Browse by: Grades K-4 · Grades 9-12 · Discipline · Most Recent
Lesson Plans for Grades 5-8
ART HISTORY |
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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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Based on the sculpture of Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz, students create a 3-dimensional figure study in fiber. |
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Give students an opportunity to enjoy creating random organic forms with color and transparency similar to actual glass. |
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Found objects, cutouts, photos and a variety of materials are assembled in a sculptural, three-dimensional collage centered around a personal theme. |
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"Drawing with Thread" is an interpretation of work by Wassily Kandinski in 1913. Kandinski is called the first totally abstract artist. Free flowing water color and line suggests but does not define images. |
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Ancient Egyptians applied gold leaf onto carved wood panels to tell stories and create opulence and on everyday objects. Follow the process these artists used to carve and gild a fan fit for King Tutankhamen. |
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Students will understand how geometry principles including diameter, radius, and symmetry work together to make an artistic design. |
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This project is a unique, fun lesson in establishing a hero and developing an Artists' Hall of Fame. |
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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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A painted book in the style of Robert Indiana. This lesson plan challenges students to choose eight ideas that can be stated with one simple word, then assemble them into a painted book. |
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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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In order to understand Minimal Art, students must recognize what is absent. These painted chipboard constructions are abstract with a minimum amount of color, value, shape and texture. |
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"Secco" is the term used for applying color to dry plaster, the manner Da Vinci used in his famed "The Last Supper." Using Plaster of Paris, students create drawings then purposefully add stress fractures. |
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Introduce students to Pop-Art while creating fun, colorful ties. |
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This Lichtenstein-inspired lesson looks at pop culture imagery today and describes it in comic book-style prints using slow-drying waterbased Akua Kolor inks. |
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Students will create beautiful and fantastic cities while being introduced to the world of architecture and the concept of perspective. |
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Students will observe and mimic the short, unblended brushstrokes used by Van Gogh and understand their expressive quality. |
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BOOK AND PAPERMAKING |
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Expand students knowledge of materials and spatial relationships with this unique project. |
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Teach your students how to make paper with this project. |
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Using The Golden Door as a theme to search for historical and aesthetic content, students create a paper collage containing relevant images, text and expressions. |
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Students learn an easy and economical form of metal working. |
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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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A painted book in the style of Robert Indiana. This lesson plan challenges students to choose eight ideas that can be stated with one simple word, then assemble them into a painted book. |
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Even young students can achieve beautiful results — without the use of chemicals or special materials. |
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Students learn a very basic bookbinding technique incorporating a dimensional object and simple fastening method. |
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Students recognize that a handmade book is a work of art in itself. |
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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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COLLAGE |
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Students create a dimensional "line drawing" out of flexible wire then cover it with assorted papers and tissues for a whimsical, lightweight sculpture. |
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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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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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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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Artist Trading Cards are a fascinating pastime for a great number of professional artists. The cards are always 2½" × 3½", a size that fits into standard baseball card storage sleeves. |
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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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The new metallic paints are beautiful. Mix with different types of paints and "Glitter It" mediums to make paper tiles. |
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Don't throw away your old paper scraps! Save them for this project. Use torn paper to create new species of bugs. |
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Students learn to make small, decorated boxes called "Nichos," a means in Mexican and South American cultures to provide a stage-like setting for an object or collection of objects that have great significance. |
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Students use corrugated cardboard to create art with this project. In the process, they learn about using nonconventional materials in art. |
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Young people are encouraged to be aware of their surroundings and find squares, rectangles, rounds and the hardest triangles in everyday materials. |
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Found objects, cutouts, photos and a variety of materials are assembled in a sculptural, three-dimensional collage centered around a personal theme. |
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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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"Drawing with Thread" is an interpretation of work by Wassily Kandinski in 1913. Kandinski is called the first totally abstract artist. Free flowing water color and line suggests but does not define images. |
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Punched tin and metal is an old, traditional craft that involves creating holes in metal with sharp tools to form a design. Original designs were abstract patterns. This safe and colorful version is also abstract. |
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Dimensional collage using wire mesh and acrylic gel medium. Develop color, texture and design with paint, photocopies, images, music, text, colorful papers and many different objects inside the transaprent gel. Once dry, the form can be easily manipulated into a bowl. |
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Students design and make a finished product that involves breaking up their 2D design and adjusting it into a relief. |
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Using The Golden Door as a theme to search for historical and aesthetic content, students create a paper collage containing relevant images, text and expressions. |
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This lesson plan celebrates the Chinese tradition of passing along good fortune or "Fu" to others. |
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Students learn to apply yarn painting techniques in combining their ideas and their art. |
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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. |
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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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This process takes any computer image and turns it into a 3-dimensional sculpture. |
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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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The experience of drawing on a lightweight foil is a wonderful exercise for young children and children with special needs. |
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Students will choose an artwork that inspires them from a specific time, genre or culture, and paint their own version on a cardboard frame. |
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This project memorializes heroes and ancestors in fabric. The disciplines of music and dance combine with the visual arts to produce plays and theatrical presentations of the spirit. |
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Maki-e translates "sprinkle pictures" – the beautiful art of Japanese lacquerware. To achieve a similar look, cut and glue painted papers to a surface and sprinkle with metallic powdered pigments. |
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Molas are the brightly colored applique panels made only in the San Blas region of Panama by the Kuna Indians. Once the paper Molas are completed, have the children discuss their importance to the Kuna Indian women and their culture. |
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Alphabet samplers were popular during the 19th century and were embroidered on linen or canvas. This lesson plan celebrates the unique qualities of paper available for artists with a version of the sampler made with paper and art techniques. |
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Students learn a nontraditional art process with this project. |
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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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Introduce students to Pop-Art while creating fun, colorful ties. |
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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. |
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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 gives new life to second-hand shoes by turning them into "Robots," sculptural assemblages created with metallic paint, wire and found objects. |
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Using a single large screen divided into multiple small square window panes, a class of 15-20 students create their own individual art project that becomes part of the whole. |
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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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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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Construction paper and glue is all that's needed for this project. |
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Students will use collage as an impressionistic painting medium. |
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Students make printmaking papers, cards, book covers, picture frames and photo mats. |
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Watercolor Principles of Design This multi-media project links the disciplines of painting and sculpture as students form dimensional paper constructions and paint them with metallic watercolors. |
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CRAFTS |
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. |
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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. |
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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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Expand students knowledge of materials and spatial relationships with this unique project. |
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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. |
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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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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. |
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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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Students design and make a finished product that involves breaking up their 2D design and adjusting it into a relief. |
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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. |
|
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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. |
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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. |
|
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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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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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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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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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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. |
|
|
|
Preserving
Flowers and Recycle garden trimmings by preserving them in acrylic and creating artwork collages with acrylic mediums and paint. |
|
|
|
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. |
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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. |
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Build a three-dimensional form with Twisteez Wire on a stationary screen base. |
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Students make printmaking papers, cards, book covers, picture frames and photo mats. |
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A great project! Fun, q |