Art
"I can't do it" never accomplished anything; "I will try" has performed wonders. -- George P. Barnham
20 Fun Ideas That Won't Break The Bank: http://www.kinderart.com/teachers/20crafts.htm
Some fun projects you can make with recycled materials from around the house.
A. Pintura, Art Detective - The Case of Grandpa's Painting: http://www.eduweb.com/pintura/
"A. Pintura: Art Detective is an online game about art history and art composition. In the game, you play a 1940's noir detective with a degree in art history. A distraught woman asks you to identify the artist who made a painting she found in her grandfather's attic. To do so, you must examine paintings by famous artists from Gauguin to Van Gogh. Each example highlights an art concept such as composition, style or subject. The story concludes with an appropriate noirish twist, as the woman's true identity and motives become apparent."
A to Z Kids Stuff: Art Recipes: http://www.atozkidsstuff.com/artrecipes.html
How about some peanut butter play dough? Or soap crayons, sun baked clay, rainbow stew, or macaroni coloring--they're all here.
Adoration of the Magi: http://www.nga.gov/collection/adoration.htm
This site offers a streaming slideshow that explores this complex & colorful painting from Renaissance Florence (c.1445). The painting depicts the story of the 3 kings bringing gifts to the Christ Child 12 days after his birth. The slideshow allows the viewer to examine details of the work while listening to a narrative.
Aelbert Cuyp: http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/cuypinfo.htm
This site examines the development & subjects of one of the foremost Dutch painters & draftsmen of the 17th century. Learn about the life, works, patrons, & influences of this prolific artist, whose career (1640-1665) occurred during the golden age of Dutch painting.
The Alphabet of Art: http://www.guidancecom.com/alphabet/
What are the elements of visual design? Learn here, with a primer art course on elements of design and composition. Attributes of artistic works are also discussed.
Alphabetical Crafts Index: http://www.makingfriends.com/concraft.htm
Scroll down one of the site's many pages for a listing of grade-level organized crafts that let your students get creative. The activities don't just include your usual arts-and-crafts materials but also include some computerized craft ideas as well
Architecture is Elementary: http://www.kinderart.com/architecture/archiselem.shtml
Students will learn the four orders of architecture: Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite with this fun lesson from educator Sara Gagliano.
Art Access: http://www.artic.edu/aic/artaccess/
The Art Institute of Chicago has made lesson plans, family activities and multicultural art resources are available at this site. Areas of study include Ancient Indian Art of the Americas, African American Art, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, and Modern and Contemporary Art. There is a glossary, lesson plans, family activities, books and media, and maps for the various areas of their permanent collection.
Art And Art Appreciation for Young Children: http://askeric.org/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Arts/Process_Skills/PRO0001.html
Even young children can understand the basic properties of art, and thereby appreciate painting more. In this lesson plan, K-2 students will be introduced to elements, principles, and design, and the way these properties are integrated to achieve a piece of art.
The Art Book (Art Assessment): http://kinderart.com/artbook/
Students will create separate projects to compose an eight page art book. Activities include lessons on colors (neutral and warm colors), texture (texture bugs), pattern (caterpillars), paint mixing, and more. Altogether these lessons make up a terrific elementary primer on art.
Art Designs and Ideas for Kids: http://www.designmantic.com/industry/art-designs-and-ideas-for-kids.php
Thank you Girl Scouts for suggesting this website!
Art Education Links: http://www006.upp.so-net.ne.jp/artcommunal/lessonplans.htm
"The JAEA (Japan Art Education Association) is a meta-site for teachers, librarians, parents and students to preview selected links." Includes student art works, curriculum ideas, art and craft lessons, computer graphics, integrated curriculum units for K-12, etc.
The Art of Web Design: Color Wheel & Color Relationships: http://ithare.com/the-art-of-web-design-color-wheel-color-relationships/
Thanks,, Anna!
Art History: http://arthistory.about.com/
Art History - Resources on the Web: http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHLinks.html
Art Lessons and "Period for Integrated Study": http://www006.upp.so-net.ne.jp/artcommunal/lessonplans.htm
The JAEA (Japan Art Education Association) is a meta-site for teachers, librarians, parents and students to preview selected links.
Art of the Quilt: http://www.cis.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1995/4/95.04.04.x.html
This site can teach students about the rich heritage quilt making, emphasizing African-American quilt making. Although this project can be used narrowly as art curriculum, its subject depth extends to history, English, social studies, and even math. This versatility is displayed in an array of activities, ranging from having students complete their own quilt narratives to teaching simple geometry with a demonstration of how rectangular quilts are made up of combinations of shapely parts.
Art-Rageous!: http://www.art-rageous.net/index.html
"...sections on art lesson plans, genealogy, gardening, and much, much more."
Art Teacher on the Net: http://www.artmuseums.com/
The Arts: http://www.pacificnet.net/~mandel/TheArts.html
The beauty of this site is that it is continually updated, allowing teachers to find lessons concurrent with monthly holidays or events and activities that are culturally and thematically diverse. The lessons, although not in any particular order, are easy to sort through since their individual titles denote appropriate grade levels.
ArtsConnectEd: http://www.artsconnected.org/
"Search over 100,000 resources in the Art Finder, including works of art, texts, audio, video, and interactive resources. Save and customize items in the redesigned Art Collector. Comment, tag and rate everything!"
Artsonia is a free Website that encourages young artists by displaying their work online. The art is sorted by project, school and country at the site: www.artsonia.com, which also features a "School of the Week" section. Teachers who register for the site also will receive a press release for their local news papers to highlight participation in the Internet project. Students whose work is on display receive ID cards featuring their own published art.
Bar Code Art: http://www.barcodeart.com/art/art.html
The Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture: http://www.exeter.ac.uk/bdc/index.shtml
Block Posters: http://www.blockposters.com/
Block Posters allows users to upload images to create custom posters for free. Upload an image, choose your pster options and then download and print your own personalized huge poster.
Build-It-Yourself Toy Laboratory: http://www.build-it-yourself.com/
This site isn't your typical art resource since it offers kids the opportunity to do more with their building toys like Legos and K'nex. Take the toys, throw in everyday household items, and instantly your students can build whatever their imaginations allow. Its blueprints encourage creative thinking, and its activities could make for great lessons on art, science, or simply playtime.
Butterfly Life Cycle Mobile: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/butterfly/lifecyclemobile/
This version of the butterfly mobile reinforces life cycles; have your students create the correct order by placing them top to bottom in sequence.
Butterfly Mobiles: http://www.billybear4kids.com/butterfly/craft/craft1.html
Celebrate spring with these beautiful print and assemble butterflies. Your students will color and cut the patterns, and then create their own butterfly mobile.
Campfire Stories with George Catlin: An Encounter of Two Cultures: http://catlinclassroom.si.edu
Takes students on a virtual journey with the famed artist & ethnologist to meet Native Americans of the 1830s. Catlin visited more than 140 tribes during 1830s. His 325 portraits, 200 scenes of American Indian life, & writings depict Indian cultures prior to U.S. expansion into tribal territories. The core of this website is four "campfire stories," or themes: ancestral lands, tribal leaders, Great Plains geography & ecology, & Catlin himself. Each theme comes alive through multimedia interviews, artwork, a timeline, & maps. The site, created with a panel of teachers, is designed to enrich the study of U.S. history, geography, & environmental conservation, as well as leadership & character development. It includes 14 lesson plans linked to academic standards.
Can Teach: Miscellaneous Art Recipes: http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/recipe8.html
Some unique art recipes here. Try eggshell sidewalk chalk for one, or different varieties of soap crayons.
Carolyn Holm: http://www.everydayart.com/
Collage & Assemblage Artist, Writer, Art Teacher, includes curriculum plans for teachers and home schoolers
A Century of Drawing: http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/drawinginfo.htm
This site presents 50 of the 140 drawings on view in this exhibit at the National Gallery of Art. The exhibit charts the development of modern art & shows some of the most aesthetically compelling & intellectually intriguing works from the 20th century. The website includes works by Picasso, Klee, Matisse, Calder, Rothko, de Kooning, Dubuffet, Guston, Rauschenberg, Twombly, & others.
