Weekly Feature - April 2025

Many students are studying ecosystems this time of year, here are some ways to enhance your units!

Ecosystems + Art = Tunnel Books!

Tunnel books are books that stand up and show a picture through the pages.  When you look at one, you should be able to see to the back page in one place.  This creates layers and visual depth.  Students create pages featuring producers, consumers, decomposers, etc in each layer.  They can incorporate many art elements, from texture and color to perspective and space.  How to make tunnel books.  

Ecosystems + Dance = Movement sentences

A movement sentence is 16-32 counts of music paired with movement to convey a message.  The "conversation" should flow the way a person would speak.  This is most easily done by assigning topics the the counts.  For example:  Counts 1-8 producers growing, counts 9-16 consumers eating producers, counts 17-24 predators hunting prey, and 25-32 decomposing.  Students would work in small groups to create movement for each set of 8, and then link the pieces to form a dance.  The teacher should set the expectations for which elements of dance to include in the movement sentence.