KWAG in Focus Learning Resources

With schooling now taking place in homes all across the province during the COVID-19 pandemic, KWAG has responded to the many calls we've received from teachers and parents alike to prepare accessible lessons you can download and print for use both in the classroom and at home. 

Our Public Programs team have designed these easy-to-follow lesson plans and art activities in conversation with recent exhibitions and works in our Permanent Collection to promote visual literacy and encourage students to use their own imaginations to tell stories and make art inspired by historical and contemporary artists from across Canada. Read on to learn more about KWAG in Focus lesson plans available as downloadable PDF documents, and be sure to share your homework with us on social media using #KWAGinFocus!

Bring our learning resources to life with a virtual visit from a KWAG educator

Book a thirty-minute virtual art interpretation and introduce your students to a local artist’s work. Follow the visit with our KWAG in Focus activity sheets and art-making projects inspired by the artwork.

Thirty-minute art interpretations are available for both remote and in-school classes to go in-depth with four of our KWAG in Focus artworks: Deanna Bowen's 1911 Anti Creek-Negro Petition, Ralph Conner's Village Street, Amanda Rhodenizer's Casual Frontier and Monica Tap's Road to Lily Dale I. Our virtual visits are adaptable for grades K-12.

Contact Monique at schools@kwag.on.ca for more information and booking.

Download more information about our KWAG in Focus Virtual Visits program (PDF)

Deanna Bowen: "1911 Anti Creek-Negro Petition" from Immigration of Negroes from the United States to Western Canada 1910-1911 (Intermediate)

A foundational artwork in Deanna Bowen's exhibition, Black Drones in the Hive, this installation of an archival 1911 petition circulated by white settlers in Edmonton opposing the immigration of Black settlers from the United States provides compelling evidence of racism in Canada. In this lesson plan, students are encouraged to reflect on the social impacts of this document and its use of language to define Canadian identity.

Download Deanna Bowen lesson plan for Intermediate (Grades 7-12)

Ralph Conner: Village Street (Primary/Junior/Intermediate)

A founding member of what would become the Kitchener-Waterloo Society of Artists, Ralph Conner painted many scenes inspired by his local surroundings, including Village Street (1951), a watercolour and charcoal drawing from our Permanent Collection. These lesson plans encourage learners of all ages to read visual cues within a painting and discover how warm and cool tones impact our reading of an artwork by creating their own dual-toned drawings based on their own homes.

Download Ralph Conner lesson plan for Primary (Grades 1-3)

Download Ralph Conner lesson plan for Junior (Grades 4-6)

Download Ralph Conner lesson plan for Intermediate (Grade 7-12)

Mike MacDonald: Planting one Another (Primary/Junior/Intermediate)

Our re-planting of Mike MacDonald's butterfly and medicine garden in partnership with the Woodland Cultural Centre sustains the late Mi'kmaq artist's work of cultivating these native plants in gardens from Vancouver to Halifax. These lesson plans encourage students to look more closely at the medicinal plants in Planting one Another, consider ways to promote biodiversity in their own communities, and includes instructions for creating a home for bees using common household items.

Download Mike MacDonald lesson plan for Primary (Grades 1-3)

Download Mike MacDonald lesson plan for Junior (Grades 4-6)

Download Mike MacDonald lesson plan for Intermediate (Grades 7-12)

Amanda Rhodenizer: Casual Frontier (Primary/Junior/Intermediate)

Waterloo-based painter Amanda Rhodenizer explores the visual tensions between indoor and outdoor spaces in her work, as shown in Casual Frontier, a painting that was acquired for KWAG's Permanent Collection following its debut in our 2018 exhibition, The Brain is wider than the Sky. These lesson plans encourage students to look closely for suggested narratives in this scene, and include instructions for making collaged drawings based on rooms found in their own homes.

Download Amanda Rhodenizer lesson plan for Primary (Grades 1-3)

Download Amanda Rhodenizer lesson plan for Junior (Grades 4-6)

Download Amanda Rhodenizer lesson plan for Intermediate (Grades 7-12)

Monica Tap: Road to Lily Dale I (Primary/Junior/Intermediate)

Learn how art can allow us to see movement and change in our local environments while making your own landscape paintings in the style of Monica Tap's Road to Lily Dale I, a work from our Permanent Collection inspired by Homer Watson's pilgrimage along the path of the Grand River. Lesson plans are available for students in Grades 1-12 and include additional resources for expanded learning about this notable Canadian landscape painter. 

Download Monica Tap lesson plan for Primary (Grades 1-3)

Download Monica Tap lesson plan for Junior (Grades 4-6)

Download Monica Tap lesson plan for Intermediate (Grades 7-12)

Aislinn Thomas: A piece of cloth, held taut (Intermediate/Grades 7-12)

Kitchener artist Aislinn Thomas worked with community volunteers to create experimental forms of visual description for works of abstract art found in The Myth of Consensus. This lesson introduces Thomas' process and guidance for students to create their own spoken-word descriptions based on abstract paintings by Jack Bechtel. 

Download Aislinn Thomas' lesson plan in PDF format.

Don't forget to share your creations with us on social media using #KWAGinFocus!