Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Let’s Count!: Challenge Activities (Theme 5)
Challenge young scholars with a counting-themed series of activities. Your counters will write invitations to a feast, create books about dinner parties and animals, design posters, draw pictures of their favorite peaceful places,...
Core Knowledge Foundation
Sixth Grade Poetry
Study some of the most prominent poets and works of poetry in history with a language arts poetry unit. From Virgil to Shakespeare to Dickinson to Angelou, the resources present biographies and examples of poetic elements to...
Curated OER
Be the Poet
Students work through a Haiku Organizer to determine the characteristics they use to write eight haiku poems on a theme that they choose. They design presentation folders of their completed work.
Curated OER
Designing Detectives
Third graders explore the idea of formulating a hypothesis and designing an experiment to test the hypothesis.
Curated OER
3-D Design - Painting
High schoolers explain elements of relief sculpture. They create a sculpture from foam. They identify characteristics of the art of Clayton Pond and Pop Art. They develop skills in working with color.
Curated OER
Drawing With Scissors Like Matisse
Students study the life and art style of Henri Matisse. They view various prints from his early and late art styles. Then students draw something they enjoy and cut out pieces of colored construction paper and glue them onto pieces of...
Curated OER
Drawing Plants with Plant Studio Freeware
Students identify parts of plants by name and the relationship among these parts as they use Plant Studio Freeware Wizard and tools on the computer to draw a particular plant from life or from a picture.
Curated OER
Mathematics Alive: Environment and Design of Human Habitats
Third graders explore the structural composition of buildings and houses. In this math instructional activity, 3rd graders explain how architecture is related to mathematics. They create a blueprint of a structure with at least three...
Creative Educator
Dream Room Design
Using the Twist™ application, elementary schoolers design their dream room. They follow the prescribed steps to calculate width, length, perimeter, and surface area in order to create a 2-dimensional representation of their dream room...
Curated OER
Machines: Designing Form and Function
Learners design a boat model with simplified steam engine. In this ecology lesson, students compare renewable and nonrenewable energy sources. They determine the efficiency of their boat model.
Curated OER
Refining and Reasoning Behind Scale Drawings
Students discuss accuracy and the need for it in blueprints in order to create the final project. They further refine and perfect drawings as part of the school drawing project. Students create a blueprint for the new school building...
Curated OER
Math: Checking Scale Drawings for Accuracy
Students critique their own drawings for accuracy and make constructive suggestions prior to reworking them. They discover how scale in maps and drawing relate to relative size and distance. In addition, students comprehend the...
Curated OER
Design Your Space
Students evaluate the acceptable use of classroom space. The class participated in a brief lecture and discuss of floor plans and how they are used in architecture. Using graph paper, they create a scale drawing of the classroom...
Curated OER
Making Faces: Understanding Artifacts Through Design Elements
Students examine and discuss drinking container artifacts from Jamestown. They view images of the artifacts, discuss their purposes, draw an original facial expression for a brown paper jug, and write a description of the facial expression.
National Gallery of Canada
Panoramic Landscapes
Combine landscape with collage to create unique art pieces. Class members examine works of art before creating their own pieces with photos of a special place. Learners create a panoramic image and add in figures.
Curated OER
Figurative Slot Sculptures
Middle schoolers create 3-dimensional works of art in the form of slot sculptures. I love this lesson, because it exposes students to a completely different form of art. Everything you need to do to successfully-implement this lesson is...
Code.org
Canvas and Arrays in Apps
Scholars learn how to make a digital canvas and fill it with artwork by creating a drawing app using the canvas element. The activity requires learners to previous knowledge of arrays and return commands to draw images.
Nancy Fetzer's Literacy Connections
Expository Paragraph
Upper elementary and middle school writers learn how to craft an expository paragraph by following the six steps detailed in a 48-page instructional guide. Learners learn how to write six different types of informational paragraphs:...
Sandra Effinger
Bulletin Board Project
Imagine a project that informs and entertains. Replace book reports with a bulletin board that highlights all the important elements of a novel. Readers research the author, create a timeline of events in the story, write a...
Star Wars in the Classroom
Star Wars Geography Unit
What kind of animals live on an ice planet like Hoth? How would the habitat on Tatooine allow different organisms to thrive? Connect social studies, science, and Star Wars in one engaging activity that focuses on the ecosystems...
Penguin Books
An Educator's Guide to Matched by Ally Condie
Even supposed Utopian societies have their flaws. Using an educator's guide, individuals explore the society Ally Condie creates in Matched. Reflective writing prompts double as discussion questions and cover key themes in the novel, as...
Curated OER
Fine Art to Animation With Keith Haring
Students examine artwork and Flip Books by Keith Haring. They analyze elements of line and color through drawing and create their own morphes using a computer animation marker.
Curated OER
I. M. Pei and the Geometry of the NGA
Students compare design elements in neoclassical and modern architecture. They review knowledge of triangles and quadrilaterals and design a geometric pattern using Pei's polygons They create a city plan using a variety of lines and...
Curated OER
Line and Pattern Design Paper Sculpture
The students create patterns and repeat colors for unity. They explore organic shapes and demonstrate awareness of design principles and art elements. They then create 3-D paper relief from a 2-D surface and demonstrate the difference...