Elementary (grades K-5)

After looking at the Bird and Cornstalk Rug, students make a design for a class rug and write a letter to one of the bluebirds pictured in Yellowhair’s piece.

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Students will analyze Trade Canoe for Don Quixote and explore how Jaune Quick-to-See Smith used objects and symbols to express her views on the Iraq War. In contrast, students will create their own painting that reflects a positive cultural exchange.

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Mimicking Monet’s love of gardening, students will create paintings and transform their classroom into a garden gallery, using The Water Lily Pond for inspiration.

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Students will work in small groups to analyze different quadrants of the Garden Party screen. The groups will share what they discovered with the entire class, compare their observations to picnics they’ve been on, and draw sketches based on their own experiences in a format similar to the Garden Party screen.

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Lección Completa (en español)

Students will examine Bierstadt’s painting Wind River Country and talk about how the painting makes them feel and why. They will also learn a little bit about the historical context of the painting,and use it as the setting for an adventure for which they will write a travel journal.

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Students will imagine they are visiting the scene presented in Marshall’s painting Better Homes, Better Gardens and write a letter home about their experience. They will then write a second letter, imagining they were visiting on a misty, moonlit night to stretch their imaginations and enhance their writing abilities.

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Students will analyze and compare the Japanese Lacquer Box to pencil boxes used in school. They will then explore why the lacquer box was deserving of such attention to detail by learning about the story represented on the box. They will then design their own boxes based on a different Japanese story, with careful attention to detail.

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Using methods similar to those employed by Keith Jacobshagen when painting By June the Light Begins to Breathe, students will draw upon past memories of a particular space and use these memories to sketch a new scene from their imaginations.

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Students will first pay attention to details about the Denver Art Museum’s North Building and then imagine they are a spider, or other small creature, and write a short piece about exploring the outside of the building from this new perspective.

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Students will watch a short clip from the Disney-Pixar movie Toy Story, and compare it to the toy in Richard Patterson’s painting If. Inspired by adventures in the movie, they will brainstorm a list of ideas that describe how Patterson’s toy might have ended up under layers of paint. They will then write a creative short story documenting the adventures.

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After studying the painting Our Lady of the Victory of Málaga, students will discover that the bottom of the painting once depicted a pirate attack. They will research information, print off images of pirates, and use their imaginations to complete the painting with their own pirate scene.

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Students will learn about visual attributes depicted in Zenale’s painting Madonna and Child with Saints, which have special meaning in the Catholic religion. They will then create attributes that represent something unique to their class.

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Students will learn the significance of the pottery created by Maria and Julian Martinez and discover how pottery-making skills were passed down through their family and members of the San Ildefonso Pueblo community. Students will interview a family or community member about a skill that they have taught to others and write or illustrate a letter explaining how to perform this skill.

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After learning about Thomas Hudson’s painting (its history, the artist, etc.), students will write stories about the people that he portrayed. The stories may be set during the time the portrait was painted, or students may transport the family members to another time and/or place.

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Students will use an animal of their choosing and imagine that animal moving around and through Hubert Candelario‘s Jar. They will write about (or share orally) the animal’s experiences and use their ideas to design a “jar with holes,” which they will build for their animal.

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Students will observe Daniel Sprick’s painting Release Your Plans and explore the importance of artistic decisions. They will then work as a team to create their own arrangement of objects in unconventional compositions.

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Students will explore the use of cool colors in Bouguereau’s painting Childhood Idyll; experiment with cool, warm, and complementary colors; and create a self-portrait using one of these color schemes.

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Students will explore the connection between appearance, sound, and movement, and then create an animal mask that includes visual and aural elements similar to the ones used in a Hamat’sa initiation ceremony.

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By making their own Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone drawings in small groups, students will develop a better understanding of the scope and size of the original painting. They will then use the painting as inspiration for writing creative travel guide entries.

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Students will examine the visual tools used in the painting The Road to Santa Fe and how those tools help the painter tell a particular story. They will then use the painting to explore storytelling and use brainstorming strategies to enrich the content and voice of stories they will write. Multiple drafts and peer editing will help teach students how working and reworking a piece, much like painters do when planning a painting, will strengthen their finished product.

