PAIR

Professional Arts Integration Resource

 

1st Grade

1st Grade: Weather, Paper Chase

Brewer Elementary

Edenfield/Davis – Austin Sargent

Learning Objective/Exit Outcomes: 

  • Students will be able to brainstorm different kinds of precipitation and cloud formations. 
  • Students will be able to discuss with their peers and plan designs for three dimensional sculptures.
  • Students will be able to create a three dimensional sculpture that embodies movement. 
  • Students will be able to explain their artistic choices as they relate to the science of storms and cloud formation.

Integration Area/Subject:

Science & Visual Art

State Standards:

S1E1. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate weather data to identify weather patterns.

  1. Represent data in tables and/or graphs to identify and describe different types of weather and the characteristics of each type.
  2. Ask questions to identify forms of precipitation such as rain, snow, sleet, and hailstones as either solid (ice) or liquid (water).

VA1.CR.2 Create works of art based on selected themes.

  1. Create works of art emphasizing one or more elements of art and/or principles of design.
  2. Create works of art that attempt to fill the space in an art composition.

VA1.CR.4 Understand and apply media, techniques, and processes of three-dimensional art.

  1. Create sculpture using a variety of media and techniques.
  2. Create three-dimensional composition using traditional and/or contemporary craft materials and methods (e.g. paper sculpture, found object assemblage, jewelry).

Materials/Playing Space: 

  • Many strips of white paper
  • A half sheet construction paper per student
  • Gluesticks

Description: 

The activity began with students brainstorming about the different kinds of storms and weather that they have experienced. Most students could connect to rain and wind, and a few students had even seen snow. 

PAIR Specialist then introduced the visual art element by showing them a white strip of paper. The PAIR Specialist talked about the artistic principle of Movement, and showed students all the different ways paper could “move” to communicate ideas. Students were then given a piece to experiment with themselves–knowing that the only rule was to not rip or tear the paper. Students practiced making shapes with their strips of paper. 

The PAIR Specialist then introduced the concept of building a storm cloud out of strips of paper. The PAIR Specialist explained that these should be 3D shapes, and that students shouldn’t glue the paper flat to the construction paper matting. Students were imagining what they weather clouds might look like and how they could build them with a paper sculpture. 

The three things students were expected to know was; what kind of weather they were representing, where they noticed movement in their sculpture, and how the movement of their sculpture showed what kind of storm they were imagining. 

Students were given 7-10 minutes to finish their sculpture. The teacher and PAIR Specialist walked around to students that were finishing quickly and asking them critical thinking questions. Instead of students answering verbally, they would answer by adjusting their sculpture in one way or another. 

Notes:

Before you do this activity, brush up on the “Paper Chase” sculpture series by Alice Aycock. You could also use these images as a jumping off point, and have students attribute different weather to different sculptures– how a tornado sculpture looks different from a rainstorm sculpture. 

The big focus word for this activity is ‘Movement!’ You could take this activity further by physicalizing the movement qualities of each weather, or grouping students together to work together to represent the weather.

1st Grade: Seasons, Machine

Brewer Elementary

Hardaway/Brown/Mills – Austin Sargent

Learning Objective/Exit Outcomes: 

  • Students will be able to devise their own movement sequence relating to seasons. 
  • Students will be able to identify changes from one season to another. 
  • Students will work in collaborative teams. 
  • Students will be able to correct mistakes in the seasonal cycle. 

Integration Area/Subject:

Science & Dance

State Standards:

S1E1. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate weather data to identify weather patterns.

  1. Analyze data to identify seasonal patterns of change.

(Clarification statement: Examples could include temperature, rainfall/snowfall, and changes to the environment.)

ESD1.CR.1 Demonstrate an understanding of the choreographic process.

  1. Collaborate with others to create and perform movement phrases.
  2. Explore basic partnering skills through guided instruction (e.g. copy, lead, mirror, follow).
  3. Create shapes and levels through movement.
  4. Identify and create a dance sequence with a beginning, middle, and end.
  5. Explore dance elements through improvisation and play (e.g. body, space, time, energy).

