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80 results found in category: Arts (all lessons)

A Color Of Our Own

Grade level: 1

This lesson is based on the illustrations in the book “A Color of His Own”, by Leo Lionni. Students each produce a cut out chameleon in Lionni’s style and two pages of painted paper. They camouflage their chameleons in the painted paper. Both can be made into a class book or a bulletin board.

 

Abstract Color Wheels

Grade level: Adaptive

Students look at abstract painter Robert Rauschenberg and his art with letters. After gluing their initials and a black paper shape on a white piece of paper, they spread primary colors (using matt board pieces) to make secondary colors. Lastly, they add black until they feel their artwork is finished.

 

Action Figure Collage

Grade level: 6

Students look at and learn about the collages of contemporary artist Miriam Schapiro. They paint a background and use mannequins to draw and create an action figure. The parts are embellished and assembled into a collage.

 

African Painted Rhythms

Grade level: 1

Students learn about warm and cool colors as they create an artwork using lines, texture and pattern. South African music inspires the rhythm and patterns as students use watercolors to create the final product.

 

African Painted Walls

Grade level: 4

Students 'travel' to the region of Burkina Faso in Western Africa to learn about the well-known painted houses. After studying the artists and their work, students create a narrative wall painting using silhouettes and paint. They also incorporate patterns and traditional or personal symbols into their work.

 

Alaska Bear Dreams

Grade level: 1

Students learn about the habits and habitats of Alaska’s bears. After reading and sharing a children’s book on bears, students explore the topic of hibernation. They create a drawing of a hibernating bear, complete with cut paper shapes representing the bear’s dreams.

 

Alaska Landscapes with Georgia O'Keeffe

Grade level: 4

Students study the life and art of Georgia O’Keeffe, focusing on her landscape painting. They create cut paper and oil pastel landscapes working from photos of Alaska.

 

Aleut Basket Paintings

Grade level: 4

Students learn about Aleut basket weaving techniques. They learn to weave a basic pattern and use tempera paint to create a repeated motif on their weaving.

 

Amason's Whimsical Animals

Grade level: 5

Students look at the whimsical animal paintings of Alvin Amason, an Alaskan Native artist. Students begin their own animal paintings using basic shapes and playful color choices, adding large brush strokes in his painting style.

 

Andy Goldsworthy: Art From the Earth

Grade level: 5

Students study Andy Goldsworthy, a British artist who transforms nature into art, photographs it, and lets it return to nature. They then go outside to create art from only nature -- no tools allowed! When done, they photograph their work and write abou tthe art they made and the process they used.

 

Animal Portraits with Todd Sherman

Grade level: 1

Students are introduced to the colorful portraits of Fairbanks artist Todd Sherman. Todd enjoys painting animals, friends and family, often adding humor to his art by having animals acting and looking like people. Students paint their own “self-portrait" as an Alaskan animal in the style of Todd Sherman.

 

Asian Bamboo Painting

Grade level: 4

Students discuss the meaning of tradition as applied to Chinese/Japanese painting and calligraphy. They practice brushstrokes using traditional tools, create paintings of bamboo, mount them scroll-style with patterned borders and finish them by stamping with a red signature chop.

 

Athabascan Mittens

Grade level: Kindergarten

Students will examine the traditional lifestyle of Athabascan people. They will look at clothing, and the types and materials used for decoration. After looking closely at beading, students will design their own beaded mitten.

 

Bicycles: Art on the Move

Grade level: 5

Students learn about the history of the bicycle. They work through the artist process by drawing a bicycle from memory, by observation, using tools and then from memory again. They arrange their drawings into a collage for display.

 

Birch Trees with Kes Woodward

Grade level: 6

Students learn about Fairbanks, Alaska painter Kes Woodward and how he paints birch trees. They practice watercolor techniques, and discuss composition and perspective as students create a water color birch tree painting.

