KCPIE Partnership
KCPIE FREE Events!
Tiny Toy Tales: Storytelling and Early Childhood Literacy – 'Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock' with Kassie Misiewiczq
Tired of the same old read alouds? Ready to put the arts back into language arts? Tiny Toy Tales are well-known books that have been adapted for interactive storytelling and integrate multiple curricular objectives.
9 a.m.-12 p.m. Saturday, October 3, 2026 | SMSD Center for Academic Achievement | Pre-K-2
During this session, participants will learn strategies for incorporating art into the teaching of social studies. Drawing on the collection of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, we will consider how works of art can function as primary source documents reflecting the time, place, and historical context in which they were made, and we will practice analyzing art alongside other texts to learn what art can tell us about the past and our present world. Social studies topics and themes addressed in this session will be especially applicable to secondary grades.
Bonnie Thomas, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Visual Art Through a Social Studies Lens: Integrating Art and History
October 6th from 4:30 - 6:00 PM
Don't Say It… SING IT! The Power of Music Education in the Elementary Classroom with Aaron Fowler
Think about how many times each day you ask students to line up, clean up, transition, or refocus. How often do you repeat those directions? Instead of saying it over and over, learn how to sing or chant your classroom routines to capture attention, build consistency, and make transitions smoother. Music can also bring academic standards to life through original songs, familiar folk tunes, or melodies your students already know and love. Whether it's a tune from Frozen, Wicked, or another favorite, music helps students engage, participate, and remember what they're learning. This session will leave you ready to inspire your students with the power of music!
During this session, participants will learn strategies for incorporating art into the teaching of social studies. Drawing on the collection of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, we will consider how works of art can function as primary source documents reflecting the time, place, and historical context in which they were made, and we will practice analyzing art alongside other texts to learn what art can tell us about the past and our present world. Social studies topics and themes addressed in this session will be especially applicable to secondary grades.
Emily Bridges, Lyric Opera of Kansas City
Opera, Musical Storytelling, and Social-Emotional Learning
December 5th from 10:00-11:30 AM
See it. Show It. Know It.: Using Creative Movement and Visual Literacy to Deepen Learning with Garrett Brown and Harlan Brownlee
Discover how students can read visual texts to make evidence-based inferences and then use creative movement to deepen and express understandings. You will leave this workshop empowered to help students to find their creative voice!
4:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, November 4, 2026 | Liberty Fine Arts Office | Grades 3-8
Healing Through the Arts: Grief Education for Classrooms with Jennifer Danaher
This professional development session explores how arts integration can provide safe, developmentally appropriate opportunities for students to express emotions, build resilience, and foster connection.
4:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, January 21, 2027 | Johnson County Community College | All Grades When reading is active, students take ownership of their learning and are more motivated to engage and collaborate with their peers. How can drama and embodiment help students become active readers who are also storytellers and creators?
This interactive virtual session explores different applications of role-playing in the classroom, from individual to group work, from quick, spontaneous responses to long-term designed projects. Through experiencing these strategies and playful tools, we dive into curriculum design that transforms the words (and pictures!) on the pages into worlds enacted and created by students. Teachers are encouraged to come to this session with a text (a story, a picture book, etc.) that they are excited to explore with their classes. We'll end this session with an action-planning exercise that gets participants started with their own student-in-role lesson plan.
Xinyue Zhang, the Coterie
From Reading to Creating: Activate Literacy Learning through Student-in-Role Techniques
Feb. 6th from 10:00 - 11:30 AM
Raising the Stakes: The Storytelling Power of Emotion in the ELA Classroom' with Story Pirates
Not only can strong, vibrant emotions make for a more gripping piece of narrative writing, they're also a great tool to help students express themselves with clarity and specificity. Join Story Pirates teaching artists for simple, easy activities you can use to help students raise the stakes in their writing, bringing the emotion and the expressive power of their narratives to the next level.
Join Heather Loewenstein, Artistic Director of StoneLion Puppet Theatre (www.stonelionpuppets.org), for a fun, informative workshop on how to use puppetry to liven up your classroom. Puppets can be powerful educational tools and can transform your teaching, providing interactive ways for students to safely explore ideas and express themselves and what they know. Create a paper mouth puppet that can add a memorable, hands-on element to your lessons and be adapted to any subject matter – environmental education/science, literacy/storytelling, math and more. Puppetry kits will be mailed to your door!
Heather Lowenstein, Stonelion Puppet Theatre
Open Wide: Puppetry for an Engaged Classroom
March 1st from 4:30 - 6 PM
'Shape Shifters and Pattern Makers: Creating Math Through Dance' with Tanesha Payne
Struggling to make geometry and patterns stick? This workshop will help students feel math. Discover how movement brings concepts like shapes, patterns, and spatial reasoning to life. You’ll explore low-prep, high-impact strategies to help students embody geometry and develop fluency with visual patterns - all through dance.