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Curated OER
Shadows & Light, Science & Puppetry
Lights, shadows, action, and inquiry await your artistic scientists. They explore the way light travels, absorbs, reflects, and transmits through shadow play. They create folktale-inspired shadow puppets, explore the science of light,...
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,...
Curated OER
Lesson: Paul Chan: 1st Light and 5th Light
Paul Chan's latest exhibit includes seven manifestations of light. Today, kids analyze the pieces 1st Light and 5th Light. They consider the concept of opposed or dualistic realities found in literature, society, and Chan's work....
Curated OER
Lesson: Paul Chan: "Score for the 7th Light"
Music, art, and poetry coalesce in a single exhibition, and in a single lesson. Critical thinkers analyze the Fluxus art movement as it's seen in the work of Paul Chan's 7 Lights. They consider the use of poetry and music in his...
Curated OER
How the Light Bulb Gets Switched On - The Evolution of Ideas
The creative process is the focus here. High schoolers make works of art that reflect elements of the creative process. They study the works of Robert Harris, and working as a class, they create a photo montage that includes images...
John F. Kennedy Center
Musical Harlem: How Is Jazz Music Reflective of the Harlem Renaissance?
Bring jazz music and the Harlem Renaissance to light with a lesson that challenges scholars to research and create. Pupils delve deep into information materials to identify jazz terminology, compare types of jazz and jazz musicians,...
Curated OER
Blinded by the Light
Students recognize that the colors they see are a result of the reflection of light. In this light and color lesson, students predict what color will be produced when lights are mixed. They identify the three primary colors and secondary...
Curated OER
Light and Shadow
Students compare and draw items with shading based on where a light source is in relation to the object.
Curated OER
Creating Stage Designs that Reflect
Students identify and research cultural, historical, and symbolic clues in dramatic texts. They demonstrate knowledge of research sources.
Curated OER
Art as a Reflection of Society
Learners write about their interpretations of "Glow of the City," discuss "Glow of the City" in terms of imagery, symbolism, use of shadows and light, and ways that it reflects life in the late 1920s in New York.
Curated OER
Kaleidoscope
Learners explore energy by creating a light project in class. In this kaleidoscope lesson, students discuss the properties of light and how mirrors can reflect the energy in different directions. Learners view a diagram of light...
Curated OER
Tread Lightly: Visualizing Footprints
The student reflects on concepts of ecological footprints and climate changes. In this Art lesson plan, young scholars will produce a visual representation showing understanding of how ecology and climate affects the world.
Curated OER
By Dawn's Early Light
Fourth graders explore the history of the "Star-Spangled Banner". In the process, they explore how the lyrics of a song can be a form of poetry and the principles of cause and effect. After a class discussion, 4th graders complete a...
Curated OER
The Science of Shadow Puppets
Students explore the art of shadow puppetry. In this performing arts lesson, students study the functions of lighting in the puppet theater as they examine the transmission, absorption, and reflection of light. As a culminating activity,...
Curated OER
Claude Monet's Interpretation of Light in Art
Claude Monet provides a great way to lead students in a discussion of art, politics, and 19th century society.
Art Institute of Chicago
Color Combinations
Explore color through an examination of pointillism and light. Class members view Georges Seraut's famous painting on a computer, zooming in and out to see the details and effects of the technique. They then cover how light and color are...
Curated OER
Values Practice Activity
How many values can one colored pencil create? This is the question your budding artists are going to find out. They choose three colored pencils, use the provided boxes to create a light-to-dark value strip, and then answer three...
Curated OER
Poetry/Music: Let It Snow!
Students create poems and sound compositions using instruments, sounds, and pictograph notation. After listening Debussy's Children's corner suite, they brainstorm a list of snow vocabulary words. Students write poems and in groups...
J. Paul Getty Trust
Looking and Learning in the Art Museum — Lesson 3
Curator, artist, art handler, archivist, conservator-restorer, guide. Who would have thought there were so many different kinds of museum professionals? After a visit to an art museum, class members reflect on the role of the museum in...
Curated OER
Mondrian - Primary/Secondary Color Study
Utilizing computer software, learners demonstrate the color spectrum. They investigate the life of the artist Piet Mondrian and define his style of artwork. Then they use Photoshop to recreate some of his designs while discovering the...
Concordia University Chicago
Paris Street; Rainy Day by Gustave Caillebotte
Discuss the balance, color, emotion, and context of the painting Paris Street; Rainy Day by Caillebotte. After a deep discussion, let creativity run free in your class as learners create a dimensional piece that reflects a...
John F. Kennedy Center
Acting Up, A Melodrama: Performing Like Jo March and Her Sisters in Little Women
Lights, Camera, Action! Pupils read Little Women and create, act, and direct a melodrama that Jo March and her sisters would enjoy. The lesson plan comes complete with resources for the educator on melodrama as well as examples...
Curated OER
Contour Drawing Shells
High schoolers develop skills in shading and create eye movement through the use of lights and darks. They show five principles of shading while drawing shells and bones.
Curated OER
The History of Art
Teachers can use these art history lesson plans as a way to get students to look at art in a new light.