9/26/25 Fine Arts Department News

Your HPDL won the North Texas Drumline contest in small division for the third consecutive year! The Drum Line also took home the honors of "Best Front Ensemble". Before heading to the North Texas Drumline Contest, the entire Highlander Band previewed their 2025 UIL Marching Show, Am I Dreaming, for community members at Highlander Stadium on September 20th. The Band begins Pre-Season competitions with this piece at the end of September.

Choir students competed in the Region XX District Audition this past Saturday! This audition is the first round of the Texas All State Choir Auditions. 40 Singers were placed in the District Choir, with 13 Singers earning a spot in the 9th and 10th Grade Honor Choir. These students will begin to prepare the next round of repertoire for the Region Audition on October 18th.

In Varsity CX the team of Camden Coale and Layton Braziel placed 2nd. Camden got 2nd overall speaker and Layton got 9th overall speaker in Varsity. Their finish also got them a bid to the Tournament of Champions hosted by the University of Kentucky. In JV CX the team of Maddie Prawdzik and Emma Goga placed 3rd overall. Emma was the 5th overall speaker in JV.

Creating with care, our HPMS advanced ceramics 8th graders teamed up on the potters' wheel to

shape mini plates for their trinket dishes.

Congratulations to the Raider Band!

In the Raider Choir room, the students have shown their skills through a fun basketball warm up, sight reading competitions, and rhythm rap battles. They have also had the opportunity to form friendships and work as a team through creative music games like Captain's Coming and Just Dance.

The Raider Orchestra had their first social this month at Dave and Busters! Many thanks to the Raider Orchestra Booster Club for hosting this fun event!

Students in 5th Grade Music Classes prepared and presented a performance project! They learned to practice and evaluate their performances independently, while having fun in their small groups.

Hyer students celebrated Dot Day on Friday, September 12th! The Dot is a book written by Peter H. Reynolds that tells the story of a caring teacher who challenges a student to trust in her own abilities. The teacher encourages the girl to "make a mark and see where it takes her!" What begins with a small dot becomes a breakthrough in confidence and courage and ignites a journey of creativity. Hyer students were covered in dots to celebrate this encouraging story as the inspiration continues year after year!

UP 4th graders were introduced to kinetic art (a form of art that depends on movement for its effect) and contemporary artist, Yaacov Agam, the inventor of the agamograph. Students then created one artwork with their name and one artwork with personal symbols that were measured, cut up, and glued onto an accordian folded paper to create their own agamograph. When viewing from different angles, the viewer will see the student’s two different images, creating a sense of movement in their artwork.

3rd graders at UP enjoyed time exploring paintings, artifacts, & sculptures created by Spanish artists, as well as a new photography exhibit called Roaming Mexico at the Meadows Museum. Led by docents, students discussed storytelling and narratives and how artists tell stories through images. Students studied various works of art to try to determine different narrative techniques such as characters, setting, and plot.