Students will learn about ancient styles of Roman portraiture and their influence on western European art, research and write a paper that compares Roman and American slavery, and produce an original sketch of a grave relief for a freed slave.

Students will explore contemporary artist John Baldessari's mixed-media work of art inspired by a 16th-century drawing of a beetle. After writing a story about a bug's journey, each student will create a mixed-media representation of a bug that is inspired by the contemporary artist's work.

This activity was designed for blind learners, but all types of learners can use it to design and build a catapult that will toss a marshmallow or pompom over a distance of at least 12 inches, using the appropriate materials and tools safely.

This activity was designed for blind learners, but all types of learners can use it to discover how changing the shape of a material such as newspaper can create a stronger building material, then build a model of a skyscraper using the adapted material.

Students gain awareness of shapes in architecture by creating a painting of their school and writing a reflective summary of their study of architecture.

Students will examine the sculpture "Rearing Horse" by Adriaen de Vries. They will then draw and sculpt animals from life, trying to capture motion frozen in a moment.

Cardboard Automata are a playful way to explore simple machine elements while creating a mechanical sculpture. This activity was inspired by the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre, a group of automata builders based in England. Artists like Paul Spooner, Keith Newstead, and Carlos Zapata build beautiful narrative pieces using elegant mechanisms based on cams, gears, springs, and linkages. Working with simple materials, this activity is easy to get started, and may become as complex as your mechanical sculpture ideas.

This activity was designed for blind learners, but all types of learners can use it to gain hands-on experience with various tools and materials used in design and construction. The students will make molds and duplicates for an engraved image.

Students will analyze art elements and symbolism in a late-19th-century painting, create a self-portrait, and learn a dance depicted in the painting

Students will compare and contrast how two late-19th-century paintings depict celebrations in different ways through the artists' use of satire and color. Students will explore the historical context surrounding both canvases and create a painting of a celebration employing artistic techniques learned from the pictures.

This lesson is part of a sequential unit. Students are tested on what they learned about the history of ceramic forms in "Ceramics: A Vessel into History -- Lesson 1." They start work on a personal clay vessel that has a specific use or meaning in their contemporary culture, which could be discerned through study by future archeologists and art historians.

This lesson is part of a sequential unit. Students begin work on a ceramic vessel, which they designed in "Ceramics: A Vessel into History -- Lesson 2." They discuss their artistic choices and identify elements derived from historical examples, while considering how artists appropriate ideas from earlier artists.

This lesson is part of a sequential unit. Students hold a critique session to evaluate the work of their peers using the criteria for value and meaning they developed in "Ceramics: A Vessel into History -- Lesson 1."

Students work individually and in groups to compare and contrast two chairs that were made in different time periods. They will then create a collage depicting an historic scene inspired by artist Nicole Cohen's video installation that incorporates historic and modern imagery.

In this extension to the "Open Court Reader" unit on "City Wildlife," students look at a still-life painting. They discuss the observation of nature by scientists and artists and explore the symbolism of biological life cycles depicted in a painting.

Students will examine Rembrandt's "Abduction of Europa" and discuss how the artist has taken an ancient Greek myth and contemporized it for a 17th-century Dutch audience. They will then read origin myths and choose a scene to illustrate in a contemporary setting.

Students create a class alphabet book or "ABCDarium," a book that uses images of animals or objects to illustrate each letter of the alphabet. The book is in the style of a medieval illuminated manuscript and incorporates both art and writing. Students decorate large uppercase letters of the alphabet and draw an original picture to illustrate each letter.

Students will observe images of gardens, visualizing and imagining the shapes, colors, textures, sounds, and smells of the plants, flowers, and other objects in a garden. They will also write about and sketch their observations. Students will then design and create a model of their own imagined garden.

Students will discuss the form and function of Chinese porcelain with gilt-bronze mounts that were added by French artists. They will decorate cups or bowls with thematic designs then "sell" these works to partners role-playing as French tourists. Partners will add decorations to the original designs. Each student will also write an account of his or her object's journey.

Students examine the roles of mothers and grandmothers by looking at black-and-white photographs of one American family and comparing that family's multi-generational story with their own. Students will make a photo-collage triptych based on the theme of multi-generational families. This lesson connects to SRA's "Open Court Reading" units "Our Country and Its People" and "Sharing Stories."