 

Bird Drawing with Bill Berry

Grade level: 4

Students learn about the life and work of wildlife Alaskan artist Bill Berry. He is best known for his animal studies, published field sketchbook and children’s books. Students carefully examine an Alaskan bird photograph with care and practice different drawing exercises in their field sketchbook. Lastly they produce a complete bird drawing. ** A wonderful extension of this lesson is observing and drawing real mounted birds.

 

Birds of Different Feathers

Grade level: 6

The class participates in tolerance activities to prompt discussions about 'different and alike.' Then they create their own birds of different feathers using oil pastels and construction paper. Students include a message which their birds are carrying to the world.

 

Box Design

Grade level: 6

Students learn about careers in art and the design and color choices they must make as they construct custom boxes with lids. These boxes can be used as containers for gifts.

 

Butterflies and Bugs

Grade level: 2

Students look at butterflies and bugs in nature to learn about symmetry. They make a symmetrical butterfly or bug.

 

Butterfly Paper Sculpture

Grade level: 4

Artists and designers often look to nature for inspiration. French artist and naturalist E.A.Seguy drew intricate scientific illustrations of butterflies and created designs based on his drawings. Students learn about Seguy and produce a 3 dimensional paper sculpture butterfly with colored paper and oil pastel patterns.

 

Cans with Andy Warhol

Grade level: 4

Students will be introduced to the artist Andy Warhol, famous for his Pop Art paintings of Campbell's Soup cans. Students will also learn that Warhol had a career as a graphic artist. Students will create their own labeled can to hold whatever humorous or imaginative things they want to contain or preserve.

 

Caribou on the Tundra

Grade level: 3

Students learn about the habits and habitat of caribou and their relationship to Athabascan people. They draw lichen growing on the tundra using layers of land to show perspective. Tissue paper and watercolor paint embellish the caribou on the tundra collage.

 

Celebrating the Art Elements

Grade level: 3

Students discuss art made by the famous American Pop artist, Roy Lichtenstein. They look for the elements of art, using their art vocabulary. Then they use these elements to develop a drawing/painting/collage.

 

Centennial Bridge

Grade level: 4

Students learn about the artist Ron Senungetuk who is an Alaskan Native Artist. He designed a landmark bridge in Fairbanks. Students design and create a 2-D abstract bridge from construction paper.

 

Charles Mason: Photographer

Grade level: 2

Students examine the work of Fairbanks photographer Charles Mason and make a special humorous collage, combining multiple images they unify with charcoal gray tone techniques to simulate black and white photography.

 

Chimpanzees and Dr. Jane Goodall

Grade level: 2

Students study Dr. Jane Goodall and her work with chimpanzees. They learn about the environment they live in and learn to draw a chimpanzee in its natural habitat.

 

Collaborative Peace

Grade level: 2

The book No One Can Ever Steal Your Rainbow by Barbara Meislin is used for inspiration. The students create a “peace” mural by designing their own rainbow on 'puzzle pieces' and assembling into a class mural. Each student writes a wish for the world and the wishes then become part of the art.

 

Color Critters

Grade level: Kindergarten

Students will listen to the story White Rabbit's Color Book in which White Rabbit jumps through primary color paints and turns brown. After some practice in mixing primary colored oil pastels in many combinations and discovering new colors, they will create a colorful critter from their practice sheet.

 

Creative Character Sculptures

Grade level: 6

Students collaboratively think of a character, either animal, human or make believe, that they would like in a story. Working with a partner, they creatively solve problems to make their character from "found" materials. Construction and embellishment make the characters come alive.

 

Deep Space

Grade level: 4

Students learn how to use a light source to create of a sphere from a circle. Students create planets using oil pastels and learn a blending technique to give the impression of form. By arranging the planets and accenting the composition with stars and shooting stars, the finished product creates the illusion of Deep Space.

 

Diatoms: Microscopic Jewels

Grade level: 5

Students are introduced to the 17th century Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, the microscope he developed, his discoveries and his methods of recording those discoveries. They create a colorful microscopic view of diatoms using watercolors and black crayon 'resist.'

