Creative Arts at Meridian PCS

At Meridian, creativity is not a separate part of the school day. The arts, music, technology, physical education, and language learning are woven into every subject area, reinforcing our three core pillars of literacy, language, and the arts. All students take Creative Arts courses, and teachers across content areas are encouraged to integrate creative approaches into their instruction.

Visual Arts

Elementary students engage in weekly visual art classes and participate in community art projects and seasonal celebrations throughout the year. Middle schoolers explore hands-on creation through our CREW building club. Students in both divisions examine the elements of art, including content, composition, style, method, and materials, and engage in discussion and critique of their own original work. 

We leverage our location in Washington, D.C. to partner with museums, theaters, artists, and cultural institutions, turning our nation's capital into a living classroom. Through teacher micro-grants, we continue to expand arts integration into mathematics, science, literacy, and social studies.

Music

Music instruction builds progressively across grade levels at Meridian. Students develop an understanding of music from historical and theoretical perspectives, engaging with hands-on instruments as they explore tempo, beat, rhythm, notation, and sheet music. Elementary students learn to create their own bicultural rhythms and compositions. In middle school, students advance to intermediate and advanced music theory and, in eighth grade, choose an instrumental or vocal track. Students showcase their learning through performances for the Meridian community.

Performing Arts

Students learn the fundamentals of theatre, dramatic expression, and vocabulary, gaining tools to create characters and perform short stories and plays with their peers. Performing Arts also builds soft skills including teamwork, problem solving, and communication. By the end of the term, students carry stronger confidence in their speaking and presentation skills into every other area of their education. We extend performing arts learning through partnerships with DC Scores and Marty's Kids, including poetry slams and community events that celebrate students as writers and performers.

Technology

In the primary grades (K–2), students engage in computer-based learning activities covering problem-solving, typing, simple publishing projects, math, ELA, painting, and drawing. Elementary students build on this by learning to create multimedia presentations and use the internet for basic research. Students have access to subscription-based online reference materials and software simulations including Prodigy and Typing Club.