“I’m gonna write me some music about

 Daybreak in Alabama

And I’m gonna put the purtiest songs in it

Rising out of the ground like a swamp mist

And falling out of heaven like soft dew.

 I’m gonna put some tall tall trees in it

And the scent of pine needles

And the smell of red clay after rain…”

I asked, “How would you move to these lines?  How would you show what these lines mean to you using movement?”  I primed the pump by modeling how I might move using two other lines from the poem.  It’s true: I felt self-conscious at first.  But I quickly discovered that my kids didn’t really care. In fact, they seemed to appreciate my risk-taking.

Students worked in small groups, with each group choosing two lines.  They created choreography for their chosen lines.  Imagine fourth grade boys creeping up from my carpeted classroom floor trying to mimic the mysterious swamp mist one might see in some old-timey horror movie.  They acted out their visualizations.  In doing so, they communicated their understandings of the poem. From there we reflected about our movement choices, with students articulating their thinking.

Then there’s my student-teaching example from 25 years ago.  My first graders balled their bodies up and sank to the floor. I held a giant cardboard sun.  As I rose and traveled across the “sky,” they slowly opened up their bodies, staying rooted in place, turned their bodies to follow my movement. We were studying plants in first grade.  After our simulation, they were able to explain how plants move.

Musical Muscles (It makes my heart sing every time I flex them!)

Try singing this to the tune of “It’s a Small World!”

It’s a world of solids,

a world of shapes.

It’s a world of lines,

angles of all kinds.

It’s congruency.

It’s symmetry.

It’s ge-o-o-ometry!

 I wrote this piggyback song to introduce my geometry unit in math workshop.  It actually turned into a geometry musical!  Piggyback songs are a fantastic way to introduce and cement concepts in all content areas.  It’s not as hard as it might seem.  Choose a simple melody like “The Eency Weency Spider” or “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”  Make a list of words and concepts about your topic to help you focus on your learning target.  And then, begin.   After you get the hang of it using simple ditties, try some more complex tunes.  I’ve used melodies like “The Addam’s Family” and “Rockin’ Robin.” Kids love it, and I’ve actually witnessed students singing under their breath during classroom assessments.  Here’s an example of a song for long division with a video to help with learning it. Snag it for free here:

If you play an instrument, even if you played way back in high school, consider dusting it off! Seriously.  Do it.  I’m a pianist.  I managed to finagle a beat up old piano for my classroom that was tagged for the trash in my school district.  After much pleading and cajoling, my principal acquiesced. My fourth and fifth graders and I were discussing mood in poetry and our mentor text.  I played a few examples of movie soundtracks (Harry Potter and The Invention of Hugo Cabret) for them, asking them to describe what they think was happening in the movie storyline. Then, I brought out my piano music and played four pieces of varying moods, dynamics, and tempos for them.  I asked them to match the song excerpts I played with various parts of our mentor text-novel that I’d copied for them to reread.  I sort of gave them a musical multiple choice.  The conversations exploded.

Bring your clarinet, your tuba, your bassoon, or kazoo to school, and play a couple of excerpts from your solo and ensemble days.  Or, access CDs or youtube.  I’ve also used this approach to pair music with primary documents in social studies.  We discussed Civil War photos.  It worked well with novels like The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Wonderstruck, both by Brian Selznick. Chris Van Allsburg books work splendidly, too!

Visual Arts (I got a B- in art in elementary school, and it doesn’t stop me!)

Connecting visual art to content area subjects is one of my favorite things to do with my students.  Here’s an example:  I put up two Piet Mondrian examples on the SMART Board for student viewing: “Broadway Boogie Woogie” and “Composition with Large Red Plane, Yellow, Black, Gray, and Blue.”  I showed these one at a time, and I led my students through the “See-Think-Wonder” routine from Making Thinking Visible (Ritchart, Church, & Morris).  Then, I posed the question, “I wonder how much of ‘Composition with Large Red Plane…’ is yellow?  You know, what is the fractional amount?”  I showed more examples of his art that I found online. And, we completed more “See-Think-Wonder” rounds.   I mused, “I wonder if there are any fractional color similarities between his paintings?”

Sometimes, we teachers are too self-conscious of our own abilities in the arts, and that is what holds us back from arts integration.  But I learned a secret after years of making a fool out of myself for my kids… Lean in… THEY DON’T CARE! In fact, it is more powerful for you to risk-take, fall down, succeed, and laugh off your comic attempts in front of them. In doing so you teach your students the magic of creativity. It doesn’t always work.  Often, it doesn’t work.  But what we learn by experiencing and persevering through challenges is life-changing.  Remember that the next time you dance to show intersecting and perpendicular angles.  They will.  Always.

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