20 Lesson Ideas

1. Fractions: Draw a pizza on a poster board and draw another one with the sections cut out. Use the pieces to demonstrate parts and wholes of the fraction.
2. History: make castles of recyclable materials that includes the different components of a real castle. Students can get an idea of how structures were made up then and how they are different from today's houses.
3. Teach children the Microsoft Paint program as a way of incorporating technology into the classroom.
4. Life Cycle of a Plant: Create a story board for each step from seedling to a fully developed flower. This can help with talking about flowers and sequencing of events.
5. Puppetry: We can use puppets to recreate story and events. Students can also describe their reaction to certain stories and/or events through the use of puppets.
6. Dioramas: dioramas can be used in any content area and would especially great in science or social studies lesson. It would help to reinforce what a student has learned.
7. Time: using Eric Carle's Grouchy Ladybug students can construct a ladybug clock to learn time.
8. Parts of a Flower:Use clay to create each part of the flower such as roots, stem, leaves and petals. You could separate each part and talk about them individually and put them back together to talk about how they contribute to the development of the flower.
9. Famous Artists: Create a game with pictures of famous artworks and students have to match the artwork to the artist that created it. Students will learn about different famous artists and their artworks.
10. Symmetry: Fold construction paper in half and cut different objects. Shows students that symmetrical means that the items are alike on both sides.
11. Shapes: form clay into different basic and geometric shapes. Students get an interactive view of how a square has four sides and four corners, a triangle has three sides, etc.
12. Senses: Using a paper plate students make a face using magazine clips for each of their 5 senses such as eyes, a nose, a mouth, etc.
13. Color: Students can create different pictures using warm and cool colors to demonstrate a particular feeling or mood. Students will learn what feeling each color gives off.
14. Mixed Media: When creating pictures, do not limit students to the supplies they can use. When given the opportunity, students will appreciate the opportunity to use different medias to create.
15. Take field trips that focus on aspects of arts and artist to expose students to different cultures and intelligences.
16. Create a section of your bulletin board that focuses on a particular artist or artwork and also the student's work. Students will learn to appreciate their artwork more when you post them next to famous works, show them that theirs is just as important.
17. Crayons and watercolors: show children how they can use crayon and water color to create pictures and secret messages.
18. Careers: when talking about careers, talk about artists and the differences between folk and fine artist. This will allow children who are visually/spatially intelligent realize that they can make a career out of something that they love to do.
19. Self-portraits: Have students to create self-portraits and write words that describe themselves. This is a good opener at the beginning of the year. It's a good way to see how children create and it allows the teacher and students to get to know the student.
20. Paper-mache: Paper mache can be used to make several sturdy items around the room.