

Examine social strife in art. Class members first observe some pieces, and then find an image to inspire their own art. They outline the picture, analyze the composition, make alterations, and color their work.

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...

The set for a play combines design elements (style, line, shape, mass, measure, position, color, and texture) and principles of composition (unity, harmony, contrast, variation, balance, proportion, and emphasis) to create a particular...

Students consider the nature of objectivity and subjectivity in photography as an art form by taking a class poll, discussing the results and writing a one-page paper.

Art, identity, and an imaginary community, three components that should make for an interesting lesson. Critical thinkers explore and evaluate the work of contemporary artist, Elizabeth Peyton. They discuss her use of subject and art to...

Learners will need to discuss the Civil War to truly understand the painting Peace and Plenty by George Inness. They'll analyze the painting in terms of context, style, and technique. Then, they'll experiment with light and composition...

You're never too young for a lesson in fine art. Explore the painting Deucalion and Pyrrha, based on the Greek myth of the same name, with your class. You'll look at color, composition, texture, and technique, which are easily outlined...

After examining a piece of art, scholars discuss what they see, paying close attention to details and space. A read-aloud introduces the topic of family traditions. Pupils interview their family members about a tradition in preparation...

Students discuss how the musical composition was created. They listen to "Pictures at an Exhibition." Students discuss how the Promenade in the beginning of the opus is based on Mussorgsky walking through the exhibit of paintings....

Color, light and shadow, the placement and size of objects. These are some of the tools artists used to tell their stories. Model for learners how to read a painting by closely examining these features. The richly detailed packet...

Learners explore composition and symmetry to create their own digital media piece. For this design composition lesson, students visit the online websites and examples of asymmetrical compositions and symmetry. Learners sketch a...

Fully analyze the elements of art and unexpected beauty in the William Merritt Chase's Still Life with a Fish. The class will examine the painting very closely, then use photography to express unexpected beauty in still life. This is a...

Lilly Martin Spencer's "Peeling Onions" is the subject of a series of exercises that model for learners how to use the elements of art to read a painting. A series of worksheets focus viewers' attention on how Spencer uses...

Students display the two still-life paintings they created along with their artist’s statement, write a review of a peer’s work, and discuss all of the paintings in a group critique. In this still life art lesson plan, students view...

Young scholars compare and contrast modern life art in the works of Hilaire-Germain Edgar Degas and Paul Cezanne. In this art analysis lesson, students compare and contrast the two paintings. Young scholars complete image based...

Students are introduces to soil profile classification. They remember that classification of soils is an important aspect of studying soils as it aids in predicting how soils react to weathering, transport nutrients or pollution. ...

What is war? High schoolers discuss the ethical dilemma of war by viewing Picasso's painting entitled "Guernica" and write down everything they see in the painting. Then they choose one emotion that best summarizes their emotional...