This year, a new star was born in the Lower School Arts curriculum. Thanks to a thoughtful new curricular adjustment, grade five students are now combining two long-complimentary disciplines into one—a musical theater class that accomplishes so much more than preparing them for the annual Spring Arts Festival.

The arts have long flourished as an aspect of Oak Knoll’s Lower School curriculum with wonderful creative incubation spaces, such as our well-equipped fine arts studio, black box theater, and music and choral rehearsal room.

As a display of the poise, creativity, and confidence our students develop throughout the year, the annual grades three to six Spring Arts Festival showcases students in song, dance, and acting in front of a large audience at the Mother Mary Campion Center for the Performing Arts. Over the years, grade five has been the cornerstone of the event in charge of all the speaking roles. 

Principally, grade five is given this honor and responsibility because soon, they will graduate and return in the fall as grade six students, where they will be demonstrating these well-honed skills as leaders of the Lower School. 

To prepare grade five students for their leading roles in the theatrical extravaganza, the musical theater class allows them to learn their song and dance numbers while assessing their strengths in approaching the speaking roles.  

“With the musical theater class, I have ample time to discover what skills they are bringing to the table and what areas need additional support and growth,” explained Lower School Drama Teacher Eileen Dean.

“By combining two disciplines into one co-taught class, we can assess their talents upfront before the main work begins on the play,” Dean continued. “We use a rubric, and they self-evaluate. How good am I at projection? How good is my enunciation when I speak? What about when I sing? What is my facial expression like? What is my vocal expression like? Can I blend in a group? How’s my body language?”

The students work on these foundational skills in class between the beginning of the school year and when arts festival preparation kicks into high gear. Eventually, they can apply those skills to something specific in the musical, giving their roles a greater dimension and a deeper foundation.

“Ultimately, the spring musical performance allows students to apply what they are learning in the musical theater class thoughtfully,” explained Lower School Music Teacher Brigid Smircich. 

Through greater awareness of themselves and the self-assessments preceding preparation for the play, students are not only becoming multi-dimensional in their performance, but that self-awareness is a prerequisite to exercising leadership when they enter grade six.

“The idea is that they can then apply those skills into public speaking, and other areas of leadership like student council, speaking in a mass, or even interviewing for Upper School, they have more facets to their already great communication skills,” added Dean.

The arts festival is a chance for all students in grades three to six to work as a team and create something as a whole. Teamwork strengthens their bonds.

“Especially for the grade five students, they can immerse themselves meaningfully in the storytelling and not just the concert aspects of the performance,” concluded Smircich. 

The new combined class is getting rave reviews from grade five students. “The class is a great place to collaborate,” said Duke T. Michael C. concurred and commented, “It’s nice that the classes are combined so that we can all work together as a full grade level and with our friends. Fiorella D. noted, “We get to do all the different aspects of theater at once — singing, dancing, and acting.” “It teaches us skills that we can use later on, and it’s fun,” exclaimed Gemma C.

Creating the blended musical theater class is just one of many examples of how the Lower School curriculum constantly evaluates new approaches and implementations to help students find deeper meaning in their learning and a more profound sense of purpose in how they apply that learning.