Furthering our mission to educate the whole child, St. Michael’s provides excellent instruction in the arts, physical education, and religion as a key component of our Upper School curriculum.
Art
St. Michael’s middle school students continue to experience art in an experiential way, using acrylic paints, modeling clay, and other media to create fabulous projects for eventual display at Art Expo. Students further develop a practical and intellectual understanding of art vocabulary, elements, and principles. This academic foundation allows students to understand and appreciate the dynamic relationships between art and culture.
Music
The music program at St. Michael’s is designed to give students a strong foundation, appreciation, and love of music. The varied curriculum covers the basics of music history and theory as well as hands-on experience in playing drums, keyboards, and guitar. All students participate in concerts at Christmastime and in spring. The end-of-the-year Fine Arts Night is held at the beautiful Temple of Music and Art downtown. Shows like these and the annual St. Michael’s musical offer students exposure to the staging, sound engineering, and rehearsal routines associated with the highly polished productions of high school and beyond.
In addition to regular music classes, which occur twice a week, there is the opportunity for students to join choir or band. Our graduates who enter high school music programs are prepared to sing in the top choirs and bands beginning in their freshman year because of the sight-singing in choir and music reading in band.
Physical Education
Physical education classes meet twice a week, either in our gymnasium facility or in the park adjacent to school. Our P.E. program provides instruction in game strategies and skills, as well as sportsmanship, health and hygiene. Students in grades 6-8 can also participate in our superb after-school athletics program.
Religion
While our physical education curriculum focuses on building healthy bodies, our religion curriculum targets students’ hearts and minds. During weekly religion classes, children explore the Bible and then discuss how scriptural passages may frame moral issues in today’s society as well as individuals’ own relationship with God. Although the perspective is primarily Christian, alternate views from other faith traditions are welcomed and encouraged. Our goal in Religious Studies at St. Michael’s is to foster respect for all faith tractions found in our pluralistic society.