LS Fine Arts

The Lower School Art Studio is a sanctuary, where the environment is calm and focused, and thoughtful problem solving honors the God-given creativity of each artist. The teaching is process-oriented, with the desire for students to experience a variety of media as each year they engage differently with the elements of art. Students engage with living artists, whether in person or viewing them at work in their studio. 

While art is often individualistic, students also experience the joy of combining talents in collaborative work. First graders collaborate annually with the 8th grade Digital Illustration class, where the older students digitize an image from the younger student’s drawing. Collaborative art installations involve multiple grade levels, and can include family participation as well, like the year the thankfulness leaves attached to the 5th graders' lifesize tree sculptures adorned with 4th graders’ bird sculptures. Each year the collaborative installation is different in scope and subject.
 

In Lower School Music, students build through song games, folk songs, and partner dances. Each lesson incorporates play that practices melodic and rhythmic patterns, taught in a careful sequence. At the end of the lesson sequence, the new element is made conscious, and students practice it in the context of new song literature. In addition to music reading, students practice expressive and tuneful singing, and they learn the importance of working together as a group. Every grade level prepares a special offering for all-school chapels gaining performance experience. There is an extracurricular choir, Cub Choir, for 3rd and 4th grade students that meets before school and sings at school and community events. 

Fifth graders have the choice of advanced choir, Panther Singers, or Panther Music Lab, where students learn software applications for creating music digitally and fuse sound with the meaning of the text in underscoring a poem or children’s book.