Visual Arts Education — Kindergarten

Seasonal farm landscapes

Students will have visited the farm landscape four times throughout the year, recording their observations during four seasons. The drawings will incorporate their knowledge of farms from our visits, their exposure to the seasonal landscapes of Grant Wood and Claude Monet, and their knowledge of landscape art and its elements of color and perspective developed at the Museum. The final project will be individual student books containing their landscape drawings and text.

Format: lesson plan (grade K–1 Visual Arts Education)

By Jamie Barnhill.

Make your own cereal bowl

In this lesson for kindergarten, students will learn that the art of creating functional pieces of pottery in North America first began over 4000 years ago in North Carolina. Students will learn where clay comes from and will create their own pottery pieces.

Format: lesson plan (grade K–1 Visual Arts Education)

By Eileen Palamountain.

Resources on the web

Stories in quilts

Students explore the history and culture of quilt-making. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade K–2 Visual Arts Education)

Provided by: National Endowment for the Humanities

Navajo weaving

In this ARTSEDGE lesson, students explore various aspects of Native American cultures and Navajo weavings. Using the patterns on the Navajo Rugs, they devise dance patterns and perform a traveling pattern based on Navajo weavings. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade K–3 Visual Arts Education, Dance Arts Education, and English Language Arts)

Provided by: ArtsEdge

The meaning behind the mask

Students explore the cultural significance of masks, discuss the use of masks in stories, and then investigate the role masks play in ceremonies and on special occasions in various African cultures. After students have studied these masks, they are then... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade K–2 Visual Arts Education, English Language Arts, Social Studies, and Theater Arts Education)

Provided by: ESITEment

Masks and Aesop's fables

This ARTSEDGE lesson is based on a study of Aesop's Fables. Although Aesop's fables are over 2,600 years old, the stories—and their morals—are still relevant today. In this lesson, students learn a fable, make simple masks, and retell the fable... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade K–4 Visual Arts Education, English Language Arts, and Theater Arts Education)

Provided by: ArtsEdge

Family and friendship in quilts

Students recognize how people of different cultures and time periods have used cloth-based art forms to pass down their traditions and history. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade K–2 Visual Arts Education)

Provided by: National Endowment for the Humanities

Egyptian symbols and figures: Scroll painting

This lesson plan from EDSITEment introduces students to the writing, art, and religious beliefs of ancient Egypt through hieroglyphs, one of the oldest writing systems in the world, and through tomb paintings. The lesson plan is in two parts. In this second... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade K–2 Visual Arts Education, English Language Arts, and Social Studies)

Provided by: EDSITEment

Egyptian symbols and figures: Hieroglyphs

This lesson plan from EDSITEment introduces students to the writing, art, and religious beliefs of ancient Egypt through hieroglyphs, one of the oldest writing systems in the world. The lesson plan is in two parts. In this first lesson, the class creates... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade K–2 Visual Arts Education, English Language Arts, and Social Studies)

Provided by: EDSITEment

Cave art: Discovering prehistoric humans through pictures

In this lesson on the EDSITEment website, students travel to the past to explore how people in earlier times used art as a way to record stories and communicate ideas. By studying paintings from the Cave of Lascaux and other caves in France, students discover... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade K–2 Visual Arts Education)

Provided by: EDSITEment