Arts
Lower Division Visual and Performing Arts
Early Childhood Fine Arts introduces our youngest learners (Pre-K through grade 1) to the wonderful world of the arts. During these formative years, children learn to feel comfortable expressing themselves creatively in music, art, and theatre. Through creative art, children become divergent thinkers and build fine motor skills. Theatrical play develops self-esteem and empathy towards others. Curriculum highlights include painting, color study, self-portraits, rhythm instruments, creative movement, iPads, and the Early Childhood Winter Concert.
Students in grades 2-5 participate in visual art, music, and theatre each once a week for one hour. Through the visual arts, creative expression is emphasized with many opportunities for children to explore, practice, and share new ideas and materials. Curriculum highlights include clay, painting, observational drawing, printmaking, dip pen and ink, interdisciplinary microscope project, and the grades 4 and 5 art shows.
Students experience music through practice and performance. Children will develop a strong foundation in both concepts and skills as they study the elements of music and apply their skills through singing, dancing, and playing a variety of Orff and percussion instruments. Other music highlights include keyboarding, recorders, ukulele/guitar, solfege vocal techniques, music theory, and the grades 2-5 Winter Concert.
Theatre for grades 2-5 challenges students across the performance, literary, and technical elements of theatre. Collaborative curricular projects allow children to learn classroom material in a creative forum. These projects include the grade 2 poetry party, the grade 3 Greek mythology play, the student-written grade 4 theatre play/workshop, and the grade 5 immigration simulation. Other grades 2-5 theatre highlights include public speaking, social and cultural dance, theatre lighting and technology, puppets, play-writing, and the Grade 5 Showcase.
Berkeley Preparatory School
Founded in 1960, Berkeley is an independent, Episcopal, college-preparatory day school located in Tampa, FL, for boys and girls in grades Pre-Kindergarten through 12. Approximately 1,400 students gather here from the greater Tampa Bay area to form ONE Berkeley.