Ceramics and Pottery: http://www.teachpottery.net/
A site for teachers, this includes a syllabus, and for each unit, assignments, handouts, online quizzes and activities, and a webliography. Also includes a gallery of student work.
Children's Creative Theater: http://tqjunior.thinkquest.org/5291/
Offering an extensive view of the history of theater, this site introduces the main features of primitive and Greek theater, as well as Renaissance, Baroque, and even Asian theatrical traditions. Hyperlinked terms throughout the text will lead students off in search of fun and relevant supplementary information. Students can participate in theater games, including pantomiming, acting out expressions, and performing skits. One of the best features of this site is the emphasis on interdisciplinary learning: students can use drama to work on reading (reciting aloud) or science skills (imitating animal behavior).
Ceramics and Pottery: http://www.teachpottery.net/
A site for teachers, this includes a syllabus, and for each unit, assignments, handouts, online quizzes and activities, and a webliography. Also includes a gallery of student work.
Cinema: How are Hollywood Films Made?: http://www.learner.org/exhibits/cinema/index.html
Do your students ever wonder how movies are made? This online exhibit does an extremely capable job explaining the entire creative process behind filmmaking. Film fans and students of this popular form of art can finally learn about how ideas go from the drawing board to the big screen.
Cloth and Clay: Communicating Culture: http://www.textilemuseum.ca/cloth_clay/home.html
This is a virtual museum set up similar to "choose your own adventure" books.
Coloring.com: http://www.coloring.com/
This site has a large selection of pictures to print or color online. Free registration allows you to save completed pictures and post to Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. The code is available to embed the colored picture into a Web site.
Columbus Museum of Art: http://www.columbusmuseum.org/index.php
Crafts: http://crafts.kaboose.com/index.html
Holiday crafts for classrooms, scouts, and other groups. This site has terrific suggestions for projects such as bread-dough brooches and magnetic memo pads.
CraftBits.com: http://www.CraftBits.com
While this site wasn’t designed specifically for educators, but you will find some great craft projects you can use with your class here.
Craftfreebies: http://www.craftfreebies.com/index.html
Crayola.com's Educator section: http://www.crayola.com/educators/index.cfm offers a
variety of resources for educators, including lesson plans, creative classroom ideas, and activities and projects designed to link art to other curricula.
Create a Butterfly Mobile: http://www.kid-at-art.com/htdoc/lesson23.html
This project is a bit more advanced than the previous butterfly mobiles, but still suitable for upper elementary classes. Includes background information on Calder and his ideas.
Cubism from Scratch: http://www.goshen.edu/~marvinpb/lessons/cubism.html
Curtain Call: A Dramatic Approach to Detective Fiction: http://www.cis.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1989/4/89.04.07.x.html
The play's the thing (of this site, anyway), and this lesson teaches students about topics as diverse as genre, suspense, lighting properties, and makeup techniques. Students have the opportunity to get involved in all aspects of drama, including creating a plot, building a set, and blocking the entire show. The fact that the lesson is based around detective fiction makes it both educational and exciting for middle schoolers. The site also includes a top-notch bibliography.
Deception & Illusions: Five Centuries of Trompe l'Oeil Painting: http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/trompe-info.htm illustrates the playful & intellectual nature of "trompe
l'oeil" -- the artistic depiction of objects so precisely that those objects appear real. Twelve images are presented from the 115-piece exhibit, which represents the most comprehensive treatment to date of this phenomenon.
Design a Garden: http://www.walkerart.org/ace/ed_activities/units_i/desgarden_fr.html
K-3 students use online tools to learn about landscape architecture in this interactive art lesson plan. They will create walkways and steps, and use sculptures and shapes to design their own online garden.
DLK's Crafts for Kids: http://www.dltk-kids.com/
"DLTK's Crafts for Kids features a variety of fun, printable children's crafts, coloring pages and more including projects for holidays, educational themes and some of our children's favorite cartoon characters."
Drawing in One-Point Perspective: http://www.olejarz.com/arted/perspective/
EdGate: http://www.edgate.com/adventure2/step0/step0.html
"EdGate is home to services for both content providers and educators. EdGate Correlation Services (publishers / content providers) focuses on alignment of content to standards, content to content mapping, and furnishing reports in multiple formats and web interfaces to content providers. EdGate Educator Services assists teachers and administrators by providing tools that save time and make learning more effective."
Education Media Design & Technology - Multimedia Art on the Theme of Patriotism: http://humanityquest.com/topic/art_activities/index.asp?theme1=patriotism
More than twenty-five activities link the arts to feelings and concepts associated with patriotism--very creative offerings. Do each as a mini-lesson, or work in groups to create a showcase or patriotism project.
The Educator's Reference Desk: Art and Art Appreciation for Young Children:
http://askeric.org/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Arts/Process_Skills/PRO0001.html
Even young children can understand the basic properties of art, and thereby appreciate painting more. In this lesson plan, K-2 students will be introduced to elements, principles, and design, and the way these properties are integrated to achieve a piece of art.
The Educator's Reference Desk: Monochromatic Painting:
http://ericir.syr.edu/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Arts/Visual_Arts/ARA0009.html
In this lesson, students will understand the uses of tints and shades, as well as the connections in painting between color and emotions. They paint along a specific scene guideline to create their own monochromatic illustrations.
Educator's Reference Desk: Painting Like an Impressionist:
http://ericir.syr.edu/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Arts/Visual_Arts/ARA0012.html
An art lesson in Impressionism, where students must examine and then apply the same techniques and rules used by the Impressionist painters. Mood, complementary colors, lighting, and technique are all covered.
Educator's Reference Desk: Styles - Portrait Triptych:
http://ericir.syr.edu/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Arts/Visual_Arts/ARA0203.html
Energy in the Air: Sounds from the Orchestra: http://tqjunior.thinkquest.org/5116/
Here, students can read about a bassoon, listen (with the help of RealPlayer) to the sound of a bassoon, or evaluate the pitch and volume of a bassoon's sound, after learning what those terms mean. In fact, potential musicians can learn about any instrument in an orchestra. The site contains some small, but valuable, additions including music files of classical Western music as well as a "Did you know?" trivia box on the side of each Web page. After learning about music, kids are encouraged to make their own music, by using a rubber band on their fingers or playing an instrument.
Everyday Art: http://www.everydayart.com/
"A site to help make art and creativity an everyday thing in children's lives." Crafts ideas and lesson plans for teachers.
ExCalendar: http://www.excalendar.net/
"The Official Exhibition Calendar of the World's Leading Art Museums."
Search by artist, museum, city, keyword, or exhibition title.
Fruit and Vegetable Prints: http://www.kinderart.com/printmaking/fruit.shtml
A bit of fruit, some veggies, a dab of paint and sheets of paper, and all the imagination you can muster will show students how to create prints with naturally created stamping tools.
Graphic Witness: visual arts & social commentary: http://graphicwitness.org/ineye/index2.htm
A wealth of art, arranged by broad theme (graphic art in wartime, 19th century news illustration, 9-11 aftermath, etc.) and by artists, pre-and post- 1950. Represented artists include Hogarth, Nast, Grosz,
Kollwitz, Tom Tomorrow, Saul Steinberg, and lots more.
Great Buildings Collection: http://www.greatbuildings.com/
Teach your students how architecture can define a location and a culture by visiting Great Buildings Online. This site has photos, pictures, and information on 800 important structures, from the Air Force Academy Chapel to the Chateau de Versailles. Your class will especially love the 3-D images offered for some of the buildings. Search for architects, styles, and locations, too. "This gateway to architecture around the world and across history documents a thousand buildings, and hundreds of leading architects, with photographic images and architectural drawings, integrated maps and timelines, 3D building models, commentaries, bibliographies, web links, and more, for famous designers and structures of all kinds."
