The Kennedy Center: ARTSEDGE — the National Arts and Education Network

Grades 3-4 Lesson: You’re Invited to a Ceili: Exploring Irish Dance
Listen to Irish music, learn about ceilis, which are festive dance celebrations, view the intricate costumes worn by Irish dancers, and listen to an Irish poem.

Grades 3-4 Lesson: You Too Can Haiku
This lesson will introduce students to the Japanese poetic form called haiku

Grades 6-8 Lesson: Writing an Original Fable
In this lesson, students will use the steps of the writing process (brainstorming, drafting, revising, proofreading, and publishing) to write and perform original fables as skits.

Grades 6-8 Lesson: Writing Myths
Students will explore how myths provide explanations for nature and science. They will read and analyze the Native American myth "Giants and Mosquitoes."

Grades 6-8 Lesson: Writing Folktales
Students identify and analyze folktales. They learn the characteristics of folktales and use them to evaluate existing tales and to create original tales of their own.

Grades 6-8 Lesson: A World of Myths
In this lesson, students will explore how myths help to explain nature and science.

Grades 3-4 Lesson: Woodwind Instruments and Pitch
This lesson introduces students to the instruments of the woodwind family

Grades 3-4 Lesson: Who Has Seen the Wind?
In this lesson students are introduced to and encouraged to explore characteristics of the wind through poetry and van Gogh’s paintings

Grade 5 Lesson: Who Can Vote for President?
In this lesson, students will learn general facts about the voting process and its importance in a democratic form of government.

Grades 3-4 Lesson: What Does This Song Really Say?
Students listen to, sing, and read the lyrics to various African American spirituals. They discuss the coded messages in the songs, and the purpose of these codes.

Grades 3-4 Lesson: What a Character
In this lesson, students analyze how a character's personality traits, actions and motives influence the plot of a story

Grades 3-4 Lesson: The Whale Trail
In this lesson students will explore the world of gray whales

Grade 5 Lesson: Weather and Wind
This lesson introduces the expanding and condensing properties of air masses and the unequal heating of Earth as the force behind the wind

Grades 6-8 Lesson: We Are The Freedom Riders
Students will learn about the courageous efforts of the Freedom Riders while embracing the bold theme, "We Will Overcome!" as a theme surrounding the civil rights movement.

Grades 6-8 Lesson: A Way With Words or Say What?
Many words and phrases that we use every day were coined by Shakespeare. He is credited with inventing over 2,000 words and expressive phrases.

Grades 3-4 Lesson: Visual Arts Careers
Expose students to three careers in the visual arts. Students will move through three different "art stations", where they can explore Fashion Design, Architecture, and Graphic Design

Grades 9-12 Lesson: Utopian Visions
Students are introduced to the idea of a "utopia"—an idealized society. Students read Sir Thomas More's Utopia and examine the concepts behind his vision of an ideal society.

Grade 5 Lesson: US Presidential Election Process and the Campaign Trail
Students will create an original political campaign song for a fictional presidential candidate.

Grades 9-12 Lesson: Unearthing Ancient Greece
Students will discover that what we know of ancient Greece has come to us mainly through the analysis of artifacts recovered in archeological digs

Grades 3-4 Lesson: Understanding Tenement Life
Through online stories and photographs, students will explore what daily life was like for the millions of poor Irish, German, Jewish, and Italian immigrants

Grades 9-12 Lesson: Uncivil Civilization in The Hairy Ape
Eugene O'Neill's The Hairy Ape presents a disheartening assessment of the impact of living in the industrialized society of the early 20th century.

Grades 6-8 Lesson: Twelve-Bar Blues
Learn about the history, key players and musical qualities of the blues

Grades 9-12 Lesson: Twain: Tom Sawyer—Mythic Adventurer
Learn about the source for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Read, and analyze the novel, with attention to character and style.

