This article features the painting "View of Toledo," based on Toledo, a very old city located on a high plateau in Spain. By the time the artist El Greco painted the picture, he had lived there for 31 years. When one looks at the picture, one will see a storm approaching and will see the city as if it were lit by a flash of lightning. What main…

This article presents a multimedia painting lesson based on chickens and their habitats. It describes how the author launched this lesson. Before launching this lesson, the author's third-grade students practice techniques for using tempera paint along with a variety of tools for printmaking. They have knowledge of primary and secondary colors,…

In this article, the author describes a unit on the exploration of line. The unit was composed of two individual line lessons. In the first lesson, students were introduced to line as an element of design. They were asked to describe different types of lines, and look for them in art reproductions. The second lesson in the unit involved painting…

This article describes a collaborative painting project that allows first- through third-grade students to work with partners to create a four-inch square of a group painting and learn the basics of mixing paints to produce lights and darks, and tints and shades. One by one, the students worked on the painting in their free time. The author kept a…

The study of the beautiful monarch butterfly lends itself to a vast array of subject matter, and offers the opportunity to meet a large and varied number of standards and objectives for many grade levels. Art projects featuring monarchs may include many cross-curricular units such as math (symmetry and number graphing), science (adaptation and…

How is the natural environment in the neighborhood representative of the larger biosphere in which people live? Studying the local birds and flora of the Pacific Northwest in the context of the local parks and ponds provided a rich opportunity for third-grade students at St. Thomas School in Medina, Washington, to explore and learn about…

It is important to find the means by which struggling writers can find success in the English Language Arts. For students struggling with reading and writing, the visual arts may be a way of accessing and expressing their ideas and ultimately opening up a world of creative possibilities. This article explores drawing and painting as a pre-writing…