Grade 2 Explores Masks and Faces at The Met

Last Friday, second graders visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art with their art teachers Ms. Boccella and Ms. Fidler, for a guided tour entitled “Masks and Faces” in conjunction with their mask making unit in art. In homeroom groups, boys viewed a selection of masks and images of heads and faces from various cultures. These artifacts included a hammered gold Sican funerary mask made in Peru in the 10th century and a carved wooden Janus (two-faced) fire spitter helmet mask from the Ivory Coast.

Our boys explored concepts of shape, form, color, symmetry, exaggeration, and ritual in these works. They also had the opportunity to engage in some observational drawing of the masks they examined. This out of the classroom experience, as well as what they have been learning about masks in their art classrooms will inspire the boys' own creations back at school.

We provide our boys with plentiful opportunities to learn by exploring and examining real artifacts, through partnerships with several educational and cultural institutions in our city and beyond. In so doing, we strive to deepen their understanding and broaden their perspectives. It is from this place of comprehension and thought that boys are empowered to explore ideas, old and new, and the ideals behind them.

Comments

OLIVER!

This morning our fifth graders continued a great year-end tradition at Saint David's, The Fifth Grade Musical. The boys performed Oliver! and they were fantastic, providing impressive performances and demonstrating great vocal ability. They have been mastering the dialogue and musical numbers for weeks, and clearly gave it their all. Congratulations to the cast on a job well done, and to their Producers/Teachers James Hubbard and Jamie MacNeille, Director Phyllis Clark, Musical Conductor Jeff Moore, and the Parent Committee of Cynthia Chapman, Susan Kissane, Tara Neumann, Joyce Restituto, and Ann Roberts. Musical theater is alive and well at Saint David's!

Sixth Graders Meet with Dr. Carter Emmart, Director of Astrovisualization at the American Museum of Natural History

Dr. Carter Emmart with Saint David's Sixth Graders This past Friday, as part of our unique partnership with the American Museum of Natural History, sixth graders had the great honor to attend a private lecture given by Carter Emmart, Director of Astrovisualization at AMNH. Dr. Emmart told the boys about his passion for science along with an overview of the history of the Hayden Planetarium. He also gave the boys advice on how to take scientific information about the universe and compile it into an interesting and captivating show for an audience. The boys were able to see Dr. Emmart's original sketches, which helped create the Uniview program they are using to develop their presentations. The session provided our boys with an opportunity to learn how art and science come together in the planetarium, and to obtain expert advice on developing their own space shows from one of the creators of Uniview . You can learn more about Dr. Emmart's work and Univie...

Tales of a Good Man

"Sometime in the midst of all this, we became friends. And his story, and all its vast world passed into mine." --From the Introduction of Blood & Oil by Roxane Farmanfarmaian. "Stories are so important; they become traditions that tell about the good that often comes out of bad experiences..." So began Roxane Farmanfarmaian's fascinating talk Monday night at Saint David's Seventh Grade Father-Son Dinner. Dr. Farmanfarmaian, Affiliated Lecturer of Modern Middle East Studies at the Political and International Studies Department at Cambridge University, was introduced by her nephew, Saint David's seventh grader Cyrus '17. She spoke to the seventh grade boys and their fathers about what makes a "Good Man" through the prism of her book Blood & Oil : A Prince's Memoir of Iran from the Shah to the Ayatollah (Random House 2005), which she co-authored with her late father, Prince Manucher Farmanfarmaian. The memoir i...

Headmaster's Blog

Search This Blog