Non-tech Arts Activities at Home: Drama

Tired of tech? Sick of screens?
Try these non-tech DRAMA activities!
Non-tech arts activities provided by professional educators in dance, drama, music, and visual arts on the BYU ARTS Partnership Leadership Team 

Drama encourages playing with others. Even when the audience is only those with whom you are sheltering in place, using drama in ordinary moments will refresh, rejuvenate and remind children that daily living can be filled with wonderment and joy. The drama activities listed below provide much needed centering, and will help family groups deepen relationships. The following are easy, non-tech ideas and only require materials already around the house.

READ ALOUD TO ONE ANOTHER

• Use character voices. (Gandalf is distinct from Bilbo, right?) 
• Build tension by speaking faster or slower. (Remember when Hermione is trapped in the ladies room with a troll?)  
• Speak in a high or low voice. (How does Miss Honey sound, compared to The Trunchbull?), 
• Laugh together at the rhymes ("...I will not eat them in a box/I will not eat them with a fox...") or silliness in a story. ("[Pippi] could lift a whole horse if she wanted to. And she did.") 
• Focus deeply on the emotional meaning of a story. (Remember when Charlotte stays up all night to weave "Some pig!" to save Wilbur? ) 
• Let imaginary worlds take over. (Remember Lucy's first glimpse of Mr. Tumnus the faun, in snowy Narnia?) 

During times of steep uncertainty (like right now!), familiar stories become friends of comfort, and new stories become joyous distractions. Most homes have books on the shelves just waiting to be revisited. Anne (...of Green Gables), or Percy Jackson (The Lightning Thief), or Meg Murray (A Wrinkle in Time) or Klaus (A Series of Unfortunate Events), or Stanley Yelnats (Holes) are hearty characters that can be discovered and re-discovered at all developmental stages (adults too!).

Don't hesitate to include tweens, teens and adults in read alouds! Remember that even little ones can comprehend the spoken word far beyond their reading level. Take turns, having one person read two pages and then passing the book to the next reader. Make reading aloud part of a comforting routine: just after lunch or dinner, right before breakfast or bedtime, whenever. Don't worry that you don't sound like a voice-over artist or movie actor. Reading with commitment and energy will engage listeners of all ages.

PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES FOR DRAMATIC PLAY

Inspire children to play dress up with grandma's old things or clothes you saved from high school. Let each child choose a style decade and create fashion shows. Hand out scarves, wigs, old jewelry, hats, or the old Halloween costumes you've tucked away. Create weekly theme days like Pajama Day, Old Folks Day, Artist Day, Book Character Day, or Superhero day.

Encourage children to make zoos, create puppet shows, or have tea parties with stuffed animals. Challenge them to create new and different worlds with Legos: what if Batman visited Middle Earth? Children learn through play and choices: imaginary and creative play situations do not need to be formal performances. Dramatic developmental benefits result from pretending alone or collaboratively.

Doubtless it is tempting to maintain a focus on order, calm, and cleanliness in living spaces especially while sheltering in place. However, creative play often results in disarray and mess. Set a few reasonable clean up rules, but avoid creating shameful feelings. Embrace the process. To you it may look a mess, but to them it looks like a vast jungle, a broad desert, a wizard in a magical castle, or an impenetrable ancient fortress. Engage and celebrate with your children as they create.

PRACTICE STORYTELLING

Storytelling is different from reading aloud. A story can be a family tale, story song, a fairy tale, a fable, or a funny family incident. Storytelling is always done from memory, and includes anything without a written text between the teller and the listener. Telling stories is easy, engaging, and creates generational belonging in children. Requiring zero physical materials, storytelling can be done anywhere and anytime: while eating dessert as a family, riding in the car, at bedtime, over weekend breakfasts, or during family devotionals. Story prompts are limitless. Here are a few:

• Did you ever get into trouble and not tell your parents what happened?
• Tell us about your favorite pet.
• What is the most exciting place you ever visited?
• Did you ever save up for a special toy or activity?
• What is your favorite story your mom or dad used to tell you?
• What is the most surprised you've ever been?
• Who is the funniest of the older generation in your family?
• Did you ever get a Dear Jane/John letter?
• What is a fairy tale your grandma told you?

