Our school has a strong commitment to the arts, with three thriving arts programs: Fine Art, Music and Drama. Each of these programs has at least one full-time teacher and all of them produce several public showings each year. By teaching arts, we hope to develop each student's creative potential and to have each student feel comfortable participating in all the arts. Our goals include developing skills and craftsmanship, encouraging confidence, fostering the ability to express feelings through the arts, to be sensitive to other's art and to appreciate past and contemporary artists and understand their contributions to culture, heritage and environment.

Fine Art

Our Fine Art program explores a broad range of media and techniques including painting, drawing and sculpture. In class students learn about past artists, develop technique by studying and emulating historical artistic styles, and have lots of fun creating amazing new works. Look for a new Fine Art Web site coming soon! In the meantime, look for examples of our students' work exhibited all over the school grounds.

Groups of 13 students (half class size) meet in our purpose built art room for an hour and a half on a weekly basis. The flexible program is often adapted to enhance other classroom activities to add a new dimension to learning. For example, when a class studies Egypt, each child may design their own sarcophagus.

We provide ample opportunity for children to work in a range of media. Having a kiln allows us to provide a range of sculpting activities including slabbing, coiling and free modeling, and it provides an understanding of glazing techniques. Small children may explore how to make alien clay faces while middle schoolers study Henri Moore and produce ceramic maquettes with a faux gold finish. Children also learn the elements of collage, print making and textile design.

Art Curriculum

Music

Our talented, Orff-Schulwerk trained teachers let children make music and then teach them to read and write it too. The "Orff" program was created in the 1930s in a collaboration between a German composer, Carl Orff, a dancer and a musician to provide a means to convey music expression to children without losing musical integrity. In our weekly classes, children get to do what they like best: sing, chant rhymes, clap, dance and keep a beat on anything at hand. We provide musical instruments like a complete set of top quality xylophones, so that the children not only produce a wonderful sound when they play together, they are able to visualize it too. They love the activity but soon realize that they are improvising, creating their own songs, and learning how to play together as a small orchestra. In the middle school, students begin an instrumental education program, learning woodwind and brass instruments, piano and guitar.

Students also learn music history as it pertains to what they are learning in their classrooms. They are also exposed to music technology through audio/video recording, mixing and sequencing notation software.

Middle School Music Concert 2007

Music Curriculum

Performing Arts

Being in front of an audience is easy for MP&MS students. Through plays, performances, songs, speeches, presentations, puppet shows, role playing and more, our students learn the skills and confidence necessary to communicate to an audience. Beyond the productions that are done in class, our recently expanded, school-wide drama program teaches students the theatrical arts. Our students put on a number of plays and musicals each year that are open to the broader school community. In recent years we have seen productions of "Little Shop of Horrors," "Godspell" and "Working." Students are involved not only in the performance itself, but in many production fields as well: lights, sound, set design, costumes, program design, etc. Parents are an integral part of the drama community, assisting with costumes, rehearsals and make up.

Drama Curriculum