ESD1.PR.2 Understand and model dance etiquette as a classroom participant, performer, and observer.

  1. Demonstrate attentiveness, full participation, and cooperation with others in the dance learning environment.
  2. Demonstrate focus and concentration in performance skills.
  3. Apply knowledge of appropriate behaviors and skills as an observer and performer.

Materials/Playing Space: 

Open space at front of classroom

Description: 

This activity began with an intro of what a Machine is: a Machine has 1) a movement and 2) a sound. Students were led to brainstorm about machines that they knew already (washing machine, vending machine, etc.) One of these examples was used to create a class example, while highlighting that machines use SEQUENCE and ORDER. To create this machine, each student had their own movement and sound as an individual part of the machine.

After students were introduced to the activity, PAIR Specialist told students they would be building a “Seasons Machine” and asked students to demonstrate with their bodies what it’s like in Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Teacher and PAIR Specialist helped students identify changes (leaves/no leaves, hot/cold) as the seasons cycled on. 

Then we started to build a machine using volunteers. One student would be chosen as Spring, and they would demonstrate a sound and a motion indicative of Spring. Then Summer was added. Fall. And then Winter. Students that were not selected to volunteer were asked to support the sounds and motions as the volunteers moved through the sequence. 

As students were understanding the concept, the PAIR Specialist would “mix up” the order of the seasons and ask a volunteer to reorder them correctly.

Notes:

Although this was a 2nd grade class, identifying seasons is a 1st grade standard. Therefore, a corresponding 1st grade Fine Arts Standard was used. 

Make sure to keep class involvement! Students that are not selected to volunteer may want to give up and become distracting. Reinforce PBIS strategies when selecting volunteers.

1st Grade: Punctuation, Three-Headed Expert

Brewer Elementary

Hill/Rowe/Waters – Addie Newcomer

Learning Objective/Exit Outcomes: 

  • Students will be able to participate collaboratively with their classmates.
  • Students will be able to tell a silly story. 
  • Students will be able to insert proper punctuation into the story, including capitalization, full sentences, and proper tense.
  • Students will be able to think on their feet and be flexible with shifting their point of view to support the team.

Integration Area/Subject:

ELA & Theatre

State Standards:

ELAGSE1L1 Demonstrates command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

  1. Print all upper- and lowercase letters.
  2. Use common, proper, and possessive nouns.
  3. Use singular and plural nouns with matching verbs in basic sentences (e.g., He hops; We hop).
  4. Use personal, possessive, and indefinite pronouns (e.g., I, me, my; they, them, their, anyone, everything).
  5. Use verbs to convey a sense of past, present, and future (e.g., Yesterday I walked home; Today I walk home; Tomorrow I will walk home).
  6. Use frequently occurring adjectives.
  7. Use frequently occurring conjunctions (e.g., and, but, or, so, because).
  8. Use determiners (e.g., articles, demonstratives).
  9. Use frequently occurring prepositions (e.g., during, beyond, toward).
  10. Produce and expand complete simple and compound sentences in response to questions and prompts (declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory).
  11. Print with appropriate spacing between words and sentences.

ELAGSE1L2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

  1. Capitalize dates and names of people.
  2. Use end punctuation for sentences.
  3. Use commas in dates and to separate single words in a series.
  4. Use conventional spelling for words with common spelling patterns and for frequently occurring irregular words.
  5. Spell untaught words phonetically, drawing on phonemic awareness and spelling conventions.

TA1.CR.1 Organize, design, and refine theatrical work.

  1. Use imagination to create, revise, and/or add to ideas.
  2. Demonstrate skills of the mind (e.g. imagination, focus, concentration).
  3. Follow directions and contribute to planning in theatre experiences.
  4. Listen to others with respect and courtesy in an ensemble.