See what other prompts come to mind, and make a list to put on the fridge for easy reference during witching hour.

Collaborative stories are often fun. One person starts a tale, and at a certain point of their choosing (e.g. “When suddenly...") the story is passed to the next person. Group sizes can range from two to ten people. Creating different rules as the story develops adds depth: "You always have to include a color in your part of the story before you pass it along." Or, "You can't deny what someone else has built into the story." Or, "Nobody can include dogs, zombies, dinosaurs or guns in their part of the story.” Or, "Each person gets five words per turn.”

CREATE AND PERFORM PLAYS

Often a natural outgrowth of previous drama activities, plays can be improvised, developed from a written script, or memorized to create a more formal performance feeling. Costumes can be created or puppets can be made to take on all or some of the parts. Furniture can be rearranged to accommodate a performing space, and/or sets can be constructed from cardboard boxes or other bits and pieces found in garages and sheds. Music and dance can add to the performance. Plays can also use pantomime, creating dialogue and expression without words. Or, plays can be pantomimed with sounds. Like silent movies, plays can also be pantomimed to music.

Plays can be performed by those sheltering in place to family members. Because plays are meant to be shared, safe performance ideas include following social distancing guidelines, sharing behind picture windows, or outdoors on patios or sidewalks with people watching from yards or balconies. Using a tiny bit of tech, plays can be recorded at home and sent to grandparents, teachers, extended family and friends, or broadcast on a social platform. Regardless of how the play is shared, experiencing the creative moments of the play’s development and performance offers the greatest level of excitement and connection.

Written by Teresa Love, drama educator and member of the BYU ARTS Partnership Leadership Team. Find more resources for drama activities and more at Drama/Home | BYU ARTS Partnership

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Non-tech Arts Activities at Home: Dance

Tired of tech? Sick of screens?
Try these non-tech DANCE activities! 
Non-tech arts activities provided by professional educators in dance, drama, music, and visual arts on the BYU ARTS Partnership Leadership Team. 

Do I really have to move my body? 
Why can’t I just sit and watch movies or play video games?
Why can’t I just read all day? 

Most of us have been at home constantly over the past weeks. Have you, your students, or your children been asking these questions lately? Here’s some information to support moving your body, especially during a time when sitting and screen time have increased.

Dr. Joan Vernikos, the former director of NASA’s Life Sciences Division, is the author of “Sitting Kills, Moving Heals: How Simple Everyday Movement Will Prevent Pain, Illness, and Early Death -- and Exercise Alone Won’t”. She states: “The human body is designed to be much more physically active than most of us are today. Yet we have an understandable craving for comfort, and [new] inventions provide comfort to a degree previously unknown to even the wealthiest humans. As with any craving, our technological addiction leads us on a never-ending spiral of wanting more and more gadgets to do things for us that our ancestors used to do for themselves.”

She describes the health problems that result from these tech cravings: obesity, diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, muscle degeneration, arthritis, balance and coordination issues, poor sleep, and a lack of energy. Even in a highly developed world, consequences like these that used to be associated with aging are now appearing much earlier, even in children.

Despite the many advancements designed to make our lives easier and longer, these same conveniences can make our bodies age more quickly! Sitting isn’t a new invention, but it is a fast track to aging according to Dr. James A. Levine, co-director of the Mayo Clinic/Arizona State University Obesity Solutions Initiative and the inventor of the treadmill desk. His research provides evidence on how sedentary lifestyles directly connect to sluggish brain function and wandering thoughts.

Dr. Levine writes, “The true cost of sitting disease is even greater than the litany of medical illnesses. Most at stake is your sense of well-being. We all have a capacity for happiness. Sitting somehow suppresses it. Sitting is more dangerous than smoking, kills more people than HIV and is more treacherous than parachuting. We are sitting ourselves to death. How did no one notice?”

Dr. Levine wants us to despise our chairs, claiming that sitting is a sickness. We agree. However, chairs can make great dance partners. Movement is life! If we aren’t moving, we aren’t living. So don’t pull up a chair, pull out a chair! Or a broom, or a vacuum, or a blanket, or a scarf. (Really anything you don’t have to keep 6 feet away from is a good option for a dance partner--including family members, especially children.) Move your body and live a long life!

