Visual Arts & Music
Our art and music programs cultivate creativity, expression, and critical thinking from Kindergarten through Grade 4. While encouraging joy, curiosity, and cultural appreciation, these curricula help students develop their unique voices, collaborate, and understand art and music as powerful global languages.
Our visual arts program builds a foundation for creativity, expression, and critical thinking from Kindergarten through Grade 4. Students explore diverse media – drawing, painting, sculpture, and ceramics – while developing the skills and habits of mind essential to the artistic process.Students learn how to make art and how to think about art, becoming conversant with artistic concepts and developing art literacy through exposure to a variety of media, artists, and genres.
What students learn:
- Kindergarten: Explore the building blocks of art—line, shape, color, texture, and space—through playful, hands-on projects. Students learn safe tool use and share observations during discussions.
- Grade 1: Gain greater control and intentionality with art elements while exploring cultural connections. Begin reflective practice during critiques and learn basic clay techniques.
- Grade 2: Create artwork that reflects cultural and global perspectives, demonstrate improved precision in drawing and painting, and refine clay skills using slip and smoothing techniques.
- Grade 3: Apply more complex principles like proportion and balance, build with slabs in ceramics, and integrate science, history, or literature themes into artwork.
- Grade 4: Demonstrate mastery of design principles and advanced ceramics techniques. Students lead critiques, communicate complex ideas visually, and connect their art to research and cross-disciplinary studies.
Throughout the program, students learn to think critically, collaborate, and express their unique voices, while gaining an appreciation for art as a global language
