Spending time with a work of art can be an opportunity for thoughtful inquiry and ideation. For students, documenting their ideas as they work to interpret an artwork offers the chance to exercise metacognition. With this interactive exercise featuring an artwork from the Mughal Empire, students can gain insight into how they process information and formulate ideas. This activity is good practice for formulating research questions and synthesizing ideas.

This lesson sequence offers students and teachers a way to explore their individual identities and sense of belonging through analyzing children’s literature and coding with Scratch. Through read-aloud activities and self-differentiated Scratch projects, students learn about the value of inclusion and explore and express ideas about their personal and social identities. Students will describe environments supportive of diversity, and reflect on their own identity as they create expressive projects about their sense of belonging. This sequence is made up of four lessons, though your students may need additional class time to work on their projects.This lesson sequence is part of CodeVA's committment to the U.S. Department of Education "YOU Belong in STEM" initiative.

This is a hands on activity for students who may have limted supplies at home. It guides you into using recycled materials to create easy scketchbooks. 

Author: Katie Frazier, Museums at W&LStudents will examine a ceramic object made by David Drake (about 1800-about 1870), an enslaved person who lived on a plantation in Edgefield, South Carolina. As an enslaved individual, Drake was denied the basic rights of learning how to read and write. Despite writing being illegal for enslaved people, David Drake was known for writing his name and poetry on the ceramics he made. He wanted to express his feelings about life, religion and his own identity as an enslaved person.  

Video Description:  In this close-up video, Dr. Inbal Becker-Reshef, Program Director for NASA Harvest, describes her journey and how her travels as a child helped her choose a career in science over her passion for art. She shares how cameras on satellites provide data to help farmers and agricultural leaders grow more food and work toward food security worldwide.  Video Length:  2:21.NASA eClipsTM is a suite of online student-centered, standards-based resources that support instruction by increasing STEM literacy in formal and nonformal settings.  These free digital and downloadable resources inform and engage students through NASA-inspired, real-world connections.NASA eClips Ask SME: Close-up with a NASA Subject Matter Expert videos are professionally developed to capture a glimpse of NASA SME's personal interests and career journeys. Each can be used to spark student interest and broaden their ideas of the STEM workforce. Additional videos in this series can be found by searching GoOpenVA using "NASA eClips Ask SME".

Shared narratives can be found in art from many cultures and throughout time. Use this resource to encourage students to explore diverse narratives, discover their own personal narrative, and express that narrative through their own work of art.Using provided engagment strategies students are able to hone Critical, Creative, and Communication skills using works of art in the Virginia Museum of Arts collection. Discussion prompts and activities offer instructional oppotunities for building Collaboration and Citizenship skills. 

Shared narratives can be found in art from many cultures and throughout time. Use this resource to encourage students to explore diverse narratives, discover their own personal narrative, and express that narrative through their own work of art.Using provided engagment strategies students are able to hone Critical, Creative, and Communication skills using works of art in the Virginia Museum of Arts collection. Discussion prompts and activities offer instructional oppotunities for building Collaboration and Citizenship skills. Symbols that we find in literature and the use of figurative language to describe artworks go hand in hand.  Find two pieces of artwork that move you one in Virginia and one in an international museum and create multiple examples of 10 different types of figuative language.

The "National Archives Experience: Digital Vaults" is a site that features digital items (mostly created or associated with the federal government) from the National Archives' extensive collection relating to United States history. The site provides interactive exercises and a tool to create posters, as well as slideshows with audio, captions, and multiple images.

Snake Patterns is a cross-curricular lesson designed by an Elementary Art teacher to support Math instruction. Created By: Mary Webster Powhatan County Public Schools.

Today, art teachers of all grade levels are encouraged (and sometimes required) to incorporate technology into their classrooms, but there are some valid and practical concerns about its implementation. When do I have time to teach myself how to do this? How can I make sure my students have access? How can I make digital art meaningful? This presentation is not just about expanding a technical skillset but also about developing technology confidence. We will share our resources and demonstrate several digital tools that cover a wide variety of media, such as 3D modeling, 8-bit animation, and graphic design. All of these web-based tools are accessible on all computers (even Chromebooks!) and require no installation, login, or payment. This presentation is organized into three sections: (1) digital tools overview, (2) relevant student examples, and (3) interactive creative play. We hope you will join us and leave this session with practical skills, technical know-how, and tangible ideas, to bring back into your own classroom.

Games impact high-level thinking in children by aiding the development of problem-solving, analysis, perseverance, and literacy. This session will present teaching strategies and resources for art educators interested in teaching game design, encouraging the development of both traditional and digital art-making skills. Practical suggestions include curricular examples, logistical considerations, and guidance for classroom implementation for multiple age levels.

Artist/Author Noah Scalin will share how he mines his childhood passions for inspiration and tells the story of how collaborations with his young daughter’s changed his perspective and influenced his latest body of work. He will also explain how he ended up creating his biggest project yet during a time when he faced the most limitations. You will learn the simple creative practices he uses to consistently innovate and discover new ways to interact with everyday materials to create unique works of art that have led to opportunities to create art around the world.

This webinar is an exploration of the new Visual Arts Standards of Learning strand Innovation in the Arts. Consider the role of the arts in building bridges to other academic content. Explore how cutting-edge artwork often combines art forms, how technology provides new artistic tools, and how visual arts education fosters career readiness. Strategies and resources for teachers new to arts-related classroom technology will be provided.

In the first part of this session, Jeffrey Allison from VMFA On the Road will share works and educator resources from the traveling state-wide exhibition: A View from Home: Landscapes of Virginia. The paintings, photographs, woodblock prints, and engravings from the museum’s permanent collection represent various styles and periods. The second part of the session will focus on strategies for developing deeply engaging units for K-12 visual arts education using the exhibition as a starting point for deeper exploration. This presentation and collaborative workshop session will highlight project-based and place-based learning approaches to visual arts education.

This resource demonstrates the 2020 Visual Arts Standards of Learning for levels I-IV in a chart format that shows the progression of the standards.

This resource demonstrates the 2020 Visual Arts Standards of Learning for middle school visual arts education in a chart format that shows the progression of the standards from grades six through eight.

This resource demonstrates the 2020 Visual Arts Standards of Learning for elementary visual arts education in a chart format that shows the progression of the standards from grades kindergarten through fifth.

Introduction and examples in order to create organic forms using reed and tissue paper. 

The attached infographic resource document describes ways to engage English Learners in visual arts classrooms by making learning visible, supporting the language of visual arts, connecting learning to students' backgrounds and skills, using cooperative learning structures and strategies, and reducing cognitive load and allowing processing time.