| George Washington: A National Treasure |
| Comprehensive study of the Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington. Features an interactive guide pointing to the symbolic, biographic, and artistic elements of the painting, a biography of Washington’s life, kids’ activities, teachers’ guides, family tips, and tour details.
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| Provider: National Portrait Gallery |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): General audience |
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| Arts of the Islamic World Teacher's Guide |
| This downloadable guide introduces the Islamic world through art. Includes an overview of Islamic beliefs and holidays; and a look at the art of calligraphy, architectural objects, and everyday objects of trade and culture. Includes lesson plans by grade level and suggestions for additional resources. |
| Provider: Freer and Sackler Galleries |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): All grades |
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| 1812 Lesson Plans |
| Four lessons in which students use critical thinking skills to examine, analyze, and compare/contrast artworks to better understand the events of the War of 1812. Lessons include a historical research project that has students create a textbook entry to demonstrate their understanding. |
| Provider: National Portrait Gallery |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): 4–8, 9–12 |
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| African American Artists: Education and Equity |
| Set of lesson ideas based on paintings that depict African Americans in school and library settings. All of the works are from the period following Plessy v. Ferguson. |
| Provider: Smithsonian American Art Museum |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): 4–8, 9–12 |
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| African American Artists: Masking Matters |
| Set of lesson ideas for a study of the art and literature of the Harlem Renaissance. Students create abstract works inspired by poetry and music, and write poems and stories based on paintings. |
| Provider: Smithsonian American Art Museum |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): 4–8, 9–12 |
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| African American Artists: My People, Our People |
| Set of lesson ideas based on an overview of African American history. Students bring artworks into comparison with poetry and music. |
| Provider: Smithsonian American Art Museum |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): 4–8, 9–12 |
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| African American Artists: Myth and Modern Society |
| Set of lesson ideas based on an examination of ways that African American artists have used classical mythology. Students compare paintings to the ancient text, or create their own myths based on an artwork. |
| Provider: Smithsonian American Art Museum |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): 4–8, 9–12 |
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| Art and the Electromagnetic Spectrum: A Classroom Lesson |
| Lesson plan from the museum’s Lunder Conservation Center. On each of three “Conservator Challenge Cards,” students find a question: Would you use infrared radiation, ultraviolent radiation, or x-radiation to examine this artwork? |
| Provider: Smithsonian American Art Museum |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): 4–8, 9–12 |
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| Build-A-Bird |
| Lesson on the anatomy of birds and their evolutionary adaptations. Students look at bird art to get a deeper understanding of their anatomy, then consider evolution in order to make connections between physical traits and habitat. Finally they create an imaginary bird in its environment. |
| Provider: Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): 9–12 |
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| Civil War Educational Resources: National Portrait Gallery |
| Lesson plans introduce history through portraiture--specifically, the wartime Abraham Lincoln as seen in photographs, engravings, and a "life mask." A lesson on Lincoln and Walt Whitman brings poetry and music into the mix. |
| Provider: National Portrait Gallery |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): 4–8, 9–12 |
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| Class of Cards |
| Lesson about the work of influential designers Charles and Ray Eames. Students create their own playing card with symbols and patterns that represent themselves. Each card becomes part of a class “House of Cards.” Activity introduces the principles of design. |
| Provider: Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): 9–12 |
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| del Corazón! Latino Voices in American Art |
| Online exhibition using photographs, videos, and other resources to reveal Latino artists, their works, and how they express universal cultural experiences. Bilingual English/Spanish. |
| Provider: Smithsonian American Art Museum |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): PreK–3, 4–8, 9–12, General audience |
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| Galaxy of Images |
| Online database offering more than 11,000 images that represent a broad cross-section of the Libraries' collections. Includes an easy-to-use search feature. Additional images and collections are added regularly. |
| Provider: Smithsonian Institution Libraries |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): General audience |
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| George Washington: A National Treasure -- Teacher Guide |
| Teacher's resource guide provides lesson plans; including suggested objectives, procedures, related standards in historical thinking, and worksheets, using Gilbert Stuart's portrait of George Washington to introduce students to the events that shaped Washington’s life. |
| Provider: National Portrait Gallery |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): 4–8, 9–12 |
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| Instrument of Change: Jim Schoppert |
| Retrospective exhibition of Tlingit artist Jim Schoppert (1947-1992), one of the most prodigious and influential Alaskan artists. He is known for repurposing Native images to go beyond their original design and purpose. Includes large woodcarvings, masks and poetry. |
