Lesson Plans and Pre-visit Guides

Current search results within: Grade, Elementary School

• 19th-Century European Painting (Pre-visit Guide)PDF

  Introduce students to the range of artistic styles that developed in response to a period of profound social, political, and cultural transformation, including Neoclassicism, Romanticism, and Impressionism. 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.

• Animal-Inspired Masks and Masquerades (Lesson Plan)

  Help students understand the connections between art and the environment of Guinea, animal anatomy, and the cultural context of the Banda mask with the help of viewing questions and a dance activity in the Museum's African Art galleries.

• Armor—Function and Design (Lesson Plan)

  Identify moveable and static features of armor as well as functional and symbolic surface details and examine similarities and differences between human and animal "armor" through classroom viewing questions. Enhance the lesson with a sketching activity based on an English suit of armor in the Museum's collection.

• Art of Ancient Egypt (Pre-visit Guide)PDF

  Introduce students to the art of ancient Egypt, made primarily for religious and magical purposes and reflective of the culture's desire for order, beliefs about eternity, and love of life. Use this guide's collection overview, gallery map, tour-planning guidelines, themes to consider, discussion questions, suggested works of art, and resource list to make the most of your trip to the Museum.

• Art of the American Wing (Pre-visit Guide)PDF

  Introduce students to American art from the early colonial period through World War I. Use this guide's collection overview, gallery maps, tour-planning guidelines, recommendations for engaging students with works of art in the galleries, and suggested works of art to make the most of your trip to the Museum.

• Art of the Americas (Pre-visit Guide)PDF

  Introduce students to the roots of civilization in the ancient Americas through Precolumbian art created mainly for ceremonial and ritual purposes. Use this guide's collection overview, gallery map, tour-planning guidelines, themes to consider, discussion questions, suggested works of art, and resource list to make the most of your trip to the Museum.

• Art of the Ancient Near East (Pre-visit Guide)PDF

  Introduce students to works of art reflecting the rich and complex cultures that flourished for thousands of years across a vast geographical region and gave rise to many features of modern civilization. Use the guide's collection overview, gallery map, tour-planning guidelines, background information and themes, discussion questions, suggested works of art, and resource list to make the most of your trip to the Museum.

• Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia (Pre-visit Guide)PDF

  Introduce students to one of the most comprehensive collections of Islamic art in the world, including both secular and religious works created in a broad range of media over a vast geographic expanse from the seventh to late nineteenth century. Use this guide's collection overview, gallery descriptions, tour-planning tips, discussion questions, suggested works of art, teaching themes, and resource list to make the most of your trip to the Museum.

• 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.