Need help planning a Mary Cassatt unit study for your homeschool? Good news: today I’m sharing my favorite resources for learning all about the life and art of this incredible master artist.
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I loved studying Mary Cassatt with my kids for a couple of reasons. First of all, we’re suckers for impressionists around here. Secondly, Cassatt was the first woman we’ve studied since my daughter started sitting in on our artist studies.
That’s why I’m super excited to show you how we’ve studied Mary Cassatt in our homeschool recently and what we used in the past. Let’s take a look:
Mary Cassatt Unit Study Resources
Our starting point for our Mary Cassatt unit study was Mixing with the Masters from Masterpiece Society. Through these lessons, we learned about Cassatt’s background, techniques, and impact on the world of art. Better yet, my kiddos also had a chance to recreate a few famous Cassatt pieces.
They always love these step-by-step lessons from Ms. Alisha’s Masterpiece Society workshops, but the Mary Cassatt lessons were especially fun.
My youngest loved creating her own version of Sara Holding a Cat, while my oldest enjoyed the chalk pastel and gray scale projects.
In addition to our Mixing with the Masters lessons, my kiddos also worked through the Mary Cassatt unit in Masterpiece Society’s Art Appreciation course. This unit includes biographical information, fun facts, notebooking pages, coloring sheets, and more and made it so easy to round out our Mary Cassatt study.
More on Mary Cassatt
Long before I found Masterpiece Society, I pieced together my own Mary Cassatt study for our local homeschool co-op. Here are the resources I found most helpful at that time.
What to Read
When it comes to reading selections, there’s no shortage of great options for learning about Mary Cassatt. Here are a couple to consider:
- Making Art Fun’s Mary Cassatt biography – This includes a kid-friendly biography, word search, and job interview-style notebooking page.
- National Gallery of Art’s Mary Cassatt profile – This site has a brief biographical overview and includes a slideshow of selected works from Cassatt.
As for books, my favorites featuring Mary Cassatt are Mary Cassatt: Extraordinary Impressionist Painter, Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists: Mary Cassatt, and Baby Loves, but I’ve got several more suggestions for you in my Mary Cassatt book list.
What to Watch
Want to include some viewing selections in your Mary Cassatt unit study? Here are some good ones to consider:
- Mary Cassatt for Kids – This short video provides a good overview on Cassatt and is appropriate for kids of all ages.
- Masterworks Season 20, Episode 1 – Probably best for older kids and teens, this 10 minute episode analyzes The Bath, one of Cassatt’s well-known pieces.
- Degas/Cassatt at the National Gallery of Art – This is a great short video about the friendship between these impressionists and the stylistic similarities and differences between them.
- Art History Video about Mary Cassatt – This one is another short biographical video, but the slideshow format highlights Cassatt’s paintings nicely.
More Mary Cassatt Unit Study Ideas
You may also want to consider some of the following ideas to go along with your Mary Cassatt study:
- Mary Cassatt papier mâché project from Harrington Harmonies and Hip Homeschool Moms
- Mary Cassatt notebooking page from Jimmie’s Collage (Follow the instructions there to get to the download.)
- Mary Cassatt project ideas from Happy Homeschool Nest
- Lesson on L’Enfant from PBS Learning Media (You can access this with your free educator account)
- Mary Cassatt lapbook from In the Hands of a Child
Looking for more unit study resources for the master artists? You’ll want to check out these unit study posts:
Lastly, you can also check out my Ultimate Guide to Homeschool Artist Study for more ideas! :)