March & April Arts

Belmont University Department of Theatre and Dance's Repertory Company visited Abintra and performed "The Frogville Skits" for our Early Childhood, Lower Elementary, and Middle Elementary.

Abintra parent Matt and his two daughters serenaded the Early Childhood B students with cello music! The students loved hearing about how the cello works and listening to the beautiful music it creates.

Lower Elementary's observation of tadpoles in their classroom provided the inspiration for multi-media art illustrating the first signs of Spring with tadpoles and daffodils.

Lower Elementary music class is full of sound! Group singing and activities to teach, inspire and motivate have been the focal point in music class. Instruments from all over the world are used to captivate the imagination while memory is used to identify the unique sounds they produce. Hands-on activities with unique instruments such as the mbira, cabasa, kokiriko, and agogo bell have endless learning opportunities and will continue to increase in fun group-oriented complexity.

A new collection of songs has students singing new melodies and memorizing new lyrics. The themes are friendship, self awareness and nature.

Middle Elementary's brief look into animal life in the ocean provided the inspiration for very colorful work using craypas , watercolor and ink. The principle under investigation was how oil/wax resists water. Some students chose to show animals in their environments.

Middle Elementary created wood block structures inspired by the work of Piet Mondrian.  They sanded, gessoed, and painted recycled wood pieces from a construction site.  They explored line to color in 2D form and created a 3D structure from their sketches.  The end goal was for each student to have a matching pair that could be used in a variety of group assemblages. 

In music Middle Elementary students having been singing songs with different rhythms: jigs, waltzes, marches.  Upper Elementary student, Mikayla DeBasio, came in on St. Patrick's Day to perform Irish Step Dancing.  The students have been singing rounds in English, French, German and Latin.  Ballads they have been learning are Fox Went Out, Rattlin Bog, Il Etait un Petit Navire, and Waltzing Matilda. They have learned two songs of peace, This Pretty Planet and Somos el Barco.  They have also learned songs of freedom and struggle, Follow the Drinking Gourd, Oh Mary Don't You Weep, Wade in the Water, etc.  The students have practiced singing in smaller groups, and learning to modulate their sound.

Middle Elementary students visited TPAC to see the performance, The Big Bad Wolf. "Wordplay and humor spark the imagination in this parable about stereotypes. Contrary to expectations, Wolfy is a pleasant, poetry-loving vegetarian, who finally receives fair treatment from a brave girl — a lonely overachiever who’s also looking for acceptance, understanding, and a friend."

Middle Elementary students participated in a study unit with a TPAC teaching art in preparation for their visit to see "The Big Bad Wolf". In in this picture, students broke up into groups to create and perform comical re-enactments of traditional fairy tales like Cinderella, The Three Little Pigs, and Hansel and Gretel.

Middle Elementary and Upper Elementary students visited TPAC to see the performance of Philobolus.  The internationally renowned dance company with a unique blend of artistry and superb athleticism. 

Upper Elementary students participated in a study unit with a TPAC teaching art in preparation for their visit to see Philobus.

Upper Elementary students visited the Nashville Children's Theater to see the production of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott.  "With deep intensity and uplifting songs of struggle, this play tells the uniquely moving American story of Rose Parks. Everyone makes a difference."

Upper Elementary students continue their study of the timeline art.  They created pointillism drawings inspired by post-impressionist, George Seurat.

Upper Elementary students have been recently working with potter and Abintra parent Caroline Cercone on a clay project related to their studies of early American history in Tennessee. They learned about the early American potteries of Tennessee in the 1800s settling along the clay belts, their process, wares and distribution. Reminiscent of the southern face jug tradition of that time the students built tall vessels from slabs and sculpted faces on them using dark and light clays for different facial features. Every piece is inspiring!

 

Upper Elementary has followed the story of music up to, and through, the Civil War and is now taking students into the era of modern music. The changes in society, technology and the creation of new genres inspire broad discussions and learning opportunities. There has been singing of traditional songs and group dancing specific to that time period. Tennessee's role in the early success of certain genres brings the lessons close to home, while the introduction to early Jazz, Dance Band, Blues and Country offers lessons in the foundation of current pop culture.

Upper Elementary & Middle School visited TPAC to see the performance of Moby Dick.  With wit and imagination, three actors from Hamburg, Germany, bring Herman Melville’s classic epic to life through physical theatre, ever-switching character hats, music, and surprising sound effects from the double bass and cello. The inventive staging of Captain Ahab’s obsession to destroy a legendary white whale in the mid-1800s is an exciting, suspenseful adventure, exploring good and evil, fate and freewill, and man versus nature.

Middle School finished their portraits. 

Aftercare artists studied the work of Chuck Close and created artwork inspired by his grid system technique.

Aftercare artists create nature sculptures inspired by the work of Andy Goldsworthy.

Digital Art students have been practicing their photography skills, experimenting with different lenses, apertures, shutter speeds, and perspectives.