Music, Movement and More
- Mardi Gras, a highlight of the winter months.
Foreign Languages
Beginning in first grade, the children receive instruction in at least one foreign language. Through story, song, rhyme and movement, first, second, and third grade children become acquainted with other cultures, as well as the vocabulary and cadences of the languages. They experience the food, festivals, and dance of these cultures. Grammar and reading begin with games in the fourth grade and continue more formally in the middle school. The students present short plays, songs, and poems at school assemblies.
- Music, the fourth language we teach
Music
Music is an integral part of the students' experience. Singing and flute playing begin in first grade under the guidance of the Class Teacher. Starting in third grade, each student learns to play a stringed instrument and participates in a group lesson. In fifth grade, some children switch to wind or brass instruments and the class is divided into string and wind ensembles. Once they begin playing an instrument, students are expected to have private lessons. Chorus classes for all students begin in fifth grade, building upon the daily singing students experienced in kindergarten and the earlier grade school years. There are regular opportunities for performance at recitals, school assemblies, and seasonal celebrations. Many of our students are members of the Vermont Youth Orchestra ensembles and other regional music organizations.
- Handwork teaches students to complete their tasks and to appreciate each other’s work.
Handwork
Handwork is taught in all grades at our school because movement of the hands and limbs is essential to the development of the intellect. Both boys and girls learn to knit in first grade, creating simple balls, gnomes, and animal forms. In second through fifth grades they learn to crochet, cross-stitch and knit with four needles. In sixth grade, when their bodies begin to change, all students design and stitch an animal, which can be an outer expression of their inner being. In eighth grade, while the students are studying the Industrial Age, they make a pattern and sew their own pajamas. Throughout the grades, projects are of a practical nature: potholders, toys, hats, socks, pillows, and articles of clothing. Mathematical concepts such as parallelism, mirror imaging, progression and geometric forms are implicitly experienced through this tactile learning process. The aesthetic experience of creating beautiful objects also nourishes the child’s emotional sensibilities.
- 5th through 8th grade students hit the slopes every week in January & February.
Movement and Physical Education
Students’ need and love for games and sports is recognized and met in the grade school with regular organized physical education classes. Gym activities help improve balance, rhythm, and coordination. In the elementary school, games stress teamwork rather than competition. In seventh and eighth grade, physical education continues to stretch physical and mental capacities. Our fifth grade students participate in an inter-school Olympic Pentathlon during which they compete in javelin and discus throwing, long jump, relay race and wrestling. Upper Grades students may join an after-school team sport program and compete with other independent schools in the area.
- “My feet can talk, my hands can sing.”
Eurythmy
The art of eurythmy is sometimes called “visible speech and music.” It consists of a vocabulary of gestures for both the sounds of language and the entire range of musical experience. The eurythmist attempts to make visible through movement the mood, color, direction and quality of music and speech which otherwise is only audible. All students, from kindergarten through high school, practice eurythmy. The movement patterns become more complex and conscious as the students mature. For example, as students study the laws of geometrical forms in their mathematics lessons, they gain a vital experience of them in the eurythmy class—walking and running in squares, circles, lemniscates, pentagons, pentagrams, etc. For the high school students, eurythmy ideally is an artistic experience.
- Students use hand tools to rasp, file, gorge and plane.
Woodwork
In fifth through eighth grades, students learn woodworking. They learn to appreciate the life-imbued medium of wood and to work rhythmically and sensitively. Creating a sequence of utilitarian objects such as spoons, bowls and three-legged stools reveals the fundamentals of sculptural form, simple yet beautiful and complex. Every task in woodworking is designed to help the students deepen their understanding and appreciation for the world of form in which they live. The sense of completion and success in this practical work creates balance and strengthens their will.
- The arts "warm" every subject taught.
Arts
Drama, painting, music, drawing, modeling, and movement are thoroughly integrated into the academic curriculum, including the science and mathematics courses. Students learn to illustrate complicated logarithmic spirals through precise drawings with a compass. The pyramids of Egypt may be modeled in clay, the mythological characters of ancient Greece depicted in watercolor paintings, and the music of medieval Europe performed on a recorder. Class plays are chosen (or written) according to the themes of the Main Lesson. First graders may act out fairy tales, while eighth graders may perform a Shakespeare comedy. Every student illustrates his or her own Main Lesson books and reports, creating their own textbook full of artistic and academic endeavors.
