MENSA Education & Research Foundation
Magical Musical Tour: Using Lyrics to Teach Literary Elements
Language arts learners don't need a lecture about poetry; they listen to poetry every day on the radio! Apply skills from literary analysis to famous songs and beautiful lyrics with a lesson about literary devices. As class...
Curated OER
Traditions and Languages of Three Native Cultures: Tlingit, Lakota, and Cherokee
Students explore the connections between tradition and language. They examine the environment, history and culture of the Tlingit, Lakota and Cherokee tribes and identify the importance of maintaining languages for oral traditions.
Curated OER
What Can I Do?
Students identify how they are feeling and deal with feelings constructively. For this conflict resolution lesson, students explore their feelings through discussion. Students read and complete the What Can I Do? e-sheet. Students "think...
Curated OER
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Discuss the life of Franklin D. Roosevelt. This story, called "Franklin D. Roosevelt" by Laura Hamilton Waxman, is used to explore comprehension skills. Some of these skills include identifying prefixes and suffixes, making comparisons,...
Curated OER
A Sign of Their Times
Students identify the social climate that created the terms Degenerative Art and Fascist Aesthetic. They also identify how and why certain artists' artwork fell into these categories. Students recognize and discuss the Expressionist...
Curated OER
Character Study
Third graders work in pairs to choose two characters and find their similarities and differences. For this character lesson, 3rd graders compare characters by their actions and attributes. Students individually complete a graphic...
Museum of Tolerance
Improving My Community Through Social Action
Action is the heart of change. Encourage class members to not only identify critical social justice issues in their school or community but to take action as well. As individuals or as groups, they research a situation, develop a...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Cinderella
Reading fairy tales is so much fun! Learners use dramatic play to assist them in defining and expressing the main theme found in the story of Cinderella. Each group is given a story card and will create a tableau based on the main point...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Puppet Scenes
Explore character, plot, and setting through dramatic puppet play. Second graders discuss basic story elements and then practice making a character with their sock puppets. After they've crafted a dynamic puppet, they pair up to create a...
Curated OER
Sculpture in Balance
Students discuss the difference betwen two-dimensional vs. three-dimensional art. In this art lesson, students discuss what symmetry or balance is in art and construct a symmetrical and an asymmetrical mobile.
Curated OER
CREATIVE PRINCIPLES
Jr. high learners review the basic principles of design (balance, unity, movement, rhythm, pattern, contrast and emphasis) by watching a video by Gerald Brommer. Then they provide "aerobic exercise" for the right side of their brains by...
US Department of Health and Human Services
Learning Something New: How Does It Feel?
Use song and dance to help your youngsters identify their feelings and embrace learning. Starting with a brainstorming activity, class members talk about learning new things and how this made them feel. After listing to the song, and...
Curated OER
Arts Mart
Students identify the goals of an art museum as conservation, recreation, research, and education. They explain the businesses engage in activities that help achieve their goals and they describe a business plan. Pupils work in museum...
Curated OER
Natural Collaboration: Building With the Five Elements of Art
Students assemble found natural objects into an artistic arrangement. They photograph their arrangement and Photoshop to enhance their artwork.
Curated OER
Isamu Noguchi/Stone Sculpture
Students examine the art and history of Japan and use it to help them conceptualize and create a work of art that reveals something about their own culture. They examine, interpret and analyze Noguchi's work and reveal information...
Curated OER
Color Me Happy: Color, Mood, and Tone
High schoolers identify color schemes in paintings and discuss the ways in which color is used to convey a mood or tone in a work of art.
Curated OER
Me, My Digital Self, and Eye
Students create digital self-portraits for use in a collage. In this technology lesson, students create an original work of art in which they identify a variety of images that reflect their personality. Students complete a...
Curated OER
Follow the Leader: Line in the Visual Arts
Students identify line in the composition of a number of art works. They explain how the artist's compositional choices guide the viewer's eye to important components of the image. Students identify sight lines in several paintings and...
Curated OER
Artful Technology
Students read the article 'Fading Indian Rock Art Saved, at least in Database' and discuss its contents. After viewing examples of works from a variety of periods and places, students choose a time and place on which to conduct research.
Curated OER
Cave Art: Discovering Prehistoric Humans through Pictures
Young scholars explore how people in earlier times used art as a way to record stories and communicate ideas. By studying paintings from the Cave of Lascaux and other caves in France, students discover that pictures are more than pretty...
Curated OER
Understanding Fantasy
Explore fantasy as a genre. After working in small groups to identify literary elements in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, class members share their work and then use the presentations to help them prepare to write...
Curated OER
Tree Identification/Tree Art
Seventh graders identify and examine a deciduous and coniferous tree. Using the descriptions, they discover the types of tress in their local area. As a class, they practice identifying trees on a walk in a park collecting leaves. They...
Curated OER
Art Imitating Life
Learners investigate art to discover the role of women in history. In this fine arts lesson plan, students examine art pieces from the Internet and identify the time period and the civilization it came from. Learners discuss their...
E Reading Worksheets
Figurative Language Finder
To demonstrate their understanding of figurative language, middle schoolers use a guided reading worksheet to find examples of figurative language in a text, identify the technique being used, and to explain how they were able to...