Curated OER
Lesson: Emory Douglas: Art and Activism
Visual literacy can be experienced in many different ways. Learners discuss the times, graphic art, and cultural significance of activism in art as they explore artist and Black Panther, Emory Douglas. This is a discussion-based lesson...
Curated OER
Simple Suminagashi
What a wonderful way to meld art and culture! Learners create art work in the Suminagashi style using this detailed lesson plan. This art form, which is Japanese in origin, employs ink to create beautiful results. This will be a hit with...
Curated OER
Lesson: Cultural Comparisons
A game, research, and cross-cultural comparisons are in the works as you open an artistic lesson. Upper graders get analytical as they make observations that will help them create a link between abstract and creative thinking. They...
National Gallery of Canada
A Cultural Portrait
Explore heritage and identity through an examination of art and a related project. The featured art, related to the African diaspora, includes several types of art created by different artists. Pupils consider their own backgrounds and...
Curated OER
Visual Arts - Mexican Indian Yarn Painting
Have you ever seen a Mexican yarn painting? They're beautiful! Create a Mexican yarn painting with your class using this lesson. Start by discussing Mexico's culture and viewing different yarn paintings. After reading about important...
Curated OER
Japanese Tea and Teacups
Upper graders use the potter's wheel to make Japanese style tea cups, which they will use in a Japanese style tea ceremony. They hone their sculpting techniques while exploring Japanese cultural and the history of tea. There are two...
K20 LEARN
Diversity Quilt: A Lesson on Culture
After brainstorming the various aspects of cultural identity, class members interview each other, examine video clips, and read stories to discover how these aspects reveal one's cultural identity. Individuals then craft a quilt square...
Curated OER
Dance: Discovering the Culture of Gullah
It's wonderful to see a lesson that incorporates art, movement, and writing. These three forms of creative expression are explored as learners dance to music from the Gullah people of West Africa. They analyze several paintings, listen...
Smithsonian Institution
Spirits Across the Ocean: Yoruban and Dahomean Cultures in the Caribbean Brought by the Slave Trade
Much of Latin American music owes its origins to the slave trade. Peoples from the Yoruban and Dahomean cultures brought with them the distinctive rhythms, time signatures, and eighth note patterns that now characterize Caribbean music....
Curated OER
Masks of Many Cultures: Celebrations of Life
Bring art and society together with this highly creative and interesting lesson. Learners research various uses of masks in ceremonies. They then create a ceremony of their own and a mask to go along with it. They film themselves...
Curated OER
Australian Aboriginal Art and Storytelling
Young explorers investigate Australian Aboriginal culture by listening to traditional Dreamtime stories and examining dot paintings created by Aboriginal artists. In addition, they locate the country on maps, discuss the geography of...
Curated OER
Mexican Culture “La Raspa”
Here are three lessons that work together to engage learners in a cultural and musical exploration. In lesson plan one the listen to the Mexican folk song, "La Raspa" and discuss cultural context. In lesson plan two they dance along to...
Curated OER
The Art and History of Japanese Calligraphy
Chinese and Japanese calligraphy is beautiful and significant in both culture and tradition. Engage your class in this expressive fine art form through a lesson on using, holding, and creating brush strokes common to Japanese writing...
Curated OER
Looking at different cultures and how music from differing cultures changes movements, meaning and mood
Each of the three dance lessons included here will get your class moving. The first lesson allows learners to explore how music and movement differ in meaning depending on cultural context. Lesson two gives them an opportunity to create...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Celebrate Your Culture
After a class discussion about celebrations and customs, class members draw pictures depicting special events from their family cultures. Next, they draw pictures of an event from a different culture and share their work with classmates.
Curated OER
Rudyard Kipling's Rikki-Tikki-Tavi: Mixing Words and Pictures
Create meaningful illustrations to accompany stories in a web-based art and literacy lesson focused on "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" by Rudyard Kipling. The class takes a virtual art safari with the Museum of Modern Art and then discusses how...
Cleveland Museum of Art
Japanese Folktales (Asian Odyssey)
The Cleveland Museum of Art presents this interdisciplinary model unit that asks class members to explore how the same themes are presented in the folktales and art of several cultures.
Curated OER
Japan: Traditions and Culture
A series of four activities explores Japanese culture and traditions. Learners participate in a re-enacted tea ceremony; examine sketches of Asian figures by Canadian artist Robert Harris, discuss symbols, investigate Japanese mon,...
Smithsonian Institution
Affirmation, Assimilation, and Acculturation: Middle School
Latin American culture is deeply embedded in American culture as a whole. From the Latin rock scene in San Francisco to the hip-hop world of New York, Latin American artists have influenced every genre of modern music. Learn about the...
Curated OER
We are Reflections of Canada - Our People, Our Places, and Our Landscape
A series of four lessons on the places, people, and landscape of Canada. These excellent lessons should provide your charges with an increased understanding of the history and culture of Canada - the largest country in North America....
National Gallery of Canada
Make a Parfleche
Examine American Indian art and culture by observing contemporary art and creating original pieces. Class members discuss artwork included in the plan and use these images to help inspire their own work, which should represent...
Curated OER
The Harlem Renaissance Births a Black Culture
Students examine the men and women who were a part of the Harlem Renaissance. Individually, they recreate their favorite pieces of art from the time period and create their own original works after reading poem from the movement. In...
Denver Art Museum
Tea Gathering Quick-Write
Japanese tea gatherings are the inspiration for a great activity. Learners are provided with an image of a tea caddy made for thick tea and asked to describe what they notice and what that might mean. This leads into a larger activity...
Curated OER
Lesson: After Nature: Visions and Visionaries
Build visual literacy, discussion, and critical thinking skills with an innovative art lesson. Young analysts discuss the use of decalcomania, surrealism, and automatism in various contemporary pieces, discuss constructed truth, and...