Lesson Plans and Pre-visit Guides

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• Beyond the Figure (Lesson Plan)

  Consider how artists convey personality in nonfigural portraits and the relationship between visual and verbal expression by looking at a painting by Charles Demuth in the Museum's Modern and Contemporary galleries and through a portrait-making activity in the classroom.

• Ceramics in China and the Near East (Lesson Plan)

  Students will be able to identify ways works of art reflect exchange between Chinese and Near Eastern civilizations; recognize ways animals act as symbols in various cultures; and create a tile that highlights the qualities and traits commonly associated with an animal.

• Composing a Landscape (Lesson Plan)

  Study the relationship between the human and natural worlds in art, as well as the techniques artists use to convey ideas, by exploring a painting by Frederic Edwin Church in the Museum's American Wing. Extend the lesson through a writing and drawing activity in the classroom, or a sketching activity outdoors.

• Court Arts of Islamic Spain (Lesson Plan)

  Students will be able to identify shared visual characteristics among several works of art from Islamic Spain; recognize ways designs are adapted across a range of media; and cite strengths and limitations of various materials.

• Daily Life in Medieval Nishapur (Lesson Plan)

  Students will be able to recognize ways works of art reflect medieval Nishapur's status as an important center of trade; use visual evidence to support inferences; and apply an original two-dimensional design to a three-dimensional form (in alternative activity).

• Domestic Life in Eighteenth-Century Damascus (Lesson Plan)

  Students will be able to understand how a reception room from the house of an affluent family in eighteenth-century Damascus reflects the tastes, interests, and life of the urban elite in a provincial city of the Ottoman empire; and recognize ways interiors from different time periods and places (including their own) reflect the personal tastes, interests, and values of their inhabitants.

• Engaging the Elements (Lesson Plan)

  Engage students' interest in the relationships between the human and natural worlds, and art and the environment through a mask-making activity and viewing questions for the classroom about a mask from Alaska in the Museum's Native North American collection.

• European Paintings (Pre-visit Guide)PDF

  Introduce students to depictions of the classical world, genre works, landscapes, and still lifes created amid the religious, political, and intellectual shifts in Renaissance through the eighteenth-century Europe. Use this guide's collection overview, gallery map, tour-planning guidelines, discussion questions, suggested works of art, and resource list to make the most of your trip to the Museum.

• Geometric Design in Islamic Art (Lesson Plan)

  Students will be able to use a compass and straightedge to construct regular polygons; and recognize ways works of art from the Islamic world utilize geometric forms and relationships.

• Gods, Goddesses, and the Supernatural (Lesson Plan)

  Enrich students' understanding of how the ancient Assyrians used art to convey messages through a classroom writing and art-making activity and viewing questions related to a monumental sculpture in the Museum's Ancient Near East collection.