Arts in Education: STEAM
School Name: Belmont Central Elementary
Teachers involved: Anna Smith, Becki Belli
Grade levels included: 3rd and 5th
Subjects to be incorporated: Art , Music, Math, Science, Social Studies
Project Title: The Belmont Central Arts Garden
Amount Requested: $725.00
Project Proposal: To revitalize an outdoor classroom and create a garden integrated with
sculptures and musical instruments. The space already has benches and some garden
areas which need some TLC.
The third grade Art classes will study Greek Mosaics to create a mosaic flower sculpture.
They will use their art time to glue plastic bottle caps to a pre-cut wooden flower shape. The
flower sculptures will be placed in the garden sections surrounding the outdoor learning
classroom.
Fifth grade Art classes will study the totem poles created by the North American Indians.
Each student will create a cylindrical section of the totem pole. Each student’s section will
slide onto a PVC pipe creating a class totem pole.
Fifth grade will also make a sculpture we will call Our Tree of Learning. They will study the
artist Dale Chihuli, who is an American glassblower. The students will create a colorful tree
sculpture made from plastic bottles. The students will color and cut the plastic bottles and
tie all together. These will represent the tree tops. It will be hung on a wooden cutout to
represent the tree trunk.
Third grade Music classes will be working with found sounds. Students will bring in different
types of containers, then working in small groups they will measure them, use different
types of strikers, hypothesize how the object will sound, test their hypothesis, and write up
conclusions. They will then choose the best objects for use outside on the Music Wall and
explain why that object would be suitable for outdoor use. They will help construct the
Music wall by hanging the different objects on the latticework wall. Objects will be painted
to create not only a pleasing sound but also a colorful wall. They will do a variety of
activities using Phil Tuga’s website as well as nyphil.com.
Fifth grade will study sound waves and how different materials affect soundwaves. Through
web searches they will research building an outdoor wooden xylophone, create a list of
needed materials, make a table of length and width of boards to make a C diatonic scale,
and work together to build the xylophone. They will also research other types of
instruments that can be constructed of PVC pipe or Electrical Metallic Tubing (EMT) such
as a glockenspiel, digiritubes, and drums, then will decide which instrument their class
wants to construct. They will create a plan including materials, measurements, and how to
play each instrument. Classes will work in small groups to create a variety of instruments
for use in the music classroom as well as in the outside Arts garden.
Clay 150.00
wood for flowers sculptures- 25.00
Adhesive for the bottle cap/flower sculptures-$50.
PVC pipe-$39
plastic bottles and bottle caps- free/recycled
plants-$100
river rocks/gravel or mulch-$40
wooden posts 4X4x6 --8-$60
EMT-8 pieces of varying lengths- $5
S Hooks 30-$15
Quikcrete-$40
lengths of wood 8 pieces of varying lengths $32
Rope-$20
Vinyl Lattice panels 8 x 4, caps and screws-$65
.