Curated OER
Ancient Aztecs
Is it a calendar? A religious symbol? A political statement? One thing for certain is that Aztec sun stone designs remain an important symbol in Mexican cultural art. Young artists craft their own Aztec Sun design incorporating ideas...
Curated OER
Masking Tape Masterpieces
Young scholars create non-objective art based on the design elements of line, color, balance and movement using tape. This simple lesson plan encourages students to create patterns by overlapping and defining lines on a canvas panel. One...
Curated OER
Name Patterns
Here is a fun, colorful, and engaging art project that is sure to get your kids excited! They make a piece of art using watercolor paints, and by making a design out of the letters of their first name. This would be a fantasti art...
Curated OER
Paper Maché Mancala Game Boards
Seventh graders create three dimensional works of art from two dimensional plans, develop skills in papier-mach?? technique, utilize elements and principles of design to create 3-D form, and develop math/strategy skills in playing the...
Curated OER
Paper Bag Butterfly Puppets
Whether you're using it to tell stories, explore the letter b, or during a life science lesson, these butterfly puppets will be a hit. Youngsters use crayons, tissue paper, and paper bags to create butterfly puppets.
Curated OER
Understanding Symmetry Through Visual Art
Have your class explore symmetry, radial balance and fractional parts in natural and man-made objects in their environment. Learners list examples and identify symmetrical and asymmetrical designs. Pupils are given a box of crayons and...
Curated OER
Stories in Quilts
Have your class analyze the narrative art in quilts. They identify elements in this domestic art and the stories they tell. They define a story quilt, view an example, and analyze the work of Harriet Power. This is a great lesson to...
PBS
Breaking it Down
After challenging themselves to correctly choose the form of erosion and length of time required for a given landform to develop, earth science class members model mechanical and chemical weathering with various lab demonstrations over...
Noyce Foundation
Pizza Crusts
Enough stuffed crust to go around. Pupils calculate the area and perimeter of a variety of pizza shapes, including rectangular and circular. Individuals design rectangular pizzas with a given area to maximize the amount of crust and do...
National Portrait Gallery (UK)
Explore Elizabeth I
Keen observation skills are an essential trait for good artists. Discuss the elements of a portrait with your class using terminology such as, full-face, profile, quarter-length, full-length. After that, they can use the included...
Armory Center for the Arts
Place Value Collage
How can art represent math? Use a lesson plan on place value collages to illustrate the different meanings that numbers have in their designated places. Kids observe photographs and paintings that show place value, then work on their own.
American Museum of Natural History
Bio-Benefits
Kick-start a discussion of the importance of biodiversity with a colorful resource that touts the benefits of maintaining healthy ecosystems. The images stress the interdependence of all the elements of an ecosystem.
Curated OER
Finding Historical Motifs in Today's Furniture
Middle schoolers observe and explain continuity with the past in contemporary furniture design.
Curated OER
Artsy Insects
Learners identify and describe the elements of art and principles of design by creating several different butterfly pictures that represent color, shape, texture, pattern or symmetry.
Curated OER
Interior Design, Lesson 4
Students choose furnishings and accessories based on color, line, pattern, texture, shape, and mood. They discuss how interiors are affected by furniture arrangements and traffic patterns and examine furniture and make a grouping of...
Curated OER
Places and Spaces in Art
Pupils examine and describe the houses of Baie Saint-Paul. They name the colors used and the shapes in the roof. Using a gable roof design, they draw their own house. They discover the architectrual elements in their own community as...
Curated OER
Simple Machines
Learners design objects in the Museum of Modern Art's collection of simple machines. In this simple machines lesson, students explore the machine age in the MoMA's design collection. Learners identify simple machines and the elements in...
Curated OER
Joseph Stella Art: Line Designs
Students discover the focal point in pictures and create their own images using lines and space. In this art analysis lesson, students create a black dot on a white paper which becomes a focal point for the lines the student will...
Curated OER
Class of Cards
Young scholars create patterns using images of everyday objects, shapes, or colors and four logos for use in a House of Cards. In this design lesson, students examine the work of Charles and Ray Eames and become familiar with the...
Curated OER
Carbon: Structure Matters
Students read the Who We Are Section on Calfee Designs Webpage and discuss carbon usage. They work in pairs to look up the minerals diamond and graphite then create a chart on the properties of each mineral then compare how they differ...
Curated OER
Shaping the View: Composition Basics
High schoolers view images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art web site, and list the objects and figures in the image. They discuss the way their eyes move around the canvas and take note of where their eyes fall, follow and finish....
Curated OER
Tony Cragg-Evidence
Students demonstrate an understanding of basic elements and principles of art making such as unity, variety, movement, and meaning found in daily experiences. They also describe the meaning of students¿ own artwork in a written statement.
Curated OER
Symmetrical Snowflakes
First graders, exploring lines of symmetry, follow directions to create a symmetrical snowflake from their own homemade icing. As a class, they discuss lines of symmetry and determine if specific shapes are symmetrical. After the lesson,...
Curated OER
Visual Elements in the Giant Kites of Guatemala: Shape, Rhythm, and Color
Students view pictures of and discuss geometric shapes included in kites from Guatemala. They discuss the repetition of shapes and how that creates a motif. Students draw three concentric arches across their paper. They create a design...