 

Dinosaur Texture

Grade level: 2

Students look at many dinosaur species and then concentrate on their shapes as they draw a dinosaur. The texture on the dinosaur's body is rubbed on from texture boards. Students collage and draw a background with layers of land for the dinosaur.

 

Doodles and Form

Grade level: 6

Students learn how to use shading techniques to change shapes into forms, thus making a 3-D appearance. Surrealism is discussed as the students juxtapose their forms to create a surreal composition.

 

Eric Carle Mural

Grade level: 1

After sharing the book Where are You Going? To See my Friend, students discuss real and abstract artwork. They will learn how to use texture rubbings to create torn paper animals and people. Students then assemble a collaborative work of art displaying characters from the book.

 

Expressionist Environments

Grade level: 3

Students look at 2D and 3D art and artists. They create their own 3D environment using paper folding and cutting techniques. Embellishments are added with color and pattern.

 

Faith Ringgold: Our Own Story Quilts

Grade level: 3

This lesson is designed to teach in two sessions. Students study the work of artist, teacher, author and illustrator Faith Ringgold. They create a story quilt with a well-developed drawing based on a personal memory. Finished work includes a written memory sentence and a colorful pieced border.

 

Flower Parts

Grade level: 3

The parts of flowers are discussed along with the botanist, Elizabeth Britton. Students then use oil pastels and shading techniques to create flower parts and assemble these parts to make a flower relief.

 

Folded Lines

Grade level: 1

Students learn about two different artists, Alexander Calder and Piet Mondrian. They compare the two types of art they both used--sculpture and painting. They create their own 3D work of art combining these two artist styles.

 

Frog in Monet's Pond

Grade level: 3

Students listen to 2 books: one about Linnea visiting Monet and the other about a frog who goes to Monet’s garden while he is painting the lilies on the pond. The lily pad paintings of Monet are discussed before students draw lily pads with oil pastels. A watercolor painting lesson is taught using the wet on wet technique to paint the pond. Finally, students are taught to draw frogs. They are cut out and added to the pond.

 

Gesture Figure Drawing

Grade level: 6

Students look at the gesture drawings of Daumier and practice drawing the human figure in action with ovals and triangles. The drawings are painted and collaged.

 

Grids and Values in Art and Math

Grade level: 6

Students are introduced to the illusionary art of M. C. Escher. They use hard and soft lead pencils to shade a five-step value scale and then use contrasting values and a dot grid to make isometric drawings of cubes. Grids are used in the second session to make a cooperative enlargement of an Escher print.

 

Henry Moore Sculpture

Grade level: Kindergarten

Students will study the artist Henry Moore who made sculptures of people. They create a simple figure out of paper and clay. These figures include “holes” or negative space in the style of Henry Moore's sculptures.

 

Hokusai Insect Prints

Grade level: 4

Students will learn about the Japanese printmaker Katsushika Hokusai, best known for his print “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa”. They will create Japanese children’s style prints, using insects as imagery.

 

Horse Studies

Grade level: 6

Students learn about Renaissance man Leonardo da Vinci, and his desire to cast a 24 foot tall horse from metal. They are also introduced to the work of contemporary sculptor Deborah Butterfield, who makes life-size horses out of various materials. Students practice drawing horses, add rubbed textures, and use the drawings to assemble collages.

 

Hundertwasser: Architect

Grade level: 6

Students learn about Austrian artist and architect Friedrich Hundertwasser and look at the buildings he designed. Students design a part of a building - door, window or dome - in his style and add bright colors. The whimsical shapes and patterns should tell a bit about themselves.

 

I Am A Star

Grade level: Adaptive

Students discuss how they can 'be a star' by helping others. They look at books with shapes and colors and name them. They then glue colored shapes on a long strip of railroad board -- punching holes in some of them to make peek-a-boo colors. Lastly, they fold, add stars and hang!

