Fine Arts

Longfellow Elementary School places a high priority on developing the intellectual and emotional intelligence of students through Fine Arts Education. Through our Music program, students participate in a variety of learning experiences designed to spark creativity, foster collaboration, and develop their problem-solving and critical thinking skills, all while cultivating joy. Students learn by exploring and making music first, then progress to reading and writing it later. This is the same way we all acquire language and literacy skills.

Longfellow incorporates Orff-Schulwerk into its curriculum, a multifaceted learning approach incorporating singing, chanting, dancing, and playing instruments. Orff is a student centered, play-based learning approach, where each child has pathways to explore and express their unique ideas through music and movement. Through small group activities, students collaborate to create unique artistic solutions to problems and work together with others, finding their voice and building self-confidence along the way.

Through work involving creative movement and dance, students explore unique possibilities of self-expression and emotional connections to music. By cultivating unique aesthetic experiences and building outlets for artistic expression, students develop empathy, build resilience, and experience joy.

Central to Orff-Schulwerk is musical improvisation and student-led composition. When students get to create, they gain a sense of ownership over their learning, building their self-efficacy and motivation. Students learn to create by manipulating small building blocks of rhythm and melody, gradually expanding into larger and more complex forms. By layering together multiple musical patterns, coupled with the addition of Orff instruments (xylophones and glockenspiels), students gain the ability to compose and perform intricate and aesthetically pleasing music at a very young age. 

All Longfellow students at every grade level have a Music Program each year. These performances are wonderful culminating events where parents get an insight into the learning and growth that has taken place, while students have the opportunity to showcase their skills and form lasting memories.