We aim to help every child find his or her voice and develop an appreciation for music at the deepest level. Our students learn to utilize music as a form of expression and as a key to understanding themselves and the world around them."
Jennifer Carnevale
Middle School Music Teacher
Students move through a sequential music program, each year building on the previous curriculum. Throughout, students reinforce old skills and acquire new ones in a variety of areas. Student learn to read and notate music, to listen to, analyze, and describe music, and to evaluate music and music performances. They learn to value and appreciate a variety of cultures, historical periods, and perspectives by studying a wide selection of music.
Inside the Classroom
Students learn by doing and so the music curriculum features projects at each grade level that embody the content and spirit of the subject matter:
All Grades:
Winter Concert
Fifth Grade
Original Opera Project
Piano Lab
Sixth Grade
Personal Music History Project
Original Hudson River Folk Song Project
Piano Lab
Seventh Grade
Improvisation and Dance
Musical Heritage Project
Eighth Grade
Philadelphia Visual Poem Project
Boston Visual Essay Project
Arts Expo
In the visual arts the focus is on exploration and learning new techniques. Our students are encouraged to create and embrace their own unique style."
Bruce Robbins
Middle School Art Teacher
The arts program provides a nurturing environment in which students are encouraged to explore visual communication through focused self-expression in two- and three-dimensional forms. Students gain hands-on experience with a broad range of materials and techniques. Students learn basic art history as they work on visual art projects that relate to periods being explored in other classes. During class, major museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art are accessed using the Internet, and students typically visit one or more museums in the course of the year.
Outside the Classroom
Art Exhibits
Our hallways always exhibit the wonders of our students' masterpieces
Eighth Grade Arts Night
At the end of the school year, eighth graders present their original works to an audience of classmates, teachers, and parents.
Dance
Dance is offered as an athletic option during the fall and spring sessions for seventh and eighth graders. Students study ballet, modern, and jazz much like the upper school curriculum. During the winter sports season the seventh and eighth grade musical is offered and features dance as a component of the production.
Faculty
Mary Rotella, Director of Dance
B.F.A., Stephens College
Drama
The study of dramatic arts is included in the integrated curricula across grade levels including the fifth grade opera project, seventh grade Ellis Island reenactment, eighth grade constitutional convention simulation, In addition seventh and eighth graders perform in a spring musical production as a co-curricular option. Students will sometimes perform at middle school morning meeting and at various events throughout the school year.
Faculty
Mary Anne Haskin, Chair, Drama Department
B.A., Hillsdale College
M.A., New York University
Mary Chappell
B.A., Loyola University of Chicago
M.S.Ed., Long Island University