The Arts
At Tesseract School, our visual and performing arts programs follow our philosophy of educating the whole child by providing our students with a variety of ways to exercise their creativity and express themselves.
Visual Arts
Tesseract’s visual arts classes encourage exploration, discovery and self-expression in a discipline-based approach. In art, students’ core curriculum is the language and understanding of the three schools of thought of the aesthetics: subject, composition and content. Middle school students have the option to further explore visual arts through two specialized electives courses each semester.
In addition to studio work in the classroom, students are introduced to local and international artists and have the opportunity to exhibit their works in private and public gallery showings through relationships with the Phoenix Art Museum, The University of Advanced Technology, Arizona State University and other community organizations.
Performing Arts
In Tesseract’s middle school, students have the opportunity to participate in music, drama, musical theater, chorus and band.
Through Introduction to Performing Arts, fifth and sixth-grade students are introduced to both music and drama. Students learn and explore musical concepts through active music-making, singing, instrument playing, movement, improvisation and composition in addition to theater and acting through their participation in pantomime, improvisation and scene work.
In drama, seventh and eighth-grade students learn about theater and gain acting skills through their participation in pantomime, improvisation and scene work. Students also have the opportunity to create character sketches, monologues and short scenes, and at the end of the first semester, participate in a performance for family and friends.
Seventh and eighth-grade students interested in musical theater have the opportunity to develop their skills and knowledge in the areas of singing, acting, dancing and theater arts as they prepare to participate in a large-scale musical theater production. Fifth and sixth-grade chorus students also participate in this production as members of the ensemble.
In chorus, middle school students learn more about vocal production and singing in an ensemble as they prepare for several different concerts throughout the year. Choral students strengthen their singing skills and gain further knowledge of musical concepts including music notation reading, movement and playing classroom instruments.
Band is also offered as a performing arts elective for middle school students. In these classes, students learn to play band instruments through progressional studies. Ultimately, students learn the musical concepts and ensemble skills necessary to play their instruments properly with the entire band
|
