PROGRAMA DE AMIGOS DEL ARTE: Art, Meet Spanish
CROSS-DIVISIONAL INTEGRATION
In 2012, a professional development opportunity took me to Granada, Spain, where a humbling two weeks of full Spanish immersion deepened my empathy and patience for what it means to be a student. On return, the middle school art teacher and I piloted our cross-divisional Programa de Amigos del Arte which fostered art and Spanish learning in first and fifth grades.
GRADE-WIDE PROJECT-BASED INTEGRATED LEARNING
CONNECTING THE DOTS: AN INTEGRATED PROJECT
How did a first grade team use 9,000 bottle caps and Peter H. Reynold's “The Dot” to inspire multi-disciplinary project-based learning?
Using a blend of collaboration, design thinking, and student-centered learning, the success of our Bottle Cap Mural Project exceeded our wildest dreams! Students combined aspects of the global read aloud, scientific research about waste and recycling, social justice issues around building and transforming landfills into parks, math skills like collecting, analyzing and graphing data, as well as exploring the properties and use of recycled materials to design a community mural. The concept and artistic statement of the mural communicated the importance of identifying problems and providing solutions in our community. Our students worked through a democratic process and affected change by generating school pride and becoming young benefactors. Watch first graders tell the story of the project here. View our interactive Prezi, complete with videos and teacher interviews to find out our secrets to authentic integrated curricular success!
GRADE-WIDE INTEGRATED LEARNING MURALS
Students concentrate on the movement of their arms during the breast stroke
A collaborative, integrated mural-making experience
Students mirror each other’s movements using hinge and ball and socket joints
Based on the third grade theme of “Movement,” this collaborative, integrated mural-making experience was inspired by the movement art of dancer, Heather Hansen. Third graders created visual records of some of the repetitive movements they experience in their daily lives in classes like Science, Swim, and Dance. Partner pieces based on the breast stroke (swim); Wall murals drawn with "plie arms" and “curvy collapse” (dance); Table-top murals based on hinge & ball and socket joints (science).