Okay, you get it. On your feet! Stand up, grab a family member and try out some of these fun non-tech dance activities.

Non-tech Dance Activities 

Chair Dance: Pull out a chair and explore all the ways you can safely dance around, over, through, and under your chair. How many ways can you connect different body parts or find balancing shapes with the chair? Partner with a friend or family member and take turns teaching each other what you’ve discovered to create a chair dance. Take your chair to a neighbor’s front yard and perform for them!

Imaginary Dance: Children can write about and illustrate a dance they imagine creating if they had unlimited time, money, and resources. They can draw a picture of the dance and describe how it would be performed, the costumes, what the sound accompaniment sounds like, who would be in the dance, and why this dance is important to them.

Handwashing Dance Choreography: Use handwashing as inspiration for a choreography project! Invite children to explore all the creative ways they can wash their hands. How fast or slow can they scrub? What if the sink was on the ceiling or on the wall? What if they had to wash their hands backwards or between their legs?

Movement Scientist Log: Have children write down movements that they see each day. Depending on their age, children can draw pictures of the movements or record information about the movements. Their pictures or writing can describe the object or person moving, the setting, the energy qualities (how the dance makes them feel), and the motion, timing, spatial elements, or body parts involved. Children can then create a dance phrase from the movement they captured.

Family Dance History: Invite students to interview family members about their dance backgrounds and interests. What dances do they know? What does dance mean to them? What is their favorite dance and why? Children can record the responses they get and document their own answers as well. Children can also create their own dance based on the responses of their family members, and share the dance with that person the next time they are together.

Dancing Journal: Play a new song each day and invite children to dance along. Afterward, children can draw or write about what they explored and how they felt. They can dance along to a recording, make the movement up themselves, or dance with their family.

Texture Dance: Children, family members, or students can choose four objects with different textures in their environment. List three adjectives to describe the texture of each object. Then, choose three axial or locomotor movements. Together, explore four variations of each movement by using the adjectives for each of the four objects. Each person can use their favorite movement variations to construct a dance to share.

Obstacle Course: Have children use objects and materials found in the home to set up an obstacle course. After completing the obstacle course, layer challenges such as going backwards, traveling through holding the same twisted physical shape from start to finish, or completing the task without their feet. See how many challenges you can think of!

Name Choreography: Students can create movement for each letter of their name by using a different body part to draw that letter in the air. "Draw a “J” with your leg, an “o” with your head, an “h” with your elbow, and an “n” with your knee. Choose a partner, and swap drawing each other’s names!

Found Sounds Dance: Children can find or create different sounds around the house and explore the movement they feel inspired to make when they hear those sounds. Kitchen pots and pans, toys, toothbrushes, plastic trash, or even their own bodies can all be used to create singular sounds that inspire unique movements.

Muscle Madness: Identify six to eight different muscles of the body to explore through flexing and creative movement. Spend about 30 seconds with each, exploring as many movement ideas as possible. Identify which movements require the most effort and would help strengthen muscles the most. Consider learning the scientific names for the muscles you explored!

Breathing Through Space: With or without music, use your breath to direct your movement. When you inhale, you can grow big, and when you exhale you can shrink your body. Or, perhaps your inhales uplift you to the tips of your toes and your exhales push you into the floor. See how you can move when inhaling or exhaling in quick, small spurts. Can your breathing make you travel to a new place in the room?

Moving Elements: Pick one of these main elements: earth, air, fire, or water. Make a list of the adjectives, verbs and adverbs that describe the element. Using the list, explore how your body can move like the chosen element. Consider choreographing a dance about the element to perform for your family, or to record and share with others! What props could you use? How does dancing like each element make you feel?

Written and compiled by Chris Roberts (Provo City School District Arts Instructional Coach), Heather Francis (Dance Educator, BYU ARTS Partnership Staff), and Rachel Marie Kimball (Dance Educator, GAINS Coach, Nebo School District). Find more resources at AdvancingArtsLeadership.com 

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Relax, Refresh, and Rejuvenate through the Arts!

Relax, Refresh, and Rejuvenate through the Arts! 

