Winter 2018, Vol. 3
All the School’s a Stage: Performing Arts at ISB ISB’s Performing Arts curriculum emphasizes creativity and exploration, from its beginning in Nursery Music class through its finale in 8th Grade. What does this mean in the classroom? How does the curriculum build from our Preschool Music program through our Middle School Performing Arts program? How do Performing Arts at ISB integrate into our curriculum, and how does the program reflect ISB’s core values? ISB Teachers Melanie Cozzi and Mariko Watt sat down to answer these questions and to highlight the many ways Performing Arts enrich the student experience at ISB.
“Music is a unique form of expression. Many students can benefit from expressing themselves through music in a way that they cannot through other mediums.” - Melanie The arts are central to ISB’s holistic, inquiry-based curriculum, and the Performing Arts program begins when our youngest students enter school, in Nursery. Throughout Preschool, Music classes focus on the basic foundations of music: moving, listening, singing, using musical props, and doing creative and choreographed movement. In Kindergarten, students start to learn about contrasting musical ideas such as high and low, soft and loud, fast and slow. As they move into 1st and 2nd Grade, they are introduced to reading music and playing ORFF instruments. They also launch into music studies, looking at larger works of music and gaining perspective about what that these pieces mean to them personally.