Educational Enrichment
Art
All students receive art instruction from our dedicated art teacher Ember Kelley.
TK - 3rd graders receive a visit to their classrooms from Ms. Kelley every week. 4th and 5th graders meet for art every other week.
Art projects this year have included crayon-resist paintings, self-portraits in a single color palette, painted paper butterflies in honor of their units on migration and immigration, paper tear collages inspired by Alma Thomas, and collages with painting,writing and cutouts inspired by Jean-Michael Basquiat.
The art teacher position is paid for by PTA fundraising and we are so proud that our community has made art instruction and exposure a priority.
Dance
The dance program at John Muir Elementary School is based on the national and California standards for dance education.
All students study dance each week.
Each class performs during school assemblies at least once per year. And, each assembly highlights one of three main components of the program -- creative movement/choreography, contemporary dance and folk dance.
The dance curriculum is designed so that each year builds on the year before.
In choreography, children go from a simple idea of making dance, such as “start your dance when the music starts,” to the 5th grade assignment of choreographing a short piece for four people. This includes brainstorming and refining movement vocabulary, using concepts of dynamics and staging, selecting music, performing it for feedback from classmates and considering the title and costumes.
The dance program is also integrated with John Muir’s academic curriculum.
Gardening
The garden at John Muir Elementary School is an inspirational, community effort to help children learn how to take care of the earth and to eat healthy food.
Students, teachers, parents and community members all work together to keep the garden a vibrant and engaging place to learn at John Muir.
Every student comes to garden class two times each month to learn along with Farmer Marcel.
They learn through directed, hands-on gardening experience, observation, songs, stories, artwork, and free exploration. Topics include planting, tending, harvesting, and tasting fruits and vegetables.
We also learn about nutrition, seasonality, pest management, composting, and ecology. During class, students taste “ the harvest of the month,” which is seasonal fruits or vegetables.
If you visit a garden class, you might find a student excited about eating sour sorrel and dinosaur kale, looking closely at a ladybug larvae or feeding slugs and snails to the chickens.
Garden class is a haven for exploration and discovery.
Music
All third grade students attend weekly music classes. The curriculum is based on Orff-Schulwerk methodology which includes singing, movement, rhythm, solfege, note reading, recorders and pitched percussion instruments.
At the end of the school year, band and orchestra instruments are demonstrated in preparation for beginning instrumental music in fourth grade.
After an extended period of sampling among violins, violas, flutes, clarinets, trumpets, trombones, percussion, ukulele, guitar and chorus, fourth graders choose chorus or the instrument they wish to study.
Fifth graders continue with chorus or the instrument studied in fourth grade. Classes are held twice a week during the school day. Both grades perform at school concerts.
Click here to learn more about Berkeley Unified School District's Visual & Performing Arts program.
Physical Education
Students meet with Coach Fowler for physical eduction once every week.
Weather-permitting, phy-ed classes take place outside on the field and blacktop areas. On rainy days, they meet inside in the gymnasium.
Physical education units have included focuses on kickball, archery, jumping rope, and much more.