Ideas for home-based arts instruction provided by Elementary Arts Educators in Dance, Drama, Music, and Visual Arts. More resources at AdvancingArtsLeadership.com 

During these unsettling times, parents can take charge of their time with their children. Remember
how fun pre-school was? Singing, drawing, dancing, playing pretend, and reading aloud? High level learning happens during those hours of play, and these activities continue to be beneficial for people of all ages.

Arts activities relax the body, refresh the mind, and help us connect to others. Arts activities are multi-sensory, minds-on, hands-on experiences that invite conversations and build relationships. Parents can invite their children to make art with them in a playful way and optimize the experience by breathing deeply, relaxing, and being fully present as their children engage.

When playing with children, listen to the children’s ideas, then reward their efforts with smiles and kindness. Working along-side them encourages their focus and concentration. Inspire them to improve their ability by enjoying quality works of art together. Listen to music, sing, talk about works of art, discuss movies, and books. Most of all, have fun and celebrate successes. Set the stage, turn up the music and dance! Here are some ideas for home-based arts instruction to get you started.

VISUAL ART 

DRAW!
Draw something from the 100 Sketchbook Prompts or 100 Silly Drawing Prompts every day. Add details such as texture, value/shading, and color. Feel free to use the back of your classwork to draw on, if you do not have other paper available.

LAND ART SCULPTURE
Take inspiration from Land Artists such as Andy Goldworthy, Robert Smithson, and Richard Long. Have your child look at images from these artists as inspiration for their own Land Art sculpture. If you do not have access to outdoor space such as a yard or wilderness area, you can have students use Legos, toys from their playroom, cardboard, or other materials to assemble their sculpture. Even food and veggies on their lunch plate!

MAKE SALT DOUGH
2 Cups all purpose Flour
1 Cup Salt
1 Cup cold Water

Mix flour and salt together in a bowl. Slowly mix water, a few tablespoons at a time, into flour mixture until dough is smooth and easy to handle. Knead dough for 10 minutes and let rest for 20 minutes. Help your student do the measuring and mixing/kneading, talking about the texture and how it feels before and after adding the water.

After the ten minutes of kneading you can divide up the mixture into three portions and add a few drops of food coloring to be mixed into the clay. The primary colors of red, yellow, and blue are recommended.

Let it rest for 20 minutes. When the clay is ready, have children sculpt a creature or character from a story they are currently reading. Talk about the shapes that make up that creature, and the different parts/details. If you added color, they can mix parts of the clay together to create secondary colors.

After they are done the clay can be put into an airtight container for several days then disposed of. You can also leave the sculptures out to dry in the air or bake them in a 250 degree oven for about two hours (until hard and dry).

MUSIC

MUSICAL SCAVENGER HUNT
Look around your house and find the following sounds. An object you find may fit more than one of the items below. For example, a metal pot lid tapped with a wooden spoon is something you tap, it is metal, it can be loud, and it may be quiet.

Something you rattle or shake
Something you tap
Something you scrape
Something you blow in or across
Something metal
Something plastic
Something wood
Something that can make a loud sound
Something that can make a quiet sound
Something that makes a low sound
Something that makes a high sound
Something that makes a short sound
Something that makes a long sound

Arrange the items into three categories: metal, plastic, wood. Start over and arrange the items into four categories based on how you make each sound: shake, tap, scrape, blow. Can you change the sound of the object? Can you make it louder, quieter, higher, or lower? Arrange from low sounds to high sounds.

BIM BUM
Body percussion is making percussive musical sounds using only your body -- such as clapping your hands, patting your lap, or stamping your feet. Try this body percussion game song. It is first sung as an echo song, so you may want to watch and listen as each phrase is sung, then try the body percussion on the echo. The song might be easy to sing, but the body percussion gets tricky! Clap your hands on the word bim, snap your fingers on the word bum, and pat your lap on biddy.

Once you have mastered the body percussion, find household objects that will make three distinct sounds. Decide which “instrument” or object you want to play, then choose the one word on which you will play your instrument each time it is sung: bim, bum, or biddy. Have two other friends or family members play the other two instruments on the other words. Challenge: Can you sing the entire song but play your instrument only on the specific word? This might take some practice!

FAMILY FOLK SONGS
What country or part of the world does your family come from? Find it on a map or globe. Have a family member sing a song they know from that country or region, or find a folk song from that country or region. What is the history of the song? Why did people sing the song?If there is more than one song, which is your favorite? Why? Create actions or movements to go along with the song and perform them as you sing.

