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Friendship Portraits
Students explore sculpture. In this lesson about sculpting, students create a portrait bust. Students choose a classmate to make a bust of and apply all of the necessary elements to their bust. Students will have a better understanding...
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Contemporizing Myths
Students examine Rembrandt's "Abduction of Europa." In this Greek art lesson, students discuss how the artist has taken an ancient Greek myth and contemporized it. Students read origin myths and choose a scene to illustrate in a...
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Using the Patterns and Symbols of Mali Mud Cloth to Convey Identity
Students participate in relating the role of the arts in defining identity. They examine the community in West African society and how members of that community define their role. They view how artifacts, music and performance can...
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Oragami Village Diorama
Students take advantage of the qualities and characteristics of art media, techniques, and processes to enhance communication of their experiences and ideas. Then they select and evaluate a range of subject matter, symbols, and ideas of...
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Children's Book Creations
Students create a children's book version of the Japanese folk story "Momotaro Boy of the Peach" and present the story to elementary students. For this children's book lesson, students design their book to explain Japanese culture to...
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Looking At Illuminated Manuscripts: Exploring an Illuminated Manuscript Page
Students investigate illuminated manuscript pages from the Medieval period. In this illuminated manuscript lesson, students examine 13th century pages and compare them to modern printed works. They describe the details of an illuminated...
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Sculpting a Message: From the Counter-Reformation to the Present Day
Students discuss persuasive messages in art. In this art history lesson, students research 17th- century European sculptures to find the messages given. They create their own sculptures and write press releases to explain their art.
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If These Walls Could Talk
Students compare Neoclassical objects from the Getty collection to American civic architecture of the time. They discuss the moral and political ideas of the Enlightenment and articulate how these art forms influenced democratic thought...
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Combating Corrosion
Students perform an experiment to show the chemical reactions that occur when metal corrodes. They apply the results of the experiment to the conservation efforts of art curators trying to restore an ancient Greek bronze. This...
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Vanished Occupations: Life on an Iron Plantation
Learners analyze photographs to understand life on a plantation. In this vanished occupations lesson, students examine why iron plantations were created and what natural resources were needed to make iron. Learners compare the...
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Neoclassical Influences
Students study how artists of the Neoclassical period were influenced by major historical events during the Enlightenment. They identify and analyze the Neoclassical style. discuss and identify the historical influences of Neoclassical...
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Light in Art
Third graders investigate the effect of light and dark on the art viewer's perceptions and emotions. They consider black and white illustrations along with paintings by Rembrandt and Vermeer. They conduct experiments with light and write...
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Reading Stories in Art
Learners study how artists tell stories using visual images by identifying and comparing elements of narrative (setting, characters, and plot) in a painting and a Greek vase.
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American Indian Art
Fourth graders discover and gain an understanding of American Indian art creating three beads out of clay, showing texture on at least one bead to make a balanced bracelet. They then explain either orally or in writing what kinds of...
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Figure of Speech
Examine the changing nature of language in the U.S. View and discuss excerpts from a PBS documentary with your class and then conduct Internet research, and complete a team project on the evolution of teen expressions.
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Honey Bees and Communication
Did you know that honey bees dance to communicate information? Do you know why bees use hexagons to build their hives? The Honeybee Man, Brilliant Bees, and Show me the Honey provide background information on how honey bees communicate....
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I Am Special and You Are Special Too #5
The student create a drawing of themselves through the use of multicultural people color crayons. They explain to a teacher what makes them special. Students investigate family types, skin color, eye color, hair color, and favorites.
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Face Study: Draw the Other Half
Build fine motor, spatial, and drawing skills by having the class complete the other half of a portrait. They choose an image of a face from a magazine, then attempt to draw the other half of the face as accurately as they can. Two book...
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Puzzle Trees
Elementary artists use a collage and multi-media technique to create textured trees. They study the fall trees, discussing texture and what bare trees look like. They then use a variety of materials to create a textural piece.
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Leaf People
Kids create leaf people out of sticks, glue, and leaves. They use their imagination to construct leaf people and then glue them onto construction paper. Tip: Extend this craft by incorporating writing. Have learners write a short story...
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Toothpick Sculpture
You'll be surprized at how much engineering, design, and creativity can go into a toothpick and a marshmallow. Learners make toothpick sculptures where they construct three-dimentional models by sticking marshmallows and toothpicks...
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Florida Blue Crab
Explore the extraordinary creatures of the ocean! Learners create Florida Blue Crabs (imitation of course) using blue paint and their hand prints. This is a cute supplementary project perfect for an ocean-themed unit or preschool...
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Mixing Colors with Corn Syrup and Food Coloring
Anyone who has worked with small children know that color identification and color mixing can be fun! This simple idea has a lot of potential. It suggests to mix food coloring with corn syrup to provide an opportunity for color mixing...
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Warm/cool Colors - Page 4
Students draw pictures that make them feel either warm or cool using only the warm and cool colors.