Each lesson below was written by an elementary teacher from the Los Angeles area. Developed through the Getty Education Department's one-year professional-development program, Art & Language Arts, these lessons were designed to meet California content standards for English–language arts and visual arts.

For more information about the program, please e-mail teacherprograms@getty.edu.

Lessons 31–40 of 41

Postcards from the Wilderness
Grades/Level: Upper Elementary (3–5)
Subjects: Visual Arts, English—Language Arts, History—Social Science
Lesson Overview: Students create a postcard featuring a landscape that incorporates rubbings to create texture. Students write a letter on the back of the postcard describing the landscape.

Funky Illuminated Fairy Tales
Grades/Level: Upper Elementary (3–5)
Subjects: Visual Arts, English—Language Arts
Lesson Overview: Students create a nameplate and an original fairy tale book using an illuminated manuscript format.

Letter from the Chateau
Grades/Level: Upper Elementary (3–5)
Subjects: Visual Arts, English—Language Arts
Lesson Overview: Students write a friendly letter based on their observations of a painting by Poussin. They demonstrate their observation of the painting's content and new vocabulary that they access themselves, using a thesaurus.

Dream Bed
Grades/Level: Upper Elementary (3–5)
Subjects: Visual Arts, English—Language Arts
Lesson Overview: After viewing and discussing two beds in the Getty's collection, students design and write descriptions of imaginary beds. Students will understand that everyday objects can be works of art, and that artists can design functional items that reflect their ideals of beauty.

Sacred Places: California Missions from Different Perspective
Grades/Level: Upper Elementary (3–5)
Subjects: Visual Arts, English—Language Arts, History—Social Science
Lesson Overview: Students explore the concept of a sacred place by looking at works of art representing sacred spaces, and studying the California missions. They explore perspective and point of view in both the visual and literary senses. Students create a project poster displaying photos, drawings, and journal writings that incorporate the major themes of California's missions, and use perspective and point of view both visually and in writing.

Picture a Character
Grades/Level: Upper Elementary (3–5)
Subjects: Visual Arts, English—Language Arts, History—Social Science
Lesson Overview: Students write descriptions and create portraits of characters from the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen using a variety of media.

City Wildlife in a Vase
Grades/Level: Upper Elementary (3–5)
Subjects: Visual Arts, English—Language Arts
Lesson Overview: 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.

Our Illuminated Alphabet
Grades/Level:
Subjects: Visual Arts, English—Language Arts
Lesson Overview: Students practice writing letters of the alphabet and explore how decorated letters can be used to convey stories or symbolic ideas. They create an "illuminated" alphabet in which each letter conveys concepts of home and family.

Palace Adventure
Grades/Level: Lower Elementary (K–2)
Subjects: Visual Arts, English—Language Arts
Lesson Overview: Students write and illustrate a short fantasy story based on the book Corduroy.They create a character who has an adventure in a palace. The decorative arts collection at the Getty Museum provides inspiration for this palace setting.

People at Work
Grades/Level: Upper Elementary (3–5)
Subjects: Visual Arts, English—Language Arts
Lesson Overview: Students create a work of art and write a story about "Man with a Hoe Five Years Later." Students also photograph their hands with a tool and write about what wonderful tools hands are.

Lessons 31–40 of 41