Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program

Tag: weather

  • 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.

  • Mosaic Murals at Sprucewood Elementary

    Jonathan Hale, BTSALP Visual Art Specialist at Sprucewood Elementary School (Canyons School District,) worked with each grade level to create a colorful mural. Each Mosaic Mural is a compilation of concepts taught at each grade level. Students worked to develop images in clay and then used recycled and donated items to complete the picture. Students reviewed and explored grade level concepts while creating and constructing these mosaic murals.

    1st Grade Mosaic Mural

    Connections to Grade Level Learning: The main focus of the 1st grade mural is on changes that occur; the seasons change bringing different kinds of weather. In spring the caterpillar changes into a butterfly, plants and flowers grow from seeds. In fall the tree leaves change color and fall to the ground.

    The flowers and the snowflakes were constructed using composite shapes. The students explored their knowledge of community making bees, complete with the queen bee and worker bees. The mural emphasizes colors as a way to show temperature and the seasons.

    2nd Grade Mosaic Mural

    Connections to Grade Level Learning: The main focus of the 2nd grade mural is on the local, state and national symbols. Students created their homes, neighborhoods, and communities including their very own Sprucewood Elementary School, stores and the post office. Students then represented state symbols like the Utah State flag, Utah’s Dinosaur Monument and Arches National Park. At the national level students helped to make the United States flag and the Statue of Liberty. In addition to the local, state and national symbols, students created phases of the moon with shapes divided into equal parts.

    3rd Grade Mosaic Mural

    Connections to Grade Level Learning: The main focus of this mural is the interconnection of the sun and earth and the rotation of the moon. The mural also includes elements of space with constellations, satellites, spaceships, and the occasional math problem. The constellations were made using a grid with students calculating the area and perimeter of their creations.

    4th Grade Mosaic Mural

    Connections to Grade Level Learning: The mural focuses on the state of Utah. This mural highlights the many rock formations and types of Utah land forms, how they are formed and the effects of erosion. It also features fossils, Petroglyphs and and the people who told their stories through them. The mural also showcases the meeting of the two railroads at Promontory Point in 1869, Utah counties and even an Allosaurus. The water cycle is featured along with mathematical concepts of symmetry, angles and rays.

    5th Grade Mosaic Mural

    Connections to Grade Level Learning: The main theme of this mural is the formation of the United States of America. Each mural has a central image and four quadrants that highlight the explorers, patriots, inventors and Yankees that helped shape the American we know and love.