Throughout this trimester, Middle school students worked in the style of American contemporary artist Nick Cave to create a small-scale model of a “Soundsuit.” Cave’s Soundsuits are surreally majestic objects layered with meaning, blending fashion and sculpture. Cave uses found objects, craft materials, and traditional processes such as crochet and beading to adorn his sculptures: his work has been described as “metaphorical armor.” The use of found objects introduces elements of nostalgia, and his subject matter is related to the Black experience. Many of his pieces are used in choreographed performances, and their resulting sounds when in motion become part of the work. 

Each middle school student was given a blank plaster figure to construct their Soundsuit on. Beginning with sketches and finding inspiration through collecting materials, students altered their armatures by adding wire, sewing fabrics on, or gluing materials onto the figure to build volume and visual interest. The results are looking wildly complex and imaginative. I want to thank Mrs. Sara Hunsucker for providing us with the handmade plaster figures, as well as co-teaching this lesson with me!

Despite the temps being frigid outside, the students have been keeping plenty warm and active in the gym engaging in various games and activities. 

The kindergartners continue to work on moving safely around one another and remaining in control during physical activity. One recent activity that helped hone these skills was “Line Tag” where students are tasked with evading taggers while navigating around the gym jogging only on the marked lines on the floor. Watching the students’ faces light up as they do their best to avoid taggers while remaining in control on the lines was awesome to see. 

Lower elementary students have been working on improving their sportsmanship and communication. A recent highlight was “Wolves Den,” which asks students to sneak around behind the back of one of their classmates (the wolf), and then freeze when the wolf turns around. If the wolf says they saw one of their classmates moving, that student goes back to the start and tries again. Witnessing the students change their strategy after having to restart was wonderful to watch. 

Upper elementary students came together to tackle “Mission Impossible.” Students were given a bucket of items to use while making their way from one end of the gym to the other without touching the floor. They were required to use all of the equipment in the bucket while ensuring everyone made it across. Seeing the class work together to find creative ways to use the equipment while adopting a no-student-left-behind mentality made the activity a highlight. 

Similarly, middle school students were recently challenged by a team building activity titled “Hoop It Up.” The activity asks students to work in pairs to lift hula hoops off of the gym floor and back to their home base. Students are only permitted to lift and transport the hula hoops using the two jump ropes each team is given. Teamwork is required to wedge the jump ropes under the hoops and balance them as pairs walk back to their home base. It was inspiring to watch the class cheer one another on as they carefully balanced the hula hoops.

It has been another wonderful few weeks of singing, dancing, acting, and music-making in the performing arts room!

At the primary level, students continue to develop their musical ears through pitch-matching activities and games. Students are really enjoying the circle game, Charlie Over the Ocean! This is a call-and-response song and game which allows the students to work on their pitch-matching skills. Students also really enjoy using their imaginations to create circle stories as a class. Another drama game that the students have been really enjoying is Statue! Using only our bodies and our facial expressions, students create statues when different emotions are called out. The primary students are great little actors! Using our sweet beats song, students also create a measure of music in 4/4 time using quarter notes and eighth notes. Primary students are also very excited about all of the new music and dances we have been learning in class!

Lower Elementary students have been focusing on their rhythm skills! Students are sight-reading many different rhythm exercises using quarter notes, quarter rests, and eighth notes. Students also continue to develop their musical ear using Solfe. The Lower Elementary students are super excited about a new project that we have begun as well! We will be doing a mini-musical in the spring! All of the students have been starting to work on their characters, songs, and lines from an adaptation of the Aristocat. This project is super exciting since students are learning all of the aspects of putting together a show, such as choreography, blocking, character work, voice work, and much more!

In Upper Elementary, students had their final performance of the Reader’s Theater project! I could not be more proud of each and every one of the students for their hard work! We used this Reader’s Theater project to work on character building and proper vocal technique when speaking in a performance. Students also created their own costumes! Upper Elementary students have been working hard on their vocal skills. They are focusing on breath support and vowel placement as we are working on a lot of new repertoire in class. Students are also super excited to begin working on our spring musical, Finding Nemo Junior, which they will be performing with the Middle School.

Middle School students had an extremely busy few weeks! I was so impressed with the quality of work the middle school students put into their play! They did an absolutely fabulous job writing the script, creating characters, creating props and sets, and putting a whole show together in two weeks! Working on acting skills with the Middle School was amazing! The students used all of the techniques we have been learning in our drama portion of performing arts to develop their characters and bring this show to life! Students in Middle School have also been learning new repertoires, working on their vocal strength through proper vocal technique, and developing their musicianship through site reading and listening activities. Each student also had the opportunity to audition for the Middle School play Finding Nemo Junior! All of the students are super excited about this new project!

The new year has been keeping everyone very busy in Makerspace!

The biggest project has been the Middle School Play which culminated in their wonderful performance a few weeks ago. The Middle Schoolers used all of their skills to create props, set pieces, backdrops, and even parts of their costumes. It was truly inspiring to see them work together to create such a cohesive and visually stunning production. Since the play ended we’ve returned to some personal projects while we erase back into things. One particularly exciting project has been our first successful use of the knitting machine by one of our 8th Graders (after many failed attempts on my part). The machine itself is about 50 years old, but we’re using old and new tech to continue to create with it. A hand drawn pattern is converted to lines of dashes and x’s, which is then converted to a dot pattern that we laser cut and feed into the machine. It might be a bit overly complicated, but the results are very exciting. One exciting recent Robotics challenge has been pulling as much weight as possible. The different solutions was amazing to see and we even had one car with the correct weight distribution, 4 wheel drive, and tire selection to pull  nearly 2 kg of weight (including the weight holder).

