Curated OER
Shaping Ideas: Symbolism in Sculpture
Students use criteria developed in class to evaluate which of their own sketches would make the best symbolic sculpture. They choose a final design, techniques and materials, and create sculptures based on their designs.
Curated OER
Still-Life Painting: Arranging Nature
Young scholars display the two still-life paintings that they created in previous lessons, along with their artist's statements. They write a review of a peer's work and discuss all of the paintings in a group critique.
Curated OER
New Forms From Old
Students examine porcelain objects and observe how their original use has been changed to decorative objects. They choose everyday objects and re-create them into new objects that can be functional or entirely decorative.
Curated OER
Colonial Portraits
Students examine artwork by John Singleton Copley depicting the Colonial Period. They use the Internet, reference books and museums to research the time period. They share their impressions and observations with the class about the artwork.
Curated OER
Picture This: Telling Our Tales with Self-Portraits
Learners view a number of self portraits to determine the importance of pose, setting, clothing, and props in a piece of artwork. They design a self-portrait emphasizing the use of contour lines.
Curated OER
"my Dear Little Boys..." Using Wwii Primary Documents: a Letter Home From the War
Students read letters written by soldiers during World War II in order to analyze the soldier's feelings about the war. They explain how these primary sources teach appreciation for the World War II soldier's experiences.
Curated OER
Ceramics: A Vessel into History
High schoolers evaluate the works of their peers using criteria for value and meaning.
Curated OER
Learning How To Include Proportional Figures and Objects in Landscape Drawings
Fourth graders are shown a slideshow of paintings showing landscapes. They create their own landscape painting using proportional figures.
Curated OER
Celebrating the Smithsonian's Birthday
Students examine online objects from the Smithsonian website and use them as subjects and inspiration for creative writing exercises.
Curated OER
What Do Portraits Communicate?
Students make connections between their personal experiences and portraits. define a portrait and identify different kinds of portraits in artworks and their own lives. They look closely at a portrait using visual analysis to describe...
Curated OER
Newsworthy Images
Students examine images made for newspapers and create their own photos to tell a story. They experiment with cropping to reframe their images and explore how photographic images can be manipulated.
Curated OER
Return to Vietnam: Healing on the Hill
Students view a film about soldiers returning to Vietnam years after the war. They discover the need of closure by the soldiers because the war was not won. They examine the results of the war and answer questions to complete the lesson.
Curated OER
Exploring Photographs - Writing the Artist's Statement
Learners read an artist's statement by Dorothea Lange and write a statement based on their own photographs. In this photograph and writing lesson, students examine the relationship between photography and the artist's statement. Learners...
Curated OER
Dorothea Lange and the Relocation of Japanese Americans
Students analyze a photograph and translate the analysis into words. They explain and explain the impact of governmental decisions made during a specific historical time period.
Curated OER
Ceramics: A Vessel into History
High schoolers produce a ceramic vessel based on elements derived from historical examples.
Curated OER
How Do Portraits Communicate?
Students read a visual image very much like they would read words in a story. They write about portraits using new portrait vocabulary. They, in groups, use their written analysis to hypothesize about the story of the sitters in the...
Curated OER
Looking at Portraits: Reading Poe
Students compare the daguerreotype of Edgar Allan Poe by an unknown photographer with Poe's writings in an effort to discover the character of this mysterious author.
Curated OER
Looking at Portraits: Looking at One's Self
Pupils examine Charles-Antoine Coypel's Self-Portrait and explain what he shows in this work.
Curated OER
Buildings, Buildings Everywhere
Students gain awareness of shapes in architecture by creating a painting of their school and writing a reflective summary of their study of architecture.
Curated OER
Ceramics: A Vessel into History
Students create a ceramic vessel, discuss their artistic choices, and identify elements derived from historical examples. In this ceramics lesson, students identify symbols and imagery that are connected to a specific...
Curated OER
Women's Roles: Then and Now
Fourth graders investigate women's roles during the frontier era in what is today's West Virginia. In this US history lesson, 4th graders discuss similarities and differences of women's roles in the past with what women's roles...
Curated OER
The Laundress
Students explore the concept of work, and work typically assigned to women, through artwork depicting laundresses.
Curated OER
Read All About It! Events and People of the 1930s and 1940s That Shaped California and the Nation.
Learners look carefully at four photographs by Dorothea Lange and discuss them in terms of what is depicted and what she may have wanted to communicate. They review what they learned about the Dust Bowl, the Depression, the war era, and...
Curated OER
Looking at Illuminated Manuscripts: An Illuminated Day Planner
Students examine the contents of a book of hours and then compare it to the modern day-planner. They create class day-planners/ calendars with illuminations that correspond to modern holidays and season.