Drama
Students have the opportunity to perform in or assist with two to three productions each year. Auditions are held six to eight weeks prior to each production. Two-hour rehearsals take place after school three days a week. The week of the show is exciting yet exhausting. However, by the time the curtain is pulled on opening night, cast members are ready to perform!
All-School Musical
The beauty of the all-school production is being able to watch our youngest students interact on and off stage with those students who are in our upper grades. The more seasoned actors take responsibility and oversee those that are new to the stage. Those that are just starting out watch and learn from those that are more experienced. The relationships that are formed between cast members last throughout the year.
3rd through 6th Grade Musical
During the summer, a drama camp is offered to students that are willing to spend six hours a day for five days to pull off a show. At the end of the school year this same production will be revived and offered to students in grades 3 through 6. The show will be recast and begin a four-week rehearsal period.
Music
The Lower School focuses on literacy, appreciation, and performance. Student literacy begins with an introduction to beat, rhythm, melody, music notation, form, harmony, movement, singing, and playing pitched and unpitched instruments.
Students learn about instruments in the orchestra and about influential composers. They are also introduced to music from diverse cultures. They attend concerts in the community which reinforce their classroom experiences.
All students are taught good vocal habits and are also taught skills of choral singing throughout Lower School. Students present a Holiday concert in December and spring concert in April. Any child in grades three through five can participate in Footnotes, our after school children’s choir. Students may audition for a smaller group out of Footnotes called Footnotes Ensemble. These two groups participate in school concerts, present concerts in their community, and take an optional trip in the spring where they may sing in a festival or a competition. Other performance opportunities for Lower School students include participation in the All-School Musical.
Suzuki/Traditional violin lessons are offered to all Lower School students as an enrichment class during school hours. Lessons are taught privately and semi-privately with our violin instructor. The students have performance opportunities playing in solo and group settings for the Holiday and Spring Concerts during the school year and possibilities beyond. This is a tuition based program.
Visual Art
Lower School art classes include a strong emphasis on individual creativity. The classes encourage each child’s creativity through work with marker, tempera paint, watercolors, pastels, charcoal, crayons, and clay. Proper use of the art tools is demonstrated with each medium and various art terms are introduced and explained. In addition, the elements of line, shape, form, texture, color, space, and value are studied. Integrated art lessons are structured with the regular classroom studies when possible. The Lower School children are also exposed to several artists and their styles. This exposure helps the children further develop their imagination and form their own unique style of creativity. Artists covered may include Pablo Picasso, Leonardo da Vinci, Georgia O’Keefe, Vincent Van Gogh, Henri Matisse, and Claude Monet, to name just a few! Art classes are 45 minutes weekly.