Each student writes a one paragraph summary of a chapter of a book and then illustrates their chapter. It can be used for a book the whole class is reading so then all of the summaries are collected and bound together to create a “summary book” of the book read. This activity can be used for both fiction and non-fiction books in any subject and any grade, although this activity is linked to upper primary SOLs. This activity assesses reading comprehension and practices all writing skills. It also includes Art SOLs, and if you have students create their final products on the computer, then you would be incorporating the Computer Technology SOLs as well. If it is used for a non-fiction text in a different content class, then the activity would also cover those SOLs. It can be used for EL classes in middle school also. 

 Objectives: Students will be able to identify hidden images in visual media. Students will identify themes in images.Students will identify supportive evidence in images.Students will identify if the image is a fact or opinion, persuasive, or informational. Students will be able to identify encoded messages in visual images. Students will be able to identify a creative practice to reflect on hidden meanings in visual images.

Exercise Creative Thinking with Digital Art Games. Interactive visual arts games like Tate Paint can allow students to explore digital tools for artmaking with a series of creative prompts to start with such as weather, food, natural world, and experiments.

Sculptures Come to Life. The teacher can facilitate a sculpture project where students make an object using paper mache, modeling clay or cardboard.

During this lesson, students will work in teams to plan, construct, and test a functional miniature golf sculpture while they explore topics related to collaboration, design thinking, and peer critique. A focus on specific art production skills such as armature building and rendering objects using paper mâché will be explored. The finished artwork will be peer reviewed for creativity, craftsmanship, and challenge. 

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.

Demonstrate how to draw a landscape outline using foreground, middle ground and background.  Tell the students that they will need to choose two different VA landscapes to draw including details and color.Draw an outline in pencil of the first regional landscape of your choice.Discuss colored pencil techniques.  When coloring in your drawings, use several different colors and shades of a color as well as how to vary the pressure on your pencil to add depth to your drawing. Have students pass out supplies.Students write what two regions of their choice on the back of their first landscape drawing.  Students work independently on their first landscape. 

Students will be learning how art and engineering intersect by using Tinkercad, 3D modeling software, produced by Autodesk, to create a physical, 3d printed, product. In this Tinkercad introduction project, students will produce a text-based keychain.