This teaching resource provides practical information and activities for involving elementary students in storytelling arts projects. The projects are designed to encourage experimentation with dramatic communication through gesture and body language while wearing masks, manipulating puppets, and moving interactive scenery. Ten chapters are…

Very Special Arts creates learning opportunities through the arts for people with disabilities, especially children and youth. The organization offers programs in creative writing, dance, drama, music, and the visual arts. These programs are provided in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, New York City, and 85 countries. A descriptive summary…

This report summarizes the results of a research project to examine arts participation patterns in 12 diverse communities across the United States. The research involved two major components: (1) the administration of an arts participation survey to randomly selected households in each area, and (2) research into the supply of local arts programs…

While the capacity to recognize and appreciate beauty may be inborn in all of us, participation in the arts as an audience or artist usually involves a learning process. What is the relationship between childhood and early adult experiences with the arts and later participation? In 1982, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the…

Argues that theater students must be encouraged to keep competition in perspective. Points out that too often program growth and support are dependent upon the number of honors that participants receive. Emphasizes that competition should be engaged in for its positive learning potential or should be abandoned as a student activity. (KO)

In this anthology the issues related to the fine arts (music, theater, visual arts) in the elementary secondary curriculum are examined. The fifteen articles, ranging in length from one to seven pages, are followed by a biographical page briefly identifying the contributors. The articles are: "What's It All About?" (Frederick B. Tuttle, Jr.);…

An activity book to help elementary teachers and students explore the environment offers information and questions about spaceships; an ecology primer and poster with questions; information on animal adaptation with poster and questions; ecological and dramatic arts projects; a script for performance; and suggestions to make Earth Day celebrations…

Art has a tremendous capacity to engage students, offering science, history, mathematics, social studies, and literature teachers alternative ways to reach their students. In high quality schools, art specialists work reciprocally with instructors in other disciplines to support each other's content. This education resource for ages 5 to 18,…

Describes Southeastern Community College's efforts to focus on the arts, which included a campus visit by the artist Kenneth Larson and events centered on his Heroic Individual prints; a performing arts series supported by local corporations; an Associate in Fine Arts degree; regular art exhibits; and an artist-in-residence program. (DMM)

This thematic unit involves kindergarten and 1st grade students in the production of a theatrical performance based on the folktale, "The Little Red Hen." The interdisciplinary unit connects knowledge related to theater arts, art, language arts, music, applied mathematics, social studies, and science. Students visit a local theater and…

This resource guide and the accompanying videotapes are based on the artist-generated lesson plans of the Very Special Arts Massachusetts artist residency program. Six arts units are presented: Collage, Puppetry, Movement I & II, Printmaking I & II, Theater Arts I & II, and Self Concept I & II. Each of these units consists of…

This book describes a course in drama, art, and story writing for children in grades four through eight. Twenty lesson plans guide students from creating scenes in drama to writing and illustrating their own stories. The plans include simple and practical improvisations for the classroom, as well as suggestions for plays and exhibits of the…

Ideas about the arts and their place in the classroom are elaborated through this series of essays. "Radio Plays: A Close Encounter with Another Medium" (Norton A. Roman) discusses the use of old radio plays in the classroom. "Dynamic Dinosaurs" (Kathy Vajda) describes teaching a unit on dinosaurs to a kindergarten class.…