Puppetry is taking on an exciting new role at Belmont Day School as the newest cross-grade strand in our theater arts curriculum. Through a thoughtfully scaffolded approach spanning first through eighth grade, students are introduced to a variety of puppet types and increasingly sophisticated performance techniques. From foundational manipulation to movement, characterization,
Alternative Process Photography in the IMPACT Lab The grades 7 & 8 arts elective, alternative process photography, has officially kicked off, and the results are already impressive. Students jumped straight into hands-on experimentation, manipulating light sources and testing textures to produce beautiful compositions. Working in collaborative groups, the artists layered
Last Friday, sixth graders students traveled to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, or MassMOCA, for a day of observation, documentation, and creative inquiry. Throughout the museum, students explored how contemporary artists use light, sound, scale, movement, and immersive environments to shape experience and tell stories. During the visit, students
Seventh and eighth grade students are growing more comfortable stepping up to the mic and sharing their musical voices with their middle school peers. A few weeks ago, students in the Find Your Voice elective performed a group arrangement of the song, Rewrite the Stars, from the movie The Greatest
Fifth grade students have been exploring storytelling through movement and imagination. Using a feather and a necklace as inspiration, each group worked together to create a series of three to four tableaux that bring a story to life. This activity encourages students to identify the most important moments in a
Third graders are stepping up their game in the woodshop, using a variety of established and new skills in order to see projects from beginning to end. Recently, the students designed and created individual Hole ‘n’ a Box projects. Each student started by imagining and drawing their designs. They then
Seventh and eighth graders have been creating handmade, one-of-a-kind books in the bookmaking elective arts class. They worked on several projects that included illustrating and developing a theme or story in an open pamphlet book. They hand-printed paper to cover bookboards, and then sewed these illustrated books together using bookbinding
After studying the parts and functions of microphones in their audio technology arts elective, seventh and eighth grade students headed to the Barn to put their knowledge into practice. Using graphite, wiring, 9-volt batteries, and paper cups, they engineered working model microphones that could capture and transmit sound. Once their
In our first theater class of the term, eight enthusiastic sixth grade students began exploring the fundamentals of ensemble work. Through the activity Big, Tiny, Twisted, they were challenged to create shapes with their bodies—starting individually, then collaborating in small groups, and eventually working as a whole class. As they became
Second Graders Read To Fight Food Insecurity On Wednesday, you could hear a pin drop in second grade. How is this possible, you might ask? We were holding our 18th annual Read-a-thon! The second graders spent all day reading to raise money in support of Gaining Ground, a local nonprofit
