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...

When you paint you almost always use color. Budding artists explore the color wheel, color vocabulary, and painting techniques. They discuss and practice mixing colors, then paint a color wheel for personal reference.

To gain an understanding of color mixing theory and the color wheel, young artists draw a picture, mix up a batch of secondary colors to which they add dish soap, and using straws, bubble up the paint....

At one point, all mammals carried only two color receptors, but now most humans carry three. An informative presentation and hands-on activity demonstrate how this evolved through genetics. By participating in the activity, pupils...

Help young scholars see the important role camouflage plays in the survival of animals with a fun science instructional activity. Starting with an outdoor activity, children take on the role of hungry birds as they search for worms...

Focus on line and color with a postcard project. Learners view various works of art and discuss line and color before moving on to creating their own work. Using nature as inspiration, pupils decorate postcards and mail them after...

Celebrate Valentine's Day with a coloring page in which scholars decide whether a pair of words are synonyms or antonyms, and color them either red or purple depending on their decision. 

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...

Art can mimic life, and animals are always interesting subjects. Learners create large soft sculptures (stuffed) birds using paper, paint, and other basic collage materials. They view images of birds, and discuss bird traits and shapes....

If you could build your own treehouse, what would it look like? Using a piece of contemporary art as inspiration, learners draw their own treehouses and add geometric and organic shapes. The lesson touches on Visual Thinking Strategies...

Lao Tzu was the fabled author of the Toa te Ching, Lau Tzu is also the name of a large sculptural piece. Kids examine Mark di Suvero's larger-than-life sculptures in relation to the elements of art they've learner about. They examine...

A great cross-curricular project for any art classroom, this activity encourages young artists to consider color, pattern, texture, shape and line in their depiction of a historical figure. After researching a historical figure of their...

Clothes might not make the man but they certainly do help an actor create a character. How costume designers employ the same elements of design found in sets (line, color, texture, shape) to realize a character is the focus of a lesson...

Dim the lights, take a deep breath, and press play to explore the emotions and memories that music elicits. Class members begin using relaxation techniques designed to create a positive listening experience. As music plays, learners...

A unit focuses on prewriting skills. Over 10 days, young scholars practice drawing lines and shapes, use play dough to build shapes, and track from left to right. Pupils put their sense of hearing to the test by listening for words...

Second graders explore a bag of mixed pattern blocks. As a class they discuss different attributes of these shapes. In this math activity, 2nd graders search to find shapes that are similar by placing shapes on top of one another to...

Line, shape, color, texture, space. The first in a three-part series of lessons intended for advanced theatre arts classes introduces the elements of set design. Class members examine maquettes and analyze how designers have put together...

Photos can challenge stereotypes. To gain an understanding of the big picture, groups examine a series of photographs and analyze how a photographer's choices can shape a viewer's reaction to an image. For the first set of photographs,...

Let's go fly a kite! Little learners cut, glue, color, and design kites from a variety of materials. The step-by-step instructions are included along with three wonderful book recommendations. Tip: This project could easily be...

Common or proper noun, that is the question. With a Valentine's Day coloring page, class members decipher whether the word they read is a common or proper noun. Once they determine which type of nouns they see, theycolor the...

Turn young mathematicians into landscape architects with this four-lesson series on area and perimeter. Beginning with a basic introduction to calculating perimeter and area using non-standard units of measurement, this...

All shapes have certain defining attributes that set them apart from others. In order to understand this, young mathematicians look at examples and non-examples of triangles, rectangles, and squares, working as a whole class to create...

Children learn by doing. Here, they discuss cultural uses of containers, coil and slab techniques, functional aesthetics, and the principles of art and design. The entire process for making a coil pot is fully described here to make the...

Extend scholars' learning experience with a unit consisting of five shape lesson plans, an extension activity, assessment, and rubric. Begin by reading a story about shapes, then conduct an overview and assign pupils' their first...