Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program

Category: Language Arts

  • A Day at Thunder Ridge: Part 3

    Robert Smith, BTSALP Art Coach in Alpine School District, led Ms. Decker’s 5th grade class through an integrated lesson using the book, The Mountain Dance by Thomas Locker. He started by having students close their eyes and listen to a Beethoven selection that complemented the wonderful illustrations in the book. Students listed words that described the music such as happy, intense, adventurous, calming and relaxing.

    He then read the book to the students, pausing at certain passages for the students to visualize the words being read. The class then discussed the vivid verbs and interesting adverbs they found in the text. Breaking into small groups, students listed and recorded Earth Science vocabulary words. These words were tied to passages in the book.

    Each group was given a different page from the book and asked to create a movement that illustrated the picture, text and vocabulary words. Students then performed their movements for their classmates.

  • All In The Family

    Spencer and Camilla Duncan are BTSALP Drama specialists and . . . they are also husband and wife! Spencer teaches at Copper Canyon Elementary and Elk Meadows Elementary in the Jordan School District while Camilla is at Edgemont Elementary and Park Lane Elementary in the Canyons School District.

    Spencer’s sixth grade class Copper Canyon have been studying and acting out the Egyptian myth of Osiris during drama class this month. Below is a short synopsis of the Egyptian myth.

    The Osiris myth is the most elaborate and influential story in ancient Egyptian mythology. It concerns the murder of the god Osiris, a primeval king of Egypt, and its consequences. Osiris’s murderer, his brother Set, usurps his throne. Meanwhile, Osiris’s wife Isis restores her husband’s body, allowing him to posthumously conceive their son, Horus. The remainder of the story focuses on Horus, the product of the union of Isis and Osiris, who is at first a vulnerable child protected by his mother and then becomes Set’s rival for the throne. Their often violent conflict ends with Horus’s triumph, which restores Maat (cosmic and social order) to Egypt after Set’s unrighteous reign and completes the process of Osiris’s resurrection.

    From right to left: Isis, her husband Osiris, and their son Horus, the protagonists of the Osiris myth

    “Death on the Nile River”

    Camilla Duncan uses the book, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, to integrate problem solving , weather and simple machines with her 4th graders at Park Lane Elementary. After a quick warm up, students discuss issues in their imaginary town, Burgertown. How will they clean up all the food that has fallen from the sky? What types of machines can they create that could solve Burgertown’s sanitation problem?

    Group Assignment for the Day: Physically create a machine that can solve the problem. Explain how your machine works (Sound effects appreciated!) Name your machine.

  • Jeremy Chatterton: BTSALP’s Best Friend

    Jeremy Chatterton, principal at Dilworth Elementary School in Salt Lake City School District, is definitely a friend of BTSALP. He is willing to share the success of the BTSALP every chance he can! Jeremy presented information about his school and the program at the Principal’s Symposium held at the University of Utah and at the BTSALP Legislative Dinner.