Educational Programs at Orchard House
Arts Block
Dance
The dance courses at Orchard House introduce the students to flexibility and strength conditioning methods, dance terminology, and proper movement technique. Students explore the creative aspects of the form by learning extended combinations, participating in dance improvisation exercises, studying and viewing the works of famous performers and choreographers, and creating choreography for small groups and individuals.
Drama
Fifth Grade:
During the fifth grade year the students learn to read, study, and interpret a thirty-minute stage production. Through this the students acquire the necessary skills to work together towards a common goal. They learn about and utilize the different components of the production process: producers, directors, designers, stage managers, assistant stage managers, technicians, backstage crew, and actors. The students also learn how to strengthen acting skills through improvisations and group exercises that focus primarily on eye contact, concentration, and creative risk taking techniques. By the end of the class students have an understanding of basic stage terminology, various vocal techniques, stage volume, and vocal projection.
Sixth Grade:
During the sixth grade year the students embrace a difficult piece of dramatic literature, incorporating beginning acting styles with an emphasis on play analysis for a thirty-minute stage production. Through this the students acquire more advanced stage terminology and acting techniques for experienced performers. The students also begin to develop basic directing techniques and detailed character analysis.
Seventh Grade:
During the seventh grade year the students are responsible for the development, staging, and presentation of the annual winter program production of the children's story The Quiltmaker's Gift. The students are first introduced to story telling techniques and songs. Then they create dance choreography and movement sequences to help tell and stage the story. The students continue to develop advance performance elements such as stage volume, stage diction and articulation, performance energy, blocking styles, and the dynamics of ensemble participation.
Eighth Grade:
During the eighth grade year the students are given the opportunity to produce a full-length stage production. The production is produced with student directors, student designers, student stage managers, and student script dramaturges. The student performers develop and utilize advanced character study and vocal techniques. The student directors are responsible for organizing and maintaining a strict rehearsal schedule.
Music
The music courses at Orchard House focus on the following components for fifth through eighth grade:
- modes: exploration of diatonic and pentatonic scales
- score reading: development of recognition and use of notes on the treble clef, awareness of rhythmic notation
- instrumental skills: through work with the Orff instrumentarium, exploration of rhythmic and melodic patterns through arrangements and improvisation
- form and harmonics: exploration of musical forms such as rondo, and form and harmony through exploration of the Blues
- ethnomusicology: exploration of instruments and forms of music throughout different cultures including western African, Asian, Semitic, Indian, Celtic, Hispanic, Native American, Eastern European, Western European, and American blues and jazz
- music history and media: exploration of eras in the development of Western music culminating in music of the 20-21 centuries-including study of music of the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras, as well as the development of blues, jazz, and rock and roll
Visual Arts
Fifth Grade:
Fifth grade art class explores the fundamentals of color theory, value, scale, and texture. From a social aspect, girls learn how to work independently, with results that combine into a larger group effort. The main project translates a small square piece of a famous work of art into a larger square. The project builds skills one on top of the other. The class begins by learning about scale and proportion. Each student is required to translate an image from one size to another, searching for detail and meaning. Then the color wheel and color relationships are introduced to allow the students to translate size and tonal qualities. The last components taught are textures and color relationships.
Sixth Grade:
In the sixth grade year girls learn about composition, balance, and abstraction. Through a variety of assignments, concepts of symmetrical, asymmetrical, and radial design are covered and translated into three-dimensional sculptures that show balance. Sculpture materials vary from common everyday objects to papier-mâché and plaster. Next, using a foundation of still-life drawing, girls explore abstraction as a powerful and creative way of making art. Each girl transforms elements of her still-life drawing into a colorful abstract painting or pastel drawing, utilizing repetition, size, and other principles of art.
Seventh Grade:
The seventh grade concentrates on one large project with each girl creating an edition of 26 block prints. They learn the techniques of reduction printing, removing layers of the plate between each color, as well as how colors overlap and work together. Girls consider many factors including registration, how to keep prints clean, and how to visualize things backwards. Each girl produces a portfolio for which she creates and translates a layout into a three-dimensional form. The students then exchange prints with class members. This challenging project concentrates on thinking ahead, time management, and planning.
Eighth Grade:
The eighth grade class concentrates on "seeing" on several different levels. In addition to learning basic drawing skills, each girl creates a sculpture about her family tree. Girls are asked to think about people symbolically, in terms of color, texture, and line, and to explore issues of relational complexity and influence. The resulting nine foot "trees" show the depth and variety each girl sees in her own family. Next we move to drawing, learning that drawing has much more to do with seeing than with actually putting pencil to paper. Through exercises such as blind contour, negative space drawing, and value charts, we learn how to view an object and to see its form, shape, and tone. The girls produce several drawings including still-lifes and portraits. The girls also write a short paper explaining their own "theory of art" which they then share with the class.