Guggenheim: http://www.guggenheim.org/
Henry Moore: http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/mooreinfo.htm
This site tells the story & shows a dozen works of one of the 20th century's great sculptors. The site includes information about this exhibit at the Gallery, which is the first major retrospective of Moore's work to appear in the U.S. in 20 years. The site also explains the treatment being used to protect the Moore sculpture that sits outside the East Wing -- "Knife Edge Mirror Two Piece."
The High-Rise Pages: http://www.xs4all.nl/~hnetten/index.html
If you include architecture appreciation as part of your art curriculum, be sure to take a look at this site devoted to the man-made steel and glass wonders of the world: high-rises. Your students can access information and photos of skyscrapers across the globe, including links to city skylines and monuments to current and fallen edifices.
Hot Chalk LessonPlansPage: Picasso's Face: http://www.lessonplanspage.com/ArtSSPicassosFaces35.htm
A study of Picasso, the artist and his works, that lets students create their own divided portrait while studying the innovative and entirely different techniques employed by Picasso.
Hot Chalk LessonPlansPage: What's Your Impression?:
http://www.lessonplanspage.com/ArtWhatsYourImpression-Impressionism26.htm
A little background on the history of Impressionism, along with selected viewings of representative artists' works introduces students to this hugely formative style of art. They will then have a chance to create their own impressionistic painting during an outdoor field trip
HumanityQuest.com: Art and Patriotism: http://humanityquest.com/topic/art_activities/index.asp?theme1=patriotism
More than twenty-five activities link the arts to feelings and concepts associated with patriotism. Do each as a mini-lesson, or work in groups to create a showcase or patriotism project.
Images in Practice - A Chart of the ImageXchange: http://www.envf.port.ac.uk/illustration/IMAGES/
The Impressionists: http://www.biography.com/impressionists/
Biography.com, the companion site to A&E’s television show, presents a resource to help kids learn about Impressionist art. Teachers can take their classes on a virtual tour of five Impressionist paintings – by Degas, Monet, Morisot, Pissarro, and Renoir – and learn about the themes, colors, and brushwork that set each artist apart. Kids click on the painting to learn more about the artistic elements that make each painting so special. The site also contains biographies, with photos and pictures of paintings, for the five featured artists, and additional information about Impressionist masters such as Bazille, Cassatt, Manet, and Sisley. After reading about the artists, kids can test their knowledge with a quiz. Users can access links to more than 70 other Impressionist and art-related web sites or make their own masterpiece using online paint tools. History, art, and design classes all will enjoy using this colorful, interactive resource.
The Impressionist Era: http://library.thinkquest.org/C0111578/ieindex.html
This award winning ThinkQuest site features information on the Impressionist artists, and the Impressionist painting technique. Children can learn to paint in the teaching section. Visit the "Interact" section to take quizzes, do puzzles and view the interactive palette of the artists.
Inside Art: http://www.eduweb.com/insideart/index.html
An Art History Story/Game
International Directory of Sculpture Parks: http://www.artnut.com/intl.html
Browse geographically through an annotated set of links to the official home pages of sculpture gardens.
Kaleidoscope Painter: http://www.permadi.com/java/spaint/spaint.html
Kaleidoscope Painter creates colorful spiraling fractal twisters based on the movement of your mouse. There are also recursive lines and moire patterns, as well as puzzle.
KinderArt: http://www.kinderart.com/
Not only is this site visually pleasing and easy to navigate, it is also chock-full of over 100 free lesson plans, activities, and other useful materials. Celebrate each season, or click on the Cool Pick to teach students about art technique. Use the Art Lessons section for resources on topics from art history to printmaking, or browse the Art Library to read the art glossary, skim articles, or enter a contest.
KinderArt: The Art Book - Portfolio Assessment for Kids: http://kinderart.com/artbook/
Students will create separate projects to compose an eight page art book with additional pages for the cover and conclusion. Activities include lessons on colors (neutral and warm colors), texture (texture bugs), pattern (caterpillars), paint mixing, and more. Altogether these lessons make up a terrific elementary primer on art.
KidsArt.com: Fruit and Vegetable Prints: http://www.kinderart.com/printmaking/fruit.shtml
This lesson uses bits of fruit, veggies, a dab of paint and sheets of paper to show students how to create prints with naturally created stamping tools.
Kidsart.com: Plant Dye Paints: http://www.kinderart.com/painting/plantdye.shtml
Let your students imagine that they no longer have those tempera watercolor paints sitting in your classroom; in fact, there are no modern art tools at all. What will they do for color? This lesson plan will show you how.
Landscape Painting: http://www.talentteacher.com/001cl.html
Follow the steps in this painting to create a beginner's watercolor landscape with a fan brush. This lesson plan gives alternative materials for pricey artist supplies, and techniques are basic enough for elementary students to handle.
Lesson Plans: http://www.albrightknox.org/ArtStart/lMonet.html
These classroom lesson plans are for grades K-12 from teh Albright-Knox Art Gallery.
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art: http://www.brooksmuseum.org/
Miscellaneous Art Recipes: http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/recipe8.html
Some unique art recipes here--try eggshell sidewalk chalk for one, or different varieties of soap crayons
The Miraculous Draught of Fishes: http://www.nga.gov/feature/artnation/bassano/index.htm examines Jacopo Bassano's 1545 painting & compares it with other works that also depict the New
Testament story in which Jesus calls Peter to become a disciple. Bassano's painting was one in a long line of "copies," or variations on a theme, a standard practice in the Renaissance. Here we see that certain elements -- garments & figure groupings -- were copied from another work but were altered to achieve greater dramatic effect.
MoMA Multimedia: http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/interactives/57/interactives-online-projects is a section of the Museum of Modern Art's website: http://www.moma.org/. In this section of the website, you choose a picture, look at it, and write about it. If you wish, your writing can be published on their site.
Money Orgami: http://members.cox.net/crandall11/money/
Monochromatic Painting: http://ericir.syr.edu/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Arts/Visual_Arts/ARA0009.html
Students will understand the uses of tints and shades, as well as the connections in painting between color and emotions. They must paint along a specific scene guideline to create their own monochromatic illustrations.
The Museum of Ephemeral Cultureal Artifacts: http://www.edgechaos.com/MECA/MECA.html
This site offers a gallery of wall art, robot gallary, pinball designs.
Museum of Modern Art's Art Safari: http://artsafari.moma.org/
This learning adventure introduces students to ways of looking at and thinking about art by guiding them through a set of questions and answers. Along the way, students are prompted to respond to questions such as, What is going on in this picture? At the end of the safari, students can submit their evaluations for posting on the site. They can also explore other areas to create their own art or browse paintings or sculptures.
Museum of Web Art: http://www.mowa.org
This site would be equally appropriate for your art students or your computer/technical classes. The Museum of Web Art (MOWA) highlights some of the Web's most unique designs. In four galleries, you'll find exhibits on designs that move, work, change, and remain constant. Be sure to visit the Kid's Wing, filled with interactive computer drawing activities.
The National Gallery of Art: http://www.nga.gov/education/classroom/
A collection of educational resources, including art and lessons can be found on this government Web site.
National Gallery of Art: http://www.nga.gov/home.htm
The National Gallery of Art, an amazing Washington, D.C., resource, offers this beautiful, full-service site. The site's most useful feature for educators is its variety of virtual tours. Topics range from the art of the Italian Renaissance to that of Jackson Pollack. Students can even concentrate on one artist or one painting -- Edouard Manet's "Bullfight," for instance -- to learn about historical details and understand close readings of paintings.
