Ms. Marzouki worked with ESAA specialist teachers in Art, Drama, Movement, and Music, on their most resent classroom project, Commotion in the Ocean. Jennie Andreasen, a Nationally Board Certified Teacher in Early/Middle Childhood Music, volunteered to work on this project with our teachers. Mrs. Andreasen recently published an article on integrating the arts in the latest edition of the Orff Echo, a national magazine for music teachers.

Using the music of “Aquarium” from the work, “Carnival of the Animals”, students explored concepts of form, pathways, tempo, and levels. Students and Mrs. Andreasen  choreographed a movement piece, with students playing the roles of many ocean creatures and plants in a classroom that was transformed into an aquarium with many art pieces created by the students. The students also designed costumes based on a sea creature they researched. After the dance presentation students, in costume, spoke about their personal learning while family and community members mingled in the “aquarium” listening to individual presentation about each creature.

Throughout the project core academic standards were taught and reinforced in Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Design, and Habit of Learning.
A few of the core academic goals for the project included:

Language Arts - non-fiction text structure; note taking; complete sentences including punctuation, capitals, and spaces  

Math - measurement; perspective; symmetry; recording and analyzing data

Science - balance within systems; ocean layers

Social Studies - ask questions and gather data to inform and report findings; continents and oceans locations on the globe

Design Process - discover; imagine; plan; create; revise; present

Habits of Learning - collaboration; revising for excellence; creativity; critical thinking; thinking routines