Enrichment

Music

The required music program throughout the elementary years at Saint Benedict Academy combines music literacy, appreciation, participation, and performance. Our philosophy is to teach the basics of music in ways that engage students and show them that music is all around us: from the rhythm of wiper blades to the songs we sing in church, to the background music on a TV show. As early as kindergarten, children begin to learn the value of music in their lives. Their musical experiences begin with singing and simple movements, and progress to chants, rounds, singing in parts, playing rhythm instruments, and recorders.  These kinds of experiential learning give students knowledge of rhythm, melody, harmony, and note-reading. Using thoughtfully-chosen supplementary materials, our music teachers expand children’s awareness of many different styles of music, and encourages their appreciation of cultural similarities and differences. Performances of song and dance at many points in the year, including Christmas and spring programs, give children memorable opportunities to share what they have learned with appreciative audiences.

Grade level goals:

  • Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten: Group singing; rhythmic clapping and stomping; marching; and listening skills.
  • First through Third Grade: Introduction to music notation; rhythmic clapping and stomping; group singing; and music history using CDs and DVDs.  (eg.  “Peter and the Wolf)
  • Fourth through Sixth Grades: Music notation; rhythms; time signatures; group singing; group discussions; and music history using CDs and DVDs. (eg. “Beethoven Lives Upstairs”)

Physical Education

Saint Benedict Academy values the connection between mind and body. Physical education builds strength, endurance, and agility to develop wellness and promote a lifetime appreciation of physical fitness. Students participate in a variety of physical activities in the development of fine and gross motor skills with the emphasis on personal achievement and team participation. Working cooperatively to achieve mutually defined and desired goals increases the likelihood that students will accept and respect individual differences. Required physical education classes, as well as optional fourth through sixth grade after-school athletic programs, embody carefully sequenced and developmentally appropriate games, fitness, and sports programs reflecting the school’s philosophy.

Physical Education and Athletic Programs at Saint Benedict Academy are consistent with our philosophy, goals and educational objectives. We endeavor to:

  1. foster sportsmanship, citizenship, teamwork and Christian Values.
  2. foster respect for one another and to those in authority, and at the same time to develop discipline and self-control.
  3. develop necessary learning and living tools of communication, problem-solving, decision making, creativity and knowledge that will prepare students for living and competing in society.
  4. provide for the basic physical and social growth of those children whose skills and maturity qualify them for a program of competitive sports.

All students who qualify for athletic programs are representatives of Saint Benedict Academy at all games and practices and are expected to exhibit exemplary behavior.

Grade level goals:

  • Kindergarten through Third Grade: Gross motor skill development, such as running, hopping, skipping, jumping, ball skills, cooperation and team play.
  • Fourth through Sixth Grade: Soccer, volleyball, basketball, and floor hockey; as well as track and field events. After-school athletic programs which emphasize skills, rules and plat, cooperation and sportsmanship.

Computers

All students in Pre-K through sixth grade have and use computers. In addition to our computer lab, all students in third through sixth grade have a laptop for specific and supervised educational use. Technology is meaningfully integrated in every subject at Saint Benedict Academy. Beginning in the early grades, students focus on activities requiring keyboarding and word-processing skills. By the end of the primary grades, students are using the Internet to access primary source documents such as: artwork, photographs, and newspapers.

Saint Benedict Academy Computers program teaches students how to use the computer to perform the tasks they need it to do.  An engaging hands-on approach builds confidence, and students are encouraged to share their knowledge with each other verbally.  Disciplines are combined whenever possible to highlight real-world applications, for example Excel can complement a math lesson, spelling lessons and Word, history and PowerPoint, and others.

Grade level goals

  • Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten: Mousing skills; using spelling, math, and drawing games; listening to instructions.
  • First through Second Grades: Getting acquainted with the keyboard; typing skills; listening to and giving instructions.
  • Third and Fourth Grades: Primary focus on typing; keyboard shortcut keys; Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
  • Fifth and Sixth Grades: Keyboard shortcut keys, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and typing. Primary-source based projects include a “U.S Constitution” PowerPoint.

Art

Each student’s creativity is nurtured through weekly art classes. In the early grades, students learn to follow multi-step direction in their assembly and creation of artistic works. The fourth grade students have benefited from our involvement with the New Hampshire Institute of Art in many ways.  The Institute Art students have willingly coordinated their art lessons with our curriculum on many occasions.  Because we study New Hamphsire History in fourth grade, the students have been able to learn about the art of the Abanaki people and the significance of shape and color in the decorative aspects of their pottery and weaving.  They also learned basket weaving in the Abanaki tradition using reeds and decorative beading.  Learning about the tradition of stamping patterns onto fabric using dyes and vegetable root cutouts, students stamped Abanaki inspired prints onto fabric which was then turned into quilted hot pads that students gave as gifts on Mother’s Day.  These Art Institute students have also provided a valuable opportunity for deeper appreciation of the history and culture of the earliest people to settle this area by sharing their stories and legends with the students during the art lessons.