First Grade - Arts

Overview

Golden Gate bridge and text: SFUSD Arts

First-grade students experience Arts instruction through the broad integration of arts throughout the school day, as well as through stand-alone visual and performing arts lessons that happen throughout the week. Stand-alone arts lessons are taught by you, the classroom teacher, and via instruction from itinerant visual and performing arts teachers. In first grade, students are focused on creating, performing, presenting, producing, responding, and connecting artistic ideas and work. They learn to work with others both in creating art, music, and performance, and also in sharing space and materials. Cooperation, communication, exploration, and imagination are being developed. The creative process, not the product, is still the focus for first grade.

Priority Standards

What students will know, what students will do, and what thinking skills students will develop to apply and transfer artistic understandings that endure within the discipline, leverage deeper understandings, and/or support readiness for success at the next grade level. 

 

In first grade focus on these critical areas:

Four overlapping circles representing Creating, Presenting, Responding, & Connecting

Exploring the cycle of creating, presenting & performing, responding, and connecting to works of art

Three dimensional artwork by students

Expressing with increasing creativity, complexity, and depth through 2D and 3D visual art

Students dancing, arms outstretched, in a dance class with drummer

Expressing through creative movement and creative expression

Kindergarteners playing a variety of instruments

Creating music through instruments, voice, or with objects

Instruction: Signature Elements

Below are signature elements of SFUSD Arts instruction that students should experience regularly throughout first grade as they develop as artists (visual artists, dancers, actors, musicians, and creative thinkers).

Magnifying glass for I see. Light Bulb for I think. Question mark for I wonder.

Open-ended Inquiry Exploration

Students explore an image, a movement, a song, or a media clip using a thinking strategy like: 

Kindergarten student making a clay horse

Creating: How artists work and what materials they use

Students explore and improvise with various materials, processes, and their bodies through imaginative play. They focus on the creative process (rather than the product) related to music, dance, visual/media art, or drama. They perform brief dance sequences with a beginning, middle, and end. Singing and playing classroom instruments improves students’ listening skills, technique, and understanding of musical forms. Acting through facial expressions, gestures, and movements helps students develop characters as they improvise scenes. In visual arts, students work in flat 2D formats and create 3D works of art as they learn about the use of color, lines, and shapes in their artwork.

Kindergarten dance performance

Presenting & Performing: How artists share artwork with others

Students prepare to present/perform a body of art, songs, and dances and reflect on their performance. Students are asked open-ended prompts, “What types of things do we need to prepare for our dance performance?” “How does practice improve the quality of a musician’s song?” “When do we know when our paintings are ready to share?” First-grade students describe their choices, explore suggestions and begin to consider the ideas and feedback of others. 

Students playing musical instruments

Responding: What we can learn about ourselves and our world by observing art

They listen when others speak and watch others perform as they participate by being an audience member. Students observe and describe an artistic work using specific terms to identify patterns and the emotion expressed by the work and interpret it by identifying the subject matter and describing relevant details.

Early Education Dance

Connecting: How art helps us understand the lives of people, of different times, places, and cultures

By connecting the arts with other content areas and their own lives, students build their vocabulary and pre-reading skills, such as describing costumes/props/the scene/rhythms and then predicting and summarizing the sequence of events in the story. Students identify the purpose of a work of art, song, product, etc, and discuss why they like what they like. Students learn more about why, when, and where artists, dancers, musicians, and actors create. 

Kindergarten students observing art made by their peers

Structured Talk & Reflection Throughout

At the beginning, middle, and end of the time, students respond to open-ended questions, use turn-and-talk, gallery walks, and closing circles to view, celebrate and ask questions about peers' work. They also have moments to pause and also reflect on their own process. Closing discussions: “What did you notice in the gallery? When your classmate made music, what made you go wow? What surprised you? What would you do differently next time?”

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Materials

Below are items you should have to support your students' Arts instruction (make a copy). If you are missing anything from the list, please first contact your site administrator or site Arts Coordinator. Every school has an Arts Coordinator who can guide you and support you in accessing lessons or purchasing your classroom materials for the arts. If they are unable to resolve the issue promptly, please contact Emily Aldama or Ronnie Machado from the SFUSD Arts Team. 

VISUAL ARTS

  • Projector with speakers or large screen with Apple TV
  • Materials for drawing in black and white: Pencils, Pens, Black felt-tip markers
  • Materials for drawing in color: Colored Pencils, Crayons, Markers
  • Paints: Watercolors, tempera paint, or paint crayons
  • White drawing paper - 9x12, 12x18, or 18x24
  • Color papers: Color copy paper, construction paper, and/or colored tissue paper
  • Scissors 
  • Tape
  • White glue, Glue Sticks
  • Any type of clay (Model Magic or Airdry clay) and plastic utensils, toothpicks, etc. for clay tools
  • String or thread
  • Cardboard
  • Brown paper bags
  • Objects to draw: shells, leaves, seed pods, rocks, blocks, toys, etc
  • Drying rack or area to store art

PERFORMING ARTS (Dance, Music, Theatre):

  • A space clear of furniture/obstacles where students can move freely and safely
  • Chiffon Scarves
  • Designated presentation space in the classroom and the school (display case, bulletin board, theater/stage, website, social media) to make learning visible
  • Speaker / CD player
  • Projector / Whiteboard / Smartboard
  • Classroom percussion/rhythm instruments (shaker, bell, hand drum, rhythm sticks) ) or found sound sources.
  • Instrumental music tracks for movement. Any song! (Melody, Lyrics)
  • Ribbon sticks
  • Chart paper/index cards
  • Markers, pencils
  • Painters’ tape (optional)
  • Classroom objects for hiding (e.g., ball, stuffed animal, etc.)
  • rubber bands.
  • Known poems, nursery rhymes, songs
  • Picture cards of instruments with the names of instruments written below the picture.
  • Big book stand, music stand, board-anything to arrange cards in sequence from left to right.
  • Rhythm cards, and manipulatives to represent note values (e.g., popsicle sticks, paper cutouts, etc.)
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Planning Guide

There is no planning guide for first-grade Arts.

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Reflection Questions

  1. How are students' developmental needs, communities, and experiences being reflected and honored, or how could they be?
  2. What opportunities do you see for developing equitable access & demand, inquiry, collaboration, and assessment for learning?
  3. What are the implications for your own practice? What strengths can you build upon? What will you do first?

This page was last updated on May 30, 2023