December 2022/January 2023
Issue

MBIS Arts
Department
newsletter

CONTENTS

Department Teachers:
Becky Carter: Arts Department Head, Grades 7-10 Visual Arts, 11 & 12 IB Visual Arts
Brian Petersen: M-6 Visual Arts, Grades 1-6 Digital Skills
Jayme Jo Smith: M-5 Music, Grades 6-10 Band, Jazz Band
Zachary Carter: Grade 8 Film

UPPER SCHOOL VISUAL ARTS
Grade 7 & 8 Ceramics Whistle Project
Grade 9 &10 Surrealism Multi-Media Project
IB 12 Mock Exhibition

LOWER SCHOOL VISUAL ARTS
Montessori and Kindergarten Mixed-Media Portraits
Grade 2, 3, & 4 Collage Masks
Grade 4 Digital Op Art

LOWER SCHOOL MUSIC
Grade 4 Music Classes

Welcome!

CHRISTMAS PERFMORMANCES
Elementary “Jinglebell Jukebox”
Upper School Bands Holiday Concert

These past two months have been very exciting in the Arts Department! The Grade12 IB students completed their Mock Exhbition in December. All of their planning,
preparing, and hard-work were evident as they spoke about each work with theteachers and students. We are looking forward to their official exhibition in March!

UPPER SCHOOL FILM
Marist Monthly Mornings&Audio Projects

The Concert, Symphonic, and Jazz Bands held their Holiday Concerts showcasingthe students’ hardwork and practice for the whole school and visitors to enjoy. TheLower School also put on the production, “Jinglebell Jukebox,” on the last school day
before winter break. It was great to see all the wonderful performances fromMontessori through Grade 6!

UPCOMING EVENTSFSA Cultural Exchange: February 25, 2023
IB 12 Exhibition: March 3, 2023
Spring Arts Festival: April 20, 2023

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Please check out the course pages in order to see write-ups on these events and somuch more!

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Grade 9 & 10 Surrealism Project
For this project, the 9 & 10 students built upon theirknowledge from the semester’s previous units in order tocreate a Surrealist inspired artwork. The unit began withpainting practice and experimentation in both acrylics andwatercolors. I love this process as it allows the students
to learn to manipulate the mediums and experiment withvarious techniques.
After this practice, the students chosea Surrealist artist to research and present to the class.
This helps the students to practice their research, layout,and presentation skills as well as introduces the entire
class to lesser-known artists.

UpperSchool
Visual Arts

Grade 7 & 8 ClayWhistles
Grade 9 & 10 Surrealism

Once the foundations were complete, the students began
to create their individual Surrealism multi-media works.
Combining collage, watercolor, acrylics and drawing, eachwork is so unique!

IB 12 Mock Exhibition
Grade 7 & 8 Clay Whistle Project
Before winter break, the Grade 7 & 8 visual art
students began working with clay! They practiced making
maquettes, smaller versions of their ideas, from air dry
clay and once they were comfortable with the look, theymoved to the kiln-fire clay! The pieces were fired over
winter break and each came out of the kiln just how thestudents hoped!

The IB 12 Visual Arts Students showed their
Mock Exhibition on December 1st. This Mock
Exhibition allows the students to have practice
curating and setting up their exhibition space,speaking about their art, and offers a space toreflect on the successes and places for growthacross the whole process. Since the Mock
Exhibition, the Grade 12 students have beenworking hard to create their final pieces fortheir exhibition in March. I am looking
forward to seeing everything come together!

4The last preparation piece for our Surrealism project was
to understand copyright and visual plagairism. We discussed case studies and shared opinions about theoutcomes of each case study. In the final class, thestudents played an “escape room” game to further
practice their understanding of copyright and plagiarism.

Over the past few class periods, the students have beenglazing the works. Each work looks pastel right now, but
once they go through another firing, the pieces will havebold colors and a shiny finish! I’m looking forward toseeing the final works!

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Montessori andKindergarten
Mixed Media Portraits
We have been trying a mixed media
approach to art-making in our classes. We
combined drawing, painting, wax resist andcollage elements to create unique family
portraits. The students had to think about theircomposition as they combined all the parts.
What choices do we make to see the people
we want to include, highlight the interestingparts, and make use of all our elements. Itwas fun to think about and create images ofour families in new ways.

LowerSchoolArt

Grade 2, 3, & 4
Collage Masks

In preparation for Setsubun, our lower elementary classes have collaged
together original ‘oni’ masks. We talked about Setsubun, the cultural
significance around it, and used new and scrap paper to design our ownmasks. By thinking carefully about shape, color, and placement, thestudents could achieve very different results, but still maintain the importantelements that keep the mask an ‘oni’ mask. Some are cute, some aresilly, and some are scary! We hope that you enjoy them all, and throw
some beans this year!

Grade 4 - Digital Op Art
We have been learning about color theory, how we perceive color, and the ways thatcolors interact with each other in Grade 4. We learned that complementary colors orstrong shifts in value can create optic effects, including vibrations, illusions, andmovement. Using our new understandings about color and shape, we tried making ourown digital Op Art pieces to show some of the effects that are possible.

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LOWERSCHOOLMUSICGrade 4 Music

Our Grade 4 classes have been working hard in music. After performing a successful music performance in December with theother lower school classes, Grade 4 has returned
to working on
music literacy skills. Please enjoy thisvideo of Grade 4 performing a four part canon named “FrostyWeather.”
Recently, these students have been working on reviewing known
solfege pitch names: do, re, mi, so, and la. These five pitches makeup the pentatonic scale. The students have been using tools toread and write using the pentatonic scale.
Grade 4 has also been working on reading and writing known
rhythm names: ta, titi, tikatika, syncopa, and many more! We’ve
learned the proper names for these rhythms such as “quarter note;”
however, in Kodály music class we use a nickname to make iteasier to remember what these rhythms sound like. Students havebeen using tools to read and write with these rhythms in class.
They even took time to create their own music using rhythm blocks.
Please enjoy looking at their work, and viewing the videos to see
thewonderful musicianship happening in the Grade 4 Music classes.

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Christmas MusicPerformancesThis past December was an exciting and festive season for theMusic students at MBIS.
Lower school students had a choral musical performance the“Jingle Bell Jukebox”. Upper school band students performed
festive instrumental music in their “Holiday Concert.” Students
showcased their knowledge of music, and expressed themselves through musical performance. Great work everyone!
For full recordings of the performances, please check youremail for a letter from MBIS office- title: Music Concert Videos.

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Grade 8
Film Class
December and January were exciting months for the Film students.
In December, we aired our third “Marist Monthly Morning” episode of theyear. The students were charged with tackling the theme of“Communicators.” They used this theme to produce some interesting
segments, including the one pictured below. The teacher and student
teams alike had to use communication skills to help the blindfolded
teammate make it through the maze and miss the cups.
In January, the students studied different audio recording techniques anddiscussed ways they can improve their skills. To practice these newtechniques, the students created narrative podcasts in which they can use
only audio to tell a story. The students then record these podcasts adding
music and foley or sound effects to make them come alive.

Communicators
We
collaborateina“ multilingual environment, with12“confidence and courtesy.

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Please keep your eyes open
for these
upcoming Arts events!
FSA Cultural Exchange:
February 25, 2023
IB 12 Exhibition:
March 3, 2023
Spring Arts Festival:
April 20, 2023

T H A N K
Y O U !