Middle School
Inspired Artists
Art is one of the primary elements that define a culture. Think Bolshoi Ballet, Diego Rivera murals, and jazz greats Ella Fitzgerald and Thelonious Monk. Our arts curriculum will offer your child windows into both American and world cultures. Honing creativity, dreaming big, taking risks, and making spectacular mistakes—these are ideals that shape our arts programming. We deliberately focus on “process over product” in the fifth grade, while exposing students to all forms of art.
Not only does this foundation allow for deeper study and high-quality product in older grades; it also prepares our students for advanced study in high school. Fifth grade is a year of artistic exploration, where students spend approximately six weeks in each of the following classes before rotating on to the next course:
Choir: This beginning course for ensemble singers will focus on healthy singing, ear training, singing with accuracy of pitch and rhythm, harmony, and blending with other voices.
Beginning Strings: This introductory class for instrumentalists will give students exposure to orchestra, teach them basic note reading, and enable them to try out all four stringed instruments: violin, viola, cello, and bass.
Visual Art: This course will expose students to creative strategies, skills, and habits of mind through artistic practices. Students will apply concepts and skills to a wide variety of traditional and new media.
Theatre: As an introduction to the Middle School theatre program, this course is designed to encourage students to find their individual voices both as human beings and as performers.
Digital Literacy: This course will increase students’ proficiency in video and photo editing, as well as keyboarding, Office 365 applications, and Scratch programming.
Beginning in fifth grade, talented students also take to the stage to sing, dance, and perform during our annual Variety Show, while Chapel services, assemblies, and awards nights offer venues for individual performers to shine.
