Students will discuss a narrative work of art in order to interpret and understand the theme from the "Open Court" unit on "Risks and Consequences." Students imagine the events occurring before and after a narrative scene, sketch their ideas, then write a story describing the action and publish their story and illustrations in a book. The works of art and sketches provide a focus to practice writing three-part stories with dialogue and using adjectives and prepositions.

Students will examine a scene depicting Herakles (known as Hercules to the Romans) and the Hydra on the face of a black-figure "hydria". They will then read Greek myths and choose one to depict in the style of the vase painter, known as the Eagle Painter.

Students will identify new vocabulary using a work of art. They will generate a list of descriptors for that vocabulary using a texture/touch activity. They will then apply their new vocabulary, including adjectives, to a class poem about the textures they see in the painting.

Students will discuss the lines, shapes, and patterns used to decorate a 19th century chandelier that was made to look like a hot air balloon. They will create a papier-mâché sculpture of a hot air balloon and decorate it with a pattern. They will write about where they would go on a hot air balloon.

Students identify the narrative elements in a work of art and learn how artists use symbolic imagery to communicate the larger narrative of a person's life. Students then write their own narratives about an historic figure and use visual symbols to create an image about that person that communicates important events in his or her personal narrative.

Students explore how an artist emphasized the narrative in a work of art that depicts a single moment from the story. They then write a newspaper article, using visual clues in the painting to imagine how the narrative depicted may have unfolded.

This lesson focuses on artworks that depict things people use for a meal. Students will build vocabulary and enhance language arts skills while learning about still life in a painting. Activities emphasize prepositions of location -- through discussions about objects depicted in the featured work of art.

This lesson focuses on an artwork that depicts things people use in a room for both functional and decorative reasons. Students will build vocabulary and enhance language arts skills while learning about decorative arts. Activities emphasize using different action verbs with nouns -- through discussions about how people use objects depicted in the featured work of art.

This lesson focuses on artworks that depict things people wear. Students will build vocabulary and enhance language arts skills while learning about different media (painting and photography). Activities emphasize descriptions using adjectives -- through discussions about the clothing people are wearing in the featured works of art.

The students will use critical thinking skills and artistic abilities to "transform" an image into something completely different. The original images can be taken with a digital camera and printed out or cut from old magazines.

Students create double-exposed photographs, poetry, and multimedia presentations to celebrate their "Open Court" "City Wildlife" unit.

This series of lessons will provide students with an understanding of the Baroque period and help them identify decorative arts and architecture from that period. After studying Baroque paintings, furniture, architecture, and craft guilds, students will create a mixed-media sculpture inspired by Bernard van Risenburgh's Double Desk. Throughout the unit, students will reflect on their experiences in journals.

Students will examine an image of civilians affected by the Vietnam War. They will research and discuss the reasons the Vietnam War began, why America became involved, and what some of the long-term effects of this war have been

Students will learn about basic shapes in Monet's painting "Wheatstacks, Snow Effect, Morning". They then learn about light and shadows through reading and experimenting with three-dimensional models and flashlights. Students will also learn about time of day and the seasons.

Students will research labor unions, keep a photographer's journal, and create a photograph of a worker faced with difficult conditions.

Students will analyze depictions of workers in a drawing and two photographs. They will conduct an interview with a family member and create original drawings about work.

Students will discuss child labor in the United States as represented in an early-20th-century photograph, research and write a story based on the issue of child labor, and participate in a mock news broadcast in response to the works of art.

Students will observe how artists used continuous and sequential narratives in three different works of art. They will focus on color, and then choose whether they want to illustrate one main character in a continuous narrative in a landscape setting or an architectural setting, or in a sequential narrative (similar to a comic strip). Students will then illustrate their narrative story and later write the story.

Students keep journals in which they respond in writing to Dorothea Lange's photographs.

Students will compare and contrast an academic and an Impressionist portrait through a writing exercise and discussion. Each student will then write a formal commission letter to one of artists, requesting a portrait.