February Arts

Early Childhood artists learned about the work of the most international prestigious Spanish architect and designer, Antonio Gaudi. They viewed several pieces of his work including his stained glass work.  The students designed their own version of a stained glass out of melted crayon shavings. 

"The New Year is off with a bang with our Early Childhood musicians! We began with discovering new rhythm and tonal patterns. The children are successfully playing Mouse Mousie as their duple rhythm ensemble piece. It's played on resonator bars for melody and a variety of percussion instruments to layer complementary rhythms. This year, I'm consistently introducing triple meter activities during each class in a variety of new songs. Its important that the children continue to experience the success they have earned so we are sure to maintain and revisit our previous material. Their creativity and ability to express themselves through music and movement is growing in leaps and bounds. I'm extremely proud of each and every one of these students. Together we share the love of music and the energy it brings!" - Kari, Musikgarten instructor

Lower Elementary artists learned how geometry is used in art through tessellations.  They viewed the work of M.C. Escher and then created their own tessellation.

Tessellation by Alia

The music lessons in the Lower Elementary classroom have been supporting the idea of friendship. Group singing of "friendship" songs and group activities with rhythm and melody have the students working and enjoying music together, while learning songs they will remember for a long time. Activities such as Music Math and Pass-a-Rhythm reinforce past lessons and are on a gradual increase of complexities. Demonstrations of instruments from around the world continue to be an enjoyable activity that encourages discussion and imagination and the enchanting music of Tibetan Monks really had the students curious. 

DeAndre from the Nashville Ballet led a great workshop with Lower Elementary students. The students practiced listening to music and translating their feelings into movement.

Middle Elementary students put on a wonderful performance of Alice in Wonderland, directed by Christy Berryessa, for their parents and fellow students. 

Upper Elementary artists continue their exploration of Renaissance paintings. The students had a choice to create a tempera painting inspired by the Early Renaissance or an oil painting inspired by the Late Renaissance.

Middle Elementary and Upper Elementary students visited the Nashville Children's Theater to see the wonderful production of "Jack's Tale: A Mythic Mountain Musical".

Middle School created a video for their parent conferences that touched on milestones in their life as well as what they have learned about the world during their time at Abintra. Here is a link to a video created by one of the seniors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUkA4bSoiEg.

The Nashville Opera visited Abintra and did a wonderful performance of "Jack and the Beanstalk".

Aftercare artist have been exploring perspective drawing. 

Aftercare artists learned about the work of American painter, Georgia O'Keefe, and created flower paintings inspired by her work using watercolors and soft pastels. 

Flower by Lillie

January Arts

As Early Childhood artists learn about the Caribbean in their class, they created Molas:  Folk-art from Panama.  They learned about layering, adding details, focusing, and what molas are used for.

Early Childhood artists learned about the different layers of the rain forests in South America and created these rainforest collages.

 

Early Childhood artists brighten a gloomy day by painting rainbows in the sky.



Early Childhood A  artists created self-portraits to contribute to the school-wide collaboration of this years yearbook cover.

Early Childhood B artists learned about the portraits of Frida Kahlo and created their self-portraits inspired by her work.

I'm so proud that all of my Early Childhood musicians returned from their Winter Break remembering their rhythm patterns and our ensemble piece. Their focus has strengthened when each of them are on the melody instrument. It's difficult not to wander to your neighbor's rhythm! They have grown leaps and bounds with creativity and discipline. It's a privilege for me to be in these classes.  -Kari

Lower Elementary performed "A Bed for Bunnies" and "Francis Finds a Friend" for their parents. The students worked really hard on creating all the props used in the plays.  Congratulations to the students for putting on two great productions that emphasized the value of friendship and teamwork. A big thank you to Christy Berryessa for directing and writing the plays!

As Lower Elementary artists get into the fundamental human needs area of their curriculum, they dive into the biomes of North America.  Specifically, with the Native Americans and their needs in the biomes on our continent. Native Americans believe that the night air is filled with dreams both good and bad. The dream catcher when hung over or near their bed swinging freely in the air, catches the dreams as they flow by. The good dreams know how to pass through the dream catcher, slipping through the outer holes and slide down the soft feathers so gently that many times the sleeper does not know that he/she is dreaming. The bad dreams, not knowing the way, get tangled in the dream catcher and perish with the first light of the new day.  The students created their own dream catchers inspired by the Native Americans.

