Well, we are almost four weeks into school and we have been integrating the arts into our daily curriculum as much as possible. I wanted to share one of the projects that we completed just this past week.
To complete this project we integrated social studies, reading, writing, and the visual arts all into one lesson (multiple days). In social studies, we have been studying Native Americans. I found some great leveled texts about Native Americans on TPT. I loved that they had different Lexile levels to differentiate the text and I liked that there was an article for each region. In reading, we have been working on explicit information and main idea. These articles worked really well for these skills.
I assigned each partner group a different region/tribe and they spent the first week determining the main idea of each section of their article. After they completed this, students had a set of explicit questions to answer about their region/tribe. You can purchase these questions in my TPT store.
When my students finished answering the questions/collecting research about their region/tribe, I explained to them that they would be creating an art piece that would be a "buffalo hide" to display symbols that represent their tribe. I created the "hides" by tearing some tan colored bulletin board paper. Students had to use their research to brain storm 11 symbols they would include on their hide.
I modeled some possible symbols to get their brains thinking. As soon as they started working, I knew that these were going to turn out awesome! They were so creative with their symbols. I also told my students that they had to use multiple mediums of art: colored pencils, water color paints, and construction paper.
I allowed my students to use our laptops to look up pictures if needed for some inspiration. The art portion of this project took us about two ninety minute sessions.
As students were finishing their art pieces, I explained the writing portion of this assignment. Students had to go back to their list of symbols they had brainstormed and circle five of them. Students had to write one paragraph about each symbol explaining its importance to the tribe.
I was really impressed at how well my students did with this integrated activity. Here are some photos of them working and their finished projects displayed in the hall.
I am really looking forward to all the creating we will be doing throughout the year. I have created a Donors Choose Project--Creating Artists One Paint Brush at a Time, to help us get some art materials that we need in our classroom for some upcoming projects. Check it out!
