Spring Exhibitions 2017
“Remember who you are.”
“Remember who you are.” These are the words my father said to me every time I left the house as a teenager. This family tradition was not exclusive to us, I’ve learned over the years. While I didn’t know exactly who I was as a teenager, my father’s words made me stop and reflect, if even briefly, on the question. In Disney’s The Lion King, Jr., to be performed by our 8th grade class in May, Simba looks into a pool of water and sees a reflection of his deceased father, Mufasa. Encouraging his son who has lost his way, Mufasa says, “Look inside yourself, Simba… Remember who you are.” Simba returns to the Pridelands and becomes the courageous and merciful ruler that his father knew him to be. We learn who we are through trial and error with the hope of second chances from people who love us and believe in us.
lov e
We who them and believe in them are here to help them see who, in fact, they are!
Reflecting on what we’ve learned is a habit of mind at Presbyterian School. From the Think. Make. Talk. classes in the Lower School to the art critique in Middle School, students are taking pause to consider, then rolling up their sleeves to engage in creating. Reflecting back on the best and worst decisions is where the learning becomes embedded. Every arts discipline cherishes this process, from rehearsal to performance and preliminary drawing to a 3-D sculpture. Every grade level will share with the community the fruits of their process in our Spring Exhibitions. We who love them and believe in them are here to help them see who, in fact, they are!
Courtney Daniell-Knapp Director of Fine Arts
This can be a year of great
explo ratio n to try new
things and face into your fears, glory or not.
Grade Level Exhibitions
Beta Lights, Camera, Action! April 27 • 8:15 - 8:45 a.m. • North Playground Through Rice University’s Classroom Storytelling Project, Beta students act out adult-authored stories in addition to dictating and dramatizing their own. Student stories highlight things that are on their minds, things they enjoy, things that worry or frighten them, as well as things that delight them. Join us as the Betas take to our outdoor stage and share some of their favorite stories.
Pre-K Airlines Parade May 11 • 2:45 p.m. • School Hallways Pre-K Airlines takes in all the sights, smells, and wonders of different cultures around the world. Starting in Houston with a quick layover in New York City, students visit France, India and Ancient Egypt, where they build pyramids and learn the process of mummification. Italy, Australia, and Greece are the last three stops on their world journey. The year-long curriculum ends with a “Passport Parade” where students dress as someone from their favorite country. Expect to see Degas ballerinas, King Tut and Zeus. Let your learning and creativity take flight with us!
Kindergarten Circus May 19 • 1:00 p.m. • Grand Hall Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages...welcome to the Kindergarten Circus! This main event includes (daredevil) performers, risky animal acts, live entertainment, laughter, and suspense. Each student performs an act in the circus. Prior to the circus, students draw from digital and print sources to research and gather historical facts on their act from past circus performances. Come one, come all to the Main Event.
1st Grade Dinosaur Museum
2nd Grade Back Forty Museum
February 1 - 2 • All Day • Palm Court
April 21 • All Day • LC 181
First grade is going back in time for a monthlong study of dinosaurs, paleontology, and prehistory. Each student chooses a dinosaur to research, makes use of iPads and “Dino” apps and learns how to differentiate between fact and fiction as they discover more about their chosen dinosaur. The study culminates in individual creations of a “dino-rama” to be put on exhibit. Each dino-rama will feature a dinosaur in its natural habitat. Be sure to check out the Dinosaur Museum - you’ll have a roaring good time!
Mosey on down to the Back Forty Museum where second grade students present their knowledge of the ways natural resources are harvested, stored, processed, packaged, sold and consumed. Students are learning about the local and global communities in which they live and their roles as citizens in those communities. By studying the process of how food goes from farm to table, students learn about managing natural resources and how individuals and businesses contribute to a community. Y’all come visit soon, ya hear?
3rd Grade Wax Museum
4th grade Te x a s M u s e u m
March 8 -9 • 12:15 p.m. • Fellowship Hall
May 8 - 12 • All Day • Palm Court
Third grade students work to expand their knowledge of famous historical events and figures. Students choose a person from history to research and bring to life. Whether it’s a famous athlete, civil rights activist, author, explorer, or chef, students work hard to personify these individuals in appearance, speech, and form. Stop by the Wax Museum to meet our famous characters and learn about their lives and accomplishments. This is one great moment you can’t miss!
