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Lesson Plans

These lesson plans help you integrate learning about works of art in your classroom. Browse all lesson plans below.

Lesson Plan: Ancient Animals at Work

Identify ways animals (past and present) enhance daily life through a close look at an ancient figurine and art making.

Lesson Plan: Ancient Mesopotamia—Literacy, Now and Then

From cuneiform inscriptions to digital tablets, this lesson highlights changes and continuity in written communications across the ages.

Lesson Plan: Aeneas, Art, and Storytelling

Virgil's epic poem, The Aeneid, has inspired generations of artists and writers. Create your own artwork inspired by the text and consider how artists draw upon and reinterpret stories from the past.

Lesson Plan: Animal-Inspired Masks and Masquerades

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.

Lesson Plan: Arabic Script and the Art of Calligraphy

Students will be able to identify visual qualities of several calligraphic scripts; recognize ways artists from the Islamic world engage various scripts to enhance works of art supporting a range of functions; and assess the merits of several computer-generated fonts in supporting specific uses.

Lesson Plan: Architecture and the Natural World

How can buildings reflect the relationship between people and the environment? Explore possibilities in this lesson plan featuring an ancient Egyptian temple.

Lesson Plan: Armor—Function and Design

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 Met collection.

Lesson Plan: Beyond the Figure

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.

Lesson Plan: Bravery Stands Tall

Examine a major turning point in the American Revolution through a close look at this depiction of General Washington and his troops crossing the Delaware River.

Lesson Plan: Buddhist and Hindu Art from India—A Comparative Look

Use visual evidence as a means to identify similarities and differences between Hindu and Buddhist sculpture from India.

Lesson Plan: Ceramics in China
and the Near East

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.

Lesson Plan: Composing a Landscape

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.

Lesson Plan: Court Arts of Islamic Spain

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.

Lesson Plan: Daily Life in Medieval Nishapur

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).

Lesson Plan: Degas—Understanding Art through Nonverbal Means

Use writing, drawing, or movement as a means to share evidence-based inferences about this sculpture of a dancer by Degas.

Lesson Plan: Domestic Life in Eighteenth-Century Damascus

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.

Lesson Plan: Engaging the Elements

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.

Lesson Plan: Fortune's Fool

Are our lives controlled by fate, or do we have free will? Consider multiple perspectives on this timeless question as you explore Artemisia Gentileschi's painting, Esther before Ahasuerus.

Lesson Plan: Geometric Design in Islamic Art

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.

Lesson Plan: Gods, Goddesses, and the Supernatural

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.

Lesson Plan: Haremhab—General
and Scribe

Capture students' imaginations in the Egyptian galleries with viewing questions about a sculpture portrait and an observation activity about analyzing portraits, relationships between art and cultural values, and the ways different communities communicate through images and text.

Lesson Plan: Islam and Religious Art

Students will be able to identify important figures and events in early Islamic history; recognize ways works of art reflect and support religious beliefs and practices; and use visual evidence to support inferences.

Lesson Plan: Manet—Critics and Champions

Exercise students' sensory and descriptive powers in the Museum or the classroom with an imaginative activity and viewing questions focused on a painting by Édouard Manet. Examine the ways artists are inspired by the past and help students understand the context of Manet's career.

Lesson Plan: Materials and Meaning

Contemporary artist El Anatsui draws upon diverse sources of information and inspiration to create his art. Explore how his artistic choices convey meaning and collaborate with others to express your interpretations through poetry.

Lesson Plan: Medieval Beasts and Bestiaries

Explore the use of animals as symbols in medieval art with viewing questions and a group drawing activity at The Met Cloisters or in the classroom.

Lesson Plan: Muses vs. Sirens

Through movement and storytelling, uncover the layers of meaning embedded in a Roman sarcophagus.

Lesson Plan: Power in Ancient Mesopotamia

Examine how a great ancient Mesopotamian king conveyed power and leadership in a monumental wall relief in the Museum's Ancient Near Eastern art collection and consider how leaders today express the same attributes through viewing questions and an activity.

Lesson Plan: Science and the Art of the Islamic World

Students will be able to identify similarities and differences between scientific tools used now and long ago; and use research findings to support observations and interpretations.

