FREE Art Activity + 18 Art Lesson Plans From the IPaintMyMind Arts Education Curriculum and Resource Guide

It’s a strange time for sure, and with the wide range of approaches to reopening schools that is happening nationwide, it’s clear that teachers, parents, families, and all the adults that support children will be looking for new ways to bridge this social gap. IPaintMyMind has been focused on supporting the communities we serve, namely teachers, schools, administrators, students, and their families, with adaptable and useful arts engagement tools that make e-learning, hybrid learning, or homeschooling a great experience nonetheless.

We spent a lot of time this Spring revamping the curriculum and art guide we provide our Chicago Public Schools Shared Walls partners, and so adapting that to serve communities nationwide became a logical extension of our efforts.

What you need to know is, The IPaintMyMind Arts Education Curriculum and Resource Guide is an 88-page Plug and Play Visual Arts Curriculum is all about supporting you and your students through arts education framework, activities, and resources that make an impact. 

It’s available for $197 for a limited time, but we wanted to provide more insight into the real value it provides, the flexibility of its structure, and vast resources included, all in an effort to engage students by connecting the process of experiencing, reflecting on, and making art to the way it lives in the real world. 

This isn’t an art history class with timelines and notable dead white guys.

It’s an interactive art curriculum that leads both teachers and students through an engaging Three Phase structure that’s both extremely practical and a lot of fun. We want to focus on a crucial element of the Arts Education Curriculum & Resource Guide, namely the 18 lesson plans that are included within. 

Ahead we explain how we formulated these lesson plans, letting you know why we’re confident in the stunning value of this resource.

And to give you some real value and a way to experience some of it for yourself, we invite you to enjoy a FREE taste of what’s included in this mega-resource with one of those 18 lesson plans. If you love it, remember, there’s 17 more – grab yours here.

A Free Lesson Plan For Teachers & Parents To Engage Their Students & Kids

How does art play a role in our world outside of art galleries? This lesson plan is designed to make students think about the ways visual culture, design, and art impact them in day to day life, and to open their eyes about possible creative careers beyond being a traditional artist. 

It’s also a great lesson plan for fostering community and teamwork between students, as it requires a lot of brainstorming and working together. Each student has a role, but their work has to fit in and make sense with the other students in the group. It’s a fun challenge for your students and could take place on a variety of timelines. Perhaps the activity takes place over a single lesson, or perhaps it takes a few weeks to complete, as you work through the different elements of the lesson plan at a much slower pace and go deeper with the work that you do together. It’s up to you! 

Lesson Plan: Creativity Knows No Bounds

• Every company has a ‘Creative Team’ – they’re the people that create the art, design, & copy (words), that make up the branding and advertising assets we all see on TV, bus stops, billboards, and mostly our smart phones and computers. Assemble a 3-student creative team for a fictional brand and put together a campaign that promotes your shared values. 
• Assign roles to each of the three creative team members: illustration (art), copy (writing), design (layout). 
• Create an organization or brand that promotes something you all believe in. Your organization will need a NAME, A TAGLINE, and a MISSION STATEMENT. (Research those to hone in on what they should look like.) Brainstorm ideas and decide on a core mission that drives your fictional brand. The rest of the choices should flow from this mission, from the name to the design work itself. 
• Create THREE (3) assets – an advertisement, a poster, or a video. (it can be anything that requires art, copy, and design) that could become the pillars of a messaging campaign for your organization.
  • Consider showing students examples of many types of messaging, advertising, and branding, to get them thinking about possibilities for their own branding campaign. 
• Present your organization and campaign to your classmates.

We love art activities and topics that break out of the traditional mold, and show students the diversity of creative jobs and possibilities. As just one of the 18 lesson plans included in the Arts Education Curriculum and Resource Guide, there’s plenty more engaging and innovative activities for your students ready to be implemented in whatever setting you find yourself in. 

The Meat & Potatoes: 18 Visual Art Lesson Plans & Activities

The core of our guide is the 18 lesson plans and activities that we offer to set your students off along the IPMM pathway “See, Think, Do”. At IPaintMyMind, we’re positive that this process of broadening our horizons, being given space and time to process, and then being intentional and creative about our own contributions to the world, is the type of experience that produces young people excited to be part of a better world. 

These 18 lesson plans are designed to instigate a creative journey in your classroom: one that begins with learning about artists and ends with your students becoming artists of their own. As educators, parents, caregivers, and youth leaders, our aim is to support a rich experience that makes hybrid and non-traditional learning set ups productive and fun for everyone involved. The customizable nature of the program means you’re in control of how to roll this out. 

Connect With Working Artists

The active learning really comes into play as you lead your kids through the Three Phases, and select a featured artist from the Resource section. The Resource section of the guide includes 33 amazing artists who are a part of IPaintMyMind’s Permanent Collection. 

They’re all contemporary working artists from a variety of backgrounds and working in a diverse array of styles. They’re excited about arts education, and are amazing examples of how art is diverse, evolving, and infinitely relatable for your students. 

Taking Arts Education Into The Real World

Next, you’ll get started with the lesson plans we’ve provided. For our curriculum designers and teachers involved in building the guide, we really wanted to focus on ‘how art lives in the world.’ In this sense, the process of making art has been intentionally connected to its application in the real world. We believe in arts education that is rooted in real world problems and topics, and which can be connected to many other disciplines, whether science or history!

Our lesson plans are adaptable and open-ended, ready to be tweaked or teased out to fit into your unique teaching style and needs. Many lesson plans are based around choosing an artist from the Resource section, and going in-depth as your class studies their work and learns about their worldview. They’re designed to provide a holistic experience, considering art from a formal and skill-based perspective, an art historical view, and as an open-ended opportunity to be wildly creative! 

Testimonials from Teachers

Hear what one of our teachers is saying about The IPaintMyMind Arts Education Curriculum and Resource Guide already…

“The art guide is incredible. It gives great ideas on how to incorporate the artist and artworks into discussions with the class. I love the meaningful questions that come with each idea. It is clear you guys spent a lot of time creating the videos and the document with the students’ enjoyment in mind.” 

With all that said, please do let us know if you have any questions or go ahead and get started by  buying your copy and telling your friends & fellow teachers about this awesome resource during  this challenging time.

Learn more about The IPaintMyMind Arts Education Curriculum and Resource Guide and purchase your copy today – available for $197 for a limited time!

PLEASE NOTE: Any Chicago Public Schools Teachers interested in the guide should email us directly at ideas@ipaintmymind.org to receive the version we deliver to our Shared Walls schools in Chicago. This offer is limited to CPS Teachers only through June 2021. 

All teachers outside CPS are invited to purchase The IPaintMyMind Arts Education Curriculum and Resource Guide. Proceeds are reinvested in delivering the FREE and low-cost arts programs, services, and curriculum we provide to underserved communities. 

Thanks for your support!!