SOUTH JORDAN, Utah — The Jordan School District is adding a new school this year focused on the arts, it’s called Majestic Elementary School.
5th grader Johnathan Garcia is looking forward to attending Majestic, and especially getting to take art and math classes.
“It’s very fun to do because you get to sometimes play games and have fun,” said Jonathan Garcia, 5th grade at Majestic Elementary.
Johnathan and his classmates will study math, science, history and more using music, art and dance.
“It’s very fun and I think it’s going to be better now that we’re doing lots of art,” said Garcia.
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Majestic Elementary School is a Kindergarten through sixth grade school, giving students the opportunity to open their brains and learn in more creative ways, in order to retain information.
“We can use dance to teach math, and you are going to understand the XY axis a lot more if you can move and use it kinesthetically and it connects to your brain a little bit better,” said Marianne Johansen, Principal of Majestic Elementary.
Music is just one tool the school uses.
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Lisa Blodgett has been teaching music for most of her life, she says 85 percent of students’ exposure to music is in school, and that’s why it’s so important to incorporate it into the classroom.
“There’s so many disciplines that happen when a kid plays an instrument, when a student sits down to play, they’re not just writing on a paper, but they’re engaging multiple places in their brain to be able to, how do I make a sound, how do I blow, how do I breathe, and then they have to read on top of it,” said Lisa Blodgett, Music Teacher, Majestic Elementary School.
Right now, the school has 250 kids enrolled and 14 teachers, but they’re hoping to expand in the future.
“I don’t feel like kids were made to sit in desks for seven hours every single day and this helps them run and jump and play, while also giving them the skills that they’re going to need to go out into the workforce someday,” said Johansen.
Johansen says by using the arts to teach, they’ve seen an increase in excitement from the students to learn.
“I’m excited to watch them grow and see where they’re going to take their own creativity and see what they can do with it,” said Johansen.
Enrollment is still open for Majestic Elementary.
