60 Performing and Visual Arts Educational Resources

The arts play a transformative role in children’s development, nurturing creativity, academic success, social skills, and emotional well-being. That’s why the role of arts educators is so essential. From theater, dance and music to painting, drawing and sculpture, art teachers inspire well-rounded students, turning every lesson into an opportunity for artistic growth and engagement. 

To help support these educators with more resource options, performing and visual arts teachers at Rutgers Alternate Route have contributed a list they use to bring character to their art classrooms. Whether you’re looking to build technical skills, encourage creative exploration, or promote meaningful collaboration, there’s a resource for you. By weaving these trusted tools into your teaching practice, you’ll be able to create more vibrant, dynamic, and inspiring learning experiences for your art students.

Art Educators of New Jersey 
There are many local resources and teacher voices from NJ. Standards and teaching toolkits are available and there are also opportunities for students to compete and show their work. (Jennifer S. 6-8; 9-12)

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)

Art Room Management- Katie Jarvis 
Art teacher Katie Jarvis posts videos about all aspects of art class. (Wenjing F. K-5)

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)

Better Lesson 
Offers a wide range of instructional strategies, professional development resources, and coaching to support educators’ growth and classroom effectiveness. (Maggie W. 9-12)

Blick Art Materials 
The site has teacher resources, including specific supply information for each lesson. (Heidi W. 6-8)

Blooket
Blooket is a web-based educational platform aimed at making learning fun and interactive with game-focused activities. It enables educators and learners to design and engage in a range of quiz games that can be tailored to various subjects and themes. My students particularly enjoy playing Gold Hunt and Crypto Hack. (Dragana C. 9-12) 

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)

Chrome Music Lab Song Maker 
Students can create melody and rhythm using a colorful grid to connect visuals with audio. (Carlensha G. K-5)

Classroom Screen 
This website is free and allows you to create a webpage with customized widgets. There are timers, randomizers, volume sensors, clocks, and so much more! I customize mine to fit the needs of my class and it is a great classroom management strategy. (Cassidy C. 9-12)

DeepL
DeepL is a translator website similar to Google Translate. Nevertheless, what I love about this site and how it is a beneficial resource for my content is because I have many ELL students and in my theater class, other than using the app to communicate, the site also has amenities where you can translate documents, PDF’s and PowerPoint presentations into the language that the student speaks in. Oftentimes, we read plays in class, and I really want the students who speak their native language to have the opportunity to follow along as well. This gives them an advantage to have the English and translated version on hand.  Additionally, unlike Google Translate, DeepL shows you different translations of the same language.  As it is often known that the Spanish language is spoken in many different formats. This gives students the opportunity to experience that and better understand.  (Dale H. 9-12;6-8) 

Deep Space Sparkle 
Deep Space Sparkle offers art lesson plans and teaching resources that will help you teach art to kids. (Heidi W. 6-8)

Drama Notebook 
Drama Notebook is a great site for middle school and some high school theater classes because it has monologues written by other students that are available and free for students to use in the classroom. They are often relatable monologues to students because they are written by students who discuss the topics and have themes of real-life experiences that most students go through. Thus, when we are in our monologue units, especially for my middle schoolers, I allow them to look through the extensive list of monologues, select their own and before truly memorizing or performing them, they paraphrase the words and analyze it. (Dale H. 9-12, 6-8)

Diffit
This is the 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)

Educational Theatre Association
The Educational Theatre Association is primarily the organization overseeing the Thespian Honor Society. I visit their forum section on a daily basis for activity ideas and advice from veteran theater educators. (Jordan C. 6-8)

Groove Pizza 
Students are able to create beats to accompany raps or other musical endeavors. (Carlensha G. K-5)

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)

Illinois Library
Differentiation in art education: Exploring two art teachers' responsive pedagogy in an elementary school in Taiwan. Discusses specific ways that differentiation can be integrated into elementary art classes (Bri H. K-5)

