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Specials
At St. Augustine School, students will have one special class each day. These specials rotate between music, art, STREAM, technology, and physical education.
Music
Music at St. Augustine School develops students’ musicianship skills to enable them to become competent musicians both inside and outside of the classroom. Following an Orff-Schulwerk-based approach, students are invited to explore music via listening, creating/playing/singing, and movement. Beginning with the youngest learners, students work on essential concepts such as beat, rhythm, and melody, learning both by rote and by reading in various notations.
While continuing to build on these foundations, students in first and second grade learn about instrument families, developing an ear to identify musical instruments and themes. At this age, students also learn to distinguish music genres and world music styles while comparing and contrasting them to the music with which they are familiar.
Students in third through fifth grade begin transitioning these musical skills to instruments as they learn ukulele using TAB and standard notation, as well as chord charts. As they become proficient with the ukulele, students begin to use the instrument to explore music composition and eventually compose their own songs.
In middle school, students continue to deepen their understanding of musical concepts through the lens of different themes for each grade level. Western music history, ethnomusicology, and higher level musical concepts such as harmony, texture, timbre, and tonality are explored through Pop Music Through the Ages in sixth grade, American Music Styles in seventh grade, and Music in Entertainment in eighth grade. Each year explores several different genres and styles within the theme, completing composition and research-based projects that bridge the gap between music, visual arts, and history.
Technology
St. Augustine School is committed to forming students into responsible digital citizens as technology becomes more and more prevalent in the world around us.
St. Augustine School's Technology curriculum aligns with ISTE Standards, which provide a framework for integrating technology into the curriculum. The guidelines cultivate skills, knowledge, and attitudes such as innovation, collaboration, computational thinking, digital citizenship, and strong communication.
These standards are used for lesson planning, curriculum development, and assessment. ISTE Standards also build student literacy in STEM skills and to empower learners for a digital workplace.
Additionally, TechnoKids and the Computer Science Teacher Association Standards provide a wonderful framework on which our curriculum is based. The five major concepts our skills focus on are Algorithms & Programming, Computing Systems, Data & Analysis, Impacts of Computing, and Networks of the Internet.
In addition to weekly technology instruction, a "Bring Your Own Device" program is in place for grades 3-8. School-issued Google accounts for grades 3-8 for use with the Google Apps for Education and
Promethean Boards are in every classroom.
Art
In weekly art class, students work with different mediums to explore the elements of art. They gain inspiration from different sources such as famous artists, local artists, children's books with illustrations, the world around them, and each other.
Styles of art include but not limited to:
- Impressionism
- Pointillism
- Expressionism
- Pop Art
- Op Art
- Folk Art
- Contemporary Art
- Collaborative Art.
The goal of each class is for students to learn that there are no mistakes in art; they are all artists with their own unique creative choices!
STREAM
In our newly constructed STREAM Lab, students are able to use their knowledge and skills in science, technology, religion, English, art, and math in hands-on, engaging ways to create, design, construct, and solve real world problems and challenges.
Students use the engineering design process to generate, build, test, and assess their ideas, using current tools and technology.
The STREAM Lab is equipped with 3D printers, Raspberry Pi computers and circuit and robotics kits, a green screen, video filming technology, a Makerspace, write-on white board tables and more!
Physical Education
Physical Education class is a favorite at SAS. Our gymnasium is under ten years old and our field allows for lots of space for games and activities, such as volleyball, archery, and basketball. We have both indoor and outdoor basketball courts. Students also learn how to build lifelong healthy habits. On PE days, students wear their gym uniforms all day.