 

Inside and Outside of Me

Grade level: 5

Students consider prejudice and tolerance by exploring ways in which we are all alike. They then learn about for 'artist heroes' who drew their creative strength from accepting and nurturing their personal differences. Students investigate the concept of tolerance by creating an 'inside and outside of me self portrait' using words, color and pattern.

 

Jellybean Books

Grade level: 4

Students write a color poem using their five senses. They will then create a small "jellybean" book and decorate it using a simple printing technique. Students then further embellish their book and may include their original poems within.

 

Keith Haring Action Figures

Grade level: 3

Students work in the style of Keith Haring as they draw and then cut out brightly colored action figures. Embellishment with oil pastels shows movement.

 

Landscapes with David Mollett

Grade level: Kindergarten

Students examine landscapes by Fairbanks artist David Mollett looking at fore, middle and backgrounds. They then paint a landscape demonstrating what they learned.

 

Love Those Anemones

Grade level: Kindergarten

Students look at pictures of sea anemones and discuss radial design. They learn primary colors and then paint a large anemone with a wave-line background.

 

Magic Machines

Grade level: 3

Students learn about simple machines and how they work by looking at and discussing examples. They invent their own machine using colored markers and ingenuity.

 

Masks and Symmetry

Grade level: 2

Students look at various examples of cultural masks, discussing symmetry and design. They then make their own symmetrical mask using paper and oil pastels.

 

Michelangelo's Hands

Grade level: 5

Students study the life of the Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo, focusing on two of his best-known works, the marble sculpture Pieta and a small part of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. They create a modeled or shaded drawing of their hand in a sign language position, cut it out and mount it pop-up style to look like a piece of sculpture.

 

Mondrian Trees

Grade level: 1

Students learn about Piet Mondrian who painted trees all his life using different styles. They then draw and paint a tree in the style of Piet Mondrian.

 

Mouse Colors

Grade level: 1

Students learn the primary colors and discover what happens when paints are mixed by experimenting on large paper. While their paintings dry, students read Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh. Then a class graph is created to see which colors they found. Each student traces a “foot” on their dried painted paper, cuts it out and glues it to the color graph in the matching color column.

 

Mt. McKinley: Sydney Laurence

Grade level: 6

Students look at them many paintings of Sydney Laurence, a renowned painter of Mt. McKinley. Watercolor pencil painting techniques are used as students learn about contour lines, value, shading and the importance of contrast to create their versions of the mountain.

 

Murals of Our Towns and Villages

Grade level: 3

Students learn about muralist Diego Rivera and how he used perspective to show near and far. A mural of their own town or village is drawn after planning the important resources, buildings, animals and landmarks that need to be included in the mural.

 

Northern Migrations: Cranes, Caribou, Salmon

Grade level: 5

Students discuss northern migrations and study photos and artwork showing migrations of cranes, caribou and salmon. They consider design elements that create a sense of movement before using watercolors, oil pastel and cut-paper stencils to create a mixed media artwork of cranes, salmon or caribou in motion.

 

Observe, Question and Write

Grade level: 6

Students examine a piece of art by asking who, what, when, where, and why questions. After reporting information through questions, they write a short story or paragraph.

 

Ocean Life Diorama

Grade level: 4

Students look closely at photographs of life in tropical coral reefs or under Alaskan oceans. With inspiration from the photographs, students use oil pastels and construction paper to create an under ocean life diorama which includes fish or marine mammals in a habitat.

 

Olanna's Paper Sculptures

Grade level: 4

Students learn about the Alaskan Native artist Melvin Olanna. His stylized sculptures reflect his Inupiaq culture. Students create simple animal shapes from paper, using a paper scoring technique to make them look 3D. Paper sculptures are mounted on a background based on an Alaskan landscape.

 

On Mother's Lap

Grade level: 1

Students view impressionist artwork while discussing the subject of family closeness. Students then share the book On Mother’s Lap, by Ann Hebert Scott. Students create an interactive artwork involving a chair and puppets. Students can tell their own story about their family using their artwork.

