These lessons celebrate the history of women in art with stories of unique and amazing women. They cover the themes of adornment, women as artists, and women's roles in the family, and are designed for classroom teaching of primary grades.
Objects of Adornment Grades/Level: Lower Elementary (K–2) Subjects: Visual Arts, History—Social Science Lesson Overview: Students explore a portrait of two historical princesses and consider the adornments the both wear. Each student compares these adornments to the decorative objects worn by a woman in their own lives and sketches a portrait of that woman, focusing on the objects of adornment she wears.
Ambitious Women Artists at Work Grades/Level: Upper Elementary (3–5) Subjects: Visual Arts, English—Language Arts Lesson Overview: Students learn the stories of two ambitious and courageous women artists in European history—Luisa Roldán (also known as La Roldána) and Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun—and examine works by both. Students then research and write a short report on a female artist working today.
Depicting Motherhood in Family Stories Grades/Level: Lower Elementary (K–2) Subjects: Visual Arts, English—Language Arts Lesson Overview: 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."
