Lesson Plans
Elementary Art Lesson Plans
Create your own hero
Grade: 3
Theme: Heroes Time: Around 1 Hour (Including Clean Up) Overview: People look up to heroes in everyday life, which is evident in the popularity of superhero movies. It’s important for 3rd graders to consider what defines a hero so that they can come to the realization that heroes are all around them. They will make connections to people in their personal lives and learn how those around them resemble their imagined heroes. Students will identify what characteristics make a hero and then create their own, imagined superheroes. They’ll give their heroes superpowers to solve a specific, personally relevant problem within the world. Considering different world problems will lead students to critically think and find potential solutions to their chosen problems through their heroes’ powers. |
CREATE A ROMARE BEARDEN FARMER COLLAGE
Grade: 4
Theme: Composition Time: 2 50-minute class periods (Including Clean Up) Overview: Create a collage inspired by Romare Bearden for Fourth Grade. Students will be introduced to the collage art of Romare Bearden, and take inspiration from his works to compose their own scene. Students will be tasked with seeing how they can make different visual effects from varying artmaking tools and techniques that are unexpected to them. Students will then develop a scene from their own ideas. Once they have finished their design, the students will investigate their scene to see if there are any blank areas that could use some finishing details, and then they will have a class discussion about their composition and how their artistic preferences influenced their final composition. (Note: Can be adapted to do at home, supplies may be limited but a great collage and farmer can still be achieved!) |
encircling lesson (See hs version below)
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Grade: 5th+6th
Theme: Circles in Science and Nature, TAB LESSON Time: 4-5 class periods Overview: After reviewing different abstract art pieces and watching a Bill Nye video about frequency and wavelength, students will as a class brainstorm ideas about circles within science or nature. Students will then choose which art studio to complete their project in; painting, fibers, collage, sculpture, or printmaking (6th grade only). Once complete, students will make a 'sales pitch' video, hyping up their project and telling us all the cool features about it! |
secondary art lesson plans
Acrylic paint intro
Grade: HS
Theme: Foundation Time: 1 class period Overview: Students will be working with breaking down the basics of painting with acrylic paint. They will be working on color theory with color schemes and mixing different values, various application techniques with both a wet brush and a dry brush, and layering with building up detail. As a closing for this intro, students will be identifying a color scheme and trying their best to match it, and saving the mixed colors for the Acrylic Final Painting assignment. |
acrylic paint final
Grade: HS
Theme: Geometric Shapes Time: 1-2 class periods Overview: With the activities they problem solved and information they learned from Acrylic Painting: Intro, students will be creating a final acrylic painting demonstrating strong understanding of color theory, working with structure through underpainting by building up layers of an object to create a rendering, complete with form and color scheme. |
oil paint intro
oil final: Lifeline
Grade: 11th+12th
Theme: Technology
Time: 5-7 class periods
Overview: Students will create a final oil painting that makes commentary on how social media and technology has impacted our lives, positive or negative. Utilizing the dead palette and plein air palette, 3 techniques of alla prima, impasto, and sgraffito.
Theme: Technology
Time: 5-7 class periods
Overview: Students will create a final oil painting that makes commentary on how social media and technology has impacted our lives, positive or negative. Utilizing the dead palette and plein air palette, 3 techniques of alla prima, impasto, and sgraffito.
Mood Board
encircling lesson
Grade: Intermediate High School
Theme: The Beauty in Nature Time: 90 Minutes (2 Class Periods) Overview: After reviewing different abstract paintings and sculptures, students will begin to make connections with art to nature and science in terms of symmetry, balance, and harmony. Students will think about how symmetry, balance, and harmony can be shown in many different ways in the world, and how you can make art representing them through abstraction. One similar point across the painting examples is the concept of a circle, and students will think about what circles represent, if there is importance in repetition, how pieces of art connect to nature, and how can you connect ideas from your own life and experiences into powerful pieces of abstract art? Combining all of those thoughts and ideas together, students will have artistic freedom in choosing their medium and size, and be able to create a unique piece of abstract art that is special to them. |
Seeing your aura- Saturday Art Lesson 1
Grade: HS Beginning
Theme: Discovering; Your Energy Time: 90 minutes Overview: Students will learn about the meaning of an aura, how it applies to a person, and how it can be a form of self expression, Students will be walked through the application of colored pencils and working between different values, pressures, and colors through blending and gradients. In the artmaking process, students will experiment with different ways to work between colors and display shapes, showing uniqueness and individuality. In closing, students will reflect on how they can manage, monitor, and document skills learned to improve future art. |
Reflections- saturday art lesson 2
Grade: HS Beginning
Theme: Discovery; Self Portrait Time: 90 minutes Overview: Students will be exploring the idea of reflections and portraits, and tasked to think about the breakdown of a face in terms of shapes. Students will learn about how to properly execute a face through tracing their reflections in mirrors, and after solving some visual art problems, students will begin to paint their own reflection with different values of paint they have mixed and applied to the mirror. Once the artwork is completed, students will gather for a conversation about the aesthetics of their artwork pieces and speak about what types of people portraits speak to. |
Lesson Gallery
The World You want to see- saturday art lesson 3
Grade: HS Intermediate
Theme: Discovery; Desired World/View Time: 90 minutes Overview: Students will be shown artworks dealing with ideas on windows and looking beyond. From these pieces, students will be asked to contemplate on how to portray a happy place, and what a happy place would be to them, making it individual and expressive. Students will create a happy place scene of their own using a view from a window, with strict lines and later on layer color to add more meaning. In closing, students will then investigate different appearances of aesthetics and visual culture within other works within the class. |
Lesson gallery
the confident side- saturday art lesson 4
Grade: HS Advanced
Theme: Discovery; Confidence within yourself Time: 90 minutes Overview: Students will be prompted to talk about their ideas on confidence; what it means, how to portray it, and how they feel it. They will be introduced to the work of Mickalene Thomas and asked to reflect on the meaning of her imagery, and how it portrays confidence of the sitter in the portrait. Students will apply their chosen photograph to create a collage representing confidence to them, building through imagery and imagination to display complex concepts and interesting composition layouts with the use of different mediums. |
lesson gallery
what are your gems?- saturday art lesson 5
Grade: HS Accelerated
Theme: Discovery; Individual Qualities Time: 90 minutes Overview: Students will be introduced to the concept of a treasure chest and what is valued and stored in there. Students will be tasked with reflecting upon themselves and characteristics that make them valuable and recognize the treasure inside themselves and illustrating that in an image that promotes self-expression. Students will then reflect on the lesson and recognize how to improve for the future. |
Lesson Gallery
mood board- saturday art lesson 6 (8th grade version seen ab0ve)
Grade: HS Beginning
Theme: Discovery; Mood Time: 90 minutes Overview: Students will be walked through the concept of a mood board and how to display emotions through visuals. Students will be prompted with 4 different ideas to display their emotions through different mediums connecting to those ideas and then in conclusion, be asked to describe the techniques and materials they used and why they did as such. |