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.