DRAMA

CHIN PUPPETS
Make a chin puppet! Sure, have some giggles making funny faces or lip syncing to a song, then go beyond. Create a character: give your chin puppet a name, a unique voice, a personality with likes and dislikes. Hold a conversation. Tell a story. Keep your chin up!



PLAY IT. . .BACKWARDS!
Make a list of events (or draw scenes) from a favorite story. The story could be the plot from a book, movie or event. Now. . . act it out: backwards! It’s harder than it sounds – and is a fun challenge. Good luck!

ZOO-DO!
Create a zoo of your own with stuffed animals, lego animals, toy animals or YOU as an animal! Make sure you give your critters a healthy habitat with plenty to do. What is your favorite exhibit? What might the animals be thinking when you look at them? What kinds of adventures might happen in a zoo? Make your own zoo today, do!

DANCE

FAMILY DANCE
Listen to different genres of music and think about what movements they inspire. Have fun dancing free style to any selection. Allow each child to choose their favorite and explain why. Try learning some of the movement of each family member. You could choose one movement from each family member and create a family dance. Begin and end with a family connecting shape using levels and all kinds of line and design to make your shapes interesting. See what creative things you can come up with and enjoy the experience of dancing together.

HAPPY DANCE
Watch “Happy Dance” on YouTube. Follow the dance moves in the video and make up moves of your own. Talk about what makes you happy, and reasons why you are happy right now. Read Do Your Happy Dance! Celebrate Wonderful You and have a discussion. Some points of discussion could be: The Peanuts characters persisting at school, in sports or other extracurricular activities, or at any life experience. Make connections to your own unique experiences and find reasons to celebrate and do a “Happy Dance!” Turn the music video back on and have a dance of celebrating wonderful YOU!

Other Resources for the Happy Dance

• Meghan Trainor - Better When I’m Dancin’ 
• Peanuts - Happy Dance 
• Snoopy Happy Dance 

GIRAFFES CAN’T DANCE
Read the book Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae (or watch the animated video or watch the Giraffes Can’t Dance (Silly Song). Have a discussion about feelings/emotions that Gerald and the other animals might be having. You can talk about how we feel when we fall and make mistakes, and how it feels when others make fun of us at those times. This can lead to a conversation about a growth mindset: a belief that our most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work.

Create a dance together! Using the action words in the story provide an opportunity for your children to try leaping, prancing, skipping, swaying, swishing and twirling. Give them time to make their own dance. Sit together in a circle and have a “Jungle Dance” giving any who would wish to share the dance they created. After this you can take turns learning each other’s dances. (Jungle Dance Music)

Find more ideas for arts at home here.

Written by members of the BYU ARTS Partnership Leadership Team: Melissa Deletant (Visual Arts Educator), Cally Flox (Director of the BYU ARTS Partnership). Miriam Bowen (Dance Educator), Lisa Bean (Drama Educator), and Jennifer Purdy (Music Educator).

Sponsored by the following

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A Tasty Art Show: The Student Art Gallery in the McKay School Showcases Food-Inspired Art from Lakeview Elementary

March 6, 2020

Few people know that some of the most imaginative artwork on BYU campus is housed in the school of education. Colorful drawings line the second floor of the David O. McKay Building in the Student Art Gallery, from cakes that allow you to communicate with dolphins to superhero cupcakes to pizzas inspired by paleontology. Who are these daring artists who experiment with form and push the boundaries of originality? They are the students of Lakeview Elementary School.

Sponsored by the Beverley Taylor Sorenson BYU ARTS Partnership, the Student Art Gallery encourages learning through the arts in elementary schools by showcasing the work of students from the five public school districts in the BYU–Public School Partnership.

Lakeview was the first school chosen for the art gallery. Elicia Gray, the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program (BTSALP) specialist at Lakeview Elementary in Provo, Utah, led the students of Lakeview from kindergarten to third grade as well as fifth grade through different art exercises. Hundreds of students from Lakeview submitted artwork for the Tasty Art Show, and eighteen were chosen to represent their school.

The partnership hosted its first gala for the gallery during February. Students and their family members were invited to explore the gallery, see their art, and snack on BYU’s famous mint brownies. Each student received a certificate congratulating them on earning a place in the gallery. 

