Through art and beyond

So I had to do a presentation in Aboriginal Education this week, and since the chapter my partner and I were presenting on was written by a Hawaiian educator from a Native Hawaiian perspective, some Hawaiian realia was needed. So my partner brought some leis, and I brought some pineapple. But that didn't seem like enough. We needed something more. Something distinctly Hawaiian. And that's when it hit me: a ukulele. Of course, not too many people have a ukulele lying around the house and I was no exception. So, I had to make my own.

My Shoeboxulele

Pictured above is my homemade shoeboxulele, made from stuff I had around the house, aided by a wonderful YouTube video. I modified the idea, but in the end I had my very own shoeboxulele. While it sounded more like a mandolin than a ukulele, and it could have used some decoration to make it fancier, I am proud of what I made. And it got me thinking about art across the curriculum.

It seems to me that art can be paired with so many other subjects. I paired visual art with music (not very good music mind you) and giving a presentation (meeting some Social Studies PLOs). How many other connections are there? How many times have we coloured a map for Social Studies, sang a song for Science (now Pluto's not a planet anymore...) or acted out a skit in French? The opportunities seems endless. I don't believe that we should always try to incorporate fine arts into our other subjects. Sometimes we just need to focus on Math. And sometimes that special dance routine we are working on needs to be focused on just dancing.

So the way I see it: we shouldn't be afraid to mix and match our subjects when it makes sense, but we shouldn't overdo it.

And for those of you interested in making their own shoebox stringed instrument: