Thank you so much for the activities- although I wish I could print the Who am I game. Thank you for the teacher's manual and the interesting way you have put the info together! Awesome!

An incredible wealth of information and additional resources is available at George Washington, A National Treasure. This site includes background information, primary source material, interactive portraits, time lines, games, reenactments, and lesson ideas for multiple grade levels. This resource is the next best thing to a time machine.

Excellent site and presentation of the works of an Asian Artist. His work is definitely of historical value, but also reflects the numerous ideologies of a modern day voyager. Highly recommended.

I would like to use this lesson plan as a guide in my art education class at Coastal Carolina University, All materials will be cited in my presentation. Thank you.

Throughout the museum, American Indians kept mentioning that they were happy to have survived. American Indian culture is one we will never fully be able to recover, but with the foresight of people like Jim Schoppert we are able to enjoy and learn from some of the things that survive. I love this museum as a whole and really encourage people to visit. One video mentions that in creating the museum, they become a history like every other history...respect it...argue with it. That helped me to be aware of the significance of what I was experiencing. Excellent.

Our preschool students loved this resource as most of them have never visited a rainforest before. We had fun learning about the 'Great Kapok Tree' and its cultural significance.

This resource is excellent for teaching women's American history by offering photographs of significant American women. The photographs are powerful and tell much about each of the subjects they reflect. I used this as part of a women's history project with my students. I recommend it highly!

Well done.

I was really impressed with this activity because it shows the objects to size. I know that with working with Kindergarteners they need to be able to tell the difference between fiction and nonfiction and this is a wonderful way to introduce that concept along with the concept of size. My favorite slide was of the toy truck. I think the children will really benefit from seeing that children in Africa share some of the same interests as we do here in the United States. The children also will learn a lot about another place which is always good for introducing map skills. I think that there are a wide variety of uses for this activity in the classroom.

This is a wonderful resource for teachers. I am currently an Art Education student and I know when I start teaching, I will be using your site often. Thank you.

I love how this site integrates art, geography, and culture into the concept development of "big" and "small." I appreciate how the site makes a connection to
a child's personal experience through statements such as, "Is there a mother or grandmother in your neighborhood who always has after school snacks no matter how many kids come by?" The quality of the objects chosen and the photographs themselves is excellent. Young children may need additional instruction in order to understand the use of scale in the relative sizes. Overall, this is an excellent resource for parents, caregivers, and teachers to share with children.

Looking forward to learning more about this.

My daughter thoroughly enjoyed this lesson on Ben Franklin and is waiting for the next storm to move through. lol. But in all honesty, this not only explains his beliefs and ideas but him as a person. It makes children and/or adults realize that he was just a person too. To quote Mr. Franklin "One day Mr. Franklin was asked why he failed 2000 tries to make a light bulb? He told this gentleman that he hadn't failed, he had just learned 2000 ways not to make a light bulb." Ben Franklin is a very important and a highlight of American History and should be discussed more in a classroom setting to give him the character that he deserves.

I am always looking for ways to provide cross curricular activities, and this is one that provides great activities! I love the static electricity one, very simply to do with easy to find materials.

I have always been fascinated by Ben Franklin. This lesson illustrates the depth and breadth of his interests and accomplishments. I liked the lesson with the portraits of Franklin's friends. I would love to have the students draw a portrait of themselves and include objects that emphasize their interests. The lesson about static electricity is very effective, and I found it very effective to set up different stations in the room to show how electricity can be created. This is a lesson which I will continue to incorporate into my thematic unit on Franklin for many years.

This is truly a fun lesson. It obviously targets younger kids, but it works well for older ones as well.
It can be used by Art teachers, but also by English and World Languages teachers to accompany the description of a story created by students. Students can create a plot, main characters and a colorful setting. It will certainly take more than one lesson, but it will keep them engaged. My students had lots of fun creating their script and then their short "movies." They worked in small groups and each group got to read and watch the projects of the other groups. The little notebooks and their descriptions are still in my classroom and occasionally someone still enjoys looking at them.

I remember doing these when I was a kid, but I just couldn't remember exactly how to do it to show my 1st grader. Wonderful that I happened upon this! Thank you Smithsonian!

This is a great lesson to extend into the tech lab classes. Students from 2nd - 5th can create their animation on a multimedia program, such as power point and print the books to create their own flip book.(ISTE 1, 4, 6)

To integrate within the math curriculum, calculations could include how many slides per moving an object from side to side and how many pages for printing if 6 slides are printed per sheet of paper. (ISTE 1, 2, 3, 6)

To integrate within the language arts curriculum, students can write a procedural essay for the creation of the flip book. Another writing option is a research paper about the history of animation or inventors, both historical and contemporary. (ISTE 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

This can be extended to science technology through the study of Java script for Middle School students.(ISTE 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

What a great lesson! I look forward to using this with my First Graders this next school year. I will use this during the first month of school as the children explore the building. This is a great cross-curricular activity that can be used in Language Arts, Social Studies, and Math. I know the children will be enthusiastic about it because it involves pets. Who doesn't love pets? One thing I might add.. comparing/voting on the most practical design and then actually building a small scale pet house using cereal boxes, paper towel rolls, etc. Thanks for the great idea!

I love this lesson and I plan to use it for an Art project for my students. This way they can have a hands-on experience and understand how buildings are made and the thinking that goes into it.

I really liked using this resource. It was very well done and through for this age group. However as a parent, I had to modify some of the activities because I didn't have a large group with which to work.