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Students will explore the textures of various fabrics and describe what they feel physically and what they imagine the fabric of Four Purple Velvet Bathrobes to feel like. They will use what they’ve learned about texture and fabrics to respond to an art object and create a threedimensional collage using fabric pieces.

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Students will learn about the story depicted in the Incense Burner with Face of Supernatural, as well as how it was used and why. They will then write a continuation of the story. Students will also design a top for the Incense Burner that incorporates details from their stories and elements from the bottom of the burner.

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Taking inspiration from the printed fabrics used in the Pratt Family Album Quilt, each student will create their own printing block and six prints. They will then swap prints with other students. After swapping prints, each student will assemble a quilt that is unique and personal.

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The Eleven-Headed Bodhisattva was created by a group of artisan-specialists, rather than one individual carver. In this lesson students will work as a class, each drawing one specific body part, to create a representation of their teacher.

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Students will explore the role of the Senufo Drum as art and a means of communication. They will learn about the meaning of the images on the Drum and invent, draw, and sculpt symbols that reflect values important to them and their classmates.

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Students will explore how body language and position in the Olmec Seated Figure communicates a certain tone or mood, compare the body language and position of this figure with other pieces of art, and create their own three-dimensional piece of art that conveys a selected tone or feeling.

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In this lesson, students will explore the symbols, patterns, and colors that are important to the Osage people. Students will create a t-shirt design that expresses information about their own culture and personality, then compose a written reflection on the messages communicated by their clothing design.

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Students will explore the concept of memory/remembering using the Malagan figures from New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. They will participate in memory games, talk about how to remember and honor family members, and learn how to use mnemonic devices to remember details and items in a list.

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Students will learn about the design of the Crow people, describe the importance of beads and horses for American Indian art and society, then create a design that represents their family.

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Students will locate the country of India on a world map or globe, examine the different features of the Hanuman sculpture, and relate the character of Hanuman to contemporary superheroes. They will then brainstorm ideas for their own superhero, create a three-dimensional superhero sculpture, and compare it to Hanuman.

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Students will examine how Russell used the foreground and background of his painting In the Enemy’s Country to demonstrate camouflage. They will then use fruit and found objects to gain first-hand experience with how to disguise an everyday object as something else.

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Students will learn about the purpose and use of the Inca Large Jug, discover how containers for liquids have changed during the course of history, and design a container for liquids for a special occasion.

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Students will examine Remington’s The Cheyenne and identify the challenges he faced in creating a horse that appears to be airborne. They will then work with a partner and go through a similar problem-solving process to create their own airborne sculpture.

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Students will compare the Assyrian Bird-Headed Deity limestone relief to comic book superheroes to talk about common themes and important differences. Attention to the three-dimensional detail in the relief, as compared to the more flat two-dimensional images of cartoon art, helps them learn about different visual elements artists use to convey certain feelings and concepts.

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Students will use the Tlingit House Partition to guide their learning about the Tlingit people’s views on animals and their relationship to humans. Students will then explore their own views on animals, as well as those of their culture, and compare them to those of the Tlingit people. Students will research an animal to learn more about its habitat, means of survival, and status (e.g. endangered or not).

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Students will examine the way in which the Herter brothers included fine details in their work on the Renaissance Revival/Aesthetic Cabinet, then pay attention to detail themselves as they create a miniature door panel that includes a series of borders.

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Students will learn about the artistic technique of embossing by examining an ancient Panamanian Plaque and practice the technique using aluminum foil and a three-dimensional collage.

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Students will go take on a mystery, Sherlock Holmes style, to uncover the secrets, history, and deeper meanings of Moyo Ogundipe’s painting Soliloquy: Life’s Fragile Fictions.

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Students will explore the statue of St. Ferdinand with an eye for detail. They will use the ideas and techniques from the statue to design a royal figure for themselves.

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Students will learn about the role and significance of the Death Cart during the Catholic tradition of Holy Week processions, then create a two-panel piece of art depicting a challenging situation and its positive resolution.