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)

Microsoft CoPilot 
Microsoft CoPilot is a great tool to utilize AI in the classroom in a controlled manner. It is free with a Microsoft account. This AI tool can generate photos based on any description you give (and will block any inappropriate terms as well). In my class, we used this for students to generate a photo/artwork of their choice and use it as inspiration to create a dance. The kids loved it! (Cassidy C. 9-12)

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

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

Music Workshop 
Similar to PBS, this platform offers comprehensive teaching resources, but its materials are more in-depth and better suited for older students. (George M. 6-8; K-5)

Musicwill.org 
These sites are equipped with various age-appropriate activities to keep the students engaged in the content. (Amiah E. 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)

MusicTheory.net 
This website is perfect for my instrumental students. We visit the exercise section of the website pretty often to brush up on our note reading, key signature identification, and work on various fundamentals on the smartboard during lessons. (Matthew P. 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)

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)

Nearpod
Nearpod is a dynamic and interactive educational platform aimed at improving classroom experiences with captivating presentations and activities. My students truly appreciate using Nearpod for their learning. Additionally, I have observed that it helps students concentrate better and reduces interruptions. (Dragana C. 9-12)

Our Planet | One Planet | FULL EPISODE | Netflix
Elementary school students are excited with the movies and science tailored for their age. So I try to incorporate movie art and science into my art classes. Even a bit of some scientific knowledge and part of a movie will engage them much more than just letting them do art.  For instance, I showed my 4th graders part of a Nexflix documentary “Our Planet”, which is about how global warming has killed 50% of coral reefs worldwide, and I advocated for students to draw a poster to increase public awareness. Students showed great passion in these projects. (Wenjing F. K-5)

Philadelphia Museum of Art
Great lesson plans that tie art instruction to other core subjects. (Cynthia C. K-5; 6-8)

PlayXylo
PlayXylo is another super fun hands-on tool that makes playing an instrument extremely accessible. Even if you don't have access to a physical xylophone for your classroom, you can demonstrate high and low pitches as well as pitch movement. To take a second to make the lesson even more inviting, you can even play a few seconds of melodies from popular songs to create excitement around the lesson you're about to teach! (Daniel A. K-5)

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)

Scholastic Art 
This site includes issues, lesson plans, games, and a large collection of diverse reflection materials.  (Jacqueline R. 6-8;K-5)

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)

Sight 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)

Smithsonian American Art Museum
There are useful tools and lessons for integrating art into any classroom, not just the visual arts classroom.  (Jennifer S. 6-8;9-12)

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 students and teachers about architecture and provides resources and worksheets to supplement an interdisciplinary lesson plan that introduces drawing buildings. (Julianna F. 6-8)

The Kennedy Center: Arts Integration and Differentiated Instruction
Discusses how the integration of art in non-art classes can be an effective method of differentiated instruction (Bri H. K-5)

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 Rhythm Trainer 
The Rhythm Trainer is an excellent way to differentiate your lesson by encouraging students to interact with it in groups and independently. It is an excellent hands-on tool that makes learning feel like a fun group game. (Daniel A. K-5)

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
Theatre Folk has a wealth of lesson plans, scripts, curriculum, and other resources for theatre teachers! It has been endlessly useful for me just starting out. There are also many resources/lesson plans about teaching plays, so ELA teachers could also find portions of this resource useful. (Jordan C. 6-8)

The Arty Teacher 
The site is an archive of multiple sites and links to various other resources. (Jacqueline R. 6-8; K-5)

Timeline of African American Music by Carnegie Hall 
This website focuses on a lot of useful information in American music. (Mili G. 6-8; K-5)

Trinity College London 
This site has many drama games that can be played with students at all levels. Not only that, it has categories for icebreaker games that can be used for any type of classroom. (Emily N. 6-8; 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 current events and trends. (Quran S. 6-8)

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