National Gallery of Canada
Artful Emotions
Blue is sad, and red is angry, but why is that? Young artists explore the expression of emotions through art by observing and creating artwork. Starting with a questioning session about images of art, this plan moves into a sculpture...
J. Paul Getty Trust
Portraits That Capture Character
One of the great things about technology is that it lets youngsters visit museums that may be many miles away. With this resource, middle and high schoolers can visit the portrait galleries at J. Paul Getty Museum, located in Los...
Curated OER
Pride and Prejudice: Problematic Situation
What would you do if your sister ran off with a man whom you didn't trust? Explore a scenario based on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Once kids work though the problem, they read the appropriate chapters from the book and write...
Curated OER
D¿rer Watercolor - Patterns and Texture
Students create watercolor paintings using their knowledge of elements of design, value, and texture, discuss concept of art reflecting time and place, review art-related vocabulary, and reflect on their work.
National Gallery of Canada
One Look Is Worth A Thousand Words
Facial expressions can communicate complex emotions. Examine expressions in several hyperrealistic works of art before beginning a project. Learners will create their own clay faces that show an emotion using either photos or their own...
Teach Engineering
Off-Road Wheelchair Challenge
Challenge your class to use their understanding of the engineering design process to design and build a small-scale, off-road prototype for an assistive technology device. Teams select materials to build their scale models, and, using...
Virginia Department of Education
Predicting Products and Writing Equations
A chemistry lesson presents 14 chemical reactions for scholars to observe, write the equation, and balance the equations. Additionally, it provides ways to extend the activity as it relates to catalysts.
Chicago Botanic Garden
Food for Thought: Climate Change and Trophic Cascades
Learners examines the arctic food web with a short video about polar bears and an article about bears and warming temperatures. They design an arctic food web and discuss the trophic cascade that could come from climate...
Curated OER
Information Shuffle
Gather some information, print it onto sentence strips, and then have your class physically shuffle the cards to better understand the importance of organizational patterns in writing. Middle school learners examine information for a...
Curated OER
Leading into Good Writing
Discuss the importance of a lead in writing with your upper graders. They examine several examples of leads from literature and practice writing leads for pieces of artwork. They then select a topic from a list and write an introductory...
Curated OER
Elements 'R' Us
Sixth graders participate in a Web Quest in order to examine the periodic table of elements. After collecting information about an element of their choice, they share with group members what they have learned. Groups create class...
Curated OER
Inventions in Everyday Life
Students identify and solve problems as they modify the design of an everyday household item. They gather and analyze information and work in collaborative teams to create a design plan for a new product.
Nancy Fetzer's Literacy Connections
Expository Paragraph
Upper elementary and middle school writers learn how to craft an expository paragraph by following the six steps detailed in a 48-page instructional guide. Learners learn how to write six different types of informational paragraphs:...
Curated OER
Masking Tape Masterpieces
Students create non-objective art based on the design elements of line, color, balance and movement using tape. This simple lesson plan encourages students to create patterns by overlapping and defining lines on a canvas panel. One of...
Curated OER
The Marvels of Mud
Young scientists roll up their sleeves and get a little dirty in this three-day earth science investigation. Following the scientific method, children monitor the growth of algae in pond water samples in order to determine...
Bulgarian Creative Writing Competition
Creative Writing Workshop
Looking for suggestions on how to organize a creating writing workshop? For topic suggestions appropriate for various grade levels? Check out a resource packet, designed for English language arts instructors, that is packed with ideas...
Curated OER
Business: Designing Business Cards
Students design and create business cards using Adobe Photoshop. Once they have applied techniques of typography and layout design, students identify redesign aspects and its importance in the design process. In a slide show, completed...
Curated OER
Design a Book Cover
Students explore character, plot, setting, symbolism, and conflict for a book that they are reading. Sample book covers are provided and students apply what they have learned by designing a book cover.
Curated OER
Alchemy and Chemical Symbols
In this alchemy learning exercise, learners read about how alchemists kept their experiment notes in secret code. Students design their own secret code for the given elements. This learning exercise has 2 problems to solve.
Dick Blick Art Materials
Insoluble Paintings
Insolubility and density? Yup, it's art class, of course. To create insoluble paintings that continually move and change, kids mix water-based paint with mineral oil and seal the mixture in laminating pouches.
Curated OER
Art Folder and Two Point Perspective
Eighth graders examine how to create a 3-D effect on a flat surface and draw in two-point perspective. They view and discuss elements of design, analyze artwork by M.C. Escher and Roy Lichtenstein, and design and create an art folder.
Curated OER
Designing Illuminated Text
Students examine illuminated manuscripts from the Gutenberg Bible. Using the examples, they use the internet to explore the effects of the printing press on the value of literature and art. They create their own illuminated initial...
Code.org
Multi-screen Apps
Scholars continue their study of event-driven programming by creating a multi-screen app in the fifth lesson of the series. They incorporate previously learned elements and events in the mini-project.
National Endowment for the Humanities
The Glass Menagerie: Impact of Expressionism
Young scholars are challenged to write a realistic analysis of Tennessee Williams' nonrealistic memory play, The Glass Menagerie. Writers use the evidence gathered on their worksheets to craft an effective thesis and concluding statement...