arts integration |

Musical Story Time – An Arts Integration Unit

Combine disciplines with this fun and engaging arts-integrated unit. We take four classic children’s books, and read them aloud, then add in a musical concept and re-read the stories integrating our new musical skills. Whether you’re trying to incorporate music into your story time or stories into your music time, these will interest and involve…

2021 Arts Education Conference: Rest & Renew

Ingenuity and Chicago Public Schools co-hosted the annual arts conference on Friday, April 16th. This year’s conference had a unique theme; Rest& Renew. Featuring a variety of calming, centering, and energizing creative experiences, the 2021 Arts Education Conference: Rest and Renew is designed to provide arts teachers and partners space to reconnect with one another,…

Is Rap the “Poetry of a Generation”?

Dr. Marcyliena Morgan from Harvard’s Hip Hop Archive call raps the “poetry of a generation,” but many would disagree. What are the similarities between rap and poetry and in what ways are they different? We explore this question with this week-long thematic unit that looks at lyrics from modern poets, like Amanda Gorman, and rapper…

Kandinsky & the Color of Music

Blend artistic disciplines with these fun and engaging ideas around music, art, and sound. Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as the pioneer of abstract art. He also experienced a rare neurological phenomenaa where he could see music and hear color. Explore that strange and wonderful universe…

Snow Sounds: A Musical Story Unit

Is it story time? Music time? Why not both! During this fun and engaging seasonal unit, students will enjoy listening to and creating their own winter sounds. With fun activities such as: a Winter Bingo listening game, a read-aloud picture book, and a DIY create your sounds project! An interdisciplinary unit that allows students to…

Presenting at the LEAP: InnovatED Summit today!

Learn how to incorporate music & the arts to create multi-layered immersive lessons that will both challenge and engage your learners. Using research-backed methods we will look at examples in multiple subjects, discuss practical application, and brainstorm ways to apply these in your own classroom.

Sound Waves for Kids: a STEAM Lesson

Combine science & music as you explore the amazing world of sound. Combing NGSS Science and NAfME music standards, here are some engaging activities that will cover sounds, vibrations, and pitch. Using a variety discovery experiences students will gain a better understanding of the relationships between vibration and sound, as well as size and pitch. …

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

As spring approaches (supposedly) I like to incorporate the changing of the seasons into my music lessons. Young learners are fascinated by nature and science, and one of the most fascinating things is, in my opinion, the caterpillar’s metamorphosis. Using the 1969 Eric Carle classic, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, we explore the science behind these…

A&GC: Week 3 – Colombia

Part blog post, part field notes. This post is part of a series of reflections on a 10-week elective I’m both teaching and conducting active research on. Entitled” The Arts as a Path to Global Citizenship” our goal is to explore our roles as global citizens using the arts to approach complicated and difficult topics, such…