Specialty Subjects

French | Latin | Music | Physical Education | Art | Wellness

French

Extended Day and Junior Level

Students are exposed to languages other than English at all levels and across the Montessori curriculum as part of cultural studies. Formal language instruction is initiated in Extended Day with weekly lessons. Junior Level students receive lessons three times a week.

Children are receptive to language acquisition at an early age, and the program seeks to inspire and excite younger students through active learning, music and body movement. Songs composed for the purposes of language acquisition provide children with vocabulary, proper pronunciation and a comfort level with French that create natural transitions to the spoken language, whether used to narrate or to converse. Memorization in the context of a song is fun, and serves the children well as they progress in the program. Acting is another tool used in the early years of language instruction. The process of constructing and acting out a scene incorporates creativity and body movement, while placing words and phrases in a larger context and encouraging expressive and purposeful speaking. Puppets and stuffed animals may also serve as characters of these French theatrical efforts.

Movement is a particularly useful tool in many French lessons. French songs or phrases may form the verbal structure for a dance routine or sports game. In warm weather, for example, you might find a group of intent students jumping rope in rhythm to a French song they are singing.

In addition to participating in these French activities, Junior Level students are exposed to written language. We begin to read simple sentences and texts in French and incorporate phrases and sentences into creative work such as drawings or photo collages of families, pets and familiar environments. At every level of the early French curriculum, the emphasis is on the beauty and joy of language, the child's natural abilities and her desire to describe and communicate with the world around her.

Upper Level

The Upper Level French curriculum presents language through the study of French geography and history. Students learn about French culture in the context of the built and natural environment - landscape and regions, rivers and mountains, cities and monuments. At the same time, attention is devoted to the refinement of pronunciation and inflection. The experience of making new sounds leads to a comfort in speaking and expression in a second language.

At this level, grammar and language pattern study are added to the work of vocabulary building, verbal expression and pronunciation emphasized in the Extended Day and Junior Level French classes. Each lesson begins with the pronunciation or singing of words. Chanting is the tool used to introduce and solidify knowledge of new vocabulary.

With the knowledge and tools gained through cultural and grammar study, and verbal and vocabulary exercises, students begin to engage the French language as a tool of communication, through conversation, reading and writing.

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Latin

Latin is taught to all students in the Upper Level and Middle School. While students continue their study of French, which they began at the Extended Day Level, Latin offers them a different type of learning experience. Learning a modern language like French, involves the mastery of aural/oral skills and automatic, idiomatic responses that are part of real conversation in a language, as well as aspects of grammar and sentence construction. With the ancient language of Latin, however, our focus is on analyzing the way language works, how endings change with form and function. The discipline of studying Latin is a traditional and effective way of training students in reading, writing and thinking about their own language.

The Upper Level class uses the Cambridge Latin Course, a reading-based approach to learning the language that encourages the students' own discovery of the relationship between English and Latin, and dovetails with their study of English grammar. In preparation for learning the language, students read background material on Roman culture, study maps of the Roman Empire and discover which modern languages derive from Latin. Roman numerals, Greco-Roman mythology, Roman heroes, and the form of the typical southern Italian house are also covered. After vocabulary for family members and the house are introduced, along with basic verbs, students are able to read short, simple sentences and brief, illustrated stories. As students develop greater knowledge and sophistication with the grammar, they advance to more complex stories about the people who lived in Pompeii prior to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 ACE.

At the Middle School level we use EcceRomani, a high school course with a formal approach to Latin grammar, involving noun and verb endings to memorize , and aiming for a systematic understanding of verb tenses and the different forms of nouns. This offers a different approach that is accessible to continuing Latin students as well as to children new to the school who are studying Latin for the first time. Students study and master well-defined grammatical rules, and work to read more sophisticated texts as well as translate from English into Latin. After two years, successful students are ready to take the New York State Proficiency test in Latin (and earn one high school foreign language credit), and are prepared to enter Latin 2 in high school.

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Music

General Music

The goal of the general music program for children ages 6-15 is to give the children an introduction to the importance of music to human existence and to show how music is ingrained in everyday life. This is accomplished by dividing the curriculum into four major areas: reading and writing music; moving to music and exploring the aesthetics of the art; understanding how music is a form of expression for the many cultures of the world; and singing and playing instruments.

