Browse by: Discipline · Most Recent · Grades K-4 · Grades 5-8 · Grades 9-12
Lesson Plans by Discipline - Crafts
Grades K – 4 |
Grade Level |
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Students experiment with texture by turning a liquid into a solid and finally into a 3-D work of art. |
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From Mayco Colors, this lesson gives students the opportunity to explore the history and function of masks in various cultures and times. Students will be able to learn and master basic hand building and sculpting techniques using either self-hardening clay or clay requiring kiln firing. |
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Students will study works of stained glass as a one dimensional art form and adapt what they learn to a three dimensional sculpture — a brilliantly-colored transparent mobile. |
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“Write” names and messages by stringing beads on a bendable wire. Hang finished pieces in a window, string on a necklace or around a hat, pin to a bulletin board or display on a piece of matboard as a piece of art. |
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Beads can be made from a variety of materials, including Wonderfoam, chenille stems and Woodsies. |
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Students trace the contour of everyday classroom objects, overlapping them to form new shapes within the outlines. This exercise strengthens students' skills in using positive and negative space and creating abstract designs based on shapes. |
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The coarse, open weave of burlap substitutes for a weaving loom in this fiber art project. |
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Explore the history of carnival masks in various cultures, such as Mardi Gras in New Orleans, the Carnival of Venice and "Commedia Dell'arte" in Italy. Ornate and colorful masks are easy to create with Scratch-Art® Clear-Scratch™ film and permanent Sharpie® markers. |
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Teach your students how to make paper with this project. |
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Listed are colorful samples of simple fans. Discuss the importance of fans and how they were used to keep people comfortable for years. |
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Easy, Breezy "Screen Printing" Screenprints (also called "serigraphs") are greatly simplified with Scratch-A-Print and water-based paint. Multiple prints can be made on mini-size canvas, then made into ornaments, pendants, gift tags, etc. |
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Experience an archeological dig, right in your own classroom! Students create fossils the way that nature does - by making impressions and filling them. |
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Examples of intricately-designed stained glass can be found around the world: from gothic and medieval cathedral glass, to the art of Louis Tiffany and John La Farge. This project creates the look of stained glass in a simple process using Scratch-Art® Clear-Scratch™ film and permanent Sharpie® markers. |
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This lesson incorporates classroom-friendly acrylic felt and basic sewing/assemblage skills that can be adjusted for various age levels. |
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Certain people influence our lives in such a way that they leave "fingerprints" behind. These simple beads make great friendship bracelets. |
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Lots of texture, color and dimension. The cultural diversity in the United States provides for many, many masks which represent traditional images. This fun mask requires children to create a mask just for themselves. |
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Children will create their own journals, sketchbooks, or scrapbooks with this project. |
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Students learn to apply yarn painting techniques in combining their ideas and their art. |
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"Toro Nagashi", the Japanese Festival of Floating Lanterns is a beautiful event involving floating paper lanterns. Using YUPO paper and multiple mediums, students make lanterns for indoor or outdoor use. |
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Found in art and architecture around the world, labyrinths are associated with metaphor, mystery and mythology. Incorporating various materials, students create their own labyrinths that may also be used as a simple game. |
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Even young students can achieve beautiful results — without the use of chemicals or special materials. |
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Create unique and dazzling masks with an exciting Mardi Gras sparkle! |
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This simple lesson plan encourages students to create patterns by overlapping and defining lines on a canvas panel, and add dimension by incorporating more canvases or objects. |
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Create classroom fun with magnetic puzzles, a great exercise for classroom art history discussions. Each student can take home a masterpiece for their refrigerator. |
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This easy, kid-friendly project creates ornaments that sparkle and shine using Crayola Crayons and Sculpey III oven-bake polymer clay. |
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This lesson plan is inspired by the brightly colored pottery of Mexico. This simple papier mâché version casts paper pulp into a textured bowl using an existing plastic or ceramic bowl as a mold. |
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This project uses pastels – a favored medium of Impressionist artists – drawn onto matte surface Shrink Film. The chalk of the pastels doesn't actually shrink, it simply condenses along with the film to form rich, intense areas of color. |
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Early experiment with construction of slab clay techniques. An excellent introduction to the use of materials in a responsible manner. |