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This two-day lesson will allow students to learn and apply formal methods of visual arts analysis to investigate and understand Dan Namingha’s Hopi Eagle Dancer. They will then experiment with paints in an effort to get a sense of how the artist used different tools and thicknesses of paints to achieve varying effects in the painting.

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This lesson allows students to understand the significance and history behind the Han dynasty Horse through a creative writing assignment. The students will first learn some historical background information about the Horse. Using fact, imagination, and guided prompts, students will write a story from the Horse’s perspective describing the journey from creation, burial, and discovery to its final place as an object in an art museum.

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Students will explore how William Merritt Chase repeated lines and textures throughout his fish painting. They will make a Japanese-style gyotaku fish print, then choose a line to repeat by adding an object to their print with oil pastels.

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Students will put on their “detective hats” and use magnifying glasses to find evidence that supports attributing the paintings in the Molleno Altar Screen to one artist and one piece. They will work in small groups and present a case to share with the entire class. They will also explore what would need to be different for them to prove that the pieces do not belong together.

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Students use Harry Fonseca’s painting Shuffle Off to Buffalo to spur their imaginations and learn about Old Man Coyote. They write their own stories about how Coyote came to dance on stage dressed up as Uncle Sam.

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Students will learn the definition of hue and explore Monet’s use of various blue hues in his painting Waterloo Bridge. Students will then create a painting of a famous bridge using various hues of one color.

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Working in small groups, students will find as many details as possible in Blumenschein’s Eagle’s Nest Lake using specific words to guide their investigation. They will then select three of their favorite details and write a poem that incorporates all three items.

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Students will explore the shiny qualities of objects found in the classroom and in Berthe Morisot’s painting Soup Tureen and Apple. They will work in groups to design and conduct an experiment to organize objects in the order of shininess. The lesson culminates with students creating a collage that reflects their favorite shiny materials.

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Students will examine the artistic characteristics of the Scared Bull of Shiva (Nandi) and learn about the artistic process of creating a stone sculpture. Students will then create a short story and illustration, from the animal’s perspective, depicting Nandi’s life with Shiva.

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Students will learn about the history of the portrait of Edward, Prince of Wales and the inscribed praise poem. They will then write praise poems for their own portraits.

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Students will gain a personal appreciation and understanding of Pissarro’s painting Autumn Poplars by participating in a unique painting activity and creating their own impressionist painting or drawing. They will also write a three-line poem about their artwork.

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Students will learn the creative processes behind Kelley and Mouse’s poster: inspiration from others in the present, creativity “jams,” and artwork found by “fishing in the past.” They will then use these strategies to work in groups to create their own posters.

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Students will identify and describe details in William R. Leigh’s painting Greased Lightning, then choose appropriate vocabulary words to write Mad Lib stories about what may (or may not!) be happening in the painting.

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After learning about the artistry and cultural importance of the Lakota Tipi, students will use their imaginations and creativity to make tipis that tell stories about their own lives.

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Students will warm up their imaginations by reading Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis, then look closely at the many different shapes and lines in Hennings’s painting Rabbit Hunt. They will choose their favorite shape or line from the painting and use it to create their own original drawing.

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Students will explore the meaning and artistic characteristics of the illustrations on the Maya Vase with Palace Scene, then create their own Maya-style drinking vessels complete with a scene from real-life.

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Students will learn about the meaning of the Buddhist symbols on the Chinese Dish with Eight Buddhist Emblems, explore the meaning of the symbols on a one dollar bill from the United States of America, and incorporate meaningful symbols when creating imaginary currency for a group or organization.

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Through comedy sessions and skits, students will explore the role of humor in self-care, an important theme of Roxanne Swentzell’s sculpture of a sacred clown, or in the language of Santa Clara Pueblo, a kosha. Students will examine and discuss the piece as well as pictures of their own facial expressions. Posters that reflect what they have to do to for their own self-care tie together key themes of the lesson.

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In order to understand that letters often communicate more than the words they spell, students will explore how to make letters inspired by different shapes. They will begin with a warm-up activity and then examine lettering in advertisements and the Wes Wilson Poster. A teacher-led discussion will help students decipher the literal and more abstract meanings of Wilson’s work.

