1. Madison Elementary Integrated Arts Program
School Wide Theme

2. MES: Exploring the World
School Wide Theme
Timeline
School Year
The Integrated Arts Team proposed a school wide theme idea as a vehicle to:
Create a common learning focus
Encourage integration
Inspire creativity in the delivery of curriculum
Ideas were proposed and a staff vote led to the choice of theme:
MES: Exploring the World
IA committee chose The Lion King as the capstone activity for April.

3. School Wide Theme By end of school year 2010:
IA committee had distributed an outline to staff with a proposed calendar that covered the world’s regions and included ideas, resources, and topics for teachers to consider as they planned for instruction.
They were encouraged to weave the theme into as many or as few areas as they felt it worked. We stressed that this was not to add work – but to complement what they already needed to teach.

4. School Wide Theme School Year 2010-11
Fall – IA committee resumed planning. We attended an Integrated Arts conference in October and networked with the Arts Alliance of Northern NH and Jeanne Limmer, local dance instructor, to secure funding to bring Jeanne to Madison as an Artist in Residence. All students participated in Movement with an African Beat as part of PE classes in November and December.
We proposed Michael Wingfield, African Drummer, to Arts Jubilee for the spring Artist they sponsor for area schools.

5. School Wide Theme
We asked Mustang Academy to sponsor a drumming program to prepare a core group of students to work with Michael in April and play with him in the Lion King.
We held an Integrated Arts Night in December showcasing art projects to date and a sneak peek at songs and choreography in development for The Lion King.

6. School Wide Theme
As the IA team, the specials teachers wove the theme into their classes by:
Art : Students created artworks inspired by what they learned about Art from different parts of the world. Every class created art for The Lion King including masks, costume pieces, and scarves and jewelry to sell at our African Marketplace.
Music: 6th grade learned Picnic of the World which mentions over 70 countries. The lower grades learned the Hello song which teaches them to say hello in many languages. From January to April, all classes learned songs for The Lion King.
PE: The kids learned multicultural games and used music from other countries as well as learned about movement with Jeanne Limmer in the fall. Mrs. Shackford offered a morning dance program that developed out of the this exposure and created choreography for the team to perform in the show.
Media: Grades 3-6 researched their Heritage and connection to other parts of the world; world folktales were featured as read alouds; 2nd grade researched African Animals and created scripts and masks in Art to share their learning in the show; 3rd graders studied storytelling after a professional storyteller came for Read Across America week and prepared African stories to share during intermission of the show; grades 4-6 studied themes such as Chinese New Year, Iditarod, European Fairy Tales, and Latin American Folktales. 6th Grade marketed The Lion King through posters and video commercials featured on Madison TV.

7. School Wide Theme The Lion King
In April, the school was transformed into Africa.
Classrooms decorated doors
Staff decorated the building
Michael Wingfield came to share about drumming through Arts Jubilee and the Drama Club sponsored him to work with our afterschool Drumming Club and play in all performances. Youth Beatz and Mr. Rich did a great job all spring getting this club ready and joined us for a warm up show on Thursday.
Our custodian Ken created an original chalk design to welcome visitors to the school.
The African marketplace concept developed as classrooms created booths in the halls selling art created items and raising money for charity.
Three performances of the Lion King were performed. Many staff and parent helpers and volunteers joined in to make this a special event.

8. School Wide Theme End of School Year
The IA Team announced that next year’s theme would be Go Green, our runner up theme from last year. Teachers were provide with a list of project ideas to sign up for as a way to integrate the theme. Again, we offered a list of and ourselves as resources to help in any way that work for individual teachers. Our plan is to have a IA Project Fair in the spring to showcase all the great projects that will be happening throughout the year.
We concluded the school year on Field Day with an assembly that culminated in an all school spiral, taught to us by Jeanne Limmer, that symbolized our year long journey and our connection to one another as part of our greater world.
The IA Team wishes to thank Brian, Holly, and all the staff for their support that allowed us to run with this idea. It is called School Wide because it takes a School Wide effort to make it happen and for it to be effective in achieving the goal of integrated, multi-dimensional activities that reach all the different ways students learn.