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A very easy mosaic project that is enjoyable for all ages. Even very young children will enjoy pressing objects into the moist clay. |
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Native American Burlap Weaving Students will learn about Native American craft art, basketry, rugs, clothes. These crafts were decorative as well as utilitarian, made for everyday use and also for ceremonial use. Students will also learn the use of symmetrical designs in Native American art. |
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Many Plains Indian tribes created masks for their horses to give them a look of intimidating power and fierceness. Students create a horse-shaped mask that can be worn or hung for display. |
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Native American Indians are famous for their beautiful turquoise and silver jewelry and belts. The Indians, who were very close to the earth and spiritual people, believed that certain animals, birds, etc. possessed special powers. They would carve these spirit totems into their jewelry and then wear them for good luck. Students will be introduced to different examples of Indian jewelry. |
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Teach students about the unique symbolism of Native American culture while they learn valuable design and drawing skills. |
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Students learn to work with leather in the manner of Native American craftsmen. |
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Students learn a very basic bookbinding technique incorporating a dimensional object and simple fastening method. |
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This lesson plan will help students relate to and understand a Native American Culture as well as helping them learn geographical directions. |
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Introduce students to calligraphy, ink, folding and dyeing techniques. The end result is a beautiful banner they will be proud to hang up! |
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Personal flags are expressions of a student's own life in symbols and serve as a link between the student and his or her environment. |
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Button art is an inexpensive, creative project that's easy to do with a group, and produces great results. |
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Students construct a 3-dimensional form and fill it with rice to make gentle, percussive sounds. |
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This project is a great way to teach color mixing and will easily link with social studies disciplines following Asian cultures (Japanese and Chinese silk painting) and also with science, as botanical studies. |
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Students study the anatomy of a flower, and create and identify its parts. |
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An easy bookmaking lesson that works across the entire curriculum. Students make books to use as journals or scrapbooks and fill with personnel stories or poetry, sketches or photos. |
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Students make printmaking papers, cards, book covers, picture frames and photo mats. |
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Make beautiful boxes to fill with good wishes. They make perfect gifts and give students experience with the arts of Calligraphy and Origami. |
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A great project! Fun, quick, and inexpensive. |
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Students learn the fine art of weaving and explore theories of form, space, movement, color and value. |
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The Huichol Indians used yarn to decorate gourds, clothing and other items. The yarn was applied in rows of varying colors and patterns. Bottles are a 3-D surface that offers endless design possibilities. |
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Students create a freestanding 3-dimensional sculpture using wire and modeled "clay" pieces. |
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Grades 5 – 8 |
Grade Level |
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Students create stunning transparent, glass-like mosaic pieces with acrylic paint and polymer gloss medium. |
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Students experiment with texture by turning a liquid into a solid and finally into a 3-D work of art. |
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Students will repeat a design with handmade stamps. They will learn about traditional African fabric design, dyeing and decorative stitching. Rather than copy a traditional art form from another culture, students will be inspired by their symbols and techniques and apply those to their own images to make the work personally significant. |
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Creates African-inspired art by covering paper-maché boxes with Leather Bookcloth. Emboss with patterns and textures and add colorful beads by gluing or stitching. |
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Create Hawaiian-inspired shirts with brightly-colored flowers, leaves, and fish by printing them using fabric paints. "Gyotaku" - the Japanese word for "fish print"- is a fun and exciting way to give shirts an island beach look. |
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Using Tee Juice® Fabric Markers, students design a pair of painted shoes reminiscent of a famous artist's style and choices of subjects and colors. |
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Bead bottles are the result of studying Huichol beaded gourds. Their technique can be applied to 3D objects available to students. Hours and hours of dedication are involved in the small bottle art. |
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“Write” names and messages by stringing beads on a bendable wire. Hang finished pieces in a window, string on a necklace or around a hat, pin to a bulletin board or display on a piece of matboard as a piece of art. |
|
|
Create a changeable block puzzle based upon a vintage game. The result is fun and function, a brain teaser. Critical thinking and math skills must be applied. |
