Curated OER
Positive/Negative Bugs
Seventh graders create a design using a detailed drawing reversing positive and negative space. They explain organic shape and geometric shape.
Curated OER
Tree Bark
Students explore and display textures of tree bark in a patterned arrangement of positive and negative space. They make crayon rubbings with various colors and arrange them in an original repetitive pattern. They glue finished designs to...
Curated OER
Mono-Moonscape Painting/Collage
Students, after viewing pictures of the moon's surface, explore positive and negative space using mono print and collage techniques to create an imaginary lunar landscape. They interact with various shapes and textures to create their...
Curated OER
Terrific Tessellations
Students create to pieces of artwork using two primary colors and tessellation techniques. This is an excellent lesson that can be accomplished using standard art techniques or educational software such as Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft...
Curated OER
Greek Story Vases
There are so many ways to tell a story! Develop visual storytelling skills while facilitating an understanding of Greek art and culture. Learners design Greek style images to tell a story through art. They add their designs to Styrofoam...
Dick Blick Art Materials
“Print & Go” T-Shirts
Here's a colorful activity that can be modified for any age group. Kids create printing blocks and craft t-shirts and/or canvas sacks using the blocks and fabric paint.
Curated OER
Impressive prints!
Students explore Inuit artworks and legends, and create prints of a fictional animal. They familiarize themselves with the concepts of positive and negative spaces through printmaking techniques.
Curated OER
Positive/Negative Shapes, Shamrocks And Matisse
Students create Shamrock mobiles or art pieces using positive and negative shapes, card stock, glue, and the techniques used by Henri Matisse. The lesson includes many resource links and is a great project for St. Patrick's Day.
Curated OER
Name Patterns
Here is a fun, colorful, and engaging art project that is sure to get your kids excited! They make a piece of art using watercolor paints, and by making a design out of the letters of their first name. This would be a fantasti art...
Curated OER
Minimal Animals
Have fun creating imaginary creatures with this symmetry lesson plan! Your class will paint one half of their imaginary creature, fold their paper in half, which will result in a symmetrical figure. What a great art project to combine...
Curated OER
"Starry Night"
Give your artistic young scholars a chance to express movement in art found in the fabulous painting, Starry Night. They'll examine the piece and then make their own version using tempera paint, white pencil, crayons, and construction...
Curated OER
Miriam Schapiro Action Figures Collage
Students create a background with a marbling technique. They plan and create a figure from assorted papers, mixing solids and patterns. Students glue the figure to the background, and embellish negative space with glitter.
Incredible Art
Micrography Self-Portraits
Words. Words. Words. Class members create micrography self-portraits combining a high contrast portrait photo with words that express themselves. Complete directions for the project, student samples, along with links to professional...
Curated OER
Study in Line Direction
Students study line direction in art. For this art lesson on lines, students look at art that portrays lines being used in different ways. They will use what they have learned about lines to create a final composition depicting either...
Curated OER
Inuit Sculpture
Kids in grade four through eight research Inuit artists and art styles. After a critical look at Inuit sculpture, they use those forms for inspiration as they create one of their own. They practice using the subtractive method of...
Curated OER
Using Fabrics in Your Art Curriculum
Students use a dicut machine to do block printing on fabric. In this fabric lesson plan, students draw, carve, and print onto blocks for this art project.
Asian Art Museum
Japanese Architecture for Elementary School Students
Art and architecture go hand-in-hand. Kids watch clips from the Hayo Miyazaki film Spirited Away to better understand Japanese customs and architecture. The discussion questions included are very good, and will help you lead the class in...
Pearson
Will for the Future; Future Time Markers
What will happen in the future? No one knows, but everyone can guess with the future tense! Young grammarians practice future time markers with a helpful presentation that focuses on air travel to space.
Virginia Department of Education
Developing an Essay: Word Choice
Grading essays after reading a novel written by a lyrical master (think Nabokov, Morrison, Chabon) is a deflating experience. Why can’t your student’s display the same skill in diction as your favorite writers? Because you did not use...
Curated OER
Graph Paper Patterns
Young artists divide a piece of graph paper into sections using rectangles, squares, and triangles. They then fill each section with patterns of shape and color. Elementary graders describe how their patterns are organized. Secondary...
Curated OER
Mondrian: Rectangles, Squares, & Balance, Oh My!
Students investigate the art of Piet Mondrian. They conduct Internet research, discuss Mondrian's artwork, play a computer game, and create an original work of art using Appleworks 6.
National Wildlife Federation
Wherefore Art Thou, Albedo?
In the sixth lesson in a series of 21, scholars use NASA data to graph and interpret albedo seasonally and over the course of multiple years. This allows learners to compare albedo trends to changes in sea ice with connections to the...
Curated OER
Blick Liquid Watercolor
Students explore the use of watercolors in the making of paintings that incorporate the use of shapes and overlapping them into new ones. The skills of using positive and negative space is strengthened as they are applied in these...
Curated OER
Carve a Free-Form Sculpture
Students construct a free-from sculpture. In this sculpting lesson, students use plaster of paris, a malt cup, and finishing tools to create a sculpture. Students share their finished art pieces.