RELIGION
Our Harcourt Religion Textbooks are based on solid Catholic doctrine. The text is easy to read and understand with special attention placed on new religious vocabulary for each grade level. There are five important stepping-stones in our Catholic faith as identified in this series. They are: 

1. What do Catholics believe as identified in the Catechism?
2. What does scripture teach?
3. What are morally correct decisions and thoughts?
4. Why are saints great examples to our lives?
5. Why do we celebrate God through Mass?

This text is deeply rooted in using the new Catechism of the Catholic Faith. The children are involved in weekly Masses. During Advent and Lent the children participate in prayer services and are encouraged to share with the needy through their gifts of time, talent, and money. It is through this interaction that the children learn to love and serve the Lord. Following the message of the Good News taught in the Religion classes, our goal is to develop Christian behavior in the daily life of each of our students.

READING
The commitment of the teaching staff was demonstrated when they chose our reading series--Harcourt School Publishers Trophies Reading Program. This comprehensive program provides research-based instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension. It begins with a strong phonics presentation and then delves into comprehension; while, at the same time, the importance of vocabulary is stressed. This series offers the best of traditional teaching methods. Two examples of this are the teaching of phonemics and vocabulary.

Phonemics is one of the primary predictors of success in learning to read and significantly supports students’ reading and writing achievement. Also, research has proven that comprehension is stifled when there is not a strong vocabulary. This reading program also provides practice and re-inforcement of tested comprehension skills, and is filled with creative ideas and ways to successfully teach students how to read and write. With this in mind, during the 2006-2007 school year, we incorporated the grammar and spelling components of the reading program into our curriculum.

GRAMMAR/LANGUAGE AND SPELLING
During the 2006-2007 school year, we incorporated the grammar/language component of the Harcourt Trophies Reading Series into our curriculum. This gives our literacy program an integrated approach. Writing, reading, spelling, and grammar are closely correlated. Concepts and skills are now connected via an overriding focus and philosophy. This correlation of the literacy components is essential for our program development. This series also ties in well with our Daily Oral Language Program, which reinforces and improves basic language art skills.

MATH
Pearson Scott Foresman is the publisher of our Silver Burdett and Ginn textbook series for math. This