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The Arts In Every Classroom: A Video Library K-5

Students Create a Multi-Arts Performance Activities and Discussion

A kindergartner explains the costume he created to be a “Fantastical Creature” in an original performance piece at Lusher Alternative Elementary School in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Suggested Activities and Discussion

Consider these questions for reflection:

  • How would you create a multi-arts, multigrade performance as a culminating event for a unit of study in your curriculum?
  • What grades would you combine? Why?
  • With which classroom teachers, specialists, local artists, or other resource people would you collaborate?
  • What subject matter would you cover? Why?
  • What standards would you address?
  • What questions would you want students to ask and be able to answer as they create a multi-arts performance?

Improving Practice
Here are some additional ways you can build on the ideas in this program in a variety of school and community settings:

Professional Development for Teachers

  • Present a discussion about collaborations with classroom and specialist teachers.
  • Present a workshop on basic performing practice and technique, costume-building, or stagecraft.
  • Investigate using questioning techniques, such as those used in this program, to develop characters and plot lines.
  • Attend a performance as a group. Identify the concepts addressed by the performance and how these could be related to subjects such as English and math.

Curriculum-Planning Sessions

  • Inventory the skills and resources needed to create a multi-arts piece. Which of these are available at your school? Where would you locate the others?
  • Identify topics for a multi-arts piece for your school. How could you use this piece to enhance learning in your current curriculum? How could you use the performance to expand or enrich what you are now teaching?
  • Set learning objectives for a multi-arts piece and identify what standards you will apply. What assessment tools will you use to determine that these standards have been met?

Community Outreach

  • Invite parents or administrators to see students perform. Identify the learning goals and standards used and show how these have been met.
  • Present reflections by students on how their multi-arts work has enhanced their learning.

Programs