This resource provides a menu of self-directed art-making challenges, each of which relates to a work of art in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts collection. Give your students voice and choice as they investigate authentic works of art and work to develop a visual language, convey complex ideas, and solve problems creatively.    

Students will learn about the history of portraits throughout time and the use of various media and techniques such as fiber arts to create them. Students will be creating their own yarn portraits while learning about the history of fiber arts, portraits throughout time, and illustrating from observation.  

Students will learn about data and how it is stored on computers and used in real-life. One set of data that is stored and used is weather data. Students will use local weather data to create a wall hanging by assigning a colored cord or thread for each high temperature and then using those cords to represent a month of weather data, similar to temperature blankets.