For all of the HOT Blocks at our school, the music, art and physical education teachers plan lessons with classroom teachers based on what the students are learning in both classrooms. This way, our arts integration HOT Blocks promote deep learning of subject matter, higher order thinking, creativity and learning through multiple intelligences. Students benefit by learning across the curriculum through the arts.
My colleague Kelly and I planned this second grade HOT Block around what the students were learning at that time of the year: poetry in language arts and nutrition in science. During our planning of the HOT Block unit, I discovered that they were learning about the parts of a poem, different types of poems, and reading and writing poems with different tone and mood. In science, the students were studying proper nutrition, understanding the five food groups and creating balanced meals. We decided to combine all of these with art and technology for our unit: students would create a fruit or vegetable puppet of their choice, write a poem from the perspective of the fruit or vegetable, and finally, practice the poem and make it "come alive" on video.
During our last HOT Block, we viewed all of the terrific fruit and vegetable poem videos on YouTube. The looks on the children's faces when their video started playing was truly priceless. They were proud, excited, and learning through the arts!