32 Performance and Visual Arts Resources

Teaching the arts requires a unique blend of creativity, passion, and adaptability. For performance and visual arts educators, the journey to inspire and nurture students is both rewarding and demanding. The right resources can transform this journey, turning challenges into opportunities for growth and creativity.  

The following collection of recommended tools, curated by experienced teachers, is designed to support and invigorate the artistic process in the classroom. These resources encompass a broad spectrum of needs, from comprehensive lesson plans and innovative teaching aids to interactive digital platforms and engaging multimedia content. 

Each recommendation is chosen to address specific aspects of art education, whether it’s enhancing technical skills, fostering creative thinking, or facilitating effective collaboration among students. By integrating these carefully selected resources into your teaching strategies, you can offer richer, more dynamic learning experiences.


Art History Teaching Resources (AHTR)

This site contains all the important movements of Art History throughout the centuries, which allows me to create projects for students so they can immerse themselves in the historical creative process. (Mia I, K-5;6-8;9-12)


Artsonia

Artsonia is an excellent resource as an online school art gallery and digital student portfolio that promotes literacy within the art room and assists teachers in capturing students’ thoughts and feelings during the art creation process. Art teachers can provide feedback directly to the parents about their child’s specific needs or achievements throughout the year. There’s a great interactive feature on the website that connects the educator, students, and parents for a cohesive flow and art community. (Chyna S, K-5)


Backstage Magazine

A very trusted site used by actors ranging from newbies to professionals. Great interviews and advice on the business and how best to prepare your mind, voice, and body for performing. (Kevin M, 9-12)


Beat By Beat

Resource for affordable, high-quality musical plays and drama games for kids. Read every show for free. (Lara K, 6-8)


Carnegie Museum of Art

Gives great examples of typed up art lesson plans that contain interdisciplinary subjects such as art and science art and history and art and math. (Julianna F, 6-8)


Classics For Kids

This site has a lot of music games, exploration of different styles and instruments, and introduces classical music to children in a really engaging manner. It also has a lot of resources for teachers, including lesson plans, standards, and more. (Sanjay P, 9-12)


Diffit

This website I used for my differentiated lesson plan. Teachers can search any topic and select the grade level in which the article will be for. The website, using an AI generator, will generate articles at that reading level and activities for the student to complete. I believe it is free until January 2024. (Lynn P, 6-8)


Julianna Kunstler

I like this website and use it quite often as this website describes the art lesson in detail and keeps it simple for the students to understand. It's a free resource without any binding. It has a range of lessons for middle and high school starting from basics. (Pratibha R, 6-8)


Kami

This is a website paid for by the school district. We use Canvas, but I believe you can use this on Google Classroom. As a 1-to-1 school, this allows students to annotate, draw, add text, and so much more to pre-made Kami slides or slides you can create and upload on your own. It, then, saves copies to your Google Drive. (Lynn P, 6-8)


Midwest Clinic

A music education-specific website with countless articles for reference in lesson planning, classroom management, teaching skills, afterschool program management, etc. (Kyle J, K-5)


Moms Learning

Weekly lessons with artist work, prompts and suggested activities. (Epifinia S, K-5;6-8)


Mr. Henry's Music World

Advice and research from an experienced elementary music teacher that I have found very helpful in adjusting to working with this age group. (Kyle J, K-5)


Music Theory for the 21st Century Classroom

This is a great resource for students to learn and practice the basics of music theory. It contains practice exercises for students to use and contains everything from pitch and notation to serialism and minimalism. It's practically an online textbook that you can use with nearly any level of student. (Catrina C, 6-8)


MusicEdMagic

MusicEdMagic provides comprehensive resources for music educators. It provides lesson plans, teaching tips, and a variety of music education resources. (Myrcele N, 9-12)


Musictheory.net

I love using this site to practice theory, ear training, note identification, and more with my students. We use individual whiteboards to make sure everyone can participate! (Sanjay P, 9-12)


National Gallery of Art

This museum, located in Washington, D.C., has an entire section of its website dedicated to Art Education. It provides lessons for teachers and parents to educate their children on the history and importance of art. (Mia I, K-5;6-8;9-12)


Pinterest

I enjoy using this website because it is a great platform for art teachers. A lot of art teachers post their students' work, and it gives me visual inspiration to go off.  (Stasia B, K-5, 6-8)


Preservation Hall Foundation

This is an arm of the Preservation Hall Jazz Center in New Orleans. This site provides a treasure-trove of lesson plans and videos that can be used not only for music-centered lessons, but cross-disciplinary issues that can bring history into the music classroom, or music into the history classroom. I have found it an invaluable resource. (Scott S, 6-8)


Quaver Ed Music

This site contains multiple music slideshows that you can use to teach general music to students. They can create profiles and complete assignments. (Morgan H, K-5;6-8)


Singing Carrots

This is basically Duolingo but for singing. It's a website where a student can assess their singing level, their ability to match pitch, and their vocal range to find songs that best suit them. It's a great resource for students to practice on their own at home, in between classes. (Catrina C, 6-8)


Site Reading Factory

Sight reading is an incredibly important skill, but it can be difficult to organize and distribute enough materials on a regular basis to meaningfully and mindfully improve students' sight-reading skills. (Aoma C, 9-12)


Slide Carnival

Helpful when creating presentations that are fun for students. Plenty of themes, free and interactive. Easy to use. (Quran S, 6-8)


Tate

Lots of resources for student engagement such as applications and games, and audiovisual/ video lessons. (Epifinias S, K-5;6-8)


Teaching Expertise

Incredible asset for visual arts lesson plans geared towards middle school-age students. (Matt B, 6-8)


The Art of Education

The website "The Art of Education" has wonderful resources for art teachers. It has a range of resources from classroom management to lesson planning. The topics are described in detail with visual examples. (Pratibha R, 6-8)


The J Paul Getty Museum

Has resources for both student and teacher about architecture and provides resources and worksheets to supplement an interdisciplinary lesson plan that introduces drawing buildings. (Julianna F, 6-8)


The Learning Scientists

While not specific to MY content area per se, this site has a wealth of downloadable materials that break down strategies to implement the higher-level concepts that are often discussed regarding how children learn. You can search and review material based on their six strategies for effective learning. There is also an associated podcast and multiple other videos and resources. (Scott S, 6-8)


The National Art Education Association (NAEA)

The National Art Education Association (NAEA) is a professional membership organization exclusively for visual arts, design, and media arts education professionals. Not only do they host the annual National Convention, where art educators come together for professional development, lesson plans, interactive arts play, and access to various art materials, but they also provide art educators with the appropriate resources through webinars and opportunities for advocacy, training in equity, diversity, and inclusion, the latest research, and tools. (Chyna S, K-5)


TheatreFolk

Free resources (or additional resources for pay). Ranging from how to prepare for a scene or monologue, to scripts your students can use for class. EVEN POSTERS FOR YOUR CLASSROOM! (Kevin M, 9-12)


Twinkl

I found a few worksheets on this website that were extra practice for some of the math classes I teach. I also found a few art worksheets for art classes that I can hand out after they finish an assignment. (Stasia B, K-5;6-8)


Vic Firth

Vic Firth will break down all 40 of the essential rudiments for percussion. It gives music and step-by-step videos of each rudiment that are easy to follow along with. (Morgan H, K-5;6-8)


YouTube

YouTube has plenty of relevant and current videos made by content creators that students can relate to stay up to date with the current events and trends. (Quran S, 6-8)

This fun dance gets the students moving and getting their energy out before they start their art project. It asks them to do different dances to different colors and explains what colors you get when you mix certain colors together. (Paige B, K-5)

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