Here are some of the highlights:

“Bentley’s Cupcakes” by Bentley, Kindergarten
Kindergartners explore kindness and sharing by inventing a cupcake. “If I could create a cupcake that I would give to my friends, this is what it would look like. One is a Spiderman one, and one is a Batman one. All of them are bubble gum flavored. They give you spiderweb powers and Batman wings when you eat them.”

“Soda Art” by McKenzie, First Grade 
First graders learned how to keep from “blowing their tops” like soda pop. “If I could create a soda that would make you good at drawing, this is what it would look like. It’s a soda that makes you good at drawing with paint. It tastes like bubble gum; it smells like mint. There are pencils on it that are curvy.”

“The Coolest Pizza Ever” by William, Second Grade 
Second graders created pizzas to practice problem-solving. “If I could create a pizza that would make you good at to be a paleontologist, this is what it would look like. It would look like this: it has bones and skulls and people that dig into the ground and a detector that finds bones underground.”

“Dragon Blood Ice-cream” by Charlie, Third Grade 
Third graders used persuasion to create their own irresistible ice cream flavors. “My ice cream flavor is: dragon blood, tears, metal, paper, soap, ink, and chocolate. The only place to get this is Antarctica. It cost 100,000,000,000,000 pennies. (And only pennies).”




“Dolphin Island” by Natalie, Fifth Grade 
Fifth graders learned about the artist Wayne Thiebaud, mimicking his style as they used pastels to create their own cakes. “My cake is strawberry and raspberry flavored. You can talk to dolphins when you eat it. The icing is blueberry flavored. The cake makes me happy when I eat it.”


The gallery will remain in the McKay School until the end of March, when each of the winning students from Lakeview Elementary will receive their artwork in a large black frame donated by the ARTS Partnership.

Lakeview won’t be the only school spotlighted in the art gallery. The ARTS Partnership plans on continuing the gallery with a new group of students from a different local elementary school every other month. Students in the five public school districts in the BYU–Public School Partnership (Alpine, Jordan, Nebo, Provo City, and Wasatch County) will all have a chance to submit their artwork for the art gallery’s consideration.

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Utah Women’s History to Be Celebrated in 2020

February 7, 2020

Better Days 2020, a nonprofit organization dedicated to popularizing Utah women’s history through art, education, and legislation, has reason to celebrate this year—as do all of us. This year, Better Days 2020 will celebrate the 150th anniversary of Utah women casting their first ballots, the first American women to vote under an equal suffrage law. It is also the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave equal voting rights to women; and the 55th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, which protected voting rights of racial minorities.

Arts-Based Initiatives 

There will be numerous arts event to celebrate these landmarks happening throughout the state during 2020. These events, both educational and uplifting, integrate the arts with history and will be engaging to educators and students alike.

The Utah Division of Arts and Museum’s Traveling Exhibit Program will feature Utah artist Brooke Smart’s 50 original illustrations of Utah women’s rights advocates. Check out the full schedule. The exhibit’s last destination will be the Springville Museum of Art and will be on display there from May to August.

The “Utah Women Working for the Vote and Beyond” exhibit features reproductions of Smart’s 50 illustrations paired with historic artifacts. This will be on display on the fourth floor of the Utah State Capitol Building from January¬ to December 2020.

Better Days 2020 has also released “Utah Women Making History Trading Cards” and a book titled Champions of Change: 25 Women Who Made History, both of which feature Smart’s illustrations.

Women’s Rights Memorials

A statue of Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon—Utah’s first female state senator—is to be installed in National Statuary Hall in August 2020. Check out this website to learn more about the statue and Hughes Cannon herself.

There will be a new Women’s History Memorial installed at Council Hall in Salt Lake City. The sculpture was designed by Utah artists Kelsey Harrison and Jason Manley and will memorialize the first woman to vote and honor the millions of women who have voted in Utah and across the nation since that important day.

Resources for Educators 

There are other ways to get involved during 2020. Schools can become Utah HERitage Schools and receive free swag and a toolkit of materials to learn and celebrate.

