Winter 2014
A. MARIO LOIEDERMAN MIDDLE SCHOOL
FOR THE CREATIVE AND PERFORMING ARTS
PERSPECTIVES
In this issue:
 Department Updates
 Spring Events
 Artful Thinking
 Arts in the News
The Arts are Alive!
At Loiederman, the staff is working to ensure that the arts are
alive! We create an atmosphere for students to be creative and
apply critical thinking skills that can be transferred to their
academic content. Our goal is to ensure that our students
know that the arts (music, art, dance, drama) are languages
that all people speak! The arts cut across cultural, racial,
educational, social, and economic barriers. The arts enhance
cultural appreciation and awareness! Lastly, the arts provide
opportunities for self-expression, bringing the inner world into
the outer world!
Royce Wallace, Ph.D.
Magnet Coordinator
Dance at Loiederman!
The dance department just completed three nights of wonderful dance
concerts showcasing our talented Loiederman dancers on Jan. 7th, 8th, and
9th. We appreciate the many parents, relatives, and LMS community who
came out to support the dancers, especially our dedicated backstage parent
volunteers! As we begin third quarter, students will soon be preparing for
their spring concert on April 29th, 30th, and May 1st. Our spring dance
concert will demonstrate techniques that students will learn this quarter in
their jazz, tap, and hip-hop units. This upcoming concert will also debut
performances from our Dance for Athletes classes, as well as student
choreography works. The choreography classes attended an afterschool
fieldtrip with the arts department to study works of art and media on display
at Strathmore Performing Arts Center. They will use inspiration from the
works of art to create their student choreography pieces. Make sure to check
out our “LMSdanceclass” YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram pages for future
important dates, as well as practice videos for our dancers. Despite the
freezing temperatures outside, learning is heating up in the dance studios at
Loiederman Middle School!
Dance to the Music
Dance to the music
under the stars at night.
Dance to the music
of all time lullabies.
Dance to the music
of your own beat and rhythm.
Dance to the music
that your own heart has
chosen.
Chris Cariad
Ms. Kiefer, Ms. Sanz, and Ms. Wlodarczyk
Foundations of Art
In Quarter 2, Art 7 Fundamentals students completed a color relationships unit. They explored the impact of different color combinations in painting and other media and practiced mixing a variety of
neutrals and shades. They learned about the color wheel. As a
creative extension, students crafted unique Mandala designs that
follow the interrelationships of the color wheel, while they also
strengthening their proficiency with color mixing, value mixing, and
paint and brush. Now, during Quarter 3, seventh graders are beginning a cultural study of ceramics by learning about historical African
American Face Jugs and designing and building their own jugs.
Instrumental Music
The beginning band students are doing
very well! So far this year, students
have learned how to assemble their
instruments, how to form a proper
embouchure and how to play 7-8 notes.
With that preparation, plus a little fine
tuning on other things like tone production, proper breathing, counting, posture, listening, musicianship, and more,
I am hopeful that they will be ready to
participate in the Spring Concert.
Ms. Benjamin
Loiederman staff playing and singing!
In Quarter 2, 8th grade Foundations students, in the advanced, high
school art class, completed a drawing unit and began a ceramics
unit. Their first clay project is a vessel combining organic form with
organic texture. Their inspiration was nature. Students also studied
contemporary sculptors by viewing the PBS Art 21 series on computers and responding to the artists’ work and commentary. They
are embarking on a challenging ceramics project by integrating
themes of architecture with clay slab building.
Ms. Phillips
“True art is characterized
by an irresistible urge in
the creative artist.”
Albert Einstein
Perspectives - page 2
Lights! Camera! Literacy!
And ACTION! This winter the LCL students have created,
directed, produced, filmed and edited a collection of short
films. They surprised each other with their Reversal/
Surprise Ending films, and expressed themselves in their
Holiday Video Greetings, which were featured in the LMS
Winter Wonderland Arts Concert. LCL students recently
wrapped the production of Exam Week PSAs, sharing important tips and expectations for a successful exam week.
They also explored the elements of character by creating
their own Super Heroes! The LCL classes are excited to start
exploring and creating their own 3 Act Films in the coming
quarter. Until next newsletter, that’s a WRAP!
