Art & Literacy Curriculum 

LEARNING: Student artists learn about how scientists use drawing in their field research & learn about ornithologist John Audubon. 

CREATING: Students create an accurate drawing of an animal and its habitat, then turn the drawing into a series of prints. 

LEARNING: Student artists study the life & work of the African-American artist Jacob Lawrence, specifically looking at his paintings of Harlem. 

CREATING: Students create sketches of their own neighborhood and finish by creating a collage.

LEARNING: In this project, student artists learn about four different artists who faced mental or physical challenges and turned these challenges’ to their advantage. 

 CREATING: Student artists complete a series of challenges, ending with a painted sculpture. 

LEARNING: Student artists learn about water problems around the world (pollution, access, and overuse), and look at and analyze ways that graphic designers have brought attention to this issue through their design. 

CREATING: Student artists choose an issue that they feel strongly about and design a poster. 

LEARNING: Student artists look at different defense mechanisms animals have developed to protect themselves, specifically focusing on rainforest creatures. 

CREATING:  Student artists brainstorm the ideal creature to live in the rainforest, then create marionette puppets of their creatures. 

LEARNING: Student artists learn and understand the connection between the visual and written word. In particular, they read and examine poetry, and learn how the concepts of ‘imagery’ & ‘emphasis’ can be explored in both written and visual form. 

CREATING:  Student artists brainstorm a monster ‘helper’, describe it through descriptive and/or figurative language and ‘imagery’, create a poem about their monster, & end by altering their poem to enhance the meaning through visual emphasis.