Curated OER
Looking at French Decorative Arts: A Tapestry Fit For a King
Students discuss the use of tapestries, and examine the tapestry, Chariot of Triumph, and its symbols. They create their own designs for tapestries using symbols that represent their identities.
Curated OER
Calligraphy: Symbols & Signs - Visual Arts
Pupils research the forms and significance of calligraphy in traditional and contemporary Chinese society. They design a mixed media scroll on paper, developing symbols for use as calligraphic images. Students describe how selected...
Art Institute of Chicago
African Myths and Stories
Young historians discover African stories associated with a royal altar tusk from the Kingdom of Benin in Nigeria, read myths illustrated on the tusk, and write a story about the life of an oba using figures depicted on the tusk.
New Bedford Whaling Museum
A New Bedford Voyage!
A thorough set of activities, articles, and reference material can enlighten your class about the history of whaling in New England. Kids travel back to a time when whale products were valuable and hunting whales was a way to help the...
Curated OER
Introducing Mythology
Students look closely at a poster of a Rembrandt painting and/or a transparency of a Greek vase, both of which represent the mythological story of the abduction of Europa. Studnets consider how two artists interpreted the same subject in...
Curated OER
Looking at Body Language
Students examine Dorothea Lange's photograph of a migrant mother and consider how artists express emotions, ideas, and physical conditions through gesture, pose, clothing, and expression.
Curated OER
Symbolism in Sculpture
Students use criteria developed in class to evaluate which of their own sketches would make the best symbolic sculpture. In this sculpture symbolism lesson, students work in pairs to create a sculpture and define its symbolic meaning....
Curated OER
Seeing the Invisible: Angels and Demons
Students search for angels and demons within the paintings in the Getty's medieval and Renaissance galleries. They examine the ways that artists made these invisible creatures visible.
Curated OER
Making Furniture That's Fit for a King
Learners study the furniture made in the 1600s and 1700s for wealthy Parisians and the King of France.
Curated OER
Exploring Photographs
Students explore the basic tools for analyzing images using description, reflection, and formal analysis. In this photography analysis lesson plan, students analyze a photograph as a class and then in small groups. Students write...
Curated OER
Still Life Painting: Arranging Nature
High schoolers paint their own still life painting. In this still life painting lesson, students analyze still life paintings and paint their own.
Curated OER
Still-Life Painting: Arranging Nature
Students examine and paint still life paintings. In this still life painting lesson, students look at pictures of European still life paintings and determine the characteristics when using an opaque medium. They use an opaque medium to...
Curated OER
Learning To Look
Pupils examine Jacques-Louis David's Telemachus and Eucharis and Dorothea Lange's photograph of a migrant mother and consider how artists communicate ideas across time. They look closely at, and think creatively about artworks.
Curated OER
Looking at Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes
Students read about a god, goddess, or hero and compare two images of him or her.
Curated OER
Chairs, Rooms, and Time Travel
Students compare and contrast two chairs that were made in different time periods. For this compare and contrast lesson students will compare two chairs They will then create a collage that takes place in a historic scene inspired by...
Curated OER
Extra, Extra Write All About It!
Students examine photographs from newspapers and write a headline and story for one of the examples. In this news writing lesson, students analyze a photograph as a class and discuss it. Students analyze photographs and example headlines...
Curated OER
Our Illuminated Alphabet
Students write letters of the alphabet and explore how decorated letters can be used to convey stories or symbolic ideas. In this decorating alphabet lesson, students create an “illuminated” alphabet in which each letter conveys concepts...
Curated OER
Our Illuminated Alphabet TESTing
Learners practice writing letters of the alphabet and explore how decorated letters can be used to convey stories or symbolic ideas. They create an "illuminated" alphabet in which each letter conveys concepts of home and family.
Curated OER
The Story Project: A Lesson Plan for the Combining Voices Literary Competition
Students analyze Simple Answer, by John Cleaveland, and use this image to inspire a short story. They use both verbal and visual language to help them create the characters and the plot. The lesson plan contains steps that helps the...
Curated OER
Puppetmania: Using Puppets in the Classroom
Young scholars create puppets to teach concepts such as history and weather. In this Puppetmania instructional activity, students manipulate their puppets to show a range of emotions, facial expressions, and actions. Young scholars...
Curated OER
A Shape-Note Singing Lesson
Students discover the shape-note method of singing. In this reading and notating music lesson, students learn the four shapes of the shape-note method and the tradition of Sacred Harp singers. Students sing the shapes of "Yankee Doodle"...
Curated OER
Looking At Portraits: Literary Monuments
High schoolers examine artworks, research literature, and create study drawings and a 3-D model for a monument to a literary figure. They discuss and analyze the sculpture Model for a Monument to Alexandre Dumas p??re by Albert-Ernest...
Curated OER
Telling Stories: Witness to a Brawl
Students examine Georges de la Tour's, The Musicians' Brawl and discuss the narrative elements of the painting. They write an newspaper article of what they believe they are witnessing in the painting.
Curated OER
Looking at Illuminated Manuscripts: Illuminating Fables
Young scholars examine a page from a Flemish bestiary. They compare the stories from the bestiary to the fables of Aesop, and culminate with the creation of their own manuscript based on a fable by Aesop.