Specialty Classes
Our classroom teachers incorporate components of Dance, Music and Art into the classroom curriculum. We believe that these subjects are very important and we also provide Specialty Classes in these subjects for all of our Early Childhood, Elementary and Middle School students. We hire specialists to provide enrichment classes in these areas so that the children are exposed to a more comprehensive syllabus. We also provide specialty Spanish classes because the early years are the best time for exposure to a second language.
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Classes combine traditional Spanish instruction with the Montessori method (bringing in colorful, interesting, hands-on materials), which is very effective in teaching all aspects of the Spanish language. Early Childhood classes follow the Touch Spanish 1 and 2 curriculum, which focuses on basic vocabulary and phonics through the use of images. Students also learn basic greetings, basic vocabulary and vowel sounds. Elementary and Middle School classes use Touch Spanish 3 and Rosetta Stone software to build sentences, learn intermediate grammar and vocabulary and to practice using Spanish in common situations.
Early Childhood, Elementary, and Middle School students attend dance classes in a beautiful , spacious dance room with bamboo floors. Early Childhood students are introduced to the main elements of dance: time, space and energy, so that they can decipher and make choices in their movement. The students learn how to alter speeds, change levels, utilize space, play with quality, move with their whole bodies/being, mirror positive/negative space, as well as shaping and weaving. Elementary and Middle School students learn more advanced dance elements such as shape, level, direction, size, focus, attack, weight, strength, pathway, locomotor and flow. They also learn how to express themselves through dance and incorporate their own style and how to integrate timing and choreography.
Early Childhood, Elementary, and Middle School students attend music Specialty classes. Music and rhythm theory is taught as well as vocal skills. The students are exposed to many different music styles as well as music from many other cultures. Early Childhood students learn to sing and play instruments and to create, respond to and understand music. Elementary and Middle School students learn to sing and play instruments (including the recorder) with a varied repertoire of music alone and with others, and improvise melodies, variations and accompaniments. They also learn to analyze, describe, compose, arrange, read and notate music and to understand music in relation to history and culture.
The Art Studio is available to Kindergarten (Third Year Early Childhood), Elementary, and Middle School students throughout the week. First and Second Year Early Childhood students have an art curriculum in their classrooms.
Early Childhood students focus on the technical fundamentals of color, shape, perspective and shading. All of the students work with many different media such as paint, pastels, pencil, collage, textiles, etc. Elementary and Middle School students practice the technical elements of art, such as line, shape, color, value, form, texture and space, as well as the principles of design, including balance, contrast, emphasis, movement, pattern, rhythm and unity.
Our “Artist-in-Residence”, Kindra Fehr, works as an adviser for our Early Childhood art curriculum and with our Elementary and Middle School students on special projects.
All of our Elementary and Middle School students. participate in Physical Education classes. The students learn and play a variety of team-oriented physical activities, with an emphasis on endurance, coordination, flexibility, strength, agility and sportsmanship.
Our 3rd year Lower Elementary, Upper Elementary and Middle School students participate in an environmental expeditions program called "GO". Students go on environmental expeditions throughout the Greater Salt Lake area to locations such as the Cottonwood Canyons, Swaner Wetland, the Bear River, and the Great Salt Lake Desert. The students focus on the three major habitats that surround our natural area: deserts, wetlands and alpine.
The purpose of these expeditions is to give the students a direct, personal connection with their natural world and through that connection, to give them a better understanding of the world around them as well as of themselves.
