Create a TV Commercial: A Review Lesson for Any Subject

One of my favorite lessons I do is having my students work in groups to create TV commercials inspired by works. Check it out below. It never fails to be a fun time in the classroom! 🙂

Lesson Summary: Students work together in groups to create a TV commercial that in some way illustrates the concepts learned about art covered in previous lessons.

Grade Level: I’ve done this lesson for high school and for college with good results. I think you could easily adapt this for early grades as well with some extra work with the kids.

Topic: This will work with many different topics. It doesn’t even have to be art really. I’ve done it several times after studying several ancient art periods/cultures (prehistoric, Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, etc) as a culminating review. I’ve also done it after a non-Western art wrap-up (Chinese, Japanese, African, Oceanic, etc.). This is a great lesson for a flipped classroom, so after you have the students read their textbooks (or whatever), you can have them do this activity.

Lesson Procedure

1. In a class discussion, brainstorm what are elements of TV commercials that make them effective. Make a list on the board so students can reference it once they get into their groups.

2. Divide students into groups and either assign them an art movement, period, or culture or let them choose from several choices. There is a handout available for this activity in The Art Class Curator Curated Connections Library. Find out how to subscribe here!

3. First, the students should figure out what their product/service is or what they will be trying to sell in their commercial. Some of my favorite products created by my past students are Queen Nefertiti makeup, Venus of Willendorf fertility services, and an Ancient Egyptian funeral parlor! (SO. GOOD.)

4. Once they have their business or product, have students make an outline and/or script of their commercial. What happens in the commercial? What happens first, next, last, etc? What are the commercial’s slogans or jingles, etc.?

5. Have groups present their work to the class. They can just describe it, sing a jingle, or even act it out. Of course, the last one is highly preferred, but I don’t want to freak the students out too much so I give them the choice. 🙂

There is a handout available for this activity in The Curated Connections Library. Learn more about how to join!

There you go! Try it out! It’s a ton of fun.

 Photo Credits:

• Mummy – Joshua Sherucij
• Nefertiti – Philip Pikart
• Venus of Willendorf – Matthias Kabel