Traditionally, arts integration takes place as a teaching collaboration between classroom and arts educators. Collaborative planning time is provided and lessons are "partner" taught, with teachers making connections between academic content and the arts disciplines. As the performing arts program is new to the school, music and dance are taught as a weekly special class (without the classroom teacher present). Despite this limitation, I was able to meet with the 2nd, 4th, and 5th grade teachers to begin a modest level of collaboration, without the "integration" class time.
In one of our 4/5 labs, students studied native and invasive species of Sausal Creek, a major part of our local watershed. We first studied the ways in which native plants moved and used the collected vocabulary to inspire movement creation. Students wrote cinquain poems and composed short dances to accompany them. Students also looked at change and power dynamics as a part of our unit on exploring weight, making connections between types of species and how they experienced invasion.
In second grade, students studied the life cycles of plants and insects. For performing arts integration, students learned two poems by Carol Gerber: "Seedlings," a poem about germinating seeds; and "New Baby," a poem about a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. Our lessons began by reading the poem and identifying movement vocabulary that could guide creative exploration. We then looked at percussion instruments to investigate which sounds best matched the story and movements. Finally, students learned microphone technique and some elected to memorize and audition for the role of "poet" in our performance. See the final product in the video below:
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