As Lower Elementary students prepare for their introduction into Native American history, they have been experiencing the diverse music and instruments that were, and remain, an important aspect of that culture.  Listening to audio examples and participating in classroom demonstrations of ceramic flutes, rattles, shakers and drums, brings the rich heritage into the classroom.

In Addition, activities that teach music fundamentals is an ongoing way to support past lessons about notes, rhythm and song. Activities such as music math and rhythm telephone, to name a few, assist in teaching note length and note notation. Group singing and circular song exercises support tonal and melody recognition while encouraging individual expression. Overall there is a large amount of learning and discovery going on in the music classes and the students are having a great time!

Middle Elementary students have been working on animal pinch pots in clay, inspired by early sculptures they observed at the Tennessee State Museum and other Ancient American works. 

Middle Elementary artists created these miniature layered landscapes in collage.  

As Upper Elementary learn about different religions in their classroom, they learned about henna tattoos and their significance in art.  The students designed their own tattoos inspired by traditional henna tattoos.

Upper Elementary students learn about the making and use of egg tempera during the Early Renaissance.  They had the opportunity to make egg tempera by removing the yolk from it's sac and mixing it with pigment. 

Upper Elementary also learned about the use of oil paint and its significance during the Late Renaissance.  They experimented with applying the oil paint as well as blending, shading, and highlighting to create realism by painting a still life of fruit.

Middle Elementary, Upper Elementary, and Middle School students visited the Frist to see the exhibition of Sanctity Pictured:  The Art of the Dominican Franciscan Orders in Renaissance Italy.

Upper Elementary and Middle School students saw the Nashville Shakespeare Company perform Twelfth Night.

Thank you to Chris from the Nashville Shakespeare Festival for leading a workshop with our Middle School students to prep them for the performance of Twelfth Night.

Upper Elementary students visited the Country Music Hall of Fame to see String City: Nashville’s Tradition of Music and Puppetry.  This performance is a colorful telling of the history of country music in Nashville. It uses over 80 marionettes, hand puppets, rod puppets, shadow puppets, and more! 

Upper Elementary and Middle School students visited TPAC to see the performance of GOLD. This performance consists of five athletic young men and women that tap, spin, and tumble across the stage, using everyday objects in imaginative ways.

After School Artists created birch trees by putting strips of blue painters tape down on paper and then painting the whole space. They removed the tape revealing the unpainted paper and creating the trees. They added the birch texture with the edge of corrugated cardboard. 

Aftercare artists learned about the grid method of Chuck Close's portraits.  They created this collaboration piece of Martin Luther King using that grid method. 

The yearbook staff completed the cover of the yearbook using self-portraits created by all the students at Abintra.

November 2014

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 learn 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.  The students were fascinated by the hot wax drying immediately after they brushed it on their board.  They enjoyed scraping and cutting into the wax to reveal the layers of color and to created texture.

Lower Elementary students are learning the time value and names of notes and rests on a music staff and applying that knowledge to sight reading musical notation. Note and symbol recognition has moved along very quickly!  They sing songs that support classroom topics including the names of all the states in alphabetical order and stories read in the classroom.There is also singing of tongue twisters and a few classics.  A variety of instruments are brought in, such as a flute, and passed around and discussed. Then there is a demonstration as well as listening to examples of that instrument. Exploring music through movement and with percussion instruments is always a hit and really gets the motor skills working. There is so much discovery and learning going on already, it is a very exciting time in the LE music class!

Did you know that your eyes are in the middle of your head and that the width of your eye is the same width of the space between your eyes?  Lower Elementary students enjoyed learning these facts and more when given a lesson on drawing portraits.

Middle Elementary's pastel self portraits are part of a series of studies on proportion and observation. Students have diagrammed faces divided into halves and quarters to show the location of the features, and have done self portraits in pencil while observing their own features in a mirror. 

Congratulations to Upper Elementary on a wonderful production of "Coyote Tales!" The students worked on everything from props to costumes to stage management these past two weeks. Thank you to their director, Abintra alumni Christy Berryessa, for working so hard with the students! 

Middle Elementary and Upper Elementary students visited the Nashville Children's Theater to see the production of, James and the Giant Peach. 

Middle School students finished up their self-portraits inspired by local artist, Wayne Brezinka. 

Digital Art students explored the Abintra campus and captured these beautiful photos while learning about depth of field in photography.

Photo by Mikayla