Upper El has been busy with a variety of small personal projects ranging from gumball machines to clothes. A Lower El students sweater that is almost finished  inspired a few Upper El students to begin their own. In robotics we’ve continued to explore outside of the Lego Spike kits on occasion to use the Sphero and OZObots, but we will also begin to get familiar with the drones and learn how to code with those as well. But one fun challenge with the Spike kits has been making drawing robots, which always produces exciting results.

Lower El has been taking full advantage of our new cardboard cutters from ChompShop. They are typically given an open ended challenge at the beginning of class and their imaginations help them create everything from animals, to laptops, to mailboxes, and masks. There are also students who have finished up knitting projects and have created scarves, pillows, and bags. As with he cardboard cutters, they learn a skill and their imaginations take them to wonderful places.

Kindergarten has been focused on knitting and sewing after seeing their older peers. Finger knitting has been a hit and we’ve seen many wonderful sewn, stuffed, and decorated felt bears. There have even been blankets knit for their bears. We will likely jump up to knitting on small circular looms and more difficult sewing projects and their skills continue to expand.

I honestly can’t wait to see what all these Makers create next!

The Art Studio has been buzzing lately with lots of wonderful clay work from kindergarten through middle school students! Students have been exploring a range of clay processes and techniques, such as coil building, slab rolling, pinching, and throwing on the pottery wheel.

Working with clay has many benefits for children of all ages. It is a complex sensory experience that encourages self-expression, helps promote self-confidence, and develops problem-solving and motor skills. Because clay is highly responsive to touch, children become engrossed in their work: they are able to express and articulate their ideas through shaping clay and learning to repair mistakes. Clay is different from other art mediums in that it requires an understanding of the three-dimensional world. While working on their projects, students must move around to see their creations from all sides. From this, they begin to understand shape, form, and perspective and gain knowledge of planning methods and problem-solving as they map out their creation.

With the turf field out of the picture due to the cold temps, the students have been heating up the gym with various movements, games, and competitions during PE class. 

The kindergartners helped decorate the gym storage closet by providing festive artwork for the walls during the holiday season. The students kept holiday spirits high, participating in holiday-themed tag and strategy games, which helped them work on their spatial awareness and social skills. The kindergartners were very excited to go “ice fishing” in the gym during an activity that tested their memory and teamwork skills. The students continue to work on general locomotor movements, including hopping, skipping, and sliding, as well as how to move safely within personal and general space. 

Lower Elementary students continued working on their sportsmanship and teamwork skills. They enthusiastically participated in social strategy activities, including “Birds in A Nest” and “Plants vs Animals.” Lower elementary students have also been working on their throwing and catching skills. The students have been learning to respect one another’s personal space during physical activity to ensure safety inside the gym.  

Upper Elementary has been learning team strategy and sportsmanship skills through activities including “Castleball” and “Jailbreak.” Emphasis has been placed on maintaining safety and empathy towards classmates at all times amid a competitive environment.  

Middle School students are in the middle of a floor hockey unit. Students are working on the proper striking technique to attack the opposing goal safely and strategically. Teamwork and respect for both the equipment and one another have been an emphasis.

December was an extremely exciting month in performing arts!  Students put in so much hard work rehearsing for their Winter Concert! The show was a smashing success!! It was so wonderful to see the joy on the students’ faces while they were sharing the gift of music with their friends and families. I could not be more proud of each and every student! Bravo to all!

In primary classes, students continue to develop their musical ears.  We have been doing a lot of call-and-response singing! This really helps students to hear different intervals and rhythms.  Primary students have also been composing short four-beat rhythms using popsicle sticks for our eighth and quarter notes. Students also really enjoyed our acting game, “This is the sound,” where after a call and response from the teacher, they had to “wake up” in an imaginary place and show what it would look like if we were really there.  We have “traveled” to Alaska, the moon, under the sea, and many more places using our imaginations!

In Lower Elementary, students created their own short plays! Students were given the title “The Day the Music Stopped!” and they had to create their own characters and short scripts. All of the students were so creative and had so much fun with this project! Lower Elementary students continue to develop into young musicians as well.  They are doing a wonderful job with their rhythms and ear training.  Using the scale with solfège, students are able to hear and echo many different intervals and melodic patterns.

Upper Elementary students are also doing an excellent job in performing arts class!  They have been working on a readers’ theater project called “The Case of the Big Bad Wolf.” Students are working on their character acting, vocal projection, and diction with this project! Upper El has also been working hard on their music theory skills.  Using the music we are working on in class, students are becoming great rhythm and note readers! Upper El also continues to work on their vocal techniques such as breath support, vocal placement, and how to know when to use their head voice or chest voice for certain notes.

In Middle School, students are continuing to grow as amazing musicians and performers! In music theory, students are becoming more comfortable recognizing the notes on the staff as well as following a melodic line with their voices. I am also very proud of all of the progress students in middle school have made with their vocal techniques.  They are all using all of the tools we have learned in class to sing with a strong and healthy voice. Another project we completed in our drama portion of the class was writing and performing short commercials for made-up items.  We had the talking calculator, shapeshifter, unbreakable water bottle, and many more! Students had to come up with a catchy commercial that would sell these items.  They were hilarious! They have also been very excited to work on their student-written play! It is amazing to see how creative all of these students are! I am so excited for the immersion weeks that are right around the corner!