When: Saturdays, April 11 & April 18, 2026
Time: 9:00am to 3:00pm PST
Where: San Diego, CA
For: K – 2nd Grade Educators (but all grade level teachers are welcome)
Developed for elementary school educators, CoTA welcomes:
- K-2 classroom teachers, English Learner educators, art teachers
- Instructional coaches, curriculum directors, arts integration specialists
- Teaching artists
What you can expect to learn:
- Three art disciplines – creative movement, theatre, visual arts
- How to facilitate arts-based, student-centered learning
- How to enhance classroom instruction with art making, inquiry, group work and authentic performance tasks
Testimonials from past CoTA Teacher Institute attendees:
My instructional needs were not only met, I left with much more than I had realized I needed. The experience sparked the realization that what we did was just the tip of the iceberg of where the arts can take my students’ learning.
The most valuable take away was the realization that the arts can be woven into a learning journey through its entirety. Visual arts, theatre arts, and dance are not only an excellent way to begin a unit of instruction, but also to build knowledge of content, and even to assess student knowledge of a unit of instruction.
Download the CoTA Literacy Institute Flyer
Sessions
Literary Collage: Words as Pictures, Pictures as Words
Led by Leo Francisco
In this hands-on session, you’ll learn how to use collage art to help students connect sounds to letters and build word recognition. Inspired by picture book artists like Oge Mora, Ezra Jack Keats and Eric Carle, you’ll create colorful paper from your students’ own writing and drawings. These will be cut and arranged into fun illustrations and letters, supporting lessons on phonics, syllables, and rhyming. The finished collages can be turned into classroom books or displayed as art, making literacy learning visible and engaging for all grade levels.
Dance Me into a Land of Words
Led by Amanda Penaloza-Banks
Discover how creative movement can boost your students’ vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency. Through interactive activities, you’ll explore ways to connect words and stories to physical actions, making language learning active and memorable. These playful strategies help students understand and remember new words, making literacy lessons more dynamic and fun.
Puppets & Play: Language of Retelling
Led by Jason Johnson
Bring stories to life with puppetry! In this workshop, you’ll use simple materials to create rod puppets and act out classic fables. This playful approach helps students practice retelling stories, understand story structure, and build oral language skills. You’ll also learn how to use puppetry as a tool to assess comprehension and fluency in a fun, low-pressure way.
Mixed-Media Quilts: Stitching the Story Together
Led by Renee Weissenburger
Work together to create a classroom quilt that explores the “5 Ws” of stories: who, what, why, where, and when. Using paper, found objects, and drawings, your students will make quilt blocks based on Cinderella stories from around the world. As you assemble the quilt, you’ll compare key story elements, helping students deepen their understanding of narrative structure and cultural differences.
