Giving all diligence, add to your faith ... godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. (2 Peter 1:5-7)
With a Song in Our Hearts
A Chorus of Praise from Youngest to Oldest
The winds group performs at the annual Christmas concert at The Fox Theatre in Spokane.
The Oaks begins school on Monday mornings with song. We close school on Friday afternoons with song. We always welcome parents and friends to share our times of cantabile (audio selections to right).
“Cantabile from the Italian or cantable from the French describes the nature or characteristic of a composition, whether composed for voices or instruments, when all of its voices or parts can be easily [or beautifully] sung, or when one of the melodies of such a composition have been set [or composed] in such a [vocally, easily singable] manner.”
... from Cantabile, cf Walther’s Music Dictionary. Bach sold copies of this book from his house in Leipzig and very likely contributed to it.
Advancing Still
The King of Love
I Sing the Mighty Power
Formal music education begins in first grade, and continues until graduation. Students master parts-singing in melody, harmony and, finally, choral performance. Opportunities are provided for solo work in strings, wind instruments, and choral performance.
Music is too important to reserve for specialists. The entire student body performs at the annual Christmas and Spring concerts. Selected students perform at other events.
The Oaks opened a dedicated Conservatory in the fall of 2017 to bring our studies in music and the other arts to a still-higher level.
Titi-Titi-Ta prepares our students for a lifetime of musical literacy.
Kent Young leads the school, from youngest-to-oldest, in the twice-weekly cantabile.
Rehearsing at the Cathedral for a chorale performance.
Secondary students share their love of song with senior citizens.
With a Song in Our Hearts
A Chorus of Praise from Youngest to Oldest
The winds group performs at the annual Christmas concert at The Fox Theatre in Spokane.
The Oaks begins school on Monday mornings with song. We close school on Friday afternoons with song. We always welcome parents and friends to share our times of cantabile (audio selections below).
“Cantabile from the Italian or cantable from the French describes the nature or characteristic of a composition, whether composed for voices or instruments, when all of its voices or parts can be easily [or beautifully] sung, or when one of the melodies of such a composition have been set [or composed] in such a [vocally, easily singable] manner.”
... from Cantabile, cf Walther’s Music Dictionary. Bach sold copies of this book from his house in Leipzig and very likely contributed to it.
Advancing Still
The King of Love
I Sing the Mighty Power
Formal music education begins in first grade, and continues until graduation. Students master parts-singing in melody, harmony and, finally, choral performance. Opportunities are provided for solo work in strings, wind instruments, and choral performance.
Kent Young leads the school, from youngest-to-oldest, in the twice-weekly cantabile.
Music is too important to reserve for specialists. The entire student body performs at the annual Christmas and Spring concerts. Selected students perform at other events.
Secondary students share their love of song with senior citizens.
The Oaks opened a dedicated Conservatory in the fall of 2017 to bring our studies in music and the other arts to a still-higher level.
The Fine Art Of Drawing
Mastering Visual Literacy for a Lifetime of Appreciation
Few things are more difficult to draw than a nose. Third-graders use grids and perspective to draw objects resembling ... noses.
Oaks students learn, by stages, how to see God's creation and, then, to render what they see as accurately as possible.
By sixth grade, students create surprisingly complex drawings, utilizing perspective, light/shading and color. Their observational skills will soon pay dividends in science as well as art.
Secondary students pick up art studies again in eleventh grade. Now, they can apply scientific principles to analyze the physics by which skilful craftsman imitate life on canvas. The most artistic will strive to represent created things which they see as we have never before seen them.
These Oaks students can now assess, critique and appreciate the artistic treasures they will encounter on their Grand Tour to Europe in the summer after junior year.
(Read Learning To See from The Glass Wall Blog to gain insight into the methods used with our students.)
Reproducing a seen object
An interpretative drawing
Drawings composed by Oaks juniors, click to enlarge.
Drawings composed by Oaks juniors, click to enlarge.
The Fine Art Of Drawing
Mastering Visual Literacy for a Lifetime of Appreciation
Few things are more difficult to draw than a nose. Third-graders use grids and perspective to draw objects resembling ... noses.
Oaks students learn, by stages, how to see God's creation and, then, to render what they see as accurately as possible.
Reproducing a seen object
By sixth grade, students create surprisingly complex drawings, utilizing perspective, light/shading and color. Their observational skills will soon pay dividends in science as well as art.
An interpretative drawing
Secondary students pick up art studies again in eleventh grade. Now, they can apply scientific principles to analyze the physics by which skilful craftsman imitate life on canvas. The most artistic will strive to represent created things which they see as we have never before seen them.