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The coarse, open weave of burlap substitutes for a weaving loom in this fiber art project. |
|
|
|
Explore the history of carnival masks in various cultures, such as Mardi Gras in New Orleans, the Carnival of Venice and "Commedia Dell'arte" in Italy. Ornate and colorful masks are easy to create with Scratch-Art® Clear-Scratch™ film and permanent Sharpie® markers. |
|
|
Expand students knowledge of materials and spatial relationships with this unique project. |
|
|
Repoussé (or Repajado in Spanish cultures) is an ancient form of relief sculpture in which a design is pressed into a sheet of metal to create a 3-dimensional surface. |
|
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Teach your students how to make paper with this project. |
|
|
|
Listed are colorful samples of simple fans. Discuss the importance of fans and how they were used to keep people comfortable for years. |
|
|
|
Easy, Breezy "Screen Printing" Screenprints (also called "serigraphs") are greatly simplified with Scratch-A-Print and water-based paint. Multiple prints can be made on mini-size canvas, then made into ornaments, pendants, gift tags, etc. |
|
|
This project is a unique, fun lesson in establishing a hero and developing an Artists' Hall of Fame. |
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Experience an archeological dig, right in your own classroom! Students create fossils the way that nature does - by making impressions and filling them. |
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|
Examples of intricately-designed stained glass can be found around the world: from gothic and medieval cathedral glass, to the art of Louis Tiffany and John La Farge. This project creates the look of stained glass in a simple process using Scratch-Art® Clear-Scratch™ film and permanent Sharpie® markers. |
|
|
|
This lesson incorporates classroom-friendly acrylic felt and basic sewing/assemblage skills that can be adjusted for various age levels. |
|
|
|
Certain people influence our lives in such a way that they leave "fingerprints" behind. These simple beads make great friendship bracelets. |
|
|
Students design and make a finished product that involves breaking up their 2D design and adjusting it into a relief. |
|
|
Gouche and Wood-Burned Designs Discover wood burning craft techniques and the traditional paint medium of gouache. |
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|
Students learn an easy and economical form of metal working. |
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Students learn to apply yarn painting techniques in combining their ideas and their art. |
|
|
Illumination is the decorating of books or manuscripts with ornate lettering, scrollwork, icons and images. This lesson plan introduces an easy and inexpensive way to apply metal leaf to a single letter, then embellish it using colored pencils. |
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|
"Toro Nagashi", the Japanese Festival of Floating Lanterns is a beautiful event involving floating paper lanterns. Using YUPO paper and multiple mediums, students make lanterns for indoor or outdoor use. |
|
|
Many cultures create puppets for entertainment and story telling. These jointed "jive" puppets make a light, musical sound as they dance and move on a hand-held rod. |
|
|
|
Found in art and architecture around the world, labyrinths are associated with metaphor, mystery and mythology. Incorporating various materials, students create their own labyrinths that may also be used as a simple game. |
|
|
|
Even young students can achieve beautiful results — without the use of chemicals or special materials. |
|
|
|
Create unique and dazzling masks with an exciting Mardi Gras sparkle! |
|
|
|
This simple lesson plan encourages students to create patterns by overlapping and defining lines on a canvas panel, and add dimension by incorporating more canvases or objects. |
|
|
|
This easy, kid-friendly project creates ornaments that sparkle and shine using Crayola Crayons and Sculpey III oven-bake polymer clay. |
|
|
|
This lesson plan is inspired by the brightly colored pottery of Mexico. This simple papier mâché version casts paper pulp into a textured bowl using an existing plastic or ceramic bowl as a mold. |
|
|
|
This project uses pastels – a favored medium of Impressionist artists – drawn onto matte surface Shrink Film. The chalk of the pastels doesn't actually shrink, it simply condenses along with the film to form rich, intense areas of color. |
|
|
|
Early experiment with construction of slab clay techniques. An excellent introduction to the use of materials in a responsible manner. |
|
|
|
Many Plains Indian tribes created masks for their horses to give them a look of intimidating power and fierceness. Students create a horse-shaped mask that can be worn or hung for display. |
|
|
|
Students learn to work with leather in the manner of Native American craftsmen. |
|
|
|
Students learn a very basic bookbinding technique incorporating a dimensional object and simple fastening method. |
|
|
|
This lesson plan will help students relate to and understand a Native American Culture as well as helping them learn geographical directions. |
|
|
A single, simple origami pattern is used to make multiple buildings. Students study perspective and structure of a village. |
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Students recognize that a handmade book is a work of art in itself. |
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Students will define a purpose for creating a functional work of art and identify its effectiveness and unique characteristics within a certain cultural and social setting. |
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Personal flags are expressions of a student's own life in symbols and serve as a link between the student and his or her environment. |
|
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When gold became too expensive and impractical, Mexican folk artists invented a technique to create gold-colored patterns on a dark wooden surface. Sometimes referred to as "Poor Man’s Gilding", this straw appliqué process is an easy and inexpensive classroom project. |
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Preserving
