Home Curriculum Performing Arts
The Park Day Performing Arts program gives students a foundation on which to build lifelong artistic exploration and expression.
Developing confidence alongside performance and presentation skills is key to the K- 8 program. Through improv, dramatic skill building, and community showcases, students grow and stretch their artistic ability. The music curriculum incorporates the philosophies of Orff, Kodaly, and Dalcroze, focusing on collaborative musical expression and instrumental instruction that is accessible to all students.
Kindergarten World Music
For Dia de Muertos students studied music from Veracruz, Mexico, including the song “La Calaverita de Azucar”. They learned to play to the ¾ meter (3 beats) with maracas and sticks.
1st Grade Xylophone Ensemble
First graders learn more complex syncopated melodies and rhythms using the C, G, and A minor pentatonic scales. They master simple tunes and even try improvisation, expressing their creativity through music.
2nd Grade Poetry Cafe
Students take part in a Poetry Café, where they write, choreograph, and perform their original poems for an audience of family members. Each small group of students creates a unique café, choosing a name and working on voice projection and stage presence. Parents act as “customers,” visiting each café to “order” and enjoy a selection of poems.
3rd Grade Composition
Students compose new musical pieces inspired by art and community values. They explore multiple elements of music: rhythm, beat, tempo, melody, meter pitch, poetry, form, dynamics, and arrangement.
5th Grade Power of Our Names
This unit provides students with a solid foundation in the history and significance of rhythm in music, as well as an introduction to various types of rhythms. The “Body Percussion” activity at the end of the unit is particularly exciting, as students create rhythms using their own bodies and use them to create different sequences of movements.
6th Grade Poetry in Movement
We explore movement, improv, and ensemble work in preparation of a poem performance of “Sick” by Shel Silverstein that incorporates text, movement, and music. Students work and create collaboratively while learning to be expressive with voice, face, and body.
7th Grade
Guided by the question, “What makes you mad? What are you going to do about it?” students connect their passions for social issues with musical theater, creating t-shirts that double as costumes for the spring performance of “Revolting Children”.
8th Grade Band
Students bring their string instruments, horn instruments, and keyboard skills to class where they form a band and develop original musical arrangements.