National Portrait Gallery: http://www.npg.si.edu/
NGA Kids Adventures with Art - Activities and Projects: http://www.nga.gov/kids/kids.htm
National Gallery of Art section especially for kids
Painting Like an Impressionist: http://ericir.syr.edu/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Arts/Visual_Arts/ARA0012.html
Here is a more detailed art lesson in Impressionism, where students must examine and then apply the same techniques and rules used by the Impressionist painters. Mood, complementary colors, lighting, and technique are all covered.
Pablo Picasso's 'The Tragedy': The Metamorphosis of a Painting: http://www.nga.gov/feature/picasso/index.htm uses x-rays & infrared light to reveal that Picasso sketched & painted at least four works on this panel before painting over them in 1903 to produce "The Tragedy." He did not, however, merely paint over the previous images; rather, he incorporated each layer into the subsequent one, believing that, "What comes out in the end is the result of the discarded finds."
Paper Toys: http://papertoys.com/
Print, cut, fold and paste your own models in black green or brown. Some of the models available are: Mississippi Queen Riverboat, Tyrannosaurus Rex, "Old Glory" Desktop Animated Flag, Frank Lloyd Wright House, Neuschwanstein Castle, Sydney Opera House, Bruce Lee Paper Doll, White House, World Trade Center Complex, "If You Ever" Card, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, Angkor Wat, Bill Gates' House, Chrysler PT Cruiser, Taj Mahal, and a whole lot more. You can also email a greeting to friends using any of these models.
Photography: The Art of Light: http://library.thinkquest.org/25473/
This comprehensive site is bound to inspire young shutterbugs from ages 12 to 19. It leads students from the history of photography to the composition of photos. Helpful for kids of the digital generation, the site includes a post-processing section that describes the scanning technique. After they read about photography, students can use the simulations in the "Interact" section to take their best shots at setting apertures and photo finishing.
Picassohead: http://www.mrpicassohead.com/create.html
Drag and drop some rather odd features onto a canvas to create your own Picasso-style face.
Picasso's Faces: http://www.lessonplanspage.com/ArtSSPicassosFaces35.htm
This light-hearted approach to a study of Picasso--the artist and his works--lets students create their own divided portrait while studying the innovative and entirely different techniques employed by Picasso.
Pigments Through the Ages: http://webexhibits.org/pigments/
Plant Dye Paints: http://www.kinderart.com/painting/plantdye.shtml
Let your students imagine that they no longer have those tempera watercolor paints sitting in your classroom; in fact, there are no modern art tools at all. What will they do for color? Ask them to first name some plants that might produce a dye, and then experiment. This lesson plan will show you how.
The Puppetry Home Page: http://www.sagecraft.com/puppetry/
From Japanese Kabuki to Hacivad in Turkey to the Moderno Teatro de Muñecos de Costa Rica, this site describes all sorts of types of puppetry. In addition, the site includes information for students to create their own puppets in the styles of various national theaters. An excellent glossary and exposition even touch on such obscure topics as marionettes, shadow puppets, and ventriloquism.
Puzzle Factory: Coloring: http://www.thepuzzlefactory.com/coloring/coloring.cfm
A multitude of various types of puzzles to play online can be found here.
“Sawdust Clay”
Sawdust clay dries to a hard, rough finish that can be sanded and painted.
Materials:
* sawdust (If you don't have a workshop, your local lumberyard will be glad to give you some sawdust. Take a paper bag, and they'll fill it for you.)
* wallpaper paste
* water
* bowl
* wooden spoon
* pipe-cleaner pieces or toothpicks
* tempera paints, markers (optional)
Homemade Wallpaper Paste
* 8 Mix 3 tablespoons (24 g) of flour with 1 tablespoon (14 g) of sugar in a microwave-safe bowl.
* Add 1/2 cup (120 mL) of water. Stir well.
* Cook for 30 seconds. Stir again. Cook for 30 seconds more.
* The paste should be soft, smooth, and thick.
Here's How:
1. Mix the sawdust clay.
* Combine 1 scoop of sawdust and 1/2 scoop of wallpaper paste in the bowl. A thick dough will form.
* Stir as you slowly add water until the dough has a putty consistency.
2. Shape the clay into different forms. Make little creatures, puppets, bowls, and vehicles.
3. Add pipe-cleaner details.
4. Let your creatures dry until hard. Paint them with tempera paint or decorate with markers.
School Tours: http://www.nga.gov/education/school.htm features 38 paintings & sculptures selected from tours designed for students in Grades PreK-3 & 4-12. Each work is accompanied by an explanation of its significance & is presented alongside other works related to a theme -- weather, animals & nature, heroes & heroines, elements of art, the painter, the sculptor, American art, Renaissance art, mythology, & others. Information is provided about scheduling a school tour & about more than 150 teaching resources that the Gallery loans (free) to educational institutions, community groups, & individuals.
SkyscraperPage.com: http://www.skyscraperpage.com/
If the race for the world's tallest building fascinates your students, bring them to SkyscraperPage.com. They can learn about new skyscrapers that cities plan to build and monitor the construction processes. Be sure to check out the special computer diagrams of the world's tallest buildings, where you can look at all of the world's buildings together or focus on one particular city. There are breathtaking photographs of skylines, too.
Smithsonian American Art Museum: http://americanart.si.edu/
Solar System Model: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/astronomy/solarsystemmodel/
You could easily add an asteroid belt and/or planetary moons to this solar system mobile. Students will put the planets in order, and create them according to their relative sizes. Click on any of the planets to learn more about our solar system.
Storm King Art Center: http://www.stormking.org/
"Storm King Art Center is located one hour north of New York City, in the Hudson Valley."
Styles - Portrait Triptych: http://ericir.syr.edu/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Arts/Visual_Arts/ARA0203.html
Impressionism, realism, and abstraction are all considered in this art lesson on portraits. Students will create their own works in the three styles presented, starting from a selected magazine clipping. Background information and instructions will guide students through their final designs, which are to be mounted in triptych style.
Thaumatropes: http://www.randommotion.com/html/thauma.html
The thaumatrope is an early motion device you spin. While you spin the thaumatrope your brain retains what it sees on one side when it sees the other side - so your brain thinks it is seeing both sides.
Then & Now: http://www.nga.gov/feature/thenandnow/thenandnow.htm
"In these photo essays you'll view comparative images that demonstrate the many ways, some subtle, some obvious, in which the National Gallery's West Building--and the environment that surrounds it--have changed through the years."
You Be the Conservator: http://americanhistory.si.edu/kids/santos/
This Smithsonian Web site invites students to play the role of a museum conservator, discovering clues about an historical object in order to preserve or restore it.
Vincent Van Gogh Gallery: http://www.vangoghgallery.com/
Virtue & Beauty: http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2001/virtuebeauty/vbintro.htm features nearly a dozen portraits of women in Florence created between 1440 & 1540. These paintings, marble
sculptures, medals, & drawings reflect a time when subjects in art expanded to include not only rulers & their consorts but also women of the merchant class.
WebMuseum: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/
Take a tour of the WebMuseum, see the works of Paul Cezanne, medieval art, and take a walking tour of Paris.
Whale Mobile: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/Whalemobile.shtml
Print out templates for beluga whales, blue whales, humpback whales, and Orcas to create this ocean-themed mobile.
What's Your Impression?: http://www.lessonplanspage.com/ArtWhatsYourImpression-Impressionism26.htm
A little background on the history of Impressionism, along with selected viewings of representative artists' works introduces students to this hugely formative style of art. They will then have a chance to create their own impressionistic painting during an outdoor field trip.
Why is Mona Lisa Smiling?: http://library.thinkquest.org/13681/data/link2.htm
The Wonder Behind the Wizard of Oz: http://www.cis.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1995/2/95.02.02.x.html
This site is actually an in-depth lesson plan geared toward seventh- and eighth-grade drama students. Your class will discover how books get turned into movies using The Wizard of Oz as an example. They'll first read L. Frank Baum's original, unabridged novel and then watch the 1939 film. Your students will have to be perceptive by noting when and why the two diverge.
The World Art Treasures Project: http://www.bergerfoundation.ch/index.html
A collection of images organized by artist, region, and period.
20 Fun Ideas That Won't Break The Bank: http://www.kinderart.com/teachers/20crafts.htm
Some fun projects you can make with recycled materials from around the house.
A. Pintura, Art Detective - The Case of Grandpa's Painting: http://www.eduweb.com/pintura/
"A. Pintura: Art Detective is an online game about art history and art composition. In the game, you play a 1940's noir detective with a degree in art history. A distraught woman asks you to identify the artist who made a painting she found in her grandfather's attic. To do so, you must examine paintings by famous artists from Gauguin to Van Gogh. Each example highlights an art concept such as composition, style or subject. The story concludes with an appropriate noirish twist, as the woman's true identity and motives become apparent."
A to Z Kids Stuff: Art Recipes: http://www.atozkidsstuff.com/artrecipes.html
How about some peanut butter play dough? Or soap crayons, sun baked clay, rainbow stew, or macaroni coloring--they're all here.
Adoration of the Magi: http://www.nga.gov/collection/adoration.htm
This site offers a streaming slideshow that explores this complex & colorful painting from Renaissance Florence (c.1445). The painting depicts the story of the 3 kings bringing gifts to the Christ Child 12 days after his birth. The slideshow allows the viewer to examine details of the work while listening to a narrative.
Aelbert Cuyp: http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/cuypinfo.htm
This site examines the development & subjects of one of the foremost Dutch painters & draftsmen of the 17th century. Learn about the life, works, patrons, & influences of this prolific artist, whose career (1640-1665) occurred during the golden age of Dutch painting.
The Alphabet of Art: http://www.guidancecom.com/alphabet/
What are the elements of visual design? Learn here, with a primer art course on elements of design and composition. Attributes of artistic works are also discussed.
Alphabetical Crafts Index: http://www.makingfriends.com/concraft.htm
Scroll down one of the site's many pages for a listing of grade-level organized crafts that let your students get creative. The activities don't just include your usual arts-and-crafts materials but also include some computerized craft ideas as well
Architecture is Elementary: http://www.kinderart.com/architecture/archiselem.shtml
Students will learn the four orders of architecture: Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite with this fun lesson from educator Sara Gagliano.
Art Access: http://www.artic.edu/aic/artaccess/
The Art Institute of Chicago has made lesson plans, family activities and multicultural art resources are available at this site. Areas of study include Ancient Indian Art of the Americas, African American Art, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, and Modern and Contemporary Art. There is a glossary, lesson plans, family activities, books and media, and maps for the various areas of their permanent collection.
Art And Art Appreciation for Young Children: http://askeric.org/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Arts/Process_Skills/PRO0001.html
Even young children can understand the basic properties of art, and thereby appreciate painting more. In this lesson plan, K-2 students will be introduced to elements, principles, and design, and the way these properties are integrated to achieve a piece of art.
The Art Book (Art Assessment): http://kinderart.com/artbook/
Students will create separate projects to compose an eight page art book. Activities include lessons on colors (neutral and warm colors), texture (texture bugs), pattern (caterpillars), paint mixing, and more. Altogether these lessons make up a terrific elementary primer on art.
Art Designs and Ideas for Kids: http://www.designmantic.com/industry/art-designs-and-ideas-for-kids.php
Thank you Girl Scouts for suggesting this website!
Art Education Links: http://www006.upp.so-net.ne.jp/artcommunal/lessonplans.htm
"The JAEA (Japan Art Education Association) is a meta-site for teachers, librarians, parents and students to preview selected links." Includes student art works, curriculum ideas, art and craft lessons, computer graphics, integrated curriculum units for K-12, etc.
The Art of Web Design: Color Wheel & Color Relationships: http://ithare.com/the-art-of-web-design-color-wheel-color-relationships/
Thanks,, Anna!
Art History: http://arthistory.about.com/
Art History - Resources on the Web: http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHLinks.html
Art Lessons and "Period for Integrated Study": http://www006.upp.so-net.ne.jp/artcommunal/lessonplans.htm
The JAEA (Japan Art Education Association) is a meta-site for teachers, librarians, parents and students to preview selected links.
Art of the Quilt: http://www.cis.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1995/4/95.04.04.x.html
This site can teach students about the rich heritage quilt making, emphasizing African-American quilt making. Although this project can be used narrowly as art curriculum, its subject depth extends to history, English, social studies, and even math. This versatility is displayed in an array of activities, ranging from having students complete their own quilt narratives to teaching simple geometry with a demonstration of how rectangular quilts are made up of combinations of shapely parts.
Art-Rageous!: http://www.art-rageous.net/index.html
"...sections on art lesson plans, genealogy, gardening, and much, much more."
Art Teacher on the Net: http://www.artmuseums.com/
The Arts: http://www.pacificnet.net/~mandel/TheArts.html
The beauty of this site is that it is continually updated, allowing teachers to find lessons concurrent with monthly holidays or events and activities that are culturally and thematically diverse. The lessons, although not in any particular order, are easy to sort through since their individual titles denote appropriate grade levels.
ArtsConnectEd: http://www.artsconnected.org/
"Search over 100,000 resources in the Art Finder, including works of art, texts, audio, video, and interactive resources. Save and customize items in the redesigned Art Collector. Comment, tag and rate everything!"
Artsonia is a free Website that encourages young artists by displaying their work online. The art is sorted by project, school and country at the site: www.artsonia.com, which also features a "School of the Week" section. Teachers who register for the site also will receive a press release for their local news papers to highlight participation in the Internet project. Students whose work is on display receive ID cards featuring their own published art.
Bar Code Art: http://www.barcodeart.com/art/art.html
The Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture: http://www.exeter.ac.uk/bdc/index.shtml
Block Posters: http://www.blockposters.com/
Block Posters allows users to upload images to create custom posters for free. Upload an image, choose your pster options and then download and print your own personalized huge poster.
Build-It-Yourself Toy Laboratory: http://www.build-it-yourself.com/
This site isn't your typical art resource since it offers kids the opportunity to do more with their building toys like Legos and K'nex. Take the toys, throw in everyday household items, and instantly your students can build whatever their imaginations allow. Its blueprints encourage creative thinking, and its activities could make for great lessons on art, science, or simply playtime.
Butterfly Life Cycle Mobile: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/butterfly/lifecyclemobile/
This version of the butterfly mobile reinforces life cycles; have your students create the correct order by placing them top to bottom in sequence.
Butterfly Mobiles: http://www.billybear4kids.com/butterfly/craft/craft1.html
Celebrate spring with these beautiful print and assemble butterflies. Your students will color and cut the patterns, and then create their own butterfly mobile.
Campfire Stories with George Catlin: An Encounter of Two Cultures: http://catlinclassroom.si.edu
Takes students on a virtual journey with the famed artist & ethnologist to meet Native Americans of the 1830s. Catlin visited more than 140 tribes during 1830s. His 325 portraits, 200 scenes of American Indian life, & writings depict Indian cultures prior to U.S. expansion into tribal territories. The core of this website is four "campfire stories," or themes: ancestral lands, tribal leaders, Great Plains geography & ecology, & Catlin himself. Each theme comes alive through multimedia interviews, artwork, a timeline, & maps. The site, created with a panel of teachers, is designed to enrich the study of U.S. history, geography, & environmental conservation, as well as leadership & character development. It includes 14 lesson plans linked to academic standards.
Can Teach: Miscellaneous Art Recipes: http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/recipe8.html
Some unique art recipes here. Try eggshell sidewalk chalk for one, or different varieties of soap crayons.
Carolyn Holm: http://www.everydayart.com/
Collage & Assemblage Artist, Writer, Art Teacher, includes curriculum plans for teachers and home schoolers
A Century of Drawing: http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/drawinginfo.htm
This site presents 50 of the 140 drawings on view in this exhibit at the National Gallery of Art. The exhibit charts the development of modern art & shows some of the most aesthetically compelling & intellectually intriguing works from the 20th century. The website includes works by Picasso, Klee, Matisse, Calder, Rothko, de Kooning, Dubuffet, Guston, Rauschenberg, Twombly, & others.