This turned out to be a visually stunning book, one which I perused with my students over and over. They were intrigued by all of the intricacies of Buddhist art, and Asian culture. This book taught us so much, and I would recommend it for anybody. It was well written, well categorized and simply fun to look through.

The Freer Gallery of Asian Art is my favorite of all the Smithsonian museums. This Gallery Guide to the Art of Buddhism beautifully presents the works I saw first-hand in the gallery for the students in my classroom! Thank you for having it available online for my students in Las Vegas!

Buddhism is a theme in Asian Art that can be traced across Asia and links both Eastern and Western art. This resource is excellent in that it provides just enough information for a general audience member to understand how Buddhism spread and how the imagery changed. Only suggestion is to add one more link to Buddhism in Korea and Southeast Asia and possibly Buddhism today.

Every school should include the arts and music into scheduled lessons that make connections to social studies, math. technology, history,science, and language arts. This lesson is a great way to start those connections. I teach music from this platform and many times the students are unaware of the breadth and depth that every subject is interwoven. I see many opportunities in this lesson about "The Art of Piet Mondrian" to get students to make those connections.

I am big fan of Mondrian, and to come across such a lesson plan to use was a joy. I have not used the lesson plan yet but I am going to use it once I start my student teaching. My main goal was to find a plan that incorporated other subject areas such as this plan did. The activity of getting the students to not only do a Mondrian-style painting but as well to lay out a grid system on a computer program to make an artwork, in my eyes, is a wonderful step forward in integrating technology into art making. I personally went through this plan and tried it out myself and absolutely loved it. Not only do you get a feel for the original way in which Mondrian created his style on canvas, but you get to experience how you can create such works through computer graphic programs.

I love that this lesson includes different subjects such as history, math, art, music, and language arts. I love that the definitions are included too. I would make a chart with the definitions and have students come up and try to guess the meaning with the help of other students (maybe even use pictures or drawing to help them guess the meaning before I uncover what the real meaning is). A lot of the students in my class love to draw so this is a great way to introduce art work that students might not know to help expand their horizons.

This nifty website presents novel, expansive material on a more obscure historical topic. Expansive in breadth, but not so detailed that the student's eyes gloss over. However, more than enough detail and activities to form a solid basis for further research.
I withhold one star because the website turned out to be a tad confusing to navigate solo.
I often tutor students in the 3rd grade to high school range in creative writing and critical reading. One of my biggest challenges has always been simply sparking these kids' desire to read, think, imagine and write! This website is another tool that has been carefully bookmarked.

My colleagues and I have brought our students to Discovery Theatre three years in a row to see their production of "Seasons of Light." It really enhances our study of the Winter Holidays. It talks about each of the celebrations and connects them through the common use of light. Our kids are always involved and engaged in the performance.

This is a great website if you're looking for something interesting and interactive for your students. The different shows and presentations available by D.T. range in different topics depending on the interests, grade level and topic of your students. The study guides available on the website are a great supplement, or serve as a good spring board to stand alone.

This website makes it so easy to find images that can enrich study of any topic.

I love the Day of the Dead pages. I teach a lesson on this holiday every year. I used the fact sheet as a basis for my lecture and made copies for the students to study for a quiz. I also used the instructions for papel picado. The students loved decorating the room and being creative. It was a fun break from conjugating verbs and learning vocabulary.

Terrific resource to stimulate ideas and increase accessibility to children in the Latino community.

My son is autistic and this proved as a valuable resource for helping him to receive hands-on learning. He enjoyed creating his own toy - with my help. It is also a great cognitive resource. The visual concept will capture your child's attention. He even engaged in play. If you have a child with a learning disability, you really need to try this out.

This is an excellent lesson to teach kids about the art of toy making. My kids were more engaged with these how toys than they ever are with any store bought toy. Probably because they're proud that they built it themselves. Have kids? Then give this resource a try.

This unit is a great way to get into history as well as design, art, science, and general fun. We are currently studying Early American History and as a side are adding the historical toys into our units. The kids will see that fun doesn't mean a Television cartoon, or computer game. Fun doesn't have to have an electric cord attached to it.

Its easy to use with great images. I learned a lot!

Nice thought of including Mexican history...

This is a wonderful source that I will definitely use in my classroom. I am a first-year Spanish teacher and am always looking for ways to incorporate culture and history into my classroom. The highlights of this resource include very thorough explanations accompanied by clear, vivid visuals. My only suggestions are to keep the information up to date. Although the exhibit may no longer be in display, the Public Programs and Film & Video sections should still be current.

This was a great way to introduce ballads to my 6th grade students. They were able to hear the rhythm and beat within the music and poetry. The lesson using stressed and unstressed syllables was great and very relatable to my students!

I use this resource with university students enrolled in "Elementary Music for the Classroom Teacher." The students are familiar with meter in poetry -- stressed and unstressed syllables. Following the poetic patterns supplied in the Smithsonian lesson, the students write ballads about storybook characters/plots which can be then sung to the familiar tune "Amazing Grace."

This is such a great lesson because the majority of students do not enjoy poetry, but they love music. By incorporating these two elements together, it is very eye-opening (or should I say ear opening) for these students. They have a deeper understanding of poetry once they realize they can connect it to music.

This resource is great. It helps to teach children about art and different colors. Art is a great way to express your emotions. Children need an outlet like this.

This book absolutely opens a child's world to the many colors of the world, they are able to see the world around them in a completely different light, projects with this book are very engaging. I love it!

Mixing paint and making color. What a wonderful hands on learning experience. Math, science, and art. plus the delight of making a mess. Bring this activity outside and we can really cover some very young educational bases.