Free Art History Lessons for K-12

I found two excellent resources for teaching Art History to children in K-12.

American Art History Lessons

We love old school crafts at our home: weaving, spinning, and embroidery are our current favorites. Craft Revival has a large collection of free lesson plans for K-12 on crafts such as weaving, basketry, and pottery. The lesson plans include historical information on the skill, and they include hands-on projects.

There is much more to these lessons – Craft Revival even tells us which subjects are being taught in each lesson, for example, here is one title: Quilts and the Underground Railroad, Grades 4-5; Subject: Art; Related Subjects: Social Studies, Language Arts, Geometry 

Visit Craft Revival to view the free practical skills and lesson plans, separated by elementary & middle school grades and high school grades.

World Famous Art History Lessons

At the National Gallery of Art website, there are two excellent ways to learn:

• For K-8 or so: One of my children loves to be involved in the making of art, so she spends time in the NGAkids Art Zone on her own. This gallery changes frequently, and includes interactive games and activities
• For teens and yourself (I got lost in this site when I saw Vermeer’s paintings), visit the huge NGA online database of art, where you may read art history, artist bios, and view works of art.  This is an excellent resource for Charlotte Mason teachers, or others who make Art Study a focus of their curriculum. 

Also, did you know you may loan from the National Gallery of Art to your mailbox? I’ve personally done it; it’s an amazing free resource! 

why teach art history?

I wrote an article on why we may want to teach art history, and included ten masters you may want to consider studying in your homeschool.

if you’re worried over teaching art…

I wrote something on how we naturally teach art to our children.