Springboard offers children ages birth to three years, along with their teachers, parents and caregivers, the opportunity to take part in a Baby Artsplay!™ residency program in their community. The goal of a Baby Artsplay! Classroom-Based Residency is to provide...
Curriculum Connections: Math

Our Programs

Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts
Springboard to Learning is the only Missouri affiliate of the National Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts. The Wolf Trap professional development model helps to prepare young children for a lifetime of learning by educating, modeling, and coaching...
Designed to Move
Note: This program can only be delivered virtually. Designed to Move is a 3-5 day virtual professional development residency for classroom teachers led by dance educator and seasoned teaching artist Sarah Council. Program participants will acquire a variety of...
Dancing Engineers
Note: This program can only be delivered virtually. Dancing Engineers is a 3-5 day virtual STEM-focused creative dance residency that explores the 6-step engineering process through movement. Drawing additional inspiration from forms such as bridges, arches, and...
Move, Create and Collaborate
Note: This program can only be delivered virtually. Move, Create and Collaborate is a 3-5 day arts-integrated, virtual creative dance residency that engages students in an exploration of classroom curriculum through movement and dance-making. Working together over...
Visualizing Mathematics
A SPRINGBOARD SIGNATURE PROGRAM (Originally Developed by Ellie Balk) Do some of your students struggle to connect with mathematics? Teaching core math curriculum through the lens of visual art can give the students confidence to learn and absorb more content in...
Art of Baseball
A SPRINGBOARD SIGNATURE PROGRAM (Originally Developed by Carrie Launius) Explore all aspects of baseball while developing essential math skills related to analyzing data. Through small group collaborative analysis, students delve into various data points across the...
Money Magic
Jeff wants a puppy. He wants a puppy more than anything so he asks his mom if he can get one. She says, “If you’re grown up enough to earn the money, then you’re grown up enough to take care of a puppy.” With the help of a zany cast of characters, Jeff learns to WORK...
Moving Through STEM
Designed especially for STEM nights, this program includes two 30-minute excerpts of this ensemble’s popular “Moving Through Math” and “Moving Through Science” performances. "Moving Through Math" targets grades K-2 and is an interactive lecture demonstration that...
Chef Alfredo and Madam Souffle
Join Chef Alfredo and Madam Souffle as they cook up some fun with facts in their kitchen – your classroom! These entertaining and crazy cooks will use Drama Based Instruction (DBI) to show the relationships between sets of data, the order for solving equations, and...
Moving Through Multiplication
Designed to help students conceptually grasp the foundation of multiplication, this program is designed to support student learning of factors and multiples, and later on, fractions. It explores how patterns lay the fundamental building blocks of music, dance, and...
IdeaBuilder
A SPRINGBOARD SIGNATURE PROGRAM (Originally Developed by Celeste Nichols and Carrie Launius) In this hands-on residency students create a prototype of a product that solves a real world problem in their daily lives. Students must use critical thinking to determine a...
Papa’s Percussion and Puppets for Preschoolers
The energetic enthusiasm of “Papa” Wright is woven throughout this workshop designed to introduce young students to the percussion family of instruments. A wide variety of instruments become the vehicles to learning to count and play simple rhythms. By using puppetry,...
Peter Rabbit Grows a Garden
This performance features Peter Rabbit growing his own garden after receiving seeds and instruction from a disgruntled farmer named Jill. Problems arise when a gopher steals some of Peter’s carrots. Peter has to resolve the issue by sharing his knowledge of...
Interstellar Counting Systems for Space Aliens (and Kids)
Students are engaged through interactive stories and songs that incorporate finger plays, movement, fill-in-the-blank lyrics, counting, and dramatic expression. During this musical journey, Dino and the students discover monsters under the bed, help a space alien fix...
Motivation, Interaction and Space Aliens: How to Trick Earthlings into Learning
Professional Development for K-2 classroom teachers and Elementary School Music Teachers Earthlings learn best when they are engaged. And they are engaged best when they are interactive. Dino O'Dell's workshops focus on engaging intrinsic motivators in three areas:...
Storytelling Classroom: Applications Across the Curriculum
This workshops provides a hands-on introduction to the art and its magical ability to engage students in learning. By its nature, storytelling is experiential, engaging, and involving. More classroom teachers are discovering what storytellers have always known: that...
Storytelling: A Powerful Tool for Brain-Based Education
Through demonstrations, interactive instructional models and lively discussion, this training seminar will explore the ways in which storytelling and folktales can provide a meaningful matrix for learning which positively affects test scores and competencies....
Arts Integration + Understanding by Design = Deeper Learning through the Arts
Students are more likely to make meaning and gain understanding when they link new information to prior knowledge, relate facts to “big ideas,” explore essential questions, and apply their learning in new contexts. Where does arts integration fit in this process? By...
Wright Rhythms for Small Hands
While scraping, shaking and striking a wide variety of instruments, the enthusiasm of Glen “Papa” Wright energizes the classroom as he leads students through a creative musical adventure. Instruments are amusingly introduced to demonstrate basic rhythms, sound effects...
Dramatic Play Through Puppetry
Guided by puppeteer Paul Vandivort, students in this program learn to use puppets to enter imaginary worlds and to act out stories. In small groups, students practice cooperation while playing games that teach math, phonics and public speaking skills. Creating their...
Moving Through Math
This interactive lecture-demonstration is a fun and lively program using music and dance to bring elementary math and geometry to life. The performance catalyzes children’s capacity to grasp mathematical concepts by simultaneously stimulating visual, auditory and...
Creative Movement Exploration
Creative Movement Exploration introduces students to creative concepts of dance, body-spatial awareness and expression through performance. Students will explore movement to music, while joyfully focusing their energy and stimulating their imagination. The program...
Lightning Multiplication and Division Tricks
Students will learn secrets of lightning calculation, focusing on multiplication and division. They will learn to mentally multiply a variety of 2 digit x 2 digit problems; to divide numbers circled on a calendar using mental division; to add 10 audience-generated...
Geometricks: Learning Geometry with Magic
Students will deepen their knowledge of geometry in a fun way as magic meets math. Perform magic with 5 different types of triangles! Demonstrate amazing properties of circles when they are stretched to their limits! Speed calculate the area of a rectangle! Each...
Adding and Subtracting by Magic
Students will learn to do a variety of math magic tricks. To successfully pull off the tricks, they must perform mental addition or subtraction. When they show family and friends their new tricks from each session they will also be honing their mental math...