Art
Jake Fether, a shared time teacher from Grand Rapids Public Schools, is in his second year of teaching at St. Thomas. He says St. Thomas students are very talented and creative, as can be seen by the many well-crafted projects that can be found displayed throughout the school.
Grades 1-5 learn basic drawing and compositional skills while working in a wide variety of media. Material handling and problem solving is stressed as the students work with paints, oil pastels, pencils, chalk pastels, mixed media, collage, and clay.
Grades 6-8 learn advanced drawing techniques including perspective, human proportion, contour, modeling, and shading. Students research cultural and historical art forms and integrate them into their own work. A variety of media and techniques are explored including paper mache, India ink, watercolor, block printing, chalk, charcoal, colored pencil, graphite, clay, stabile construction, and collage.
Co-Curricular Art Opportunities
Throughout the year, the St. Thomas Arts Committee provides our students with additional opportunities outside of the classroom for exposure to the arts. Our students attend different art exhibits and performances from the symphony and ballet, to musical theater and plays. They also take field trips to a variety of museums. In addition, performers, artists and authors are brought into the school and classrooms to perform.