Grades 9-12 Lesson: Twain: Steamboat's a-Comin'
Examining the mystique of rivers as inspiration for creative expression it shows us the powerful influence the Mississippi River had on Mark Twain’s writings

Grades 9-12 Lesson: Twain: Icon and Iconoclast
This lesson asks students to examine samples of Twain’s work in the context of pre- and post-Civil War America

Grades 9-12 Lesson: Twain: An American Humorist
Students will analyze humor and the American character, developing a definition of “American humor”

Grade 5 Lesson: Trees in Nature and Art
Students will explore the use of trees in the arts (as paintings and poetry), understand basic science involved in forestry, and integrate tree arts and science in a final project.

Grades 6-8 Lesson: Tolerance: Gender Issues
In this lesson, students research how professions such as nursing, clerking, and teaching have changed gender dominance over the past 150 years in the United States.

Grades 3-4 Lesson: Tolerance: Comparing Cultural Holidays
Compare the artistic and cultural traditions of the U.S. celebration of Halloween and Mexico's Day of the Dead

Grades 9-12 Lesson: Three Newport Mansions of the Gilded Age
Research the history, architect, architecture, and patron of each mansion gaining understanding of the arts and culture of the Gilded Age.

Grades 6-8 Lesson: The Science of Shadow Puppets
Through online learning tools and the creation of shadow puppets and plays, students will learn how light interacts with matter

Grades 9-12 Lesson: The Poetics of Hip-Hop
Students will analyze form in Shakespearean sonnets and hip-hop music

Grades 3-4 Lesson: The Monkey Dance: Exploring Balinese Culture
The Kecak is a Balinese dance drama based on the Hindu epic Ramayana, which was compiled between 500 and 400 BC.

Grades 9-12 Lesson: The Memory Play in American Drama
This lesson explores structural and technical devices of the "memory" play by focusing on a Tennessee Williams' masterpiece, The Glass Menagerie

Grades 6-8 Lesson: Language of Ballet
This lesson introduces students to the French vocabulary of ballet. They will learn basic ballet vocabulary through both verbal and technological instruction.

Grades 3-4 Lesson: The Great Migration
In this lesson, students will learn about the migration of African Americans to Harlem

Grades 9-12 Lesson: The Far Reaches of Greek Culture
This lesson is designed to help students shape a frame of reference for examining specific areas of ancient Greek influence on Western thought and culture

Grades K-2 Lesson: The Dance of the Butterfly
Create an original dance that communicates the stages of the life cycle of the monarch butterfly.

Grades K-2 Lesson: The Chinese Lion Dance
Dance in the Chinese New Year with your K-2 students

Grades 3-4 Lesson: Telling a Story Through Dance
This lesson introduces students to the concept of emotionally and physically telling a story through dance and pantomime.

Grade 5 Lesson: Tall Tales Today
In this lesson, students are introduced to the genre of American tall tales and will create an original tall tale featuring a "larger-than life" main character.

Grades 6-8 Lesson: Systems of the Body: Movement and Choreography
In this lesson, students will create movement patterns that express information about the basic systems, organs, and processes of the human body

Grades 3-4 Lesson: Swing Your Partner: The Basics of Square Dancing
This lesson will introduce students to the history of square dancing as well as provide an opportunity to learn some basic steps and formations.

Grades 3-4 Lesson: Sunflowers
Students grow both sunflowers and their knowledge of science and art. After exploring the work of Van Gogh and other artists, students create their own artwork

Grades 6-8 Lesson: Sundiata, Mali’s Lion King
This lesson introduces the legendary Malian king Sundiata Keita, known as the Lion King of Mali, by using elements of traditional Malian festivals.

Grades 3-4 Lesson: String Instruments and Pitch
In this lesson, students explore how pitch is altered based on the width and length of the string

Grades 9-12 Lesson: Southern Puritanism and Tennessee Williams
This lesson continues the exploration of "Puritanism" as an influence on the development of modern American drama in works by Tennessee Williams.

Grades 9-12 Lesson: Setting the Story
Students examine setting as a significant element of fiction. They learn devices for creating a realistic setting, and use the methods in works of their own

Grades 6-8 Lesson: Set a Poem to Music
After exploring a “singable” picture book as a class, each student examines a personally selected poem for rhythm to determine its musical meter.

Grade 5 Lesson: Searching For Cinderella
There are more than 300 versions and variations of the tale known as "Cinderella"