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Grade Specifics: K | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
Arts | Language | Physical Education
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For English, Math, Science, and Social Studies, please refer to the grade-specific links above.
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The school's art and music curriculum is designed to ensure high levels of achievement for all students.
The Music and Drama program is based on the Orff-Schulwerk methodology, in which students explore and guide the learning process using aspects of singing, movement and rhythmic speech. Students in kindergarten through eighth grade engage in hands-on, experiential learning using a variety of instructional mediums — xylophone playing, assorted hand-drumming, percussion playing, ethnic dancing and folk-telling, recorder ensemble playing, singing, pantomime and dramatic role playing. The large music classroom is well equipped with musical instruments. Students are not only taught to sing, but also the technical aspects of singing. They are exposed to many musical instruments, styles of music and components of music and composition. The director of the music program has been at the school for 20 years and has a high standard of excellence that helps the students set their goals high. Each year, every child participates in public performances including parish and/or ecumenical religious services, nursing home visits, seasonal programs, community concerts and special-request television and/or public performances.
The children create a variety of art media to use in their music, dance and theater work, including banners, masks, scenery flats, props and costumes.
Within the visual arts, the students are exposed to a wide variety of media. Exploration, as well as technical aspects of the materials are stressed. Students are exposed to art history using appropriate developmental references. Many students are asked to write reflections or artist statements of their art work. Also, many students conduct research on various artists. They also write biographies and responses to famous artists' work, which can in turn influence each child's own style of artistic expression.
Teachers are eager to work together to help the students obtain an expansive view of each content area. The specific content typically spans over at least two areas of the curriculum. Art is often combined with other disciplines: history, music, literature, science and even science. The students learn skills that are appropriate to their developmental level. The arts program is based on a compounded approach in which the basics are taught and then expanded upon throughout the years at the school. By the time the child leaves the school, he/she will have been exposed to a wide variety of arts at varying levels of cognition.
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Students in first through eighth grades receive Spanish instruction for a half hour each day. The class, taught by a trilingual teacher from Guatemala, is more than learning to speak a second language. It expands the students' knowledge in the area of Social Studies by helping them discover their relationship between themselves and the other people of the world. It reinforces their Language Arts skills through reading, writing, listening and speaking activities. It challenges their artistic and creative abilities to do projects that integrate arts, technology and Spanish skills. Because these skills can make a difference in the student's future success, the school seeks to incorporate these lessons into everyday activities, including prayers and festivals. Each year, the school celebrates the Mexican national holiday, Cinco de Mayo, in which classes set up "stalls" like those in a Mexican market, and students and visitors bargain in Spanish, using paper pesos.
The Spanish program are based on the Standards for Foreign Language Education, our school's mission and vision, the KERA valued outcomes, the current research on how the brain learns a foreign language, and the students' developmental stages and learning styles.
So far, our Spanish program is pleased to see that it has provided inspiration and motivation for many graduates to pursue a career using Spanish. Other students find inspiration and motivation in the fact they have become bilingual.
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The primary aim of physical education is to equip students with the knowledge, skills, capacities, and values along with the enthusiasm to maintain a healthy lifestyle into adulthood.
Physical education programs are designed to produce students who can:
- Demonstrate competency in many movement forms and proficiency in a few.
- Apply movement concepts and principles to the learning and development of motor skills.
- Exhibit a physically active lifestyle.
- Achieve and maintain a health-enhancing level of physical fitness.
- Demonstrate responsible personal and social behavior in physical activity settings.
- Demonstrate understanding and respect for differences among people in physical activity settings.
- Understand that physical activity provides opportunities for enjoyment, challenge, self-expression, and social interaction.
Physical education can provide the basic skills, knowledge and attitudes that promote an active lifestyle, but you the parents can set an example by being an active family that will facilitate a lifetime of good health.