Art and Music
Our arts and music programs are unique to MVCS. Art and music are integrated into our daily activities at MVCS and we have Art and Music classes every week. All of our classes focus on igniting creativity in a child.
Art
In Lower Elementary, students are immersed in the studies of the natural world and their artwork reflects that focus. They are encouraged to explore nature-derived art materials for their compositions, collecting colorful leaves, fallen pinecones or twigs for their multi-media projects. In addition to more formal art activities, students' nature journals are often filled with sketches or drawings of their surroundings- spontaneous inspiration from the natural world!
In Upper Elementary and Middle School, art is integrated into many aspects of our studies. Students use nature journals to sketch and draw their observations during science explorations and nature connection practices. Teachers guide students in using a variety of journaling techniques and students often choose to journal during the work morning.
With the support of community and parent volunteers students are learning first hand what it was like to live when you used your hands and recycled resources to create clothing, blankets, and other necessities.
music
The Lower Elementary music program has run the gamut from ukulele instruction to informal dance parties and singing. We often let nature guide our musical choices, as students learned the traditional folksongs that invoke the natural world, such as "I Love the Mountains," for our annual Winter Solstice Performance.
Last month our Saplings and Eaglets explored music and sound in the natural world! We went out into the woods and had a musical jam session using just items we found in nature! There were stick drums, pinecone violins, rock cymbals, and leaf and dirt maracas! The creativity of the students was on full display! We continued the exploration of musical instruments by building shakers and learning about different hand percussion instruments!
Upper Elementary: Loons and Black Bears also got to explore the natural sounds of the world around them by having their own outdoor jam session! We have seen several students continue to experiment with sounds in nature during recess over the last couple of weeks. We are starting to learn the basic components of music - this week with Boomwhackers! Students are experimenting with rhythm, pitch, melody, and harmony. From this starting point we will jump into different types of instruments, music from different cultures and time periods, and even experiment with some music composition!
Middle School: The Brook Trout are in the planning stages for some amazing musical projects! In addition to building on musical concepts from Lower and Elementary - we are also integrating more music technology and media into the curriculum; to start off the year we are studying the power of music in movies and television in preparation for the Brook Trout to film/edit/produce their own lip sync videos, short documentaries, and to compose, record and produce their own music. We will also be doing cultural deep dives into music month-to-month, watching and discussing musicals, and incorporating active listening to a variety of music into our weekly curriculum.