TPS Journal
Sourcing a Document: The First Thanksgiving
How reliable is a painting of the first Thanksgiving if it was created 300 years after the fact? Learners assess the validity of a primary source image to determine what it can actually reveal about this event.
University of California
The Civil War: Emancipation
Investigate and analyze Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation using primary and secondary sources. The sixth installment of an eight-part series analyzes the meaning of Lincoln's document in relation to its impact on the Civil War.
Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation
Life of a Private Lesson Plan
In order to understand the challenges the Continental Army faced during the American Revolution, class members analyze primary source materials including a soldier's journal and an officer's letter, and watch a short reenactment video.
National Gallery of Canada
Social Realism
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.
Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University
Are You My Mother? An Opinion Writing Unit
During a five-day lesson, scholars analyze written and visual art—primarily the poem, Mother to Son by Langston Hughes— identify facts, and write opinions. Learners read the poem several times, discuss, write, compare and contrast, and...
Curated OER
Crossing the Delaware with Historic, Cultural, and Personal Interpretations
Sixth graders discover the importance of information sources by researching the United States History. In this research gathering lesson, 6th graders examine a historical painting of George Washington and analyze what it means, what the...
Curated OER
Doodle Splash
Students navigate Doodle Splash to create a painting. In this doodle splash lesson, students explain their splash painting relationship to a piece of literature.
Curated OER
One Step at a Time
Students investigate the customs and habits of other cultures by reading letters from a Peace Corps Volunteer. In this global customs lesson, students discuss how analyzing a culture is similar to analyzing art, no two people see things...
Curated OER
Real-Life History: Looking at Our Community
Spend several days with your class exploring local history. Learners brainstorm and categorize sources of historical information as primary or secondary; collect and present artifacts from family/community; construct a definition of...
Curated OER
Art as Storyteller
Students examine how paintings tell stories. They read biographies about artists, analyze paintings, research and write the art history of a painting, write a creative story based on the painting, and create a painting in the artist's...
Curated OER
Hispanic Arts and Culture Unit: Visual Arts, Dance, and Music
Students learn about Latin American dance and rhythm in different forms and participate in dancing. In this Latin American lesson plan, students also analyze Latin American paintings.
Curated OER
Royal Painting Workshop
Students study Emperor Akbar and his support of culture by examining an illustration from the Akbarnama. They explore Mughal illustration workshop practices and re-create those practices in their own version of an illustration for a...
Curated OER
Painting Places with Words Using John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men
Useful in an Of Mice and Men unit, or in a unit that focuses on descriptive writing, this lesson prompts young authors to impersonate John Steinbeck's writing style in the opening passages of the novel. A Six Trait writing activity...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Introducing Ecosystem Services
Purifying air and water, providing soil in which to grow crops, and moving water through its natural cycle are all services an ecosystem provides that benefit humans. Lesson four in a series lets learners explore and discuss the value of...
Skyscraper Museum
Changes in a City Over Time
Investigate the growth and development of New York City with the final lesson in this four-part series on skyscrapers. Learners first explore the concept of urban growth by looking closely at a series of three paintings made of Wall...
Curated OER
Animal Dance
The image Painting of Bear and Sun Dances by Louis Fenno contains an image of a traditional Ute dance. The class will hone their observation skills, as well as their ability to describe in detail, as they take a close look at the piece....
National Constitution Center
Art of the American Soldier: Stories from the Soldiers
The impact of war is deep and profound. Moving paintings, along with brief narrations from veteran artists and other former soldiers, show scholars how the cost of war is paid for years to come. Individuals dive deeper into the artwork...
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
The Revolutionary Times as Seen Through the Eyes of Women
The role of women before and during the American Revolution changed dramatically. To gain an understanding of these changes, middle schoolers analyze primary source documents, including letters from women that supported the patriot cause...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Introducing Ecosystem Services
Ecosystems provide many things humans not only use but also need in order to survive. The last activity in the series of seven introduces scholars to the idea of ecosystem services, that ecosystems provide humans with many things we...
Literacy Design Collaborative
In Pursuit of Happiness
What ideas and philosophies guided the Transcendentalist movement in America? Scholars explore the topic, reading texts by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Additionally, they write essays comparing the authors' structural...
Curated OER
A Dream of Classic Perfection
Students look at how Greek classical art and philosophy influenced the French Revolution. In this French Revolution lesson, students use primary sources, Neoclassical art, to look at how they show what society was like during this time...
Art Institute of Chicago
Send a Postcard
Using Claude Monet's On the Bank of the Seine as inspiration, young artists create their own postcards. During the lesson, learners discuss the techniques used in Monet's painting, as well as the woman in the painting, and learn how to...
Curated OER
Still Life Painting: Arranging Nature
Students choose meaningful objects for a still-life arrangement and paint it using watercolors and write an artist’s statement. In this still life art instructional activity, students identify and analyze the characteristics of a...
Curated OER
Seasonal Scroll Painting
Students take a field trip to a Botanical Gardens. They observe plants and the seasonal changes they go through and create their own scroll painting.