Encouraging Awareness of Environment through Art and Print Available to Purchase

The era of high stakes testing often puts pressure on teachers and administrators to deemphasize creative activities, especially those involving the social studies, art, and music. Teaching strategies not perceived as directly related to improving test scores are often marginalized. Environmental text is essential for encouraging overall learning competencies in general and social studies in particular. Using environmental text such as real estate booklets can be helpful in generating learning activities in the social studies. Real estate booklets are colorful, rich in content, and readily available at no expense. Methods for integrating music and art strategies are presented also.