Materials/Playing Space: 

Open space at the front of the classroom

Description: 

The teacher picked four volunteers to come up to the front of the class while their classmates sat on the carpet to be a good audience. The teacher had students use Four-Headed Expert to answer a topic such as “How I get ready in the morning.” 

For Four-Headed Expert, four students make up an “expert” and each student gives one word to a sentence that is being created by the group. For example: 

Student 1: “In”

Student 2: “the”

Student 3: “morning”

Student 4: “I”

Student 1: “wake”

Student 2: “up”

Student 3: “and”

Student 4: “get”, etc…

Each student was only allowed to speak one word of the story at a time, so they had to think on their feet and be flexible as their story grew and developed. When it was time for punctuation, they spoke the punctuation into the story while the teacher transcribed it on the whiteboard. The class was working on three things in a series, so students were encouraged to work together as a team to write and properly punctuate three items in a series in their story.

Notes:

This strategy is flexible and easily adjustable. Since Dr. Seuss week is coming up, the students were encouraged to be silly and incorporate things into their story that were wacky and unrealistic. If the class has a hard time sitting still on the carpeting, this strategy can be executed from the desks. Students can participate in this strategy silently by passing a sheet of paper around the table and writing one word on the page per student.

1st Grade: Parts of a Story, Half-Life

Brewer Elementary

Rowe – Addie Newcomer

Learning Objective/Exit Outcomes: 

  • Students will be able to summarize a story.
  • Students will be able to identify the key details of a story.
  • Students will be able to identify the main idea of a story.
  • Students will use theatre to express a story they all know.
  • Students will collaborate with their peers to create a live theatre experience in their classroom.
  • Students will engage in appropriate etiquette as audience members.

Integration Area/Subject:

ELA & Theatre

State Standards:

ELAGSE1RL2: Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.

ELAGSE1RI2: Identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.

TA1.CR.1 Organize, design, and refine theatrical work.

  1. Use imagination to create, revise, and/or add to ideas.
  2. Demonstrate skills of the mind (e.g. imagination, focus, concentration).
  3. Follow directions and contribute to planning in theatre experiences.
  4. Listen to others with respect and courtesy in an ensemble.
  5. Identify basic theatre vocabulary (setting, character, problem, resolution, plot, beginning, middle, end).

TA1.CR.2 Develop scripts through theatrical techniques.

  1. Retell stories.
  2. Sequence plot events for dramatizations.
  3. Generate original ideas for dramatizations.

TA1.PR.1 Act by communicating and sustaining roles in formal and informal environments.

  1. Use voice to communicate ideas and emotions.
  2. Use body to communicate ideas and emotions.
  3. Cooperate in theatre experiences.
  4. Assume roles in a variety of dramatic forms (e.g. narrated story, pantomime, puppetry, dramatic play).

TA1.RE.1 Engage actively and appropriately as an audience member.

  1. Participate as an audience.
  2. Identify the basic elements of theatre etiquette.

Materials/Playing Space: 

Any open classroom space

Description: 

PAIR Specialist led the class in executing the PAIR strategy, Half-Life. The teacher chose four students to be the first volunteers to play this strategy. The PAIR Specialist asked the students if they knew the story of The Three Little Pigs. The PAIR Specialist then told the four volunteer students they had two minutes to figure out how to tell the story in only thirty seconds. While the volunteer students were working, the PAIR Specialist talked to the rest of the class about proper theatre etiquette how to react and respond when the volunteer students performed their story.

Once two minutes were up, the students showed their thirty second version of The Three Little Pigs. The PAIR Specialist then asked the audience members what the key details of the story were based on the thirty second performance given by the volunteer students. The PAIR Specialist always followed an answer with the additional question “and what makes you say that” to make sure students can verbally explain why they believe their answer is correct, in detail.

Next, the same volunteer students were asked to tell the story of The Three Little Pigs in half the time, fifteen seconds. The students were given one minute to discuss how they could shorten their performance. After the fifteen second performance, the audience was asked if they could tell what the main idea of the story was, and for whatever answer was given, the student giving the answer was challenged to explain why they thought that. Then, for fun, the volunteer students were challenged to tell the story of The Three Little Pigs in only seven seconds! This challenges students to think quickly and collaborate to summarize a full story.

Notes:

This strategy can be done to emphasize understanding of the main idea and supporting details of any reading.

This strategy definitely needs coaching and guidance from the teacher, especially the first couple times. Once students get comfortable with all of the elements, they will naturally become more creative and less nervous about participating.

1st Grade: Lewis & Clark, Half-Life Double-Life

Brewer Elementary

Waters – Addie Newcomer

Learning Objective/Exit Outcomes: 

  • Students will be able to summarize and act out the main ideas of the journey of Lewis & Clark.
  • Students will be able to reduce those ideas by half, and then half again, arriving at the most important aspect of Lewis & Clark.
  • Students will be able to use their imagination to communicate their ideas.
  • Students will be able to communicate the journey of Lewis & Clark verbally and physically.
  • Students will be able to collaborate efficiently with their peers to arrive at a cohesive set of ideas.
  • Students will be able to present appropriate theatre etiquette as audience members.

Integration Area/Subject:

Social Studies & Theatre

State Standards:

SS1H1 Read about and describe the life of historical figures in American history.

  1. Identify the contributions made by these figures: Benjamin Franklin (inventor/author/ statesman), Thomas Jefferson (Declaration of Independence), Meriwether Lewis and William Clark with Sacagawea (exploration), Theodore Roosevelt (National Parks and the environment), George Washington Carver (science), and Ruby Bridges (civil rights).
  2. Describe how everyday life of these historical figures is similar to and different from everyday life in the present (for example: food, clothing, homes, transportation, communication, recreation, etc.).

SS1G1 Describe how each historic figure in SS1H1a was influenced by his or her time and place.

  1. American frontier (Lewis & Clark and Sacagawea)

SS1CG1 Describe how the historical figures in SS1H1a display positive character traits such as: fairness, respect for others, respect for the environment, courage, equality, tolerance, perseverance, and commitment.

TA1.CR.1 Organize, design, and refine theatrical work.

  1. Use imagination to create, revise, and/or add to ideas.
  2. Demonstrate skills of the mind (e.g. imagination, focus, concentration).
  3. Follow directions and contribute to planning in theatre experiences.
  4. Listen to others with respect and courtesy in an ensemble.

TA1.CR.2 Develop scripts through theatrical techniques.

  1. Retell stories.
  2. Sequence plot events for dramatizations.
  3. Generate original ideas for dramatizations.

TA1.PR.1 Act by communicating and sustaining roles in formal and informal environments.

  1. Use voice to communicate ideas and emotions.
  2. Use body to communicate ideas and emotions.
  3. Cooperate in theatre experiences.
  4. Assume roles in a variety of dramatic forms (e.g. narrated story, pantomime, puppetry, dramatic play).

TA1.RE.1 Engage actively and appropriately as an audience member.

  1. Participate as an audience.
  2. Identify the basic elements of theatre etiquette.

Materials/Playing Space: 

Open classroom space

Description: 

PAIR Specialist led the class in executing the PAIR strategy, Half-Life. The teacher chose five students to be the first volunteers to play this strategy. The PAIR Specialist then told the five volunteer students they had two minutes to figure out how to present the journey of Lewis & Clark in only thirty seconds. While the volunteer students were working, the PAIR Specialist talked to the rest of the class about proper theatre etiquette how to react and respond when the volunteer students performed their story.

Once two minutes were up, the students showed their thirty second version of Lewis & Clark. The PAIR Specialist then asked the audience members what the key details of the story were based on the thirty second performance given by the volunteer students. The PAIR Specialist always followed an answer with the additional question “and what makes you say that” to make sure students can verbally explain why they believe their answer is correct, in detail.

Next, the same volunteer students were asked to tell the journey of Lewis & Clark in half the time, fifteen seconds. The students were given one minute to discuss how they could shorten their performance. After the fifteen second performance, the audience was asked if they could tell what the main idea of the journey was, and for whatever answer was given, the student giving the answer was challenged to explain why they thought that. Then, the volunteer students were challenged to tell the journey of Lewis & Clark in only seven seconds. This challenges students to think quickly and collaborate to summarize a full story.

Notes:

This strategy can be done to review multiple other social studies events, allowing for more students to participate. You could also have all the students work in groups around the room and present to each other, identifying similarities and differences in each groups’ choices on what they found most important from what they learned about Lewis & Clark.

This strategy definitely needs coaching and guidance from the teacher, especially the first couple times. Once students get comfortable with all of the elements, they will naturally become more creative and less nervous about participating.

1st Grade: Key Details of a Story, Machines

Brewer Elementary

Davis/Edenfield – Austin Sargent

Learning Objective/Exit Outcomes: 

  • Students will be able to identify the Who, When, What of stories. 
  • Students will be able to use their bodies to communicate their own derived stories. 
  • Students will be able to work in varied teams and partnerships. 
  • Students will be able to imagine different endings to stories.

Integration Area/Subject:

ELA & Dance

State Standards:

ELAGSE1RL3: Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.

ELAGSE1RL7: Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events

ELAGSE1SL1: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 1 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.

  1. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion).
  2. Build on others’ talk in conversations by responding to the comments of others through multiple exchanges.
  3. Ask questions to clear up any confusion about the topics and texts under discussion

ESD1.CR.1 Demonstrate an understanding of the choreographic process.

  1. Collaborate with others to create and perform movement phrases.
  2. Explore basic partnering skills through guided instruction (e.g. copy, lead, mirror, follow).
  3. Create shapes and levels through movement.
  4. Identify and create a dance sequence with a beginning, middle, and end.

ESD1.CR.2 Demonstrate an understanding of dance as a form of communication.

  1. Create movement based on ideas, feelings, and personal experiences.
  2. Recognize how movement quality impacts meaning.

ESD1.PR.2 Understand and model dance etiquette as a classroom participant, performer, and observer.

  1. Demonstrate attentiveness, full participation, and cooperation with others in the dance learning environment.
  2. Demonstrate focus and concentration in performance skills.
  3. Apply knowledge of appropriate behaviors and skills as an observer and performer.

Materials/Playing Space: 

Open space at front of classroom

Description: 

We started the activity by all sitting on the teacher’s carpet. PAIR Specialist led students into brainstorming different kinds of machines they already knew. Some of the things listed were; washing machine, robot, candy machine– and we finally settled on a vending machine to use as our example. 

PAIR Specialist led students to think about the first thing you need to do if you’re going to use a vending machine–put in your money! The student that answered that correctly was brought up to volunteer. The student then thought of a sound and a motion to represent that action. The same was repeated with the next few steps; punching in the buttons, candy falling, and eating the candy. 

PAIR Specialist then introduced the concept of sequencing writing starting with the “Who, Where, What” of the story and then the Resolution. PAIR Specialist then proposed an example story and had students embody those elements. 

Classroom Teacher then chose volunteers as students created their own devised stories. The first student would always get to decide “Who” the story was about, and embody that character and come up with a sound. The second volunteer would add “Where” the story would take place. Third, the “What Happens”, and the fourth volunteer would provide the “Resolution”. 

This activity very easily transitioned into a writing activity where students could practice writing their own stories–still concentrating on “Who, Where and What”.

Notes:

Because of their age, students will sometimes just repeat what they think is the right answer. Encourage students to think deeper.

Next time, I would want to more specifically design a worksheet that highlights “Who, Where, and What” and then allows students to synthesize those ideas together.