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A New Approach to Developing Images on Clay

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students make story telling plates or tiles based on David Stabely's technique. They are shown slides of original work contemporary artists who are using nontraditional approaches to the clay surface. Students are shown work that David...
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Zen and the Design of Homework Desks

For Teachers 11th - Higher Ed
Students investigate zen. In this design lesson, students use ideas from zen to create a study area. Students understand how different environments affect work habits. Students research how students in other countries study and write...
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Native American Friendship Dance

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Students demonstrate the proper steps in sequence to the Native American Friendship Dance.
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Walking With a Line

For Teachers 1st - 12th
Learners create various design drawings using parallel, oblique, and divergent lines and the medium of black paper and colored gel pens.
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The Great Depression and Now: The Migrant Worker Experience

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learners identify the concerns of people caught in desperate times during the Great Depression. They make connections between The Grapes of Wrath and historical images from the Great Depression. Students make connections between the...
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Disease and Culture through Literary Time

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students select books to read that include disease as a plot or theme component. They fill out a matrix for the disease in their novel and write a five-paragraph paper about their book. Students use the rest of the week's classes to...
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Creating an Autobiographical Amulet Necklace

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students create their own personalized amulet necklaces after viewing images of artifacts from different cultures.
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Being in the Noh: An Introduction to Japanese Noh Plays

For Teachers 10th - Higher Ed
Young scholars analyze the conventions used in Noh plays and write an introduction to a Noh play of their own. In this Noh play lesson, students identify the conventions of the Noh form and analyze the realizations the main character...
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Making Akan Gold Weights and Understanding their Proverbial Meanings

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students examine a variety of gold weights used by the Asante in West Africa. In groups, they discuss the purpose of the gold weights and practice saying proverbs associated with different pieces of art. To end the lesson, they...
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Nature and Haiku Poetry

For Teachers 1st - 5th
Students compose haiku poems and recognize how cultures value nature and natural forces through the study of Japanese poetry. This instructional activity includes a bibliography of resources.
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Miniature Stained Glass Designs

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders view examples of previous miniature stain glass designs. After making their own frame out of craft sticks, they create their own design using colored paper. They outline each piece with a black marker and share them with...
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MOSAICS

For Teachers All
Visual arts lesson emphasizing pattern and design in individual student mosaics made with paper and reviewing line, shape, space, and color. The individual mosaics will be used to create a border for a group mosaic in another lesson.
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Potrait Detectives

For Teachers 1st - 4th
Students examine a variety of portraits and distinguish them from other art forms such as landscapes and still lifes. They investigate why artists make portraits and why patrons wish to have portraits made.
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A Capital Contest

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students analyze Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise and the competition for their design in which Brunelleschi's design was refused. The lesson concludes with students creating new doors for the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington D.C.
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Hachimaki/Shibori Lesson Plan

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders are introduced to the technique of Arashi Shibori and its history. In groups, they discover how to perform this process and examine how to do hachimaki. To end the lesson, they make their own hachimaki to wear and share it...
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Crazy Quilts

For Teachers 1st - 3rd
Learners research women's roles in agriculture's history and how they have changed. They create a paper "crazy quilt" using a variety of colors and pattersn to help them explain the role of quilts in women's history.
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African-American Artists

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students conduct research on a chosen African-American artist. They research how the artist's community influenced his art, analyze how themes are conveyed through the art, and create a collage depicting the artist's themes.
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Haniwa

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Young scholars use non-fired clay and posterboards to create and display examples of Haniwa and kofun in this exciting lesson for the Social Studies, Humanities, Asian Studies, or Art classroom.
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Shigaraki Pottery

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students write position papers from the point of view of a Shigaraki art collector in this instructional activity on pottery techniques found in Japan between the Kamakura and Muromachi periods.
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Everyday Objects As Artwork

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students examine everyday Chinese objects and analyze why they are considered artwork today in this multi-subject lesson for Middle School. Small group colaboration is emphasized.
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The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon

For Teachers 12th
Twelfth graders deduce the motivation behind and meaning of certain behaviors, conversations and poetry. Students analyze culture's value system. Students compare and contrast Anglo Saxon court culture, Medieval court culture, Medieval...
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A Birthday in Amsterdam

For Teachers K - 8th
Students view Rembrandt's etching, View of Amsterdam. They compare commerce and trade of 17th-century Amsterdam to modern day. They create self-portraits of themselves as children with birthday gifts during the 17th century.
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The Life and Music of Celia Cruz

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students create a set and design a costume for a musical performance. In this Life of Celia Cruz lesson plan, students study biographical facts about Celia Cruz on the exhibition web site. Then students share their creations with the class.
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Homes Inside and Out

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders create a dollhouse-like drawing of a house, as it would look if the front walls were folded out.