Better Days 2020 would love to hear from schools where teachers and students develop their own arts projects to commemorate and celebrate this special year. Students can attend the 150th Anniversary “First to Vote” Celebration at the Utah State Capitol on February 12, which coincides with another Utah State Capital event, Arts Day on the Hill.

Educators can find free downloadable resources at www.utahwomenshistory.org to help educate students and participate in the celebration. These resources include

• - Utah women’s advocates’ biographies written by scholars and family descendants, paired with Smart’s illustrations
• - Interactive timeline
• - Learning activities
• - Children’s books with Utah History connections and discussion questions
• - Short videos including a video about illustrator Brooke Smart showcasing her studio and process
• - Informational articles
• - Lesson plans that include arts connections
• - Local histories
• - Primary sources sets, which include suffrage memorabilia and political cartoons 

For updated information and more ideas, follow the organization on social media @betterdays2020.

Laura Giles is a lover of all things art, a first grade teacher in Alpine School District, a writer for The Daily Herald newspaper, and an Arts Leadership Academy graduate. She has earned the Arts Integration Endorsement from Brigham Young University. She can be reached at LauraCGiles@gmail.com.

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Celebrating and Honoring Veterans through Music

November 25, 2019

For the second year, Veterans Day was a musical event at Orem Elementary School in Orem, Utah. Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program (BTSALP) educator Cheri Hancock has been working for several weeks with all of the students in the school to prepare for this celebration.

During the weeks leading up to the special day, Hancock integrated social studies, literature, history, and science into her music class. Weaving music into the study of other content areas allows the students to understand what they are learning more deeply and have emotional experiences, especially when learning about historical events about the country where they live.

“We took time to study and enjoy the book This Land is Your Land, illustrated by Kathy Jakobsen with words and music by Woody Guthrie,” said Hancock. “We had discussions, listened to recordings of music, looked at pictures, used a map, and read from a book. I made flashcards of words that they might not know, and we talked about the definitions.”

While participating in the many learning opportunities, the students not only learned songs and performance skills, but they also discovered that they can express meaning through musical works and relate music to societal, cultural, and historical contexts.

Before the musical performances on Veterans Day, the student body was able to watch a flag raising ceremony, headed up by Utah Valley University’s ROTC. Then students in kindergarten through sixth grade performed “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Students of different ages performed different pieces that they had learned as well. Younger students sang “Wave the Flag” and “This Land is Your Land.” Older students sang “You’re a Grand Old Flag” and the “Armed Forces Medley” after meeting local veterans.

In addition to the student body performing, Orem Elementary’s children’s choir performed pieces that they have been practicing before and after school: “Veterans’ March” and “One Voice.” Led by Hancock, the children’s choir comprises 30 students in fourth through sixth grades. The choir is an extracurricular activity open to all interested students.

“I believe children need to learn patriotic songs and the history of our nation. Teachers need to instill a love for our country in our students by participating in Veterans Day programs,” Hancock said. 

Laura Giles is a lover of all things art, a first grade teacher in Alpine School District, and a writer for The Daily Herald newspaper. She is an Arts Leadership Academy graduate and has earned the Arts Integration Endorsement from Brigham Young University. She can be reached at LauraCGiles@gmail.com.

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Finding the Best Arts Specialist

October 18, 2019

Who a principal hires to teach the arts at a school can impact student learning and school culture. At the elementary level, an arts teacher serves every student in the school in one art form and provides leadership across all the art forms. At the secondary level, there is often only one teacher in each art form at the school, which means the entire school program is dependent on the skills, ability, and professional commitment of that individual. At both levels, the teacher plays a critical role to build a quality program over time.

To optimize the impact of arts programs, the BYU ARTS Partnership has provided tools for administrators to find the most effective arts educators for their schools. Over the past two years, the Partnership has put together resources for elementary and secondary school administrators with an abundance of information about how to build an arts-rich school, including indicators of a quality arts specialist and how to recruit and hire one.

To create the resources, leaders in the BYU ARTS Partnership worked with the presidents of the Utah Art Education Association, Utah Music Educators Association, Utah Dance Education Organization, and Utah Advisory Council of Theatre Teachers. Each agreed that administrators would like to find the best candidates for their schools because choosing the right teacher has such a strong impact on the school culture and the students, according to Heather Francis, BYU ARTS Partnership research coordinator.

