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Celebrate YAM in Elementary Lessons

March is YAM (Youth Art Month), a time to recognize the importance of visual arts within the curriculum. The theme for this year is “Art Connects Us." In this section, we are sharing resources ideal for use in elementary lessons. 

Grades K-4

ABCya Paint

Explore these virtual art tools to spray paint, draw, add stickers, and more. Be sure to watch the tutorial for a complete overview of the features. When finished, save your creation as a PNG or print it. Use this resource to add color to digital stories.

Grades K-5

Math Art for Kids: Pi Skyline

Combine math and art with this excellent Pi Day activity (just in time)! Follow the easy instructions to draw, cut, and graph your way to representing the digits of Pi. Visual learners will enjoy the images demonstrating how to create the skyline.

Grades K-5

I Am an Artist

Bring art to life for young students with the six strands of visual arts offered at this site: paint and color, clay, fabric and fiber, drawing, construction, and print. Click on a strand to view short videos, steps for a hands-on explanation, and more.

Grades K-6

Tux Paint

Try your hand at this drawing app that offers a kid-friendly mouse pointer, brushes, stamps, sounds, erasers, letters, numbers, “magic effects,” and an undo/redo option. The center of the screen serves as a large canvas with drawing tools on either side.

Art Resources for Secondary Education

This section shares a trio of resources to use in grades 6-12 during Youth Art Month (or anytime). 

Grades 5-12

Method of Action - Method Draw

Learn and practice vector design. First, choose from several games to practice using the drawing pen, create shapes and colors, and understand game settings. Then, use the Method Draw link to open a workspace to create your designs.

Grades 5-12

Murder at the Met: An American Art Mystery

Find a mystery in art and use art to solve it! Tour American paintings, sculptures, and decorative artworks that reside at The Metropolitan Museum of Art to solve the murder of Virginie Gautreau (Madame X). Players must examine the artwork to advance.

Grades 6-12

Sumo Paint 3.0

Discover digital painting tools, including layering, cloning, blur effects, a magic wand, shape tools, paint bucket, lasso selecting, filters, and the ability to add text. The photo editing tools allow you to adjust contrast, hue saturation, and more.

Share Famous Artists with Your Students

Use the resources in this section to introduce your students to various artists. Many of these resources are offered by museums and include other information about art. 

Grades 9-12

Art 21: Art in the Twenty-First Century

See many twenty-first-century artists and their work in the slideshows and hundreds of streaming video clips accompanying this PBS series. The artists speak quite articulately about their creative processes and the messages they wish to convey.

Grades 8-12

Winslow Homer in the National Gallery of Art

This exhibit includes oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, and prints by American artist Winslow Homer. This resource offers early oil paintings of the Civil War era and classic images of 19th-century American life in his late watercolors of sea scenes.

Grades 9-12

Childe Hassam: American Impressionist

Take a virtual tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art with this impressive retrospective highlighting the work of Childe Hassam, one of America's leading impressionist artists. This resource features many oil paintings, watercolors, pastels, and prints.

Grades K-12

Oh Freedom! Teaching African American Civil Rights Through American Art at the Smithsonian

Don't miss this interdisciplinary resource designed to help K–12 teachers and students discover the influence, history, and legacy of the Civil Rights movement using artwork! Search and discover dozens of artists and lesson plans.

This Week at TeachersFirst

Our FREE spring OK2Ask virtual workshops are now open for registration! Don’t forget to join us this Thursday for our next bi-monthly Twitter chat. We are also sharing a related blog post and kindly ask for your input on our weekly poll.