Ceramics and Pottery: http://www.teachpottery.net/
A site for teachers, this includes a syllabus, and for each unit, assignments, handouts, online quizzes and activities, and a webliography. Also includes a gallery of student work.
Children's Creative Theater: http://tqjunior.thinkquest.org/5291/
Offering an extensive view of the history of theater, this site introduces the main features of primitive and Greek theater, as well as Renaissance, Baroque, and even Asian theatrical traditions. Hyperlinked terms throughout the text will lead students off in search of fun and relevant supplementary information. Students can participate in theater games, including pantomiming, acting out expressions, and performing skits. One of the best features of this site is the emphasis on interdisciplinary learning: students can use drama to work on reading (reciting aloud) or science skills (imitating animal behavior).
Ceramics and Pottery: http://www.teachpottery.net/
A site for teachers, this includes a syllabus, and for each unit, assignments, handouts, online quizzes and activities, and a webliography. Also includes a gallery of student work.
Cinema: How are Hollywood Films Made?: http://www.learner.org/exhibits/cinema/index.html
Do your students ever wonder how movies are made? This online exhibit does an extremely capable job explaining the entire creative process behind filmmaking. Film fans and students of this popular form of art can finally learn about how ideas go from the drawing board to the big screen.
Cloth and Clay: Communicating Culture: http://www.textilemuseum.ca/cloth_clay/home.html
This is a virtual museum set up similar to "choose your own adventure" books.
Coloring.com: http://www.coloring.com/
This site has a large selection of pictures to print or color online. Free registration allows you to save completed pictures and post to Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. The code is available to embed the colored picture into a Web site.
Columbus Museum of Art: http://www.columbusmuseum.org/index.php
Crafts: http://crafts.kaboose.com/index.html
Holiday crafts for classrooms, scouts, and other groups. This site has terrific suggestions for projects such as bread-dough brooches and magnetic memo pads.
CraftBits.com: http://www.CraftBits.com
While this site wasn’t designed specifically for educators, but you will find some great craft projects you can use with your class here.
Craftfreebies: http://www.craftfreebies.com/index.html
Crayola.com's Educator section: http://www.crayola.com/educators/index.cfm offers a
variety of resources for educators, including lesson plans, creative classroom ideas, and activities and projects designed to link art to other curricula.
Create a Butterfly Mobile: http://www.kid-at-art.com/htdoc/lesson23.html
This project is a bit more advanced than the previous butterfly mobiles, but still suitable for upper elementary classes. Includes background information on Calder and his ideas.
Cubism from Scratch: http://www.goshen.edu/~marvinpb/lessons/cubism.html
Curtain Call: A Dramatic Approach to Detective Fiction: http://www.cis.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1989/4/89.04.07.x.html
The play's the thing (of this site, anyway), and this lesson teaches students about topics as diverse as genre, suspense, lighting properties, and makeup techniques. Students have the opportunity to get involved in all aspects of drama, including creating a plot, building a set, and blocking the entire show. The fact that the lesson is based around detective fiction makes it both educational and exciting for middle schoolers. The site also includes a top-notch bibliography.
Deception & Illusions: Five Centuries of Trompe l'Oeil Painting: http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/trompe-info.htm illustrates the playful & intellectual nature of "trompe
l'oeil" -- the artistic depiction of objects so precisely that those objects appear real. Twelve images are presented from the 115-piece exhibit, which represents the most comprehensive treatment to date of this phenomenon.
Design a Garden: http://www.walkerart.org/ace/ed_activities/units_i/desgarden_fr.html
K-3 students use online tools to learn about landscape architecture in this interactive art lesson plan. They will create walkways and steps, and use sculptures and shapes to design their own online garden.
DLK's Crafts for Kids: http://www.dltk-kids.com/
"DLTK's Crafts for Kids features a variety of fun, printable children's crafts, coloring pages and more including projects for holidays, educational themes and some of our children's favorite cartoon characters."
Drawing in One-Point Perspective: http://www.olejarz.com/arted/perspective/
EdGate: http://www.edgate.com/adventure2/step0/step0.html
"EdGate is home to services for both content providers and educators. EdGate Correlation Services (publishers / content providers) focuses on alignment of content to standards, content to content mapping, and furnishing reports in multiple formats and web interfaces to content providers. EdGate Educator Services assists teachers and administrators by providing tools that save time and make learning more effective."
Education Media Design & Technology - Multimedia Art on the Theme of Patriotism: http://humanityquest.com/topic/art_activities/index.asp?theme1=patriotism
More than twenty-five activities link the arts to feelings and concepts associated with patriotism--very creative offerings. Do each as a mini-lesson, or work in groups to create a showcase or patriotism project.
The Educator's Reference Desk: Art and Art Appreciation for Young Children:
http://askeric.org/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Arts/Process_Skills/PRO0001.html
Even young children can understand the basic properties of art, and thereby appreciate painting more. In this lesson plan, K-2 students will be introduced to elements, principles, and design, and the way these properties are integrated to achieve a piece of art.
The Educator's Reference Desk: Monochromatic Painting:
http://ericir.syr.edu/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Arts/Visual_Arts/ARA0009.html
In this lesson, students will understand the uses of tints and shades, as well as the connections in painting between color and emotions. They paint along a specific scene guideline to create their own monochromatic illustrations.
Educator's Reference Desk: Painting Like an Impressionist:
http://ericir.syr.edu/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Arts/Visual_Arts/ARA0012.html
An art lesson in Impressionism, where students must examine and then apply the same techniques and rules used by the Impressionist painters. Mood, complementary colors, lighting, and technique are all covered.
Educator's Reference Desk: Styles - Portrait Triptych:
http://ericir.syr.edu/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Arts/Visual_Arts/ARA0203.html
Energy in the Air: Sounds from the Orchestra: http://tqjunior.thinkquest.org/5116/
Here, students can read about a bassoon, listen (with the help of RealPlayer) to the sound of a bassoon, or evaluate the pitch and volume of a bassoon's sound, after learning what those terms mean. In fact, potential musicians can learn about any instrument in an orchestra. The site contains some small, but valuable, additions including music files of classical Western music as well as a "Did you know?" trivia box on the side of each Web page. After learning about music, kids are encouraged to make their own music, by using a rubber band on their fingers or playing an instrument.
Everyday Art: http://www.everydayart.com/
"A site to help make art and creativity an everyday thing in children's lives." Crafts ideas and lesson plans for teachers.
ExCalendar: http://www.excalendar.net/
"The Official Exhibition Calendar of the World's Leading Art Museums."
Search by artist, museum, city, keyword, or exhibition title.
Fruit and Vegetable Prints: http://www.kinderart.com/printmaking/fruit.shtml
A bit of fruit, some veggies, a dab of paint and sheets of paper, and all the imagination you can muster will show students how to create prints with naturally created stamping tools.
Graphic Witness: visual arts & social commentary: http://graphicwitness.org/ineye/index2.htm
A wealth of art, arranged by broad theme (graphic art in wartime, 19th century news illustration, 9-11 aftermath, etc.) and by artists, pre-and post- 1950. Represented artists include Hogarth, Nast, Grosz,
Kollwitz, Tom Tomorrow, Saul Steinberg, and lots more.
Great Buildings Collection: http://www.greatbuildings.com/
Teach your students how architecture can define a location and a culture by visiting Great Buildings Online. This site has photos, pictures, and information on 800 important structures, from the Air Force Academy Chapel to the Chateau de Versailles. Your class will especially love the 3-D images offered for some of the buildings. Search for architects, styles, and locations, too. "This gateway to architecture around the world and across history documents a thousand buildings, and hundreds of leading architects, with photographic images and architectural drawings, integrated maps and timelines, 3D building models, commentaries, bibliographies, web links, and more, for famous designers and structures of all kinds."
