Creative Arts

We encourage children to experience the joy that comes from being able to think freely and express openly that which comes from inside of them. We use drama, music, art, movement and dance to allow children to navigate the realms of creative expression.

Theater:

Children spend time making up stories and plays, playing games and acting out what we are studying. Drama is a continuously spontaneous part of the curriculum, one of the great avenues for teaching and working with children. In addition, every spring we have an all school performance. We perform these in a local theater. The plays are written by the teachers, with original music, dancing and movement, as well as the sets being created in art class.

Art:

A local artist has been our art teacher for eight years. She comes once a week to instruct the students in different art mediums, techniques, creative projects and art history. In addition, art is an integral part of the daily class. We create learning experiences to educate children about where certain art forms originated. We work with clay directly from the earth, and make a container of some sort to hold water. We make dyes and paints from plants. We make our own paper, or find other things to write on. Art is not a separate subject, but a process we are constantly engaged in.

Music and Dance:

We have an West African music teacher music teacher teaching African drumming and rhythm, , singing, story telling, dancing and performance skills including different forms of dance, from hip hop to ballet to yoga to creative movement.Jane, our middle school teacher, teaches yoga twice a week. Our other music teacher, Janet, teaches music appreciation with music from cultures all over the world, and creates the music for the all school spring performance. We sing with guitar, we sing to end our hikes (Native American chants) and we sing to start lunch. There is always singing and dancing happening at Running River!