Here are some guided questions to help you
Guiding Questions
The following guiding questions are ones you should consider:
What is the goal of thematic unit planning and why is it suggested in preprimary classroom settings?
How can I involve parents n thematic units?
What are some of the common elements one plans for when designing thematic units of study?
How does the choice of theme determine the different creative arts, language arts, and literacy activities students will engage in during the unit?
How long does a thematic unit typically last?
How can I integrate literature and technology into my thematic units I plan?
Instructions
The Thematic Unit descriiption below contains the information and criteria for the entire thematic unit project. The purpose of a thematic unit is to integrate activities from a variety of disciplines (a common theme).
Your thematic unit should:
be designed as a one-week long unit
contain six lesson plans (including a culminating activity)
contain activities that span various subject types (e.g., language arts, art, drama)
contain at least one activity that incorporates visual arts
contain at least one activity that incorporates music and/or movement
contain at least one activity that incorporates creative play and/or drama
Integrate language and literacy activities
Include cultural character books as appropriate
Throughout this course you will not only be completing your own observations within your field observation hours, but we will also be viewing various videos available on the Internet.
The next of these that we will explore is a part of the Arts in Every Classroom from PBS. You can access this video on demand by going to the following website:
Resource The Arts in Every Classroom. © Annenberg Foundation 2016, Lavine Production Group.
You can then scroll down and view the descriiption of the different segments. We will be viewing Programs #7 and #9 with the following descriiptions:
Developing an Arts-Based Unit
A team of first– and second–grade teachers at Lusher Alternative Elementary School in New Orleans plans a year–end project that will let students show what they have learned in science, math, and English. The students write and perform an original play, using a painting by Breughel and an opera by Stravinsky as their starting points.
Collaborating With a Cultural Resource
A fourth–grade teacher and a museum educator in New Orleans collaborate to develop a unit of study with ties to language arts, social studies, and visual art. Students explore the work of a well–known artist, visit an exhibition of his work, meet for a drawing lesson alongside the Mississippi River, and create poems and pictures that they proudly display to their parents.
Click on the “VOD” (Video on Demand) icon next to the program. It will ask you to login but all you have to do is put in your email and create a password (no long forms or other personal info). You can then watch the video!
You should note that there are a few other videos that certainly provide some great ideas for ways in which you can plan thematic units. The videos one working with local artists, bringing artists to your community, and creating multi-arts performances are excellent resources for inspiration and ideas. However, these are likely elements that you will not be able to include in your own thematic unit plan unless you are fortunate enough to have some personal connections with artists (which you may very well have and can certainly use if possible). I wish we could watch all of them but there is no way we could fit them all into a regular classroom session, so I am not going to require that here. However, through reading the descriiptions you can see that they provide many different ideas for integrating the arts into your classroom.