Instructional Resources - The Arts
Teaching the Colorado Academic Standards in the arts disciplines is supported through a wide array of free instructional resources. This webpage lists just a few of these resources and will be updated regularly. If you are an educator in Colorado and have suggestions for a great free resource please email Karol Gates. For additional opportunities please check Professional Development.
State Resources
Denver Art Museum Creativity Resource for Teachers - This website provides art images and information about a large variety of art pieces, contains lesson plans and ideas for teachers in art, language arts and creativity, and provides information on booking museum tours and upcoming teacher workshops.
Ties That Bind: A project of the Colorado Council on the Arts’ state folklorists, this is an online version of a multi-media resource for Colorado folk arts for classroom teachers, designed to help educators address Colorado Content Standards in history, geography and other disciplines. The comprehensive tool contains essays, lesson plans, lists of additional resources, and audio and video media that can be seen and heard directly on this site. Contact Ronna Lee Sharpe, CCA Western Region Folklorist, 970-242-0971 ext 221.
National Resources
Thinkfinity - Thousands of Free Lesson Plans in Math, Social Studies, Visual Arts, Language Arts, Music, Physical Education, Reading, Writing, Geography, Science Projects, Science
ArtsEdge - (The Kennedy Center): A rich resource of arts education materials including teaching materials and professional resources.
ArtsEdNet - The Getty Museum’s Arts Education Web Site, offering a wealth of lesson plans and curriculum guides, publications and links
Smithsonian - Now aligns more than 1,200 free educational resources to standards of learning in every state.
Teaching for Artistic Behavior - Choice-based teaching and learning delivers in-depth curriculum in the context of student-centered work.
Spiral Workshop - Spiral Workshop has a dual mission: to be a studio where teen artists can explore artmaking in a cultural studies context, and to be a laboratory to develop curriculum projects that can be taught in middle school and high school art classrooms.
Who’s Dancing Now? - Public Broadcasting Corporation website offers lesson plans and other arts education resources by region.
Open Educational Resources - OER Commons is a site for shared educational resources.
CARTS (Cultural Arts Resources for Teachers and Students) - A project of City Lore, a cultural organization dedicated to the documentation, presentation, and preservation of America's living cultural heritage. The CARTS website is filled with folklore, history, culture, and arts-in-education resources and educational activities.
VSA arts - VSA arts creates opportunities for persons with disabilities through education and employment in the arts. The VSA arts mission is to include all children, youth, and adults with physical, emotional, intellectual and employment and life skills.
For website assistance in the Arts, please contact Karol Gates.