An Update from Quest's Art, Music, Physical Education & Spanish Specialists

Art

Elementary continued their fibers unit this winter. Both classrooms made radial weavings with painted backgrounds, then moved on to sewing projects. Through sewing, students are strengthening fine motor skills while practicing practical life exercises such as threading a needle, completing a stitch, and tying a knot. Lower Elementary students are creating stuffed monsters from painted felt, while Upper Elementary are celebrating the recent “National Pizza Day” by creating mini pizza pillows.

Middle School recently studied a brief history of photography and the parts of a camera. They experimented with shutter speed to create “light paintings” inspired by Pablo Picasso and are currently learning about the camera obscura.

Students across the school are busy fine tuning masterpieces for the upcoming gallery-style parent evening, Art & Wine on February 22. For the event, our barn will be converted into a virtual art opening celebrating creativity from every Quest student.

Music

Lower Elementary students have been exploring songs and scales, using different scales from around the world to transform popular songs on the tone bars. They have also been diving into rhythm by learning Zimbabwean-inspired xylophone songs, playing hand percussion, and learning different rhythm card games.

Upper Elementary is consumed exploring all things rhythm. To start off the term they constructed their own "rhythm mandalas," filling in concentric rotating circles with notes of increasing division of the whole note in the middle. They continued by learning some basic balafon-inspired marimba music and music from Zimbabwe, learning a few songs and composing their own to be played on the xylophone and glockenspiel.

Middle School has been investigating modern techniques in music composition and performance. To study rhythm, students listened to the work of composers like Terry Riley and the Balafon Marimba Ensemble. To study pitch, they have listened to and discussed music by Meredith Monk and Steve Reich. Using music notation software they have begun to compose their own parts to be added together and performed by the whole class on xylophones and percussion instruments.

Physical Education

Physical Education here at Quest has been bustling and busy since the last check-in with the Blog. Students have been engaged in activities focusing on a variety of skills and work throughout the past few months, and the excitement from our groups is infectious. In the Elementary levels, students have tackled skill developments in Racquet Sports like Badminton and Pickleball, Hand-Eye Coordination in a variety of environments (including Bowling and Cooperative Games), and Foot-Eye Coordination through the early stages of Soccer and Kickball. Students in the Elementary groups are tasked with individual and group activities that focus on refining the minute skills associated with each sport or activity they complete in class. Whether the group is practicing Implement Control with birdies and racquets, or simulating a full experience of scoring and playing a round of Bowling, students are learning practical skills that can apply to sports and lifelong physical activity.

In the Middle School, students have had a much different, more authentic experience in Physical Education. As part of the continued approach to give students real life experiences, Middle School goes off campus to Rock Spot (a rock climbing gym in Wakefield, RI) to challenge themselves and their boundaries. Students return to campus after this experience to then begin physical activity in Cooperative Games, where classmates form unique groups with a range of abilities, and are given a common task they must work together to achieve. Finally, students are exposed to lifelong sports like Badminton and Pickleball, and taught the skills, the strategy, and how to score these games all while playing. Students will begin working on preparations for Field Day in the near future, a yearly tradition and Physical Education project for Middle School students.

Spanish

Lower Elementary has been continuously practicing writing numbers, while learning their pronunciation. Students have been practicing sentence sequence through a fun process called Total Physical response (TPR). The process allows the students to discern what is being said through a tone and gestures. Children are encouraged to respond in Spanish or English.

There are three Spanish groups in Upper Elementary. Our 4th and 5th year students are practicing, writing, and counting by fives as well as learning the pronunciation, and writing of body parts. 5th year students are also learning to use articles and nouns and have been challenged with writing words and correcting as a team. The 6th year students are being challenged with verbs and the work of conjugating! As we get closer to the end of the year, we will loop all of these activities together. This will help them broaden their vocabulary and develop a comfort level with the language.

In recognition of Black History Month, Middle School students are busy answering the question, "What is Afro-Latino?" Afro-Latino is a term used to describe a Latin American person with African roots. Students are reading biographies that are helping them master pronunciation, translation, verb usage and cognate words. In an effort to keep it engaging, they are also studying various dances in Latin-America and how it connects to African roots. Students are preparing presentations that include teaching their assigned dance to their peers.