These lesson plans were designed to be used in our local co-op classes which ran a total of six weeks but you can adjust them to suit the needs of your own family or group. 

Materials needed:
Butcher paper (comes in a roll)
Magic Markers or Crayons
Discovering Great Artists 

I've placed a link to the book for you at 30% off. 
This is for your convenience only. 
I make no profit from the sale of this book.

For starters, decide upon which artists that you would like to study and place upon the timeline.  Here are the artists that I chose beginning with the last name, the year or era and page number where each of them are listed.
 

1). Giotto                      1200     pg. 12        7). Rodin            1800     pg. 50 2). Van Eyck                1300     pg. 15        8). Seurat                        pg. 54 3). Da Vinci                  1400     pg. 19        9). Russel          1860     pg. 56 4). El Greco                 1500     pg. 26        10).Kandinsky                pg. 60 5). Rembrandt             1600     pg. 28       11). Stella            1875    pg. 64 6). Gainesborough     1700     pg. 31      12). Rockwell     1900     pg. 85

In order to preserve class time, it's best to make some preparations before hand.  Measure and cut the timelines to approx. 7 feet.  With a yard stick or something straight-edged, draw a running line across the top of the timeline then create 12 equal sections.  Place a dot above each of the boxes to indicate a time period.  If you are using the artists listed in the box above, the years are listed for you. 

If you chose your own, be sure to select the artists in keeping with the progression of time so that the children will better comprehend and grasp the passage of time and when these artists lived throughout the ages.  These studies will greatly enhance historical units also. 
 
 

(Sample of timeline. The actual size is approximately  1' by 7')

 
The Great Artists book contains a black & white sketch of each artist.  The children can either draw of picture of each one or you can scan and make several copies of the sketch. 

I created an artist fact sheet from information found in the book for each of the artists that we studied including the picture and made enough copies for each student.  We spent the first half of the class discussing the artists style, technique, when and where they lived and shared pictures of their work to view if they were available.

We spent the second portion of the class doing the project assigned to each of the artists.  You will find these projects on the same pages listed above.  Each project is designed to help the child understand the style and techniques used by each artist.
 
 

Project Samples

         
A triptych from the study of Van Eych.            A bird created out of real clay
                                                                    from the study of Rodin
                                                                     (Note- This clay is readily found in craft stores)

If you decide to obtain butcher paper you will have plenty of leftovers.  I decided to create individual holders to display most of the projects.  In the picture below are 4 more project samples.  We chose six projects of the twelve as some of them took more time to complete. Again, it's up to you.