Deeper Dive with Mrs. Peter and Mrs. Petersen

Art Connects It All: Inside RCDS’s Interdisciplinary Approach

What does art have to do with learning about friction in seventh grade? Or the yearlong Grade 2 curriculum theme, “New Jersey Past and Present?” Plenty! Just ask RCDS art teachers Megan Peter and Melissa Petersen, who dream up the most dynamic interdisciplinary projects that further knowledge, understanding, creativity, and Gators’ love of learning.

RCDS is very committed to interdisciplinary arts. Can you explain what that is and what it looks like in the art room?

Mrs. Petersen: We try to make connections between what children are studying in art and link that meaningfully to classroom content. For example, Beginners (kindergartners) are learning about and growing butterflies in their classroom. Today, in art class, we’re going to look at images of butterflies and talk about the life cycle of butterflies. We’re going to learn how to draw butterflies from observation and discuss scientific illustration.  

Mrs. Peter: We try to incorporate projects across as many disciplines as we can, whether it’s the butterfly study for Beginners, or Native Americans in second grade as part of their in-depth curriculum theme “New Jersey Past and Present”. Whenever a topic is introduced, we’re able to give it perspective in a different way. We give students additional exposure to concepts. Giving them another way into the material helps cement ideas for children.

What other interdisciplinary projects link academic content to the visual arts?

Mrs. Peter: One of the highlights of our Upper School curriculum is the skateboard project. It’s fully interdisciplinary and ties directly into physics, where seventh graders are learning about friction and motion. Seventh graders design skateboards using graphic design software in the Innovation Lab. They then use machines in the Woodshop to cut their decks and sand them. In art class, we spend a lot of time looking at different artists who incorporate skateboard culture into their work. It’s an exciting project, and it motivates the students. They take a lot of pride in making skateboards that are uniquely their own.

Mrs. Petersen: Another example is in Grade 6 science. Students study the natural world; they learn about biomes and ecosystems, which we connect to artists like Georgia O’Keeffe, who made iconic art of flowers and botany on a gigantic scale, and Courtney Mattison, who makes art about coral reefs.

Fifth graders learn about ancient cultures and civilizations every year. We take them to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where they have a docent-led tour and look at the civilizations they are studying. Additionally, the artwork that we create with them focuses on Ancient China, Ancient Egypt, and Ancient Mesopotamia because that's what they learn about all year.

How important is collaboration (with each other and your colleagues) in establishing a robust interdisciplinary visual arts program?

Mrs. Peter: It’s so important. Our mirrored curriculum and schedule provide the opportunity to be flexible and connect art to core subjects in real time for Lower and Upper School. In Lower School, Melissa and I each teach one section of a grade simultaneously. It’s powerful for all of us because it allows us to be reflective in our own practice. We have a lot of shared time with classroom teachers and specialists. We meet on a monthly or bi-monthly basis to touch base. We can support everything they’re doing, which in turn, helps us have an even more authentic experience in the art room.

Mrs. Petersen: The small size of our school also makes it easy to grab the teachers, even if we don't have a scheduled meeting, and say, ‘Hey, what are you guys focusing on?’, ‘How can we reinforce those concepts?’.

A few of the interdisciplinary projects you mentioned came to life in the Innovation Lab and Woodshop. What kind of possibilities do these new spaces present?

Mrs. Petersen: It presents really exciting possibilities and gives us access to more technology. We now have a Wazer, which is a water jet laser. As a glass and mosaic artist, I’ve been thinking about how to best use the Wazer with kids. I was recently cleared to order a glass kiln. I’m excited to introduce a lot of glass fusing next year.

The reality is that these tools are the wave of the future. At the same time, making things with your hands remains very important, and we don’t want to be overly reliant on technology. It’s a balance. That said, we have amazing access to resources: real glazes, real clay, and real paint, combined with all the technology, enables all this work that allows kids to be real artists and take ownership of their projects.

RCDS’s commitment to the arts and interdisciplinary education seems very distinctive from other schools.

Mrs. Peter: I think what we are doing here is extremely unique. We’re highly committed to making sure that students are having cohesive experiences where they're not learning something in isolation, and that what they're doing in one class is being scaffolded in our class. We spend a lot of time thinking and re-thinking because we don’t want our curriculum to ever feel stagnant. The nature of who we are as people and as educators is that we're always looking for ways to make art more meaningful and exciting for our students.

Mrs. Petersen: RCDS students also have art three times every eight days. In a lot of elementary schools, students have art once a week. I think that shows just how committed our administration is to art. We are in a position where we can do a lot with the kids because we have them all year, three times every eight days, which is amazing.

A big RCDS tradition is the Annual Arts Festival, which will be on May 7^th. Can you give us a preview?

Mrs. Petersen: We showcase work from Nursery to Grade 8, so almost every student in the school will have multiple works of art represented. We will also have collaborative pieces that the whole school may have worked on. It’s just a lovely event for the entire RCDS community. Students sing, they dance, perform solo acts, play instruments, and it's a really nice way to celebrate their hard work. Seeing it in one place, all together, is extremely powerful.  

Megan Peter joined the RCDS Faculty in 2021. She holds a B.A. in Fine Art, Art History, and Elementary Education from Columbia University and an M.A. from New York University. Prior to RCDS, Mrs. Peter was an art teacher at her two alma maters, Holy Cross Academy and Red Bank Catholic High School.

Melissa Petersen joined the RCDS Faculty in 2005. She holds a B.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design and an M.S. in Art Education from Pratt Institute.