History teachers can use creative movement and drama to bring bygone eras to life. Science teachers might go a little wild by letting students act out the plant life cycle. Even math teachers can have little learners stand up and sit down to represent various fractions.

Your learners don’t have to create passable representations of dandelions and other flowers. However, sketching out blueprint-like models helps them develop abstract thinking skills and see how various items integrate.

6 strategies for integrating arts-based learning into any subject

Ginger Abbot, February 19, 2021

If your class is too rambunctious to sit still for your lecture, you can also use the old game of musical chairs to teach percentages. After each round, have students calculate the ratio of standing to seated individuals. Getting their bodies moving a little burns off energy so they can focus.

Clay and popsicle sticks are examples of sculpting materials that cost little. You can further cut the cost of supplies by making homemade play dough — or, better yet, letting your students help if the activity fits your curriculum.

Try to add visual components to your lectures whenever possible. You can show slideshows or short YouTube video clips. Getting students up to pantomime is another way to use arts integrations across subjects while harnessing student energy.

You can also bring in works of art and ask your students to tell a story about them. For example, imagine the wild responses you might get if you show John Trumbull’s “Declaration of Independence” and ask your learners what the Founding Fathers are doing. It’s OK to laugh while you learn — it helps the message stick.

6 strategies for integrating arts-based learning into any subject

Ginger Abbot, February 19, 2021

People have used music to help them memorize since well before the invention of “The Alphabet Song.” Why not integrate the arts across subjects and have groups write a small ditty to remember the stages of photosynthesis or our solar system’s planets? You decide whether to have each group perform their creation for the class — and don’t be surprised if you later hear humming during the quiz.

6 strategies for integrating arts-based learning into any subject

Ginger Abbot, February 19, 2021

Kisida, B., Goodwin, L., & Bowen, D. H. (2020). Teaching History Through Theatre: The Effects of Arts Integration on Students’ Knowledge and Attitudes. AERA Open, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858420902712

We’d teach creative process, how to come up with ideas, how to find inspiration, how to steal from the greats. We’d teach kids to work effectively with others to improve and test their ideas. We’d teach them how to realize their ideas, get them executed through a supply chain, how to present and market and share them.

We’d also emphasize digital creativity, focussing on cutting edge (and cheap) technology, removing the artificial divide between arts and science, showing how engineering and sculpture are related, how drawing and User Experience (UX) Design are facets of the same sort of skills, how music and math mirror each other.  Gregory, D. (2023, March 8). Let’s get rid of art education in schools. kappanonline.org. https://kappanonline.org/gregory-lets-get-rid-art-education-schools/  

This part of your lesson is also a chance for students to use their creativity. You can design activities that work to connect students with a text: drawing, sorting, building, debating, acting. The possibilities are endless.”

LETRS 7.4 Training Video

How do we calm our nervous system? How do we bring it back to neutral? The arts improve healing outcomes. Lower the parasympathetic nervous system (inside of us) - reset to normal by engaging in artistic experiences. Improve achievement & job satisfaction. Heal the way we work through the world. Why are the arts a catalyst for healing? Data: Heart Mind Institute: Connection of the heart and mind. Connection between the head and the heart. Brain is not necessarily doing all the operation. It is a two way dialogue where the heart and mind are connecting. The heart impacts the brain. 

Embed creativity and curiosity in our classrooms. 

Institute for Art Integration and STEAM, Podcast: Science Explains How the Arts Heal Us, Susan Riley