The following projects demonstrate the power of art to make learning meaningful and engaging. Lesson plans are meant to serve as guides rather than comprehensive instructions. We hope that you find these projects inspiring. Adapt, modify or simplify these projects to best support your students in becoming active participants in their own learning.
Students work collaboratively in groups to create photo collages synthesizing their comprehension of photography techniques with chronological storytelling. After learning and applying a series of photographic techniques, such as perspective and angles, and analyzing how stories unfold in a logical manner, each group storyboards a sequentially logical story and conveys the story via a linear […]
Exploring the properties of mechanical energy and its forms (force and motion, potential and kinetic energy), students work together to compose song lyrics and theatrical scripts to trace the conversion of motion energy into other forms of energy. Students further design and create a physical product prototype to be used in their commercial presentations, demonstrating […]
Students create pantomime, tableau, and news reports to aid their investigations into the phenomena of bodies of water, water’s use and conservation, and extreme weather’s effects on the earth’s landscape, people, and animals. Students compare their daily lives to those whose lives might be affected by a shortage or overabundance of water and think critically […]
This project was founded on the idea that math is not merely problems on worksheets but a specific way of understanding and recording the world. To help students recognize the prevalence of underlying visual patterns in nature and man-made compositions, they are tasked with analyzing the defining characteristics of Theodorus spirals, replicating those qualities, and […]
Students create a shape-poetry painting using descriptive language and landform illustrations. Students learn various art techniques including: shape poetry, watercolor resist, collage, and illustration.
Students learn to draw through shapes, break down animal faces into the mathematical concept of parts of a whole, and plan/design in order to create a three-dimensional mask of one of the animal characters from the book Ungalala by Brenda Parkes. This project was developed to help the classroom teacher very successfully teach the sequence […]
Kindergartners deepen their understanding of push, pull, and change of direction through building their own towns and navigating various disasters that strike their imaginary inhabitants. Students gain working knowledge of the differences between two-dimensional and three-dimensional models as they craft objects such as mountains, buildings, and lakes using materials like paper, cardboard, and cotton balls. […]
To align with their NGSS Earth and Space unit, and the enduring cross-cutting concept of patterns, students create artists’ books to describe the patterns that we can observe in our sky. Students observe, analyze, and depict patterns of the sun, the moon and its cycle, and the four seasons. Using various visual art techniques, including […]
Students learn to draw three-dimensionally, design a blueprint, and create a model/prototype in order to solve a human-impact problem using inspiration from a chosen animal part. This project was developed to help the classroom teachers successfully teach the Engineering Design unit as well as a way to successfully incorporate the development of fine motor skills, […]
Students delve into the lives of bats, ants, reptiles, and owls through research about habitat, adaptations, predator/prey, etc. Students create realistic habitat collages and papier-mâché sculptures that reflect accurate depictions of the animals and habitats. Students then read books in which the authors/illustrators use the same animals as the basis for fictional characters. They create […]
First graders gain a deeper understanding of the layers of the rainforest and the animals that inhabit them by creating a multimedia rainforest installation. In addition to creating visual artwork, over the course of the project, students also research, write, and perform in conjunction with their learning. Finally, students perform short skits comparing and contrasting […]
Third-grade students embody the spirit of animals after creating wearable sculptures of animal adaptations. Children begin by learning to carefully observe animals up close—actual specimens from the Natural History Museum—and to draw details of fur, scales, beaks, talons, claws, and more. Students draw, take notes, and sculpt animal adaptations in papier-mâché. Small features are blown […]