Lesson Plan: Shiva—Creator, Protector, and Destroyer

Inspire students to interpret, communicate through, and personally connect with art through an in-classroom examination of a powerful sculpture in the Museum's Indian art collection and a self-portrait activity.

Lesson Plan: Stained Glass and Social Class in Medieval Europe

Discover evidence of social class and belief systems in medieval Europe by looking closely at this stained-glass window.

Lesson Plan: Take It to the Afterlife

Delve into daily life and the afterlife in ancient Egypt, as well as strategies for visual analysis and interpretation of art, through viewing questions and a sketching activity in the Museum's Egyptian galleries.

Lesson Plan: The Art of Industry

Use viewing questions and a debate activity to investigate the relationship between art and community values, techniques artists use to convey ideas, and strategies for interpreting an American painting in the Museum's Modern and Contemporary galleries.

Lesson Plan: The Battle of David
and Goliath

Illuminate strategies for conveying stories through images in the classroom with viewing questions about a large silver plate in the Museum's Medieval collection and an illustrating activity.

Lesson Plan: The Burghers of Calais

Convey the interpretive significance of pose and expression in the visual arts—in the Museum or the classroom—with viewing questions and a story-writing activity inspired by a nineteenth-century French sculpture by Auguste Rodin.

Lesson Plan: The Astor Chinese Garden Court

Explore the Museum's Astor Chinese Garden Court and enhance students' understanding of how traditional Chinese gardens reflect the concept of yin and yang and how material selection and design can convey ideas about the human and natural worlds. Use viewing questions and a storytelling or drawing activity in the Museum's Chinese galleries.

Lesson Plan: The Making of a Persian Royal Manuscript

Students will be able to identify some of the key events and figures presented in the Persian national epic, the Shahnama (Book of Kings); make connections between the text and the illustrated pages of the manuscript produced for Shah Tahmasp; and create a historical record of their community.

Lesson Plan: The Mughal Court and the Art of Observation

Students will be able to recognize ways works of art reflect an intense interest in observation of the human and natural world among Mughal leaders; and understand ways works of art from the past and present communicate ideas about the natural world.

Lesson Plan: The Nomads of Central Asia—Turkmen Traditions

Students will be able to identify ways art of the Turkmen people of Central Asia reflects nomadic life and understand the functional and symbolic role objects play in their lives.

Lesson Plan: Art and Empire—
The Ottoman Court

Students will be able to recognize ways a tughra functioned as a symbol of power and authority within a culturally diverse and geographically expansive empire.

Lesson Plan: Point of View in
Print and Paint

Explore ways that viewpoint shapes the way we picture the past in this lesson plan featuring a depiction of the abolitionist John Brown.

Lesson Plan: The Power behind
the Throne

Bring the Museum's African collection into the classroom with viewing questions and an art-making activity that cultivate visual analysis and an understanding of how surface detail and composition can express themes of power and leadership.

Lesson Plan: The Power in Portraits

Examine The Met's Roman collection at the Museum or in the classroom with viewing questions and a writing and self-portrait activity that explore the ways leaders communicate their power and values through portraiture.

Lesson Plan: A Rite of Passage

Explore the ways rituals, ceremonies, and rites of passage play an important role in communities around the world through an investigation of related objects.

Lesson Plan: The Story in Art

Develop students' abilities to analyze and employ narrative elements in art with in-classroom viewing questions about a work in the Museum's European paintings collection and a story-writing and illustrating activity.

Lesson Plan: Urban Life and the Natural World

Engage students regarding the strengths and limitations of artistic mediums and 1920s rural and urban life in the United States with viewing questions about a stained-glass window and a compare-and-contrast activity in the Museum's American Wing.

Lesson Plan: Venice and the
Islamic World

Students will be able to recognize evidence of artistic exchange and mutual influence between Venice and the Islamic world in works of art and use informational texts as a resource to substantiate inferences.

Lesson Plan: Voices of the Past

Focus on a slit gong in the Museum's Oceanic collection to illustrate the impact of scale in works of art, and consider objects' functions in their original contexts and ways different communities engage with their elders and ancestors. Classroom viewing questions and an oral history activity enhance the lesson.