National Gallery of Art
Van Gogh’s Self-Portraits
Scholars get to know famous Dutch painter, Vincent van Gogh, as an artist as well as a person. After reading personal letters and analyzing paintings, participants paint two self-portraits that represent their personality. Then, write a...
Sargent Art
Protect Our Marine Life
Encourage water conservation and boost art skills with a hands-on activity that challenges young painters to create a scene highlighting marine life. Using oil pastels, scholars draw an underwater scene and write a tip for viewers to...
Project Articulate
Textured Landscapes with Grant Wood
Explore the world of textured landscapes through the eyes of the famous artist, Grant Wood. Here is an elementary art lesson in which scholars learn about Grant Wood's life, view his work, draw their own textured landscape, and then...
Curated OER
Painting Without A Paintbrush
Students sketch a landscape scene and paint that scene using unconventional "paintbrushes" including forks, knives, squirt bottles, cotton swabs, toothpicks, water containers, and mat board.
Curated OER
Character Traits in Fables
Combining art, music, dance, and reading comprehension, this lesson is geared to reach all ability levels. After reading a variety of fables and discussing story elements and character traits, class members select a moral to use as the...
Curated OER
Toco Toucan - Oil Pastels
Learners create a picture of a toucan from the continent of South America using a pencil, marker, and oil pastels. Students identify the continent of South America and discuss the Toco Toucan. They follow teacher directions to create...
Curated OER
Lesson: Elizabeth Peyton: Pictures of Rock Stars: The Imagined
Youth, fame, and beauty are marks of modern society. Artist Elizabeth Peyton has captured all three in her series of imagined rock star portraits. The class analyzes her use of technique, emotion, and imagination in each of six pieces,...
Curated OER
Balance in Visual Art
High schoolers examine works of art to develop an understanding of the importance of visual balance in works of art and nature. Students research artists and their artwork for examples of visual balance. High schoolers create works of...
Curated OER
Mixed Media Ocean Art
Students design pictures of ocean environments. In this art lesson, students use mixed media art materials to develop a picture that depicts the ocean environment. They use paint, sand paper and various basic art materials.
Curated OER
Pastel Drawing like Vincent Van Gogh
Learners discuss the elements of art and design found in a series of flower paintings by Vincent Van Gogh. They explore art, shading, and color as they create mirrored representations of the master's art, using oil pastel.
Curated OER
Pastel Scratch Portrait
A great cross-curricular project for any art classroom, this activity encourages young artists to consider color, pattern, texture, shape and line in their depiction of a historical figure. After researching a historical figure of their...
Curated OER
Pop Art Ice Cream Painting
Students develop skills in painting and create a painting of an ice cream cone using Pop Art as in inspiration.
Curated OER
Drawing Movement
Students analyze visual arts by creating drawings in their classroom. In this art analysis lesson, students identify the paintings of Keith Haring by researching the web. Students utilize paper and oil pastels to create paintings based...
Curated OER
What's Outside the Window
What do your students see when they look outside the window? This project lets their imagination go wild, and lets you see what kind of daydreaming they do best. They each draw, paint, and color an image of what they imagine as they are...
Dick Blick Art Materials
Woodsies “Extraordinaire”
"This looks like an owl!" Kids get a chance to create all sorts of things by arranging various shapes, painting them, and gluing them together. A great way to encourage creativity and spontaneity.
Missoula Art Museum
Dance with Your Fingers, Draw with Your Toes
Pair dancing, music, and art into one elementary lesson. Using the work of Henri Matisse and Rudy Autio as inspiration, kids spend a few days listening to music that fits the moods of various pieces of art, then work on their own...
Curated OER
Glue Fish
Get out the glue and those oil pastels its time for an art project. The class explores shape, art, and color as they draw fish with glue, let them dry, and then color them as they wish. This project would be wonderful after discussing...
Curated OER
Changes in Western Art: From Realism To Cubism"
Students discover the influences of mid 19th and early 20th century art styles: Realism, Impressionism, Post / Neo Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism through an analysis of styles, subject matter, and media.
Curated OER
Telling Stories in Art: Witness to a Brawl
Students examine how a piece of art tells a story. In this visual art lesson, students interpret a piece of art work by writing a newspaper article that tells the story of the moment in time that is depicted in a picture. They work with...
Curated OER
Sand Painting Mural
Third graders design and create classroom sand painting mural which is comprised of individually designed pieces.
Curated OER
Explore the Elements of Art
Young scholars recognize elements of art such as texture, shape line and color. In this elements of art lesson, students create a still life picture with oil pastel or crayons. Young scholars define elements of art vocabulary. Students...
Curated OER
The Northern Renaissance
Differentiating between Northen European art and Italian art, these slides detail the intricacies of art during the Renaissance. The presentation features Flemish, French, German, and English art, as well as the art of Austria, Spain,...
Curated OER
Cave Paintings: Studying the Past
Students are introduced to prehistoric paintings with the cave art at Lascaux and Altamira. They, in groups, role-play the members of a clan and design appropriate cave paintings for their group.
Curated OER
Pinwheel Modern Art Styles
Students explore artistic design by creating pin wheel models in class. In this modern art lesson, students examine historic art work of Van Gogh, O'Keeffe and Mondrian before emulating their work on construction paper. Students utilize...