These Oaks students can now assess, critique and appreciate the artistic treasures they will encounter on their Grand Tour to Europe in the summer after junior year.
(Read Learning To See from The Glass Wall Blog to gain insight into the methods used with our students.)
Drawings composed by Oaks juniors, click to enlarge.
Theatre
Confident Players on the Stage of Life
Beauty and the Beast, 2017
What began many years ago at The Oaks as a single annual play has grown to include a wide range of musicals, comedies and dramas. A fall play for grammar and junior high students precedes the main spring production. Our own instrumentalists accompany the actors.
Shakespeare may have been correct that all of life is a (theatre) stage, but only when placed in context with the entire backdrop of an Oaks education.
Students who would not otherwise have dared appear as 'players' have discovered unknown inner resources, and gained lasting self-confidence through public performance.
A number of Oaks students have gone on to specialize in theatre arts and film at college.
Teri Woodroof demonstrating a 'move'
Photos from Beauty and the Beast, May 2017, click to enlarge
Theatre
Confident Players on the Stage of Life
Beauty and the Beast, 2017
What began many years ago at The Oaks as a single annual play has grown to include a wide range of musicals, comedies and dramas. A fall play for grammar and junior high students precedes the main spring production. Our own instrumentalists accompany the actors.
Shakespeare may have been correct that all of life is a (theatre) stage, but only when placed in context with the entire backdrop of an Oaks education.
Teri Woodroof demonstrating a 'move'
Students who would not otherwise have dared appear as 'players' have discovered unknown inner resources, and gained lasting self-confidence through public performance.
A number of Oaks students have gone on to specialize in theatre arts and film at college.
Photos from Beauty and the Beast, May 2017, click to enlarge
Special Days
Sharing the Times of Our Lives
It's Geography Day! Grammar students share an adopted culture with grandparents.
Would you like a special day? Which one?
Grammar School students enjoy an annual speech meet, a Thanksgiving feast (first grade), the 100th day party (kindergarten and first grade), geography day, President's day, a Little House on the Prairie party (second grade), history plays (second and third grade), and the Greek feast (third grade).
We dare not forget grandparents day (featuring a 4th grade wax museum), poetry recitation (fourth grade), the celebrated medieval banquet (fourth grade), the Pilgrim feast (fifth grade), the edible cell day (sixth grade) and the ever-popular cowboy day (sixth grade).
Secondary students enjoy a rock day, the mousetrap catapult contest, the soda bottle rockets competition, and the Science Fair (these four all sponsored by the science department).
Everyone hopes to qualify for the spring Talent Show.
The Civil War deserves its own storyline. Seventh through twelfth graders re-enact a selected battle. Students rise through the ranks, with Oaks seniors serving, finally, as Generals. Naturally, they enjoy a special meal hosted during the battle by their ... mothers.
(Browse the slideshow below to view a random assortment of event-related adventures over the years.)
Grandparents day features a number of skits performed by grammar school students. Each character 'comes to life' when touched to speak and act out a story about their character.
Serving steak with the trimmings to hungry generals.
Knighted for Grandparents Day
Geography in Egpyt
Geography Trumpeteer
Geography Day and Alligators
Geography in Africa
Geography of America
Talent Bluesman
Talent Is Justin Cai
Talent Show Twins
The Mouse Catapult
Another Catapult
Armed for the Medieval Feast
Posed For A Medieval Banquet
Why Is Our Headmaster Skydiving?
The Civil War Band
Civl War Dispute
Civil War Not-Disguise
Addressing The Troops
A Christmas Pageant Camel
Christmas Pageant Family
Special Days
Sharing the Times of Our Lives
It's Geography Day! Grammar students share an adopted culture with grandparents.
Would you like a special day? Which one?
Grammar School students enjoy an annual speech meet, a Thanksgiving feast (first grade), the 100th day party (kindergarten and first grade), geography day, President's day, a Little House on the Prairie party (second grade), history plays (second and third grade), and the Greek feast (third grade).
Grandparents day features a number of skits performed by grammar school students. Each character 'comes to life' when touched to speak and act out a story about their character.
We dare not forget grandparents day (featuring a 4th grade wax museum), poetry recitation (fourth grade), the celebrated medieval banquet (fourth grade), the Pilgrim feast (fifth grade), the edible cell day (sixth grade) and the ever-popular cowboy day (sixth grade).
Secondary students enjoy a rock day, the mousetrap catapult contest, the soda bottle rockets competition, and the Science Fair (these four all sponsored by the science department).
Everyone hopes to qualify for the spring Talent Show.
