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MoPOP is proud to support students, teachers, parents, and other home educators by providing free online educational resources that can be used in your home or remote school classroom.
Crafted by our education team, these lessons and activities will help you learn new skills using MoPOP’s content, and we’ll be updating them periodically with new resources.
Have you used one of our lessons? Be part of our story!
Email photos, student work, or videos to education@mopop.org or share them via Instagram. Just don’t forget to tag us at #MoPOPDontStop!
Online Lesson Plans
Bring MoPOP to you! Created for easy use in your home, these materials include learning objectives, activities, and projects that link museum content to student learning goals.
Crafting Communities
Suggested Grade Range: 3-8
Explore habitats and natural resources, learn about survival basics, and try your hand at bartering in this real-life, community building game.
The Hero’s Journey
Suggested Grade Range: 5-8
From Harry Potter to Wonder Woman and from Captain Marvel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, heroic stories are everywhere in pop culture! In this lesson, you'll explore Joseph Campbell's hero's journey model and learn how to recognize it in some of today's most popular films and stories.
Fantastic Creatures
Suggested Grade Range: K-8
Combine your imagination with everyday objects to create your own fantasy creatures. Transform real-world objects into fantasy creature specimens, adapt your creature to their habitat, and create a story starring your new fantasy creature.
There be Dragons: Using Images to Inspire Creative Writing
Suggested Grade Range: 5–8
“Beware…there be dragons in the gap!” Images capture single moments or represent a larger story, but how can we use them to inspire our own creative writing? Featuring artwork from MoPOP’s collection as well as contributions from professional artists such as Todd Lockwood, Andre Garcia, Miryam Lumpini, and more, students will explore images and then apply their observations to create their own characters, settings, and stories.
Can't Look Away: Horror Activity
Suggested Grade Range: 9–12
What scares us, and why? Explore the horror genre through pop culture and create your own mini horror story.
Activities and Discussion Prompts
Make MoPOP part of your day with these shorter activities and discussion prompts that explore creativity and some of our exhibits’ big ideas!
Fantastic Creatures Online Workshop
Suggested Grade Range: 1-8
Become a group of explorers, creating never-before-found species of fantasy creatures! Taking what we already know about animal biology and habitats, we will use our imagination and household items to create and become unique creatures.
Can’t Look Away Online Workshop
Suggested Grade Range: 9-12
Horror films are designed to incite fear, panic, revulsion, and dread in their audiences. These films often bring to the surface hidden fears, while also giving audience members a sense of relief from strong or repressed emotions. In Can’t Look Away, we’ll be using the horror genre to explore our own reactions to horror film through analysis of film props, sound, lighting, and design. We’ll then create our own short horror stories, using elements from the museum and your own imagination.
Story Writing Activity
Write Your Own Three-Act Story
Suggested Grade Range: 5-8
Learn how to use the three-act story structure in your own creative writing in the story activity outline. Then practice writing stories in different genres and even collaborate with your friends to write a story together using our story building templates.
Download Collaborative Template
Social Action
Create Your Own Activist Work
Suggested Grade Range: 8-12
Using Woody Guthrie’s activist philosophy as an inspiration, you are going to use your own skills and creativity to talk about an issue that is important to you.
What can Woody Guthrie’s guitar teach us about activism and how to use our own skills to spark change in the world? Watch this introductory video and then click the button to download the activity.
You can also access the articles referenced in the video using the links below.
Miniatures Video and Activity
Tiny Spaceships
Suggested Grade Range: 6–9
Using math and practical effect techniques, learn how to make your own movie magic with our Tiny Spaceships video and activity! Start by watching the introductory video and then click the button to download the activity. With simple materials and a few filming tricks, we’ll help you discover your own special effects!
Moving Minds Dance Activity
Connecting Music & Dance
This special partnership class with Moving Minds Dance and The Music Factory celebrates the discoveries you can make at MoPOP. Bring dance and the museum to your home! Packed with exciting features, from live accompaniment for our entire class to an air guitar lesson, this is an at-home dance class for the memory books. We can't wait to dance with you!
Costume Design Activity
Hero and Villain Costume Design Activity
Suggested Grade Range: Pre-K - 3
MoPOP’s exhibit Heroes and Villains: The Art of the Disney Costume showcases how costume design is an integral part of storytelling. In this activity, families can practice making their very own hero and villain costumes from all kinds of different materials right at home. You will use your imagination and creativity to design your original take on hero and villain costumes!
Heroes and Villain Costume Design Activity - Royalty
Heroes and Villain Costume Design Activity - Magic Users
Teaching Tools
MoPOP’s Teacher Professional Development features workshops, tours, curriculum development, and networking opportunities. During this time, we’re focusing on ways we can provide resources for teachers and parents.
Educator Membership
All standard membership benefits...
PLUS!
- Discounted fees for in-museum programs
- Free access to Professional Development workshops
Questions? EducatorMembership@MoPOP.org
Educator Newsletter
MoPOP offers a variety of resources for educators, including lesson plans, oral history interviews, and professional development workshops and events.
Be the first to hear about all education events at MoPOP by subscribing to our email list for educators.
Thanks to our education and outreach sponsors:
and the D. V. & Ida McEachern Charitable Trust