Arts are essential areas of learning in the ECC and Primary. Students learn visual art and music disciplines, about the arts (the skills and processes involved) and through the arts (themes and ideas using the arts). Arts are built into the curriculum as essential areas of learning. Creativity is at the heart of the arts. It allows for innovation, interpretation, research, analysis and transfer. Students develop conceptual understandings to express themselves and connect to their environment through arts.
The responding and creating strands are dynamically linked in an ongoing and reflexive relationship. Students are encouraged to reflect continually upon their work throughout the creation process, thus reinforcing the close link between these strands (PYP Arts Scope and Sequences, P2). By responding and creating, students add breadth and depth to their notion of the world. Students develop an appreciation for themselves as artists and individuals as they engage in the creative process. They also gain deeper insight into how art is influenced by and shapes societies and cultures, both past and present. This provides students with a wide range of opportunities and means to respond to their experiences and engage with historical, social, and cultural perspectives to understand themselves and the world around them.
Music is an integral part of the IB Primary Years Programme (IB PYP). MEF IS students are learning music through:
- Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music
- Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music
- Reading and notating music
- Listening to, analyzing, and describing music
- Evaluating music and music performances by giving/receiving constructive criticism
- Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts
- Understanding music with history and culture
In our ECC classrooms, we make sure to balance quiet and active times. Young children’s attention spans are shorter, and their bodies just want to move. In addition to recess, we make sure to provide music and movement activities for our preschoolers. ECC students also learn music through indefinite instruments through exploration and play. Students experiment with musical instruments and play with the concepts of rhythm, pattern, and expression through music. They explore musical elements such as pitch, volume, and timbre in a fun environment.
Students improve their musical skills through listening to rhythmic patterns and calling responses with percussion instruments. They perform in ECC Graduation every year and enjoy communicating with the audience on the stage.
MUSICAL PERFORMANCES
Performances occur during the year at MEF IS and showcase the learning from the music curriculum. Students experience the performing arts both as audience members and as artists.
Students also develop persistence, self-discipline, spatial awareness, courage, imagination, innovative thinking, creativity, risk-taking, critical thinking and reflection. These performances have a special relationship with learning, where the body and senses, the brain and the emotions all work together in constructive harmony.
The list of performances students participate in are:
- Concerts
- Celebrations
- Graduations