Serving steak with the trimmings to hungry generals.
The Civil War deserves its own storyline. Seventh through twelfth graders re-enact a selected battle. Students rise through the ranks, with Oaks seniors serving, finally, as Generals. Naturally, they enjoy a special meal hosted during the battle by their ... mothers.
(Browse the slideshow below to view a random assortment of event-related adventures over the years.)
Knighted for Grandparents Day
Roman Chariot Races during History Emphasis Week 2016
Geography in Egpyt
Geography Trumpeteer
Geography Day and Alligators
Geography in Africa
Geography of America
Talent Bluesman
Talent Is Justin Cai
Talent Show Twins
The Mouse Catapult
Another Catapult
Armed for the Medieval Feast
Posed For A Medieval Banquet
Why Is Our Headmaster Skydiving?
The Civil War Band
Civl War Dispute
Civil War Not-Disguise
Addressing The Troops
A Christmas Pageant Camel
Christmas Pageant Family
Field Trips
We've Been There, and Done That!
Secondary students showing off their balance on a field trip to Olympia National Park.
Washington boasts a wider variety of micro-climates, from rain forests to deserts, than any other state. Oaks students embark on memorable field trips to benefit from these resources, and complement their study of subjects as diverse as history and science.
The fall features a visit to Walter's Fruit Ranch (kindergarten), a Retirement Home trip to sing carols (kindergarten), an excursion to the MAC Museum (first and second grade), a trip to Lutherhaven (third grade), and St. John's Cathedral (fourth grade).
Sixth-graders visit the Ft. Walla Walla and Whitman Mission as well as the Grand Coulee Dam.
Seventh-graders journey, unforgettably, to Mt. St. Helens, while secondary students venture to Yellowstone or the Olympic Peninsula in alternate years.
Spring finds second graders at the Riverside State Park, third-graders on an architecture trip, fifth-graders at the Oregon coast, tenth-graders visiting the Hanford Nuclear Reactor, and secondary physics students looking over the shoulders of advanced practitioners in Seattle.
The kindergarten class visits a farm in the fall.
'Investigating' a man-made, rather than natural, structure at the Oregon coast.
Field Trips
We've Been There, and Done That!
Secondary students showing off their balance on a field trip to Olympia National Park.
Washington boasts a wider variety of micro-climates, from rain forests to deserts, than any other state. Oaks students embark on memorable field trips to benefit from these resources, and complement their study of subjects as diverse as history and science.
The kindergarten class visits a farm in the fall.
The fall features a visit to Walter's Fruit Ranch (kindergarten), a Retirement Home trip to sing carols (kindergarten), an excursion to the MAC Museum (first and second grade), a trip to Lutherhaven (third grade), and St. John's Cathedral (fourth grade).
Sixth-graders visit the Ft. Walla Walla and Whitman Mission as well as the Grand Coulee Dam.
Seventh-graders journey, unforgettably, to Mt. St. Helens, while secondary students venture to Yellowstone or the Olympic Peninsula in alternate years.
'Investigating' a man-made, rather than natural, structure at the Oregon coast.
Spring finds second graders at the Riverside State Park, third-graders on an architecture trip, fifth-graders at the Oregon coast, tenth-graders visiting the Hanford Nuclear Reactor, and secondary physics students looking over the shoulders of advanced practitioners in Seattle.
Physical Education and Athletics
It's All in Serious Fun
The soccer team frozen in action, momentarily, at an intense pre-game practice.
The Oaks does not place undue emphasis on sports. Too often, these become the hidden purpose for private education. This frees our families, and especially our students, to enjoy competitive athletics for their own sake, in the spirit of generations past.
Secondary students, male and female, may participate in a range of sports, including soccer, cross-country, volleyball and basketball.
The Oaks also conducts a structured physical education program for the Grammar school with defined fitness goals, and awards for qualified students.
We went inside the locker room at an Oaks basketball game.
Tip-off to championship victory.
The informal Oaks pep club has open membership.
Senior night speaks for itself.
Physical Education and Athletics
It's All in Serious Fun
The soccer team frozen in action, momentarily, at an intense pre-game practice.
The Oaks does not place undue emphasis on sports. Too often, these become the hidden purpose for private education. This frees our families, and especially our students, to enjoy competitive athletics for their own sake, in the spirit of generations past.
The informal Oaks pep club has open membership.
Secondary students, male and female, may participate in a range of sports, including soccer, cross-country, volleyball and basketball.
Tip-off to championship victory.
The Oaks also conducts a structured physical education program for the Grammar school with defined fitness goals, and awards for qualified students.