Arts Elective Courses Grade 7

Thomas W. Pyle

Middle School

7th Grade Arts Courses

Semester Courses

• Digital Photography and Desktop Publishing

• Family and Consumer Science (FACS)

• Gateway To Technology: A

• Specialty Art

• Studio Art

• Exploratory Theater

• TV Production

Full Year Courses

• Band

• Orchestra

• Chorus

• Drama Performance

• Gateway To Technology:A/B

• Yearbook

7th Grade Elective Course:

Digital Photography and Desktop Publishing

Students will use school digital cameras

to take pictures around the school, and

use their photos to create projects.

Students will learn and practice:

Effective use of digital camera;

Understanding and controlling the use of flash;

Downloading and saving photos from camera to computer;

Manipulating images

Guidelines for effective photography

Using their photos to create Word documents

Students use computer applications to make documents in all their classes look attractive and professional.

Skills learned in this class will help students throughout their school years, and beyond. Some of the skills taught are:

Using a balance of text, graphics and white space Effective use of margins and color Appropriate use of fonts (type, style, and size) Use of text wrap and layers Inserting and manipulating images to enhance documents Formatting text and images for most effective readability Formatting documents to match audience and purpose

What IS Desktop Publishing?

. . . and why is it important?

7th and 8th Grade Elective Choice:

Yearbook Class

Student in this class become a staff , work as a team and publish the yearbook and the school literary magazine. Students will learn basic principals of desktop publishing, layout design and journalism and photojournalism. What makes it so special? It is a lot of fun,

students have a very important job to do; their work become a part of Pyle history; it sometimes involves a lot of work.

Students in this class must be hard workers, very responsible and very motivated!

Choosing a theme, cover, style and color scheme;

Taking photos throughout the year;

Learning principals of layout design;

Designing pages;

Selecting photos, captions, headlines and text;

Research includes finding out who is who, what is their real name,

and matching names with faces;

Publicizing the yearbook throughout the year; and

Sorting and delivering the books when they arrive in the spring.

Yearbook Class

Creating the yearbook involves:

Family and Consumer Sciences Cooking

Family and Consumer Sciences Sewing

7th grade students may select to take Gateway To Technology: A (semester) or Gateway To Technology: A/B (full year) as part of the Pre-Engineering Pathway.

Gateway To

Technology-A/B:

Grade 7

full year

Introduction to

Engineering Design

A/B: Grade 8

full year

Principles of

Engineering: Grade 9

full year

Other HS or AP

Credit Courses

Introduction to Design

& 3-D Modeling:

Grade 6

9 weeks

Gateway To

Technology-A:

Grade 7

semester

Gateway To

Technology-B:

Grade 8

semester

Introduction to

Engineering Design

A/B: Grade 9

full year

Introduction to Design

& 3-D Modeling:

Grade 6

9 weeks

• Accelerated Pre-Engineering Pathway

• Pre-Engineering Pathway

Gateway To Technology: A is divided into 2 Units

Magic of Electrons and Science of Technology

In Magic of Electrons we

• Learn about electricity

• Create a DC motor

• Design & Fabrication Circuits

In Science of Technology we

• Design, create and race Magnetic levitation vehicles

• Design, create and race Dragsters cars

• Design and test Rube Goldberg projects (like Mousetrap Game)

Gateway To Technology: B is divided into 2 Units Flight & Space and Automation & Robotics

In Flight & Space we

• Learn principles of flight

• Make and fly Gliders

• Design and create motorized airplanes

In Automation & Robotics we

• Create mechanisms using Fisher Technik kits

• Program machines/robots created to solve problems

• Complete an Assembly Line using the robotic parts and computer program.

7th Grade Exploratory Theater

1 Semester

Theatre Games & Pantomime Puppetry & Final Performance

7th & 8th Grade Drama Performance

Full Year Class

Full Year of Technical Theatre Work and…

Performance Work

Instrumental Music at Pyle

7th Grade Band • Continue to develop

technical instrumental skills to a higher level.

• Develop stronger relationships with classmates.

• Sectionals and clinics with professional musicians.

• Travel to County and State Adjudication for constructive feedback.

• Participate in regional music festivals and competitions as well as two public concert performances.

Advanced Orchestra • Award winning Orchestra in

county, state and regional competitions.

• Challenging musical repertoire to improve string ensemble technique.

• Sectionals and clinics with professional musicians.

• Travel to County and State Adjudication for constructive feedback.

• Travel to New York City for an exciting Music Festival and Competition.

• Ultimate Middle School 3 year team relationship with classmates.

Jazz Band • Audition only full Jazz Ensemble.

• Perform a variety of jazz styles and standards including swing, funk, latin and rock.

• Learn improvisation skills and techniques.

• Instruments include all saxes, trumpet, trombone, guitar, bass, piano and drums.

• Extracurricular outreach performance opportunities.

• Professional clinics with renowned Jazz musicians such as Chris Vadala.

7th Grade Chorus Award winning choral group in county, state,

and regional competitions.

All are welcome. No prior experience necessary.

Exciting course designed to strengthen the voice, sharpen skill in music, and perform with friends and classmates.

Perform a wide variety of choral music including classical, pop, musical theatre, folk, rock, and more.

Explore the fundamentals of musicianship and choral singing including reading and interpreting the score, vocal health and sound production, singing successfully through the changing voice, and singing within an ensemble.

Perform in two major concerts and participate in performance field trips including traveling to a music competition and festival in NYC.

Excellent opportunity to make new and lasting friends.

Specialty Art

• Develop 3 dimensional sculptures in a variety of modes and materials.

Specialty Art

• Explore various historical cultures and artists.

• Explore the manipulation of tools

• Develop techniques and skills.

Studio Art

• Explore mainly 2D projects.

• Emphasis on techniques and various mediums.

7th Grade

TV Studio

Help create Panther TV;

Pyle’s weekly TV show

7th Grade TV Studio

Learn the Ken Burns Effect in iMovie with the Wiesner Project

Get your license to film

and create video

projects in groups

7th Grade Arts Courses

Semester Courses

• Digital Photography and Desktop Publishing

• Family and Consumer Science (FACS)

• Gateway To Technology: A

• Specialty Art

• Studio Art

• Exploratory Theater

• TV Production

Full Year Courses

• Band

• Orchestra

• Chorus

• Drama Performance

• Gateway To Technology:A/B

• Yearbook