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I'll be using Beyond or Bigger next year with one of my sons, and I know that there are artists who have based their artwork on famous events/people in American history. I would love to tie some of this artwork into our studies next year. Has anyone done this and/or have ideas for resources to help with this? Suggestions of books of art, websites, or perhaps an art curriculum that you know of would be much appreciated! Similar suggestions for tying in music from different time periods are welcome too! Thanks!
Kristin

Hi Kristin,

Finally a topic I feel I can be helpful with (I hope). You can get free art resources for the NGA through their free loan program.
It might be a little old for your daughter, I used it for my 4th grader part of this year, she enjoyed it, but my youngers didn't show any interest. Here is the link:

http://www.nga.gov/education/classroom/loanfinder/

We also used the "Come Look with Me" series (Art in Early America & American Indian Art) which is a nice sweet series and perfect for the elementary level.

Also visual manna has an American Art curriculum and

the authors of "Discovering Great Artists", by MaryAnn F. Kohl and Kim Solga have a new book coming out this month called " Great American Artists for Kids: Hands-On Art Experiences in the Styles of Great American Masters " which looks good too! Here is the link on Amazon.....hope this is helpful http://www.amazon.com/Great-American-Ar ... 502&sr=1-3

K

Thanks, Kay! I looked into the resources your mentioned and they look interesting! Thanks so much!!
Also, as I was doing some perusing on my own, I found the website for a brand new free government-sponsored program called Picturing America.
http://picturingamerica.neh.gov/educato ... =edu_guide
Schools and libraries are able to get sets of high-quality prints depicting events/time periods in American history and teacher resource guides. However, I am very excited that, right on the website, we are able to access full-screen pictures of the art masterpieces (e.g. Washington Crossing the Delaware, Benjamin Franklin, etc.) and then you can download information about each artwork along with specific things to talk about with the students. It's even divided into elementary, middle, and high school as far as appropriate questions to ask. It looks awesome! Click on "Image Gallery" on the lefthand side of the page to see the paintings. Thought I'd share for anyone else who wants to share some fine art with their students that correlates with the history in Beyond and Bigger.
Kristin

Kristin,
Thanks for the link! I downloaded the resource book and bookmarked the image gallery for use with my son in the years to come. Looks like a great resource!