Materials needed Index cards Whiteboard and several different colored dry erase markers Description Pass out one index card to each student. Instruct the students to draw, without using representations of people (including stick figures, faces, and the like), a creative representation of a good friendship. Have the students then discuss their drawings in small … On Friendship
Lesson plan that explores the philosophy of art and music using 4’33” by John Cage. Students explore the question “What is music?”
Materials: A blackboard or whiteboard to draw on, blank pieces of paper for students to draw on, crayons or colored pencils if possible. Description: Frame this exercise by making the point that there are two key skills we want to develop when we do philosophy. These are, first, the ability to communicate clearly and second, … The Painter and Their Eyes Activity
Have each student draw two pictures. One drawing must be a drawing they would call art, and the other one they would not call art. Ask the students who want to do so to share their drawings. Some questions you can consider include: What makes one art and the other not? Does the intention of … What is Art?
We all love music. Some of us sing daily, if just to ourselves. It could be our favorite tune from Frozen or simply a tune we made up ourselves. What makes sound music? Let’s start with ourselves. The teacher/facilitator may wish to share this video and have the children sing along or they may choose … Can animals make music?
The Gaze: Power and Resistance in Film Read “The Oppositional Gaze” for homework the day before class. It’s fairly long and challenging. Watch the 19 minute film. This material explores the way what Sartre calls “The Gaze” operates in films, how the perspective of the camera and of the implied audience affect the meaning. This … The Gaze: Power and Resistance in Flim
In 2007 an independent film came out entitled “My Kid could paint that.” It followed the art career of a four year old, Marla Olmstead, living in Binghamton, NY who took the art world by storm. Many of her canvases sold for 5 figures and presented beautiful and engaging abstract images. The film began as … Can anyone make art?
Beauty: In the eye of the beholder or is there something more to it? This unit invites high school students to explore the meaning of “beauty”. Source Materials: Plato’s Symposium (available in many editions) Crispin Sartwell’s Six Names of Beauty (Routledge, 2004) Puzzles About Art-an Aesthetics Casebook, by Battin, Fisher, Moore, and Silvers (Bedford/St. Martin’s, … Beauty–thinking about
This is a photo of leaves on rocks. One can look at the content, nature, or the photographic composition, artifice. The leaves and the rocks: The veins run through the dominant maple leaf, staining it deep green. They betray both its strength and fragility. The rocks offer a range of textures, shapes, commentary on the … Aesthetics is for the Birds
PLATO is part of a global UNESCO network that encourages children to participate in philosophical inquiry. As a partner in the UNESCO Chair on the Practice of Philosophy with Children, based at the Université de Nantes in France, PLATO is connected to other educational leaders around the world.
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