Multiculturalism in The Arts

Something I am very proud of is this assignment I created for my Arts class when I was in Teacher's College. We were to chose a theme and use it to create 10 different lessons which would touch on every single strand in the Arts curriculum. In my 10 lessons, students completed:

• 3 activities for visual arts;
• 3 activities for music;
• 2 activities for drama, and
• 2 activities for dance

I chose multiculturalism as my theme. Please email me for a copy of all the lessons and if you ever have the chance to carry these lessons out, let me know! In the meantime, here are some sneak peaks at what to expect:

• Main idea is we are embarking on a trip around the world
• A large map of the world is posted in the classroom and each time we "visit" a country, the students put up a sticky note on said country to create a visual of where we've been
• Each student gets a "passport" and will create a stamp for each country visited
• Each lesson presented will have mini lessons before and after; they are no isolated lessons

A sample lesson for Dance:


One of my favourite resources is this "African Playground" CD. (Here is a link where you can listen to all the songs online and here is a link to the teacher guide). The following lesson was created (and explained in more detail in my document) using the Teacher's resource. 

The song Barco di Papel (meaning "paper boat"), invites students to make a paper boat and sail it around the world together, even up to the moon and stars, to create a happy future full of hope and tenderness. Ask students what kind of world they wish for. What message would they like to take around the world and up to the stars?

After discussing this, have students form small groups and make a dance that represents their message, with a focus on time and energy (Specific Expectation: A1.2)