Vocal improvisation is encouraged in question-answer form. Kindergarten A highlight of the kindergarten year is the performance of an operetta that is entirely child-created. Grade One Students present Americana Day, at which they share with their parents various activities in movement, art, music and classrooms. There also is a Michigan week celebration in song. Grade Two Grade 2 presents a Japan unit for parents.
Second graders perform at their Moving Up ceremony.
Violin instruction is offered to all second graders. Students receive group instruction twice a week. The Lower School has embarked on a program for Pre-K3 through Grade 1 in which each child will experience piano keyboard instruction. Research compiled by Dr. Francis Rauscher and Dr. Gordon Shaw at the University of California at Irvine indicates a strong causal relationship between keyboard music and abstract reasoning in young children. Spatial reasoning is the ability to connect relationships among objects.