John F. Kennedy Center
Comparing Cultural Holidays
A instructional activity examines the holidays, Día de los Muertos and Halloween. After an exciting clip from the movie Coco, class members review vocabulary and discuss what they know about Halloween. The conversation leads into...
John F. Kennedy Center
Musical Harlem: How Is Jazz Music Reflective of the Harlem Renaissance?
Bring jazz music and the Harlem Renaissance to light with a instructional activity that challenges scholars to research and create. Pupils delve deep into information materials to identify jazz terminology, compare types of jazz and jazz...
John F. Kennedy Center
Baila! Latin Dance in the Spanish Classroom
One, two, three. One, two, three. Invite your language learners to practice the steps for researching and presenting information. Each small group has the task of explaining one Latin dance in full detail.
John F. Kennedy Center
Writing a Myth
Tap into the imaginative minds of young learners with a creative writing activity. After reading the myth Giants and Mosquitoes, this student guide supports young writers as they brainstorm and develop their very own creation myths....
John F. Kennedy Center
Folktale Theatre
Introduce your middle schoolers to a performance and movement activity that uses their favorite stories from fairytales and folklore. They practice basic acting skills, create dialogues with a partner, and then as guided practice,...
John F. Kennedy Center
Jazz music, Dance and Poetry
Students view video and become familiar with the type of movement in jazz dance. In this jazz dance lesson, students write a cinquain about jazz dance. Students recognize the elements of jazz dance and the type of music...
John F. Kennedy Center
Acting Up, A Melodrama: Performing Like Jo March and Her Sisters in Little Women
Lights, Camera, Action! Pupils read Little Women and create, act, and direct a melodrama that Jo March and her sisters would enjoy. The lesson plan comes complete with resources for the educator on melodrama as well as examples...
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Art Critiques Made Easy
A tipsheet giving ideas on how to encourage young scholars to think and speak critically about visual arts, music, dance, and even literature.
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Lift Every Voice and Sing
Explore and analyze "Lift Every Voice and Sing" , a poem by James Weldon Johnson, which was set to music and is considered the "Black National Anthem."
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Masks and Aesop's Fables
This multi-media visual and language arts activity offers intellectual, creative, and interpretive opportunities through use of books, music, and the internet. It offers complete grade-leveled lesson plans for grades k-4 which include...
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Writing Myths
With this lesson plan students can examine creation myths, then write their own unique story. Provides plenty of links to more information, an assessment rubric, and thirteen extension ideas!
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Lesson: Weather and Wind
Here's an engaging activity to incorporate dance into your science lessons on weather! Students study wind, and various weather patterns, then create their own dance to illustrate what they have learned. Provides links to more...
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Lesson: You Too Can Haiku
Here's a creative lesson for students to examine various haikus, and Japanese culture, then write their own haiku poem, and illustrate it using watercolors! Provides plenty of links to more information, a thorough explanation of the...
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Balancing Mobiles
In this lesson plan, students will apply mathematical, science, and engineering concepts to experiment with balancing levers. They will learn to classify types of levers to design and build a simplified mobile. Students will explore...
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Lesson: Navajo Weaving
Intergrating dance into your social studies lesson on the Navajo culture will give your learners a glimpse into another way of life. They will use their knowledge of loom weaving, Native Americans, and creative dance to express these...
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Brass Instruments and Pitch
Students will enjoy making their own brass instrument with this interesting lesson plan. Objectives include what factors affect the pitch of brass instruments and what determines pitch.
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Elements of Fables
This ArtsEdge unit on fables shows how to compare and contrast, read and write fables, and discuss the elements they contain. Has great links, definitions, and fable examples.
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Exploring Weather Conditions in Paintings
Enrich your science activity with watercolors! This lesson plan contains assessment criteria, links to more information, and step-by-step ideas to cultivate your young scholars' knowledge about weather conditions.
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
One of the finest sites of its kind on the Internet, ArtsEdge is dedicated to supporting arts education through such initiatives as curriculum development, cross-curricular teaching, and technology integration. Find arts-related...
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Migrant Workers Through the Lens of Dorothea Lange
Using song lyrics and Dorothea Lange's photographs, students will explore the hardships migrant workers faced during the Great Depression.
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Lesson: A Listening Doll
In this lesson plan, students explore the tradition of Pueblo "Listening dolls" and create their own version of this historical tradition. Also contains a rubric, extensions, and books to use as references.
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: A World of Myths
Students investigate how people throughout history have used myths to understand natural occurrences.
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Arts Edge: Navajo Weaving
After studying Navajo weaving and listening to the story "Ten Little Rabbits," students create their own interpretive dances. Contains an assessment checklist and extensions ideas.
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Arts Edge: Rhythm and Art
This curriculum unit from the Kennedy Center's ArtsEdge program presents an introduction to the concept of visual rhythm and explores the intersection of visual and auditory rhythm. The unit is divided into six lessons focusing on...