Activities in each area are presented in Montessori-style lessons with materials available for children to use to complete follow-up work. Whenever possible, connections are made to a classroom unit of study. Children learn how music is connected to their everyday lives, from listening for rhythmic patterns in nature, to learning the science of sound, to realizing that music is a language of its own.

Performance is an essential element of the curriculum and there are many opportunities for children to present their musical skills and creativity. Giving children the real life experience of expressing themselves for an audience is invaluable to their development. Composition of original music is encouraged, especially at the higher levels.

Development of musical skills is also stressed. Children at all levels sing in both small and large groups, learn to play classroom instruments, and learn the mechanics of reading and writing music. Once these skills are in place, they are able to explore music to the fullest extent.

Chorus and Instrumental Music

Supplementing the general music program, the chorus and the instrumental music program offer specialized instruction and opportunities for group performance.

All Upper Level students participate in Chorus, which meets weekly during the school day. Students are presented with a wide range of musical styles and genres that often follows the themes and topics studied in other areas of the curriculum. Performances for the Chorus currently include the UN Day Assembly, the Festival of Lights and the Spring Music Concert.

The instrumental music program is offered to third year Junior Level students, and all students in Upper Level and Middle School. Students may begin study of a band instrument in their third year of Junior Level. Rental arrangements are made through a local store, and individual half-hour lessons are given during the school day on a weekly basis.

Four different ensembles -- Beginning Band, Advanced Band, Jazz Band and the Chamber Music Ensemble - meet in the mornings before school. New students play in Beginning Band, and move to Advanced Band after their first full year of instrumental instruction. Advanced Band members have the opportunity to play in the Jazz Band and in small chamber groups. The Jazz Band focuses on improvisation and ear training, with a method that is accessible for all students. Interested student are placed in duets, trios and quintets as part of the Chamber Music Ensemble.

Group practice and performance are important components of the instrumental music program. Two full concerts are offered each year, the Winter Concert in December and the Spring Concert in May, both staged at Ithaca College. Dressed in formal concert attire, students take tremendous pride in performing a full program on a large-scale concert stage.

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Physical Education

The physical education curriculum engages students from Extended Day through Middle School, and promotes learning and joy through a broad range of sports and physical activities. Learning is focused on development of skills and of a "yes, let's" attitude, permitting the student to engage in activity with the full self. Students are encouraged to welcome challenge and to view effort positively. We create a supportive environment so that full effort is always appreciated by teacher and students regardless of whether it produced a success on the scoreboard.

As students enter Junior Level, competitive activities are introduced to complement cooperative games. In this manner, the seven-year-old expands his identification from self to team, and may experience the freedom and joy of identifying with a larger entity. The children learn that a competitive format gives a structure and focus to direct one's total energy. At the same time, they become more skillful at letting go of the results, of winning and losing with grace.

Our bodies give us much joy -- it does not get much better than playing Capture the Flag on an April afternoon with friends. We strive to teach the subtle aspects of sportsmanship, positive self-talk and focused attention without diminishing the child's innate joy.

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Art

Art, like music, is an integral part of the curriculum from Primary Level through Middle School. Students observe and learn about art, and are supported in individual and group efforts to create with confidence and joy.

Cases in the school entrance area display a rotating selection of student art work. The annual art show, which takes place in late April, presents multiple works of each student from Extended Day through Middle School. This all-school event teaches the students the mechanics and etiquette of an art show, and reinforces their confidence in their abilities to understand and create art.

Extended Day and Junior Level Art

The art curriculum at the Extended Day and Junior Levels seeks to engage every student in a fun and satisfying experience by presenting lessons and projects accessible to all levels of ability and interest.  A developed curriculum of weekly lessons and activities reflects the New York State Standards for the Arts, which include the creation of art objects;  knowledge and use of materials; analysis of art works; and understanding of art’s cultural dimensions.  Yet art is an essential part of the integrated curriculum, and while introducing the students to form, color and other elements of design, it serves as a significant extension of geography, science and cultural studies lessons. Student art enriches and embellishes major school celebrations and events, such as United Nations Day, the Festival of Light, Disabilities Awareness Week, and the school play.