Ms. Moore
Digital Art
Mandala by Jennifer Tonnu
Ms. Guzman’s Computer Art classes began the year exploring Photoshop tools and techniques. We learned how to use the Art Elements (line, shape, color, texture, and value)
and the designing process of preplanning, sketching, refining ideas, obtaining feedback
and executing ideas through problem solving and collaboration. We explored these concepts, connections to art history and students’ personal experiences through projects
such as Mandalas, photography manipulation, Read Poster design, Book Cover designs,
and Mondrian inspired design.
The artworks are on display within the school and have been entered in LMS Fall Art show
in November, Wheaton Art Show in December, Visual Art Center’s Middle School Juried Art show in February, and
Diversity show March-August.
In the Spring we will refine our skills with Photoshop, learn more about photography, composition, and prepare
artwork for the upcoming MCPS and LMS Spring art shows. Our future projects include a vector portrait, cd cover
design, creating art with typography, and surrealism project.
Choral Music
Our Loiederman choirs are coming off a successful Winter Concert. New repertoire is now being introduced and
worked on. Our Sixth Grade Chorus has begun work on folk songs The Ash Grove and Tue, Tue. Concert Chorus
went old school and is singing Curtis Mayfield’s People Get Ready. Our award winning Chamber Choir is preparing for the upcoming MCPS Choral Adjudication in which they will be singing Mozart’s Dies Irae and DiLassso’s
madrigal Mon Coeur Se Recommended A Vous sung in French. They also just began Cole Porter’s Ev’rytime We
Say Goodbye. Don’t miss our Spring Concert Tuesday, May 20, 7pm at LMS.
Mr. Guerra
Perspectives in the
Arts!
Digital Music
The Digital Music students just
finished creating their own projects as groups and individuals
using Garage Band, which allowed
them to explore and express themselves creatively as music producers. They have also been learning
basic piano skills to integrate
knowledge of musical notation
with their Garage Band expertise
to strengthen their digital music
creations. Students are currently
studying the different Arts Awards
like the Grammys, Oscars and
Tony’s to broaden their knowledge
of musical career paths.
Ms. Benjamin’s Perspectives
classes have created works in
the style of Keith Haring and
applied their knowledge of
texture and dynamics to creative musical compositions in
Garage Band and MixCraft. They
have created and performed
two dances and are currently in
the production stages of a short
play entitled "Wayside Stories
from Westside School." Through
this production they have
experienced every level of the
theatrical production process,
including stage design, musical
Ms. Benjamin
Grace Rose - Poster Winner for Solesz
and lighting design, acting, and
directing.
Perspectives - page 3
ART
Ms. Ely’s Exploring Art classes started off the year
exploring the Elements of Art and various drawing
media to create a series of observational Still Life
drawings. Exploring Art students continued to study
facial proportions and created Self Portrait paintings
from observation.
Art 8 students also studied Elements of Art and
drawing media for Still Life drawings- then continued
to create coil jugs based on ancient Japanese Jomon
Pottery!
The Still Life Drawings, Self Portraits and Pottery are
on display within the school and have been entered
in LMS Fall Art show in November, Wheaton Art
Show in December, and Visual Art Center’s Middle
School Juried Art show in February.
Theater
The Drama classes have been working hard on creating the world of a character. In the fall, we focused on
improvisation skills like being in the moment, taking
risks, and accepting the given circumstances. Through
drama games and exercises, we explored how to create the environment of the scene using minimal dialogue. Then, students learned how to use their voices
to create a character recording radio commercials and
performing radio plays. This winter, we are focusing on
creating emotion through an introduction to scene
work. Ms. Paley has been very impressed with the
students’ willingness to grow as actors and performers.
In November through December, Ms. Ely’s elite
National Jr. Art Honor Society students contributed
their time and talents to completing the beautiful
mural in the cafeteria hallway. This past January, we
had a field trip to Strathmore to view Technology
and Art exhibition. In March, NJAHS will begin to
create backdrops for the Spring Musical in May and
prepare artwork for the upcoming MCPS and LMS
Spring art shows.
Professional Perspective
Mrs. Paley
A Scene from our fall play.
“LittLe Red Robin Hood”.
tHe cast fRom ouR faLL pLay. “LittLe Red Robin Hood”.
As we move into the spring semester (2014), our teachers and students will continue
to push boundaries and build on their own creativity. The arts are ALIVE at A. Mario
Loiederman Middle School for the Creative and Performing Arts!
Royce A. Wallace, Ph.D.
Magnet Coordinator