Flowers and Recycle garden trimmings by preserving them in acrylic and creating artwork collages with acrylic mediums and paint. |
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Button art is an inexpensive, creative project that's easy to do with a group, and produces great results. |
|
|
Students learn the functionality of tooled metal and texture. |
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Students construct a 3-dimensional form and fill it with rice to make gentle, percussive sounds. |
|
|
These plastic bottle pots are very handsome and perfectly shaped for decorating. Looking at them it is impossible to tell they are not made of clay. |
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Shoes are used to exemplify a very unconventional medium as a classroom exercise in oil painting, and can also be traced in historical terms. |
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This project is a great way to teach color mixing and will easily link with social studies disciplines following Asian cultures (Japanese and Chinese silk painting) and also with science, as botanical studies. |
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Students investigate dolls and games in history and cultures. This particular lesson challenges students to look into the future and reflect on the past. |
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Students study the anatomy of a flower, and create and identify its parts. |
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This outrageously fun guitar design can be created in 1½ to 2 hours from start to the end of the dyeing process. |
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The ancient Japanese tradition of textile painting known as Shibori entails many techniques and processes including the gathering, wrapping and binding methods that we call "tie-dye" today. |
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An easy bookmaking lesson that works across the entire curriculum. Students make books to use as journals or scrapbooks and fill with personnel stories or poetry, sketches or photos. |
|
|
Build a three-dimensional form with Twisteez Wire on a stationary screen base. |
|
|
|
Students make printmaking papers, cards, book covers, picture frames and photo mats. |
|
|
|
A great project! Fun, quick, and inexpensive. |
|
|
|
Students learn the fine art of weaving and explore theories of form, space, movement, color and value. |
|
|
|
The Huichol Indians used yarn to decorate gourds, clothing and other items. The yarn was applied in rows of varying colors and patterns. Bottles are a 3-D surface that offers endless design possibilities. |
|
Grades 9 – 12 |
Grade Level |
|
|
Students create stunning transparent, glass-like mosaic pieces with acrylic paint and polymer gloss medium. |
|
|
|
Creates African-inspired art by covering paper-maché boxes with Leather Bookcloth. Emboss with patterns and textures and add colorful beads by gluing or stitching. |
|
|
|
Create Hawaiian-inspired shirts with brightly-colored flowers, leaves, and fish by printing them using fabric paints. "Gyotaku" - the Japanese word for "fish print"- is a fun and exciting way to give shirts an island beach look. |
|
|
Learn the processes involved in traditional batik and in color layering with dye. |
|
|
|
Bead bottles are the result of studying Huichol beaded gourds. Their technique can be applied to 3D objects available to students. Hours and hours of dedication are involved in the small bottle art. |
|
|
|
Create a changeable block puzzle based upon a vintage game. The result is fun and function, a brain teaser. Critical thinking and math skills must be applied. |
|
|
Students use all the elements and principles of design. |
|
|
|
Expand students knowledge of materials and spatial relationships with this unique project. |
|
|
These paintings move older students to a different level in two dimensional expression. Students paint with water-based paint on ceramic. They are fired in a home oven to achieve beautiful results. |
|
|
|
Repoussé (or Repajado in Spanish cultures) is an ancient form of relief sculpture in which a design is pressed into a sheet of metal to create a 3-dimensional surface. |
|
|
Students transform a thick slab of clay into a 3D plaque. |
|
|
|
Easy, Breezy "Screen Printing" Screenprints (also called "serigraphs") are greatly simplified with Scratch-A-Print and water-based paint. Multiple prints can be made on mini-size canvas, then made into ornaments, pendants, gift tags, etc. |
|
|
|
This project is a unique, fun lesson in establishing a hero and developing an Artists' Hall of Fame. |
|
|
Chinese Cloisonne involves a 5-step process of 1) creating and preparing a base 2) soldering copper filligree to it 3) filling with enamel 4) firing 5) finishing. This simplified method follows the same steps, only with safer, easier materials for the classroom. |
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Certain people influence our lives in such a way that they leave "fingerprints" behind. These simple beads make great friendship bracelets. |
|
|
|
Students design and make a finished product that involves breaking up their 2D design and adjusting it into a relief. |
|
|
|
Gouche and Wood-Burned Designs Discover wood burning craft techniques and the traditional paint medium of gouache. |
|
|
|
Students learn an easy and economical form of metal working. |
|
|
|
Illumination is the decorating of books or manuscripts with ornate lettering, scrollwork, icons and images. This lesson plan introduces an easy and inexpensive way to apply metal leaf to a single letter, then embellish it using colored pencils. |
|
|
Through the study of Impressionist painters and their works students will select their own color palette and design an impressionistic scene reminiscent of those painted in the mid 1800s. |
|
|
|
"Toro Nagashi", the Japanese Festival of Floating Lanterns is a beautiful event involving floating paper lanterns. Using YUPO paper and multiple mediums, students make lanterns for indoor or outdoor use. |
|
|
|
Many cultures create puppets for entertainment and story telling. These jointed "jive" puppets make a light, musical sound as they dance and move on a hand-held rod. |
|
|
This lesson plan recognizes the correlation between the two art forms as students create a band T-shirt using visual descriptions of particular music styles. |