Steps to finding that quality instructor include recruiting from the best pool of candidates; considering licenses, degrees, certifications and accreditation; investigating pedagogical approaches and dispositions; observing teaching; and asking the right questions.

The group determined administrators should know certain questions for each specific art form that can be asked as part of the interview process. The resources include sample interview questions and sample strategies for getting to know the candidates. For example, a strong question for a music educator might be, “What types of ensembles have you directed?” and “What styles of music are you most comfortable directing?”

Administrators might not be certain about which qualifications to look for in a prospective arts teacher. An example, according to Francis, is an administrator who may not know which items on a dancer’s resume prepared the candidate for teaching in the classroom, choreography, or performance opportunities. The resources recommend principals look to see if the candidate is part of their professional dance education organization and if they have previously taught students to choreograph their own work.

Some questions can help an administrator make a decision about an arts specialist, regardless of the art form. What exactly does it mean to be educationally minded in the arts? What kinds of qualifications does the specialist have? What kinds of impact has the candidate had on a school in the past?

Principals may contact professional arts education organizations to inquire about available arts educators. These organizations are also a support and resource as they provide professional development for arts teachers after they are hired.

The process to finding a quality arts specialist can be tricky, but help is here, in the form of the “Building an Arts-Rich School” online resource materials.

* There will be a session at the Learning Edge Administrator's Conference on November 12th about "Building an Arts Rich School." Please visit https://education.byu.edu/cites/learning-edge-2019 to register.


Laura Giles is a lover of all things art, a first-grade teacher in Alpine School District, a writer for the Daily Herald newspaper, an Arts Leadership Academy graduate, and has earned the Arts Integration Endorsement from Brigham Young University. She can be reached at LauraCGiles@gmail.com.

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School Library is a Hub for the Arts

October 11, 2019

Wasatch Elementary School in Salt Lake City, Utah, has an important and unique focus: intertwining the arts with other curricular areas. Through donations from the community, specialists in the different arts, and collaboration between the faculty and staff, the students at Wasatch are experiencing a much broader education than simply the three Rs (Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic).

Wasatch Elementary’s library plays a central role in the art education of the students. Dawn Ann Bullough, library media teacher, has a passion for what they do. “This community values having all of the arts taught in its school,” she said.

Some people wonder how a library specialist fits into the arts focus. “We can use literature in all of the arts,” Bullough said. In fact, the school has had dance performances that are based on books and stories from the library. “Music, drama, dance—they’re really just storytelling in other kinds of forms and it’s the very same with visual arts.”

In addition to music teachers, every student in the school has the opportunity to learn from a dance and drama specialist thanks to fundraising by the parents. “This community has worked hard to combine all of the arts,” Bullough said.

According to Bullough, the Salt Lake City School District has teacher-certified librarians. “It allows the librarian to work with our teachers and collaborate with them and our student needs. We don’t just check out, check in books. We work with the arts specialists that are in our school and provide resources.”

Bullough was a classroom teacher for many years and has continued teaching literature to students as a librarian. For example, she taught “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll to sixth graders many times. Students at the school have created corresponding book art projects, shadow puppet plays, and this year they learned a Jabberwocky song. “The thing that makes this so fun for me is there is a collaboration between the classroom teachers, between the arts specialists, and the librarian,” Bullough said.

Penny Caywood is the theater specialist at Wasatch and her collaboration with Bullough benefits all of the students. Caywood said that she regularly asks Bullough about music, books and stories that could be dramatized easily. Students and teachers are always using the library. “It is such an inspirational space,” she said.

At Wasatch Elementary, the library is the heart of the school. “We have a lot of things that happen right here in our library. School community council meetings, PTA meetings and visitors who do presentations in the library. Students do research and mini-productions in the library,” Bullough said. “It’s an important space to encourage learning and creativity. It’s just a wonderful place to be.”

*Dawn Ann Bullough is presenting a session at the 2019 Learning Edge Administrator's Conference on November 12th. Principals, administrators, and teacher leaders who are interested can register at https://education.byu.edu/cites/learning-edge-2019

Laura Giles is a lover of all things art, a first grade teacher in Alpine School District, a writer for The Daily Herald newspaper, an Arts Leadership Academy graduate and has earned the Arts

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