About the “Arts + Math = Understanding” Project 

Welcome to the “Arts + Math=Understanding” web page, where lesson plans and teacher resources are provided so that math, art, and music teachers can implement lessons that incorporate creative ways to explore Massachusetts Math Curriculum Framework standards into their classrooms.

The Fitchburg Public Schools received a two-year Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) Creative Schools grant (2008-2010) to develop an integrated arts and math curriculum. Math concepts were selected based on 4th grade MCAS item analysis which pointed to specific questions with the most wrong answers. The primary vision of this project is to increase an understanding of math concepts by students (and teachers) through the use of an arts-based approach to learning to enhance student performance particularly for students with diverse learning needs. The designers of this project strongly believe that this can be accomplished through a strong collaboration of classroom teachers and arts specialists where the same concepts are reinforced in the math classroom, but also in the art and music classrooms.

This MCC funded project was developed over a 2-year period by Fitchburg Public School math, art, and music teachers at the South Street, Crocker, and Reingold Middle Schools for students in grades 3-4. Jennifer Jones, Director of Arts, Dr. Nancy Jackson, MCC Creative Teaching Partner and classroom teachers:  Josephine Rivers, Elizabeth Maki, Deborah Hooper, Janet Tuiskula, Margaret Temple, Peter Wiernik, Joan Romano, Teresa Montemurro.

The following three math topics were developed to enhance student proficiency in math:

Lines of Symmetry

Fractions

Elapsed Time

Lessons for each math concept were developed for use in math, art, and music classrooms by providing classroom-specific lesson plans, visual teaching aids, student worksheets and manipulatives for each classroom-type. Although these lessons were developed for grades 3 and 4 they are designed to be implemented at various grade levels with appropriate content changes by teachers wishing to incorporate the arts-based activity into their classroom.

You can view a listing of the lesson plans developed for each classroom-type by clicking here. Each lesson plan includes a Universal and Class Vocabulary list, with Universal words to be used by all classroom-types and the Class word to be used in each specific classroom. We hope you enjoy these ideas that will enhance your students interest in math!

We welcome your new ideas and comments and will incorporate them into the lesson plans to let others know about your ideas. Email your comments to:  jonesj@fitchburg.k12.ma us

You may copy the resources on this website for educational purposes only and not for commercial reproduction and/or distribution. Full credit to the original source should be given to: Arts + Math = Understanding, Fitchburg Public Schools Arts Department, Fitchburg, MA: 2010. Submit your request via email to: Jennifer Jones, Director of Arts, jonesj@fitchburg.k12.ma.us.