End-of-Year: Art Show

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This project introduces students in grades K-8 to new artistic styles, giving them an appreciation for an artist's work, as well as teaching them some art history.

I introduced this lesson to each grade by presenting examples of the artist's works either from posters or books. We discussed the distinctive features of each artist's style, when in history he or she lived and worked, the artist's nationality, and what movement he or she belonged to (for example, Impressionism, Modernism, Cubism). For materials, we used crayon resist with watercolors (Monet); markers (Picasso); tempera paints (Pollock, van Gogh, O'Keeffe); and cut-paper, tape, and glue (Matisse, Kandinsky, …