Arts

Music 6 students perform as an ensemble with a varied repertoire of secular and sacred songs in two-part harmony. Vocal production, musical terminology, theory, and sight reading are emphasized.

Music 7 students are introduced to more difficult harmonies and rhythms than they experienced as 6th graders. They continue to study theory including vocabulary, vocal production, and how to be good ensemble members. Development of the ear is a major focus. 

Music 8 students will ring handbells both semesters of the school year. With three octaves of bells, we offer an extraordinary opportunity to enhance sight reading skills, technique, and the fun of working together as a team of synchronized musicians. This group will be performance oriented. 

Theater 6 focuses on introducing basic elements of theatre, such as vocal projection and stage movement. Students investigate the balance between personal needs and social responsibility through individual, small- and large-group theatre games and characterization exercises. Students create and develop characters, maintain points of view, learn how to justify physical action, sustain focus onstage, explore genuine human reactions, and investigate status and the influence it holds in the control of a scene. Classroom projects include the basic elements of improvisation, storytelling, and playwriting.

In Theater 7, students explore improvisational theatre through different forms, such as Playback Theatre, Commedia dell'arte, and Viewpoints. The purpose of Playback Theatre, in addition to enhancing performing skills, is to provide an opportunity for students to examine the story of the human experience and reflect on their own ethical beliefs or unbeliefs through the practice of improvisational theatre. Students will also study the origins of stock characters in Commedia dell'arte, and embody these characters through movement and vocal exercises. 

In Theater 8, students learn to demonstrate the ability to prepare and execute a role, and to gain the necessary vocabulary to clearly and artfully express their beliefs to an audience.  By the end of the course students will demonstrate their understanding of theatre by:

1. Working collaboratively to create original work, and to present a scene for performance
2. Developing an approach for creating theatre
3. Constructing scripts and collaborating with actors so that story and meaning are conveyed to an audience
4. Analyzing the physical, emotional and social dimensions of characters
5. Interpreting theatre
6. Researching, evaluating and applying cultural and historical information to make artistic choices
7. Constructing social meanings from informal and formal productions and from a variety of cultures and historical periods, and relating them to current personal, national and international issues
8. Collaborating and interacting with members of an ensemble

Visual Arts 6 meets in the art studio once a week. Through experimentation with a variety of processes, techniques, and different materials, sixth grade artists gain confidence and skill in their creative endeavors. Projects include collaboration on large scale murals, painting the campus landscape, and investigating color, line, and shape through portraiture and still life drawings. The outline listed for the year is organic and will evolve as we cross disciplinary lines and generate enthusiasm in specific directions. Students maintain a process sketchbook and create multiple pieces for a portfolio throughout the class.

In this semester course, eighth grade students will build upon their previous drawing and painting skills and learn to create visually expressive works in a variety of wet and dry media. As the semester progresses, project work will become increasingly self directed culminating with independently derived and executed projects. Process sketchbooks, critiques, and written analyses of work will be integral aspects of the course.

In this semester course, students learn how to throw clay on the potter’s wheel.  Projects give students structure but also latitude for self-expression. During class, the teacher introduces new techniques with demonstrations and assists students in their own artistic expression. Students conceive of and execute work, using imagination and self-discipline to follow through with all the steps necessary to complete a project successfully.