Extended Day art lessons develop fine motor skills involved in activities like cutting, pasting and tracing.  In the context of activities that support classroom lessons, particularly study of world cultures, children are introduced to a variety of media and materials. There are many traditions involving art at the Extended Day level, in which a large group project becomes a focus of classroom and whole-school events.  In the fall, students construct and decorate  a large tepee in their classroom as part of their study of Native Americans. Their large-scale world maps are presented at the all-school United Nations Day Assembly, and a large, magnificent paper dragon, created by every Extended Day student, ushers in Chinese New Year throughout the school buildings.

Art instruction at the Junior Level follows the three-year curriculum,  with a different emphasis in each year. The first year projects are based on the seasons and the artistic production of various cultures.  In their second year, students experience the various genres of art, including drawing, painting, sculpture, op art and tech art, and printmaking. They are also introduced to major art movements and the styles of prominent artists. In depth study of the elements and principles of visual arts structure the third-year program, and students learn about line, shape, texture and space, and explore the work of famous artists.  Lessons about elements and principles or the art of diverse cultures and historical periods are always coupled with the making of art, reinforcing subject matter and building students’ confidence in their abilities to understand art and to create their own art objects.

Upper Level and Middle School Art

At the higher levels, the goal is to provide students with the time, space and tools necessary to explore their imaginations both visually and sculpturally.  Students attend art class, once a week for one and a half hours while in the upper elementary, and for two hours while in the middle school. In addition, they are welcome to work on their projects during recess.

Our present studio space was created during the summer of 2003.  It is bright and spacious with plenty of storage shelves and large tables. The tools of art include brushes, paints, wood, clay, stone, calligraphy pens, linoleum cutting tools, chisels and gouges, and paper mache; but they also include color, texture, rhythm, line, shape, balance, composition and perspective.  Most important and useful of all are the human tools of eye, hand, body, mind and heart.  The upper level art program attempts to orchestrate all of these various elements and to hold the students to a high standard as they explore on many levels.  In art class, students have the opportunity to solve problems in their own unique way; they learn to plan and then work towards the completion of a plan; they learn to stick with something until it is completed; they learn that they are capable and imaginative.

The projects presented in art are varied in terms of materials and they become increasingly more complex as the students mature.  First year students often do large paintings and large paper mache sculptures.  Second year students learn to carve wood and to draw using line to create visual textures.  Third year students create complex manuscripts that combine hand lettering, illustrations and border designs.  Middle school students explore themselves through self-portrait masks and paintings that express emotion.  They also take on difficult tasks such as binding hard covered books. Throughout the five-year period, the students are provided with a broad array of both two and three-dimensional approaches to art.  The program is coordinated with classroom teachers, and incorporates aspects of the core curriculum.  Examples of this are arrowheads carved from soapstone, coil clay pots that are fired outside our upper level building in a sawdust kiln, totem animals carved in basswood, illuminated manuscripts and  African-style dashikis that are designed and hand-dyed.

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Wellness

The Wellness curriculum presents to students a health curriculum that reflects the school's broader mission of promoting independence and respect of self, others and the environment. Through this curriculum, we emphasize knowledge and care of the self, and awareness of the welfare of body and mind, individual and community.

Health encompasses self awareness, self care, well-being and caring for others. At the Primary and Extended Day Levels, lessons include the five senses, identifying emotions, and personal safety measures such as learning one's phone number. Junior Level students learn about disease transmission, nutrition, safety concerns and first aid. The Upper Level and Middle School curriculum focuses on decision making processes, how to deal with stress and anger, communication skills, as well as what we value in ourselves and our friendships. At these levels, discussions of health issues continue, and students also gain knowledge and awareness about specific issues that may affect them as they mature, including alcohol, drugs, smoking, body image and mental health.

Lessons in Wellness are integrated into each level's general curriculum. For example, Junior Level studies of bacterial cultures in the everyday environment are complemented by a discussion of the nature of skin and strategies for avoiding transmission of germs within the classroom. Middle School students engaged in a collaborative Health/Art project this year, as their consideration of the emotional states of anger, depression and elation took form as sketches and oil paintings. By guiding students to self knowledge and responsibility for integrated intellectual, physical, emotional and spiritual well-being, we offer young people the tools for joyful and purposeful living.

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