| Provider: National Museum of the American Indian |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): General audience |
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| Logo Design Basics: School ID |
| In this lesson, students translate verbal ideas into visual images. They create a logo that meets the objectives and needs of a client. Along the way, the learn to differentiate between fine arts and graphic design. |
| Provider: Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): 9–12 |
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| Out and About – Creating Design |
| Lesson introducing students to the Elements of Art and Principles of Design through the use of digital cameras and the Photoshop CS2 program. |
| Provider: Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): 9–12 |
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| Owney the Dog! A Curriculum Guide for Teachers |
| Interdisciplinary lessons based on the travels of a dog named Owney who became a mascot for the Railway Mail Service in the 1880s and for the National Postal Museum today. Designed for second-grade classes, it includes lessons for students with special needs in reading, math, and writing. |
| Provider: National Postal Museum |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): PreK–3 |
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| Play on Words Design |
| Activity in which students design an image that is a “play on words,” using both traditional artistic methods and computer design to perfect the image. |
| Provider: Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): 9–12 |
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| Self-Portrait Poetry |
| Two lesson plans based on the National Portrait Gallery exhibition, Reflections/Refractions. Students learn how artists describe themselves through self-portraiture and the elements of a portrait that convey a story. Students write a poem or create a self-portrait. |
| Provider: National Portrait Gallery |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): 4–8, 9–12 |
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| Speaking of Pictures: John Quidor’s The Headless Horseman |
| Roll over this artwork to read excerpts from the famous Halloween tale "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." |
| Provider: Smithsonian American Art Museum |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): General audience |
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| Surface Beauty: American Arts and Freer’s Aesthetic Vision |
| Teacher's guide with background information on the American Renaissance during the Gilded Age (1870-1900) and student activities. Students focus on two paintings by the American artist Thomas Wilmer Dewing, exploring how Dewing's paintings express his unique aesthetic vision as they also embody the late nineteenth-century idea of the American Renaissance. |
| Provider: Freer and Sackler Galleries |
| Grade(s): 9–12 |
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| The Civil War and American Art: Teacher’s Guide |
| Set of teacher-created lesson plans based on a sesquicentennial exhibition. Includes many ideas for using art to teach American history or vice versa. Might serve as an introduction to using art as a primary source. |
| Provider: Smithsonian American Art Museum |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): 4–8, 9–12 |
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| Then, Now and Tomorrow |
| Activity in which students will use photographs to research the history of the New York’s Lower East Side and to predict the future of the neighborhood. |
| Provider: Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): 9–12 |
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| Viewing Device: New Perspective |
| Teacher-created lesson inspired by a viewing device designed by Albrecht Dürer. Students design their own simple device for viewing perspective.
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| Provider: Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): 9–12 |
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| Women of Our Time |
| Interactive gallery displaying photographs of some of twentieth-century America’s most famous and influential women. Includes audio commentary by the exhibit’s curator and documentary video about the evolution of photographic portraiture. |
| Provider: National Portrait Gallery |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): General audience |
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| ArtLab+ |
| ArtLab+ is a digital media studio that gives Washington, D.C.-area teenagers the opportunity to become integral members of a design team. They create new visitor experiences at the museum, taking their inspiration from its permanent collection and temporary exhibitions. ArtLab+ designers hone crucial twenty-first century skills as they make videos, animations, wikis, games, podcasts, and more. After-school, weekend, and weeklong ArtLab+ workshops are held year-round to accommodate a wide variety of schedules. |
| Provider: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): 9–12 |
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| Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits |
| Lesson plan has students study portraits of famous African Americans in history, explain the social and political impact of each portrait sitter, and discuss what it means to take a stand. Targets grades 3-6. |
| Provider: National Museum of African American History and Culture |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): 4–8, 9–12 |
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| Podcasting with Your Students |
| Article that follows elementary students as they produce podcasts about their field trips. Included is technical advice on podcast. |
| Provider: Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): All grades |
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| Creativity & Resistance: Maroon Cultures in the Americas |
| Online exhibition highlighting the history and cultural traditions of Maroons, descendants of Africans who freed themselves from captivity in the Americas. Contains exhibit description, virtual tour, and teaching guides that can be utilized to create lesson plans covering topics relevant to slavery, culture, migration, and language. |
| Provider: Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage |
| State Standards: View state standards for this resource |
| Grade(s): 4–8, 9–12 |
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