BIMA Curriculum Collaborative
Arts-Integrated Lesson Plans For K-5 Classrooms
In 2022, BIMA worked with Kitsap County elementary school educators and professional teaching artists to create arts-integrated lesson plans to build on the learning potential embedded in BIMA’s Art In Action video series.
Designed for ease of use, these grab-and-go lesson plans meet curriculum standards and foreground equity, with an emphasis on one or more of the following areas: Spanish dual-language, special education, social emotional learning (SEL), and/or arts integrated curriculum development.
Thanks to generous funding by an Arts in Education Partnership grant from ArtsWA, the Washington State Arts Commission, these lesson plans are free to download and use.
Lesson Plans
Coast Salish Seascapes
(Spanish dual language)
Students will create watercolor and mixed media artworks that use words of affirmation to underscore the importance of protecting Coast Salish waterways.
Flag Books and List Poetry
Students will learn about artist’s books and the history of the book, read and analyze “Life Doesn’t Frighten Me” by Maya Angelou, and create their own flag-fold artist’s books and list poems.
Lotería Cards
(Spanish dual language)
Students will incorporate dual language learning as they explore the history of the Lotería card game and create their own Lotería cards of Western Washington plants and animals.
Painted Lady Butterflies
Over three lessons, students will learn about butterfly life cycles and create a hanging mobile depicting the life cycle of the Painted Lady Butterfly native to Washington State.
Paper Houses
Students will learn about homes around the world and how artists have portrayed home, and will create 3-D homes that will serve as a canvas for ideas, words, and pictures about family and home.
Passports and Travel
Students will read and analyze “The Passport Photo” by Naomi Shihab Nye and create self-portraits and personal passport books that focus on the “journeys” that have shaped them so far.
Poetry Spheres
Students will listen to “Distant Rain,” in which author Shaun Tan wonders about slips of paper that inspire small and accidental poems, and will collaborate to create “found literature” using language and drawings.
Watercolor Salt Effect
In this one-part science experiment, one-part art exploration, students will determine how salt reacts with water and use that knowledge to create a textured effect on a watercolor painting. Students will think about how salt works and how to use non-traditional tools and abstraction in painting.
