The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science presents a teacher’s guide to writing screenplays. See how the elements of writing and film can come together in this classroom activity! From www.oscars.org.

Be the filmmaker! Using your smartphone or iPad practice your film-vocabulary by filming different shots, camera angles and camera movements. Compare and contrast how filming an object or scene from different angles changes how you think, view, and feel. Compare and contrast how filming an object or scene from different angles changes how your audience… Read on

Use the Haunted Screens exhibition to inspire a short writing activity that can be done in the galleries or in the classroom. Choose one work of art to focus on (film clip, movie poster, etc.). Use the work to write an exciting film promo.

Create the soundtrack for a silent film featured in Haunted Screens.  Select a clip from the exhibition. Make a list of adjectives that describe emotions you feel while watching the clip (i.e. “confusion,” “sadness,” or “scared”). Imagine what sounds can be used to correspond to the emotions. Have students slowly start adding in sounds one… Read on

Paint your own landscape! Go outside of the school, possibly to a park, sketch what you see in the landscape. What captures your attention in the landscape? What season is it? What time of day do you think it is? What is the weather like? What other qualities about nature would a Hudson River School… Read on

This video is part of a collection of recorded talks with Milwaukee-area professionals who don’t work in museums, but use art in their work and lives. These live talks are inspiring, combining art with many different fields. These videos are great resources for high school teachers who might want to speak with students about different… Read on

Fashion changes with the times. This was visible in the garments on view in the Inspiring Beauty exhibition. Find a person who is 10, 15, or even 25 years older than you to interview about fashion and their community. What types of clothing were popular when they were your age? What were the major events… Read on

As a class or in small groups, review various magazine covers, such as Ebony, which was highlighted in the Inspiring Beauty exhibition. Ask students to identify the magazine’s key components, for instance, the masthead (or title), cover photo, cover lines (highlighting the stories inside), and the dateline (with the issue date and price). Make a… Read on

Adapted from Joynear Duncan, education student at Alverno College and Museum summer 2014 Intern. The main forms of entertainment during the Renaissance, when the paintings at the beginning of the Of Heaven and Earth exhibition were made, were music and dance. There were two main types of dances: court dances and country dances. Court dances… Read on

Discussion- Kandinsky was an instructor at the Bauhaus, whose teaching program emphasized experimentation, form theory, and the direct handling of materials. He was best known for his instruction of color theory. In the visual arts, color theory organizes the colors in the spectrum and their relationships. Colors are categorized on the color wheel into primary… Read on