Fourth grade students focus on a year-long study of Texas history, beginning their studies in the Paleoamerican time period and continuing to current day events in their home state. Students pick individual research topics about a person, place, or event that helped shape Texas. They learn the steps of researching, taking notes, outlining, and writing a research paper. Students also create an accompanying visual representation of their choice. Drawing upon the experience of museum experts, including faculty and
We learn through calculated exercises like “drawing with an unconventional tool” that often requires unconventional problem solving.
life
We do not need to compare ourselves to others and feel we are lacking. God has with everyone’s name on them.
gifts
R efl ectio n can be about casting back, giving back, serving or showing one another the way forward.
staff from the Glassell School and Museum of Fine Arts, students learn how to put together and install their own museum to showcase their visual projects. From determining the layout and design of their museum to serving as docents, 4th grade students create a true Texan experience through and through! A special Texas program for parents will highlight the industry of the fourth grade on May 12 at 10:15 a.m. in Fellowship Hall.
5th Grade Decades Art Installation March 1 - 10 • All Day • 5th Grade Hallway Fifth grade students study 20th century American history. Their learning in language arts and social studies is combined with art to present a visual history of over 100 years of American life. The fifth grade hallway walls will be alive with art pieces representing each decade of American history. This interdisciplinary art installation serves as a widespan visual history for everyone to enjoy. Come see history in the making!
6th Grade Reader’s Theater April 27 • 8:30 - 10:00 a.m. (last name A-L) • 10:10 - 11:40 a.m. (last name M-Z) • FH 259 Sixth grade students explore writing techniques such as imagery, personification, point of view, dialogue and metaphors by examining professional literary works. Students have the opportunity to expand their writing portfolio by using these techniques in stream-of-consciousness or freewrite form. Students revise their writing based on peer and teacher feedback to produce a more polished final copy. The Reader’s Theater celebrates each student’s growth as a confident writer as they share a meaningful piece of writing during the theater experience.
7th Grade Fine Arts Showcase May 16 • 10 a.m. • Fellowship Hall/Palm Court Beginning in seventh grade, students take a fine arts class every day. From photography to yearbook to dance to drama, students have a wide range of elective classes from which to choose. Seventh grade students will provide fifth and sixth grade students as well as their families a view of all the fine art elective offerings experienced in seventh grade. Students will present their experiences of these electives through spoken presentations on what they learned, performance demonstrations and their products on display.
8th Grade STEAM Museum April 13 • All Day • Fellowship Hall Consider the words of Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, investor, and philanthropist, “The best museums and museum exhibits about science or technology give you the feeling that, hey, this is interesting, but maybe I could do something here, too.” The eighth grade hosts a museum that allows younger students the chance to interact with scientific principles in physics, biology, chemistry, and earth science... as well as see how those scientific concepts can be used to create works of art. The visual appeal of the museum will elevate this from a science fair to a thoughtful display of museum design which invites engagement with the works on display.
jou rney
The toward the product is full of challenges. How we respond to the missteps and errors is part of embracing the whole of life.
Encore Productions The art studio, a den of
creativ ity ,
and alive with color, can also be a place of deep introspection and exacting precision.
PS Coffeehouse: A Pop Concert February 14 • 2:30 p.m. • Fellowship Hall The Coffeehouse has become a central feature of 21st century popular culture and represents a unique forum for personal artistic expression - think Moth poetry readings, open mics, and a haven for the exchange of ideas. Our PS Coffeehouse with performances from fifth grade students, 5th & 6th on Main, Main Men and Main Street Singers will not be quite so lofty in ideals, but rather a celebration of “Cups,” “Taylor, the Latte Boy” and the fun that can be had when friends get together. Who knows, maybe this first PS Coffeehouse will inspire a new form of artistic expression in the middle school.
Think.Make.SEE. The Artist’s Creative Journey
Grandparents & Special Friends Day
March 1 - 31 • Glassell Junior School of Art
April 7 • 9:30 a.m. • Fellowship Hall (EC) • 10:30 a.m. • Grand Hall (LS)
This art exhibit gives the observer a glimpse into the artist’s creative journey. In order to create, they must first imagine. In order to imagine, they must trust that they are creative. The art studio is a guide for life. Planning is essential, but problem solving when things go wrong, as they often do, is paramount. Artists must be both decisive, but also adaptive. The gift of time to reflect and consider or reconsider their choices allows for a final product for which we can all see and be proud. This exhibit will be installed by fourth grade students after they have undertaken a study at the Glassell Junior School of Art to learn about the art of installing an art exhibit.
Grandparents and Special Friends of Early Childhood and Lower School students are invited on campus for a day to “Paws for Reading.” Early Childhood students will Bring a Book to Life in a short music program, and Lower School students will share recitations in a Poetry Program. The Poetry Program follows the natural progression of a student’s knowledge of poetry from nursery rhymes and nonsense poems to the works of our most beloved classical poets.