Guggenheim: http://www.guggenheim.org/
Henry Moore: http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/mooreinfo.htm
This site tells the story & shows a dozen works of one of the 20th century's great sculptors. The site includes information about this exhibit at the Gallery, which is the first major retrospective of Moore's work to appear in the U.S. in 20 years. The site also explains the treatment being used to protect the Moore sculpture that sits outside the East Wing -- "Knife Edge Mirror Two Piece."
The High-Rise Pages: http://www.xs4all.nl/~hnetten/index.html
If you include architecture appreciation as part of your art curriculum, be sure to take a look at this site devoted to the man-made steel and glass wonders of the world: high-rises. Your students can access information and photos of skyscrapers across the globe, including links to city skylines and monuments to current and fallen edifices.
Hot Chalk LessonPlansPage: Picasso's Face: http://www.lessonplanspage.com/ArtSSPicassosFaces35.htm
A study of Picasso, the artist and his works, that lets students create their own divided portrait while studying the innovative and entirely different techniques employed by Picasso.
Hot Chalk LessonPlansPage: What's Your Impression?:
http://www.lessonplanspage.com/ArtWhatsYourImpression-Impressionism26.htm
A little background on the history of Impressionism, along with selected viewings of representative artists' works introduces students to this hugely formative style of art. They will then have a chance to create their own impressionistic painting during an outdoor field trip
HumanityQuest.com: Art and Patriotism: http://humanityquest.com/topic/art_activities/index.asp?theme1=patriotism
More than twenty-five activities link the arts to feelings and concepts associated with patriotism. Do each as a mini-lesson, or work in groups to create a showcase or patriotism project.
Images in Practice - A Chart of the ImageXchange: http://www.envf.port.ac.uk/illustration/IMAGES/
The Impressionists: http://www.biography.com/impressionists/
Biography.com, the companion site to A&E’s television show, presents a resource to help kids learn about Impressionist art. Teachers can take their classes on a virtual tour of five Impressionist paintings – by Degas, Monet, Morisot, Pissarro, and Renoir – and learn about the themes, colors, and brushwork that set each artist apart. Kids click on the painting to learn more about the artistic elements that make each painting so special. The site also contains biographies, with photos and pictures of paintings, for the five featured artists, and additional information about Impressionist masters such as Bazille, Cassatt, Manet, and Sisley. After reading about the artists, kids can test their knowledge with a quiz. Users can access links to more than 70 other Impressionist and art-related web sites or make their own masterpiece using online paint tools. History, art, and design classes all will enjoy using this colorful, interactive resource.
The Impressionist Era: http://library.thinkquest.org/C0111578/ieindex.html
This award winning ThinkQuest site features information on the Impressionist artists, and the Impressionist painting technique. Children can learn to paint in the teaching section. Visit the "Interact" section to take quizzes, do puzzles and view the interactive palette of the artists.
Inside Art: http://www.eduweb.com/insideart/index.html
An Art History Story/Game
International Directory of Sculpture Parks: http://www.artnut.com/intl.html
Browse geographically through an annotated set of links to the official home pages of sculpture gardens.
Kaleidoscope Painter: http://www.permadi.com/java/spaint/spaint.html
Kaleidoscope Painter creates colorful spiraling fractal twisters based on the movement of your mouse. There are also recursive lines and moire patterns, as well as puzzle.
KinderArt: http://www.kinderart.com/
Not only is this site visually pleasing and easy to navigate, it is also chock-full of over 100 free lesson plans, activities, and other useful materials. Celebrate each season, or click on the Cool Pick to teach students about art technique. Use the Art Lessons section for resources on topics from art history to printmaking, or browse the Art Library to read the art glossary, skim articles, or enter a contest.
KinderArt: The Art Book - Portfolio Assessment for Kids: http://kinderart.com/artbook/
Students will create separate projects to compose an eight page art book with additional pages for the cover and conclusion. Activities include lessons on colors (neutral and warm colors), texture (texture bugs), pattern (caterpillars), paint mixing, and more. Altogether these lessons make up a terrific elementary primer on art.
KidsArt.com: Fruit and Vegetable Prints: http://www.kinderart.com/printmaking/fruit.shtml
This lesson uses bits of fruit, veggies, a dab of paint and sheets of paper to show students how to create prints with naturally created stamping tools.
Kidsart.com: Plant Dye Paints: http://www.kinderart.com/painting/plantdye.shtml
Let your students imagine that they no longer have those tempera watercolor paints sitting in your classroom; in fact, there are no modern art tools at all. What will they do for color? This lesson plan will show you how.
Landscape Painting: http://www.talentteacher.com/001cl.html
Follow the steps in this painting to create a beginner's watercolor landscape with a fan brush. This lesson plan gives alternative materials for pricey artist supplies, and techniques are basic enough for elementary students to handle.
Lesson Plans: http://www.albrightknox.org/ArtStart/lMonet.html
These classroom lesson plans are for grades K-12 from teh Albright-Knox Art Gallery.
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art: http://www.brooksmuseum.org/
Miscellaneous Art Recipes: http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/recipe8.html
Some unique art recipes here--try eggshell sidewalk chalk for one, or different varieties of soap crayons
The Miraculous Draught of Fishes: http://www.nga.gov/feature/artnation/bassano/index.htm examines Jacopo Bassano's 1545 painting & compares it with other works that also depict the New
Testament story in which Jesus calls Peter to become a disciple. Bassano's painting was one in a long line of "copies," or variations on a theme, a standard practice in the Renaissance. Here we see that certain elements -- garments & figure groupings -- were copied from another work but were altered to achieve greater dramatic effect.
MoMA Multimedia: http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/interactives/57/interactives-online-projects is a section of the Museum of Modern Art's website: http://www.moma.org/. In this section of the website, you choose a picture, look at it, and write about it. If you wish, your writing can be published on their site.
Money Orgami: http://members.cox.net/crandall11/money/
Monochromatic Painting: http://ericir.syr.edu/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Arts/Visual_Arts/ARA0009.html
Students will understand the uses of tints and shades, as well as the connections in painting between color and emotions. They must paint along a specific scene guideline to create their own monochromatic illustrations.
The Museum of Ephemeral Cultureal Artifacts: http://www.edgechaos.com/MECA/MECA.html
This site offers a gallery of wall art, robot gallary, pinball designs.
Museum of Modern Art's Art Safari: http://artsafari.moma.org/
This learning adventure introduces students to ways of looking at and thinking about art by guiding them through a set of questions and answers. Along the way, students are prompted to respond to questions such as, What is going on in this picture? At the end of the safari, students can submit their evaluations for posting on the site. They can also explore other areas to create their own art or browse paintings or sculptures.
Museum of Web Art: http://www.mowa.org
This site would be equally appropriate for your art students or your computer/technical classes. The Museum of Web Art (MOWA) highlights some of the Web's most unique designs. In four galleries, you'll find exhibits on designs that move, work, change, and remain constant. Be sure to visit the Kid's Wing, filled with interactive computer drawing activities.
The National Gallery of Art: http://www.nga.gov/education/classroom/
A collection of educational resources, including art and lessons can be found on this government Web site.
National Gallery of Art: http://www.nga.gov/home.htm
The National Gallery of Art, an amazing Washington, D.C., resource, offers this beautiful, full-service site. The site's most useful feature for educators is its variety of virtual tours. Topics range from the art of the Italian Renaissance to that of Jackson Pollack. Students can even concentrate on one artist or one painting -- Edouard Manet's "Bullfight," for instance -- to learn about historical details and understand close readings of paintings.
National Portrait Gallery: http://www.npg.si.edu/
NGA Kids Adventures with Art - Activities and Projects: http://www.nga.gov/kids/kids.htm
National Gallery of Art section especially for kids
Painting Like an Impressionist: http://ericir.syr.edu/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Arts/Visual_Arts/ARA0012.html
Here is a more detailed art lesson in Impressionism, where students must examine and then apply the same techniques and rules used by the Impressionist painters. Mood, complementary colors, lighting, and technique are all covered.
