What a great lesson, upper graders are sure to love. They explore costume design and the relationships between theatre, culture, and history. They research three time periods, write a response about two of them, then create a composit...

As the saying goes, art often imitates life ... and literature! A series of activities designed to accompany a visit to the Ogden Museum of Southern Art encourage writers to find inspiration in various landscapes. The lesson includes a...

Students survey Neoclassical art and create a narrative based on their analyses. Focused questions and relevant background information provided by the Getty Museum provides a great foundation for students to understand art techniques as...

This scripted lesson suggests using the journalist’s five W’s (who, what, when, where, why) to teach readers how to summarize a story and to how to distinguish between significant and supporting details. A template and rubric are...

Students write, adapt, and compose a song related to the West Virginia State Museum.  In this music lesson, students create a composition for a work of  visual art. Students incorporate major and minor melodies.

Students write persuasive speeches to recruit soldiers for a Civil War company. In this Civil War U.S. history and writing lesson, students work in groups to create a recruiting poster and write a speech to persuade soldiers to join...

Students improve their creative writing skills. In this writing skills lesson, students learn about picture captions, story writing, critiques, poems, reports, letter writing, creative writing, and a rap poem.

Students assess the impact of music to portray emotions and tell stories. Examples are taken from the life of Rosa Parks and a piece of band music called "A Movement for Rosa". Evaluation is accomplished through in-class participation...

Engage your class in art analysis of Indian Look-Alike by Melanie Yazzie. Using this work of art as inspiration, writers compose a poem or short story. After a peer review session, the teacher conveys information about the work of art as...

Are you just about to teach persuasion in your class? If so, you should consider this short unit. In small groups, learners create a product, develop a magazine ad for the product, and pitch this product to the class using a visual...

Fifth graders write a paragraph titled "All About Me" in the computer lab after they have drawn graphic organizers to fill in background information about themselves and used a "10-Point Writing Checklist" to do peer editing.

Students explore language arts by participating in a vocabulary usage activity. For this word choice lesson, students read examples of great word usage in literature and discuss with the class why some words appear stronger than others....

Young scholars write a composition comparing and contrasting two portraits. In this comparing and contrasting lesson, students will observe two portraits and compare them through their writing. They then will write a letter to the...

Middle schoolers examine photographs from newspapers and write a headline and story to accompany one.

Students examine photographs from newspapers and write a headline and story for one of the examples. For this news writing lesson, students analyze a photograph as a class and discuss it. Students analyze photographs and example...

Students research, write, and draw about Roman versus American slavery. In this slavery lesson plan, students look at the Roman portraits of slaves, its influence on Western European art, and compare Roman slavery to American slavery.

First graders explore language arts by reading a classic story in class. In this word choice lesson, 1st graders read the story of Johnny Appleseed and identify the descriptive words and sentences the author used to entice the reader....

Contemplate what music learners listen to and why they listen. Can they find poetry within music lyrics? Specifically hone in on blues lyrics and ruminate upon the social issues prevalent in the themes. Particular song lyrics coincide...

Students examine a painting that depicts a scene from the Underground Railroad. They discuss the painting and write journal entries and poems in response to the painting's themes and their impressions.

Students create a banner or flag about an endangered animal to teach others about their plight for survival. In this environmental science lesson plan, the class will work to create a list of endangered animals, then create a class...

For many people, Barack Obama's presidency was the next step in Martin Luther King, Jr's dream of America's future. Explore the dreams of Americans past and present, as well as the young Americans in your class, with a set of activities...

Students contribute to a classroom art show. In this art appreciation activity, students research the lives and works of artists from different ages. Students write reports, recreate artwork of their researched artists, and participate...

Students read slave narratives and retell the stories to the class, identifying sensory details. In this slavery lesson, students discuss the importance of sensory details, then read the slave narratives looking for specific examples. ...

Fourth graders explore language arts by analyzing poetry styles. In this writing analysis instructional activity, 4th graders read several sample poems in class and identify similes, metaphors and other figurative language within them....