Spring Concert with Treble Choir April 25 • 6:30 p.m. • Sanctuary The Lower School Choir and 5th & 6th on Main are presenting a concert for families in conjunction with the Treble Choir of Houston, under the direction of Marianna Parnas-Simpson, Treble Choir Founder. The Treble Choir of Houston offers musical experiences in a nurturing environment to young women in middle and high school. Participants come from diverse cultural, educational and socio-economic backgrounds, and find their voices as singers, artists and women. The ensemble performs a diverse body of literature, spanning many musical periods, genres and languages. Some Treble Choir performance highlights include: featured ensemble at Carnegie Hall, Mahler’s 3rd Symphony with the Texas Music Festival’s orchestra, film documentary, This Land is Your Land, with Houston’s professional composer’s alliance, Musiqa at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, and an appearance at the National Cathedral, Washington D.C.
Disney’s The Lion King, Jr. May 4 • 10:00 a.m. & 7:00 p.m. • Grand Hall May 5 • 7:00 p.m. • Grand Hall Disney’s The Lion King, Jr. takes place in a kingdom of lions in Africa and tells the story of Simba, from a boisterous, undaunted lion cub to his flight from the kingdom for fear that he had killed his father, Mufasa, and his triumphant return to take his rightful place as King. The production, influenced by William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, shows the value of friendship and humor and the intrinsic integrity of the Circle of Life. Join us as the Class of 2017 presents the School’s annual musical production.
The pursuit of
excell ence is always admirable, but not at the cost of a balanced perspective.
The Alley Theatre The Asia Society The Children’s Museum Contemporary Arts Museum The Emergency Aid Coalition The Glassell Junior School of Art Harris County Courthouse The Health Museum Hermann Park Hobby Center for the Performing Arts The Holocaust Museum The Houston Aquarium Houston BoyChoir Houston Center for Contemporary Craft Houston Center for Photography Houston City Hall Houston Grand Opera The Houston Museum of Natural Science Houston Symphony The Houston Zoo
Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts The Jung Center Lawndale Art Center MacGregor Elementary Main Street Theater The Medical Center The Menil Collection The Methodist Hospital The Miller Outdoor Theatre The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Musiqa The Nehemiah Center NRG Center & Stadium Rice University Rothko Chapel The Treble Choir of Houston University of St. Thomas Wortham Theater Center Writers in the Schools
Many Thanks To Our Community
Resilience requires
relatio nships , not rugged individualism.
Presbyterian School’s mission of Family, School and Church united in the education and support of each Child is rooted in the premise of partnerships. Outside of the classroom, students and faculty have direct contact with the best that Houston has to offer in the arts. Students walk outside our doors and into nineteen different museums without ever boarding a bus. This proximity means that even our three-year-old Betas can go to Storytime Tours at the Museum of Fine Arts. Partnerships allow our students to see their art work exhibited in actual museums. Middle School art classes go outdoors to sketch en plein air in the MFAH’s Sculpture Garden and fourth graders install their own exhibit, from measuring, designing and hanging to training as docents, thanks to instruction from faculty at the Glassell Junior School of Art. A short ride on the METROrail brings students into Houston’s Theater District for performing arts-the nation’s second-highest number of theater seats within a single urban district, outdone only by Broadway in New York. Here, Lower and Middle School music classes hear symphonies in Jones Hall and opera at Wortham Theater. Our proximity to the rail line transports us within minutes to world-class companies in all major performing arts. The School forms part of an archipelago of the arts and academia in the heart of Houston’s vibrant Museum District. We are fortunate to partner with over 30 institutions to offer enriched experiences and an unparalleled independent school education to each student. Our address on Main Street puts us at the most exciting intersection for holistic education in the nation’s third largest city, and our students benefit from this intersection each and every day.
Presbyterian School is uniquely situated to live out our objectives of being an institution that considers beauty and cultivates understanding. The fine arts ignite curiosity and spark creative thinking In the fine arts, we exercise our imaginations and strengthen our humanity. Wrestling with art, either visual or performing, we call on multiple senses, develop a strong work ethic and refine our communication skills. The habits of mind cultivated in the fine arts make us more agile problem solvers. But they do more than stimulate our minds. The arts teach empathy by putting us in touch with awe, wonder, grit, risk and compassion. Classes in music, art and drama at Presbyterian School are deeply rooted in our Core Values and are a facet of a our students’ overall character education. Across disciplines, classes examine the arts as a universal language across time and cultures. Sacred songs are integral during worship in chapel. Art pours out of the lower school art room and covers the hallways of the School. Eighth graders unite in the culminating class project: a musical theater production. Presbyterian School students celebrate God’s infinite creation through their own creative endeavors. They reflect God’s love through service, sharing art with others. Our school culture values the arts as a means to help students realize their human potential. Whether absorbing the arts in our city or making and performing art in the sanctuary of our own school building, students engage wholly, think deeply, and create daily . . . with confidence. Presbyterian School 5300 Main Street H o u s t o n , Te x a s 7 7 0 0 4 www.pshouston.org Confidence in every Child