"Abintra encouraged me to pursue my passions and curiosity, and trust that those impulses would lead me in the right direction." -- Luiza, Poet Luiza Flynn-Goodlett graduated from Abintra in 1997 and studied poetry in high school at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. She continued her studies as a poetry major at Sarah Lawrence College, and earned her MFA in poetry at The New School in New York City. Luiza currently works as a poet and Content Editor at the Academy of Art University's Cyber Campus. This is an exciting time for Luiza as she prepares for the release of her first book of poetry. Read on to learn more! Abintra: Tell us a little about yourself. Luiza: Right now, I'm very excited about my chapbook (a collection of poetry, shorter than a full-length book), Congress of Mud , which is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press (you can reserve your copy now!) in March. I moved to the Bay Area after finishing up my MFA at The New School and spent...

Who says that learning another language can’t be fun? During the month of December students from the Elementary classes learned about  families and celebrations.   Familias - Families: Students created portraits of families, made books about things that they like to do with their families, made family puppets, did a reading activity, and put on a play.  They did it  all! Casas - Houses + vivir (To live) Using shoe boxes to make houses and clay to make muebles (furniture), students made replicas of their houses. They each had a t urn to describe their house to their friends.  They also put on a play. Celebraciones -Celebrations  In each elementary class, students had the opportunity to learn how people in some parts of the world celebrate. To supplement this lesson, Andrea from the Global Education Center taught the students about styles of dancing in Spain. We finished with a present...

Winter break is quickly approaching! With two weeks away from school, this is a great opportunity for some quality time with your child. While there is a lot of excitement about the long break, the holidays can be stressful for children with all of the changes in routine, out of town guests, travel, and crowded shopping areas. In order to help your child enjoy this time with you, try to maintain a consistent routine as much as possible, keeping meal time, nap time, and bed time the same, and planning outings during the time that your child would normally be at school. Be mindful of their energy level and try to keep outings to an appropriate length of time. If you are planning to stay in Nashville, there are a variety of enriching experiences that you and your child might enjoy! Below is a list of places that are family friendly and offer educational and active opportunities: Public Library - The libraries have weekly storytelling and concerts, all of which ar...

As  Early Childhood  artists talked about autumn and leaves, they also learned about nature artist  Andy Goldsworthy . They explored Abintra's campus and picked up fallen leaves to create their own nature sculptures.  To integrate their classroom study of Africa,  Early Childhood  artists learned about African patterns. They are creating beads out of patterns they created. Early Childhood A artists also pin-punched animals and trees from Africa and painted a landscape to put them on.  Early Childhood  practiced rhythm and movement using hoops during Musikgarten.  Lower Elementary  artists ended their lessons on the elements of design with "texture.”  In an effort to reference their classroom study of land and water forms as well as to explore texture, they created encaustic (beeswax) paintings. LE parent Matt Slocum donated blocks of beeswax from his bee farm for the students to melt and mix with pigment. T...