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This lesson allows students to use their imaginations to identify, explore, and express their understanding of Sandy Skoglund’s Fox Games. Students will create a story in response to the prompt, “This photo was captured at 3 a.m. on a security camera and you are in charge of figuring out what happened!”

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In this lesson students will become familiar with several Egyptian symbols and compare them to symbols in contemporary culture. Students will then design symbols that represent something important in their lives and create a clay or stone tile tablet communicating that information.

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Students will compare and contrast the woman in Kevin Red Star’s Knows Her Medicine to other portraits of American Indians in the museum’s collection. Students will then compare a formal school portrait of themselves to a more candid photograph and incorporate their observations into a diamante poem.

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Throughout the lesson students will delve into their imaginations using activities and tools designed to explore the Frederic C. Hamilton Building at the Denver Art Museum. They will engage in creativity exercises, build their own “buildings,” and compare their experiences with the creative process used by architect Daniel Libeskind and his team when building the Hamilton Building.

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This lesson allows students to mimic some of the processes that Sam Gilliam used to construct his painting Abacus Sliding. They will experiment with paint and color to create a painting, cut up the painting, and collage the pieces in an effort to get a sense of how the artist used different processes to achieve some of the effects in his painting.

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After reading the Greek myth of Deucalion and Pyrrha, students will analyze Castiglione’s painting and select one of their favorite stories to tell through art.

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After brainstorming a list of adjectives that describe how they imagine space looking, students will create a painting using those adjectives as inspiration. After viewing Kirkland’s Blue Mysteries Near the Sun, No. 4, they will understand that art can be experienced from multiple viewpoints.

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Students will use the Palace Façade from the Ruler of the Kingdom of Swat to explore the art form of carving, develop observation skills, and discuss the importance of patience and skill when making complex and complicated works of art. They will try their hands at carving by making their own designs and carving them on a zucchini.

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In this “discovery lesson” students will use the Yoruba Door Panel to explore the visual arts concepts of symmetry, repetition, clarity of form and line, conceptual proportion, and high relief. Using some of these ideas, students may then create their own two-dimensional door panels to reflect what they value and their own aesthetic style.

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Using Mark di Suvero’s sculpture Lao Tzu as an example, students will learn about the important considerations that must be kept in mind when designing site-specific sculptures. Students will then choose a space and design a sculpture for that space. Once their design is complete, students will explain, either orally or in a written proposal, why their sculpture should be constructed and how it fits within their chosen space.

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Students will discover how materials can be reused to create new works of art and will describe how Spiritual Messenger exhibits both realistic and expressive characteristics. Students will create a sculpture using an assortment of found objects and will write a poem that complements the theme or message of their artistic piece.

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Inspired by the Figure Seated on a Bench, students will design and create their own treasure box, identify positive traits about themselves, and illustrate the box with visual representations of their positive traits.

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After viewing and discussing James Walker’s Cowboys Roping a Bear, students will explore symmetry with their bodies and then create their own symmetrical drawings in pairs.

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In this lesson students will first have a go at sculpting a face and compare their efforts to the face of the Nkisi. They will then put on their thinking caps to solve the “riddle” of the Nkisi.

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Students will use their imaginations to shrink themselves small enough to fit into Philip Guston’s painting Blue Water. Once inside the painting, they will explore the water and shapes and use their five senses to write or tell descriptive stories about their experience in the painting.

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Students will explore the mystery and wonder of the Stone Serpent Heads through scholarly research and the creation of their own Mexican temple complete with serpent head decorations.

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Students will use American Grasslands to inspire their own investigation and representation of one square-foot of natural space. The paintings will also serve to facilitate a discussion of the impact of living beings (humans and other animals) on the land. A creative writing exercise will help students consolidate what they’ve learned.

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Students will learn about how the Japanese Shinto Deity represents protection, carve a threedimensional sculpture that represents protection out of a bar of soap, and write a tanka or haiku poem describing their sculpture.

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Using Elizabeth Hopkins’s Album Quilt and two stories as inspiration, students will design and create a quilt square that tells a story about their lives. They will present their stories to the class, explaining the significance of the quilt square and the story that inspired it.