Pablo Picasso's 'The Tragedy': The Metamorphosis of a Painting: http://www.nga.gov/feature/picasso/index.htm uses x-rays & infrared light to reveal that Picasso sketched & painted at least four works on this panel before painting over them in 1903 to produce "The Tragedy." He did not, however, merely paint over the previous images; rather, he incorporated each layer into the subsequent one, believing that, "What comes out in the end is the result of the discarded finds."
Paper Toys: http://papertoys.com/
Print, cut, fold and paste your own models in black green or brown. Some of the models available are: Mississippi Queen Riverboat, Tyrannosaurus Rex, "Old Glory" Desktop Animated Flag, Frank Lloyd Wright House, Neuschwanstein Castle, Sydney Opera House, Bruce Lee Paper Doll, White House, World Trade Center Complex, "If You Ever" Card, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, Angkor Wat, Bill Gates' House, Chrysler PT Cruiser, Taj Mahal, and a whole lot more. You can also email a greeting to friends using any of these models.
Photography: The Art of Light: http://library.thinkquest.org/25473/
This comprehensive site is bound to inspire young shutterbugs from ages 12 to 19. It leads students from the history of photography to the composition of photos. Helpful for kids of the digital generation, the site includes a post-processing section that describes the scanning technique. After they read about photography, students can use the simulations in the "Interact" section to take their best shots at setting apertures and photo finishing.
Picassohead: http://www.mrpicassohead.com/create.html
Drag and drop some rather odd features onto a canvas to create your own Picasso-style face.
Picasso's Faces: http://www.lessonplanspage.com/ArtSSPicassosFaces35.htm
This light-hearted approach to a study of Picasso--the artist and his works--lets students create their own divided portrait while studying the innovative and entirely different techniques employed by Picasso.
Pigments Through the Ages: http://webexhibits.org/pigments/
Plant Dye Paints: http://www.kinderart.com/painting/plantdye.shtml
Let your students imagine that they no longer have those tempera watercolor paints sitting in your classroom; in fact, there are no modern art tools at all. What will they do for color? Ask them to first name some plants that might produce a dye, and then experiment. This lesson plan will show you how.
The Puppetry Home Page: http://www.sagecraft.com/puppetry/
From Japanese Kabuki to Hacivad in Turkey to the Moderno Teatro de Muñecos de Costa Rica, this site describes all sorts of types of puppetry. In addition, the site includes information for students to create their own puppets in the styles of various national theaters. An excellent glossary and exposition even touch on such obscure topics as marionettes, shadow puppets, and ventriloquism.
Puzzle Factory: Coloring: http://www.thepuzzlefactory.com/coloring/coloring.cfm
A multitude of various types of puzzles to play online can be found here.
“Sawdust Clay”
Sawdust clay dries to a hard, rough finish that can be sanded and painted.
Materials:
* sawdust (If you don't have a workshop, your local lumberyard will be glad to give you some sawdust. Take a paper bag, and they'll fill it for you.)
* wallpaper paste
* water
* bowl
* wooden spoon
* pipe-cleaner pieces or toothpicks
* tempera paints, markers (optional)
Homemade Wallpaper Paste
* 8 Mix 3 tablespoons (24 g) of flour with 1 tablespoon (14 g) of sugar in a microwave-safe bowl.
* Add 1/2 cup (120 mL) of water. Stir well.
* Cook for 30 seconds. Stir again. Cook for 30 seconds more.
* The paste should be soft, smooth, and thick.
Here's How:
1. Mix the sawdust clay.
* Combine 1 scoop of sawdust and 1/2 scoop of wallpaper paste in the bowl. A thick dough will form.
* Stir as you slowly add water until the dough has a putty consistency.
2. Shape the clay into different forms. Make little creatures, puppets, bowls, and vehicles.
3. Add pipe-cleaner details.
4. Let your creatures dry until hard. Paint them with tempera paint or decorate with markers.
School Tours: http://www.nga.gov/education/school.htm features 38 paintings & sculptures selected from tours designed for students in Grades PreK-3 & 4-12. Each work is accompanied by an explanation of its significance & is presented alongside other works related to a theme -- weather, animals & nature, heroes & heroines, elements of art, the painter, the sculptor, American art, Renaissance art, mythology, & others. Information is provided about scheduling a school tour & about more than 150 teaching resources that the Gallery loans (free) to educational institutions, community groups, & individuals.
SkyscraperPage.com: http://www.skyscraperpage.com/
If the race for the world's tallest building fascinates your students, bring them to SkyscraperPage.com. They can learn about new skyscrapers that cities plan to build and monitor the construction processes. Be sure to check out the special computer diagrams of the world's tallest buildings, where you can look at all of the world's buildings together or focus on one particular city. There are breathtaking photographs of skylines, too.
Smithsonian American Art Museum: http://americanart.si.edu/
Solar System Model: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/astronomy/solarsystemmodel/
You could easily add an asteroid belt and/or planetary moons to this solar system mobile. Students will put the planets in order, and create them according to their relative sizes. Click on any of the planets to learn more about our solar system.
Storm King Art Center: http://www.stormking.org/
"Storm King Art Center is located one hour north of New York City, in the Hudson Valley."
Styles - Portrait Triptych: http://ericir.syr.edu/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Arts/Visual_Arts/ARA0203.html
Impressionism, realism, and abstraction are all considered in this art lesson on portraits. Students will create their own works in the three styles presented, starting from a selected magazine clipping. Background information and instructions will guide students through their final designs, which are to be mounted in triptych style.
Thaumatropes: http://www.randommotion.com/html/thauma.html
The thaumatrope is an early motion device you spin. While you spin the thaumatrope your brain retains what it sees on one side when it sees the other side - so your brain thinks it is seeing both sides.
Then & Now: http://www.nga.gov/feature/thenandnow/thenandnow.htm
"In these photo essays you'll view comparative images that demonstrate the many ways, some subtle, some obvious, in which the National Gallery's West Building--and the environment that surrounds it--have changed through the years."
You Be the Conservator: http://americanhistory.si.edu/kids/santos/
This Smithsonian Web site invites students to play the role of a museum conservator, discovering clues about an historical object in order to preserve or restore it.
Vincent Van Gogh Gallery: http://www.vangoghgallery.com/
Virtue & Beauty: http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2001/virtuebeauty/vbintro.htm features nearly a dozen portraits of women in Florence created between 1440 & 1540. These paintings, marble
sculptures, medals, & drawings reflect a time when subjects in art expanded to include not only rulers & their consorts but also women of the merchant class.
WebMuseum: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/
Take a tour of the WebMuseum, see the works of Paul Cezanne, medieval art, and take a walking tour of Paris.
Whale Mobile: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/Whalemobile.shtml
Print out templates for beluga whales, blue whales, humpback whales, and Orcas to create this ocean-themed mobile.
What's Your Impression?: http://www.lessonplanspage.com/ArtWhatsYourImpression-Impressionism26.htm
A little background on the history of Impressionism, along with selected viewings of representative artists' works introduces students to this hugely formative style of art. They will then have a chance to create their own impressionistic painting during an outdoor field trip.
Why is Mona Lisa Smiling?: http://library.thinkquest.org/13681/data/link2.htm
The Wonder Behind the Wizard of Oz: http://www.cis.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1995/2/95.02.02.x.html
This site is actually an in-depth lesson plan geared toward seventh- and eighth-grade drama students. Your class will discover how books get turned into movies using The Wizard of Oz as an example. They'll first read L. Frank Baum's original, unabridged novel and then watch the 1939 film. Your students will have to be perceptive by noting when and why the two diverge.
The World Art Treasures Project: http://www.bergerfoundation.ch/index.html
A collection of images organized by artist, region, and period.