Today’s blog posting is written by Ms. Pitt, our Performing Arts teacher.

Not only are the Performing Arts an outlet for children to build performance skills, develop artistic appreciation, and express themselves creatively, they also offer children an opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of their investigations and passions as inquirers from an emotional and imaginative place. Arts integration is an imperative way to create meaning for many students. This lines up with the Reggio Emilia approach’s Hundred Languages of Children, which Richland Academy is inspired by as an educational philosophy.
The Senior Kindergarten class has been very interested in investigating birds this school year. In Performing Arts they collaboratively took part in a script writing session through improvisation, playing the Drama game “Story in a circle”. They called their play Robin the Robin and have since taken on characters and performed their script as a play with costumes on the stage in the Performing Arts room. This artistic learning opportunity has allowed the children to show what they know about birds using dramatic role play and improvisation, as well as seeing the world through the eyes of a bird, fostering empathy and creating a space to welcome various perspectives going forward as lifelong learners.
To learn more about the power of teaching through the arts, please visit Sir Ken Robinson’s blog.