 

On Top of the World

Grade level: Adaptive

Students look at a globe and discuss what is land, water, and ice/snow and how the water currents move over the earth. They paint water on a circle, cut organic shapes to make ice and continents, and put themselves where they live... on top of the world.

 

Picasso Portraits

Grade level: 3

Students look at 6 Picasso portraits to see the difference between realistic and abstract styles, and the characteristics of the Cubist style. They learn how to draw facial features and their correct placement on a face. A portrait collage is made from their practice pieces, along with the embellishment of clothing.

 

Quilting with Fractions and Symmetry

Grade level: 3

Students learn about the extensive and interesting history of quilt making. They then cut shapes from squares using equivalent fractions and design the center and border squares using vertical, horizontal and diagonal symmetry.

 

Rachel Carson Silent Spring

Grade level: 4

Students learn about the life of writer, biologist and conservationist, Rachel Carson. Students learn to use complementary colors to show the effects of pollution on their plant. They create a before and after line drawing of an Alaskan plant using watercolor paints for color.

 

Raven Sculptures: John Hoover

Grade level: 3

Students learn about Alaskan Aleut sculptor John Hoover and study two of his raven sculptures, looking for shape and texture. After learning interesting scientific facts about ravens, they draw and cut out raven sculpture mobiles.

 

Salmon Summer in Kodiak

Grade level: 4

Through the book Salmon Summer in Kodiak, students learn about an Aleut boy who lives on Kodiak Island and fishes for salmon. Students create a 2D painting with warm or cool colors that incorporates designs inspired by salmon and traditional Aleut hunting hats.

 

Shape-Ka-Bobs

Grade level: Kindergarten

Students will learn about textures. They will go on a texture hunt in their room naming textures they find. Then they will make rubbings from texture forms, cut them out, and put them on a stick to make a "Shape-ka-Bob."

 

Shaveroonies

Grade level: 2

Students create "shaveroonies"-- imaginative creatures from outer space. They are made by cutting paper (shaving it), texturing the pieces and piecing them together into fanciful creatures.

 

Shells with Georgia O'Keeffe

Grade level: 4

Students learn about the life and art of Georgia O'Keeffe, focusing on her large close-up paintings of shells. They play an observation game of hunting for shape, pattern and texture on photos of real shells, and then they use oil pastels to create a four-section study of actual shells.

 

Snowflake Prints

Grade level: 4

Students explore connections between math, science and art through studying the beauty and structure of snowflakes. They examine the snowflake photographs of scientist Wilson Bentley and Kenneth Libbrecht, creating original snowflake prints and cut-paper snowflake designs which demonstrate radial symmetry.

 

Spirit Masks

Grade level: 4

Students examine and discuss contemporary and traditional Yupik masks. Several typical mask elements are recognized and incorporated in a mask related to student’s life and interests.

 

Stomp to the Music

Grade level: 4

Students learn about rhythm, movement, and texture in the context of sound and image. They create their own water-color resist using color, line and texture to demonstrate principles of both art and music.

 

Story Sculptures

Grade level: 2

Students will discuss what is 2- and 3- dimensional and what a sculpture is. They will then look at examples of art in their community. Students will create a small free-standing sculpture based on a story (any good story will do.) This is a model of a larger sculpture they are proposing to build for an imaginary new library.

 

Sunflowers

Grade level: Kindergarten

Students read book Camille and the Sunflowers, a story about Vincent Van Gogh, and learn of his love for painting sunflowers. Inspired by this, they paint a sunflower of their own.

 

Textured Landscapes

Grade level: 2

Students study Grant Wood and look at his unique paintings of Iowa. They draw a landscape, texture and pattern it, and add color sparingly to complete their art.

 

Tolerance Banners

Grade level: 4

After viewing and discussing the images of the United Nations Six Flags of Tolerance, students create a positive-negative design based on a Japanese paper cutting technique called Notan.

 

Vincent Van Gogh Self-Portraits

Grade level: Kindergarten

Students study the self-portraits of the Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh. They look at his impressionist style of painting and then create their own self-portrait in tempera paints.

 
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