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During this discovery lesson, students will explore the Hayagriva Sand Mandala and develop hypotheses on how it was made, for what purpose, and by whom. They will use a variety of tools to test their hypotheses. After their theory making and testing, students will watch the video on the creation of the Wheel of Healing Mandala (made by monks from another Tibetan monastery) and compare their processes with those of the monks. The comparison may be done in a discussion format or by having students write creative or factual pieces about what they learned (or both).

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Students will compare and contrast the Long Jakes painting to the whimsical illustration for the poem “Backward Bill” by Shel Silverstein. They will discuss similarities and differences in the main character’s expression, position, and other visual elements and write a rhyming poem for Long Jakes similar to “Backward Bill”.

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Students will explore assumptions they hold about what makes art through Gene Davis’s painting, Phantom Tattoo. They will also engage in problem solving to figure out how to paint stripes of their own.

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Students will use picture books and the Maya Stela to explore the ways in which filled space and empty space can visually tell a story. After looking at the work of others, they will then create their own stela that tells the story of a significant person they admire, and what they want others to know about that person.

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This lesson exposes students to the significance of the samurai in Japanese historical culture. They will study the different features of the samurai Suit of Armor, brainstorm what materials were used to create each element, and compare the suit to what the teacher is wearing. The students will then use this knowledge to design shoes for the samurai, focusing on the materials available and artisans needed.

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Students will learn about the history of the painting Three Young Girls. They will then examine the tiny details that make the painting special, from the intricate lace pattern to the tiny petals of each flower.

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Students will focus on the power of sequence, looking at the phases of life and death portrayed in The Triumphs, and other sequences found in everyday life. They will then make their own drawings or collages depicting a sequence in a manner similar to that of The Triumphs.

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Students will collect and transform found materials into a work of art. Through the process they will learn about El Anatsui and his work, as well as explore the difference between two- and three-dimensional art.

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Students will imagine what it might be like to be an art historian or art collector by hypothesizing possible uses of a discovered wooden leg in a descriptive journal entry.

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Students will examine the Hanuman Mithila painting, describe what they see, and generate hypotheses about the images in the painting with questions to guide them. They will then learn about Hanuman through stories and have an opportunity to learn more about the visual elements, and cultural and religious background of the painting. The lesson will culminate in students creating a short story, skit, or comic strip to help them synthesize what they learned.

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Students will learn how a passion for something can inspire creativity through the painting Rodeo-Pickup Man. They will examine the painting in detail and explore the artist’s motivations. They will then spend time looking at their own passions and make a visual or written piece that reflects these passions and share it with the class.

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Students will use Andrew Dasburg’s Poppies to inspire their imaginations as they create a postcard to send home or to a friend, describing where they are staying on “vacation.” Students will use both drawing and writing to engage creative visual and verbal skills in making the postcard.

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Students will imagine they are one of the bugs in Oosterwyck’s painting Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase and write or tell about the adventures they had while the people in the house slept.

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After first looking closely at Thomas Cole’s painting Dream of Arcadia, students will imagine they are in the painting. They will then write a “Wish you were here…” postcard about their experiences. Younger students may share their experiences verbally with a partner.

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Students will carefully scrutinize the contradiction between the words and images in Ruscha’s painting Molten Polyester, drawing upon the artist’s thoughts on words as art to guide their exploration. The lesson ends with a fun, hands-on activity in which students will make words with a material completely different from their meaning.

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Students have the opportunity to explore the importance of listening and getting someone’s attention through the Iatmul Culture Orator’s Stool. They will have fun learning how to use the “Quiet Coyote” technique and other attention-getting methods, examining the details of the Orator’s Stool, and creating an “orator’s stool” of their own using found materials.

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Students will explore how Giuseppe Arcimboldo used food to depict a human face in his painting Summer. They will then touch and examine various fruits and vegetables, and use these and other foods to sketch portraits of their own.

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This lesson allows students to experience Terry Winters’s painting Rhyme through reading the book Zoom by Istvan Banyai. The students will have the opportunity to predict and illustrate what Rhyme might look like if a camera zoomed out on it.

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