Idea Box Integrated Arts

Collaborate. Create. Connect.

Idea Box programs use a combination of visual and performing arts to help students in grades 6 and up embody and internalize key concepts in math, science, engineering, language arts, social studies, and social emotional learning.

Case Study: Prescott Elementary

Emily will be seeing the Kindergarten and 1st Grade students at Prescott Elementary one hour a day, every day, for a full quarter. We’ll take a look at the plans for Room 102 this Fall.

Emily met with the classroom teacher and learned that she’d love help reinforcing the ideas of home, street, city, state, country, planet, and so on. Using the book Me on the Map, students will be creating materials for a 10-15 minute performance for their parents.

In their Theater unit, students will learn diction, projection, expressing emotion through character face/vocal tone, and group story-telling. Using these skills, they’ll be developing a group spoken word piece in which they embody each location, creating tableaux to represent their school, neighborhood, city, state, country, and beyond.

In their Music unit, special guest teaching artist Mr. Michael will do a mini Songwriting residency, in which students will explore rhythm, rhyme, and verse/chorus structure, working together to write a song with a verse for each geographical concept and a chorus to tie them together.

In their Visual Arts unit, students will study symbolism as used in flags. They’ll discuss the meanings different symbols and colors have to them personally, and each student will create a ‘flag of me.’ As part of this project, students will use tracing, cutting, layout, and gluing skills to create a paper prototype and a fabric finished flag to use in the performance. The class will also work together to create a giant ‘class flag’ to represent their class community and serve as a performance backdrop.

In the Dance unit students will internalize an understanding of levels, lateral and sagittal locations and movements, pathways, tempo, and energy. They’ll then use repetition, sequence, and pattern to create their own choreography for the song they write with Mr. Michael, using the flags they’ll build in Visual Arts as a prop.

The finished product will not be long, but it will be a detailed product over which the students have creative control within a clear supporting structure.

Sample Curriclum

Take a look at a sample curriculum outline for a high-school level “Science of Art” Curriculum here.

Sample Assessment

Sample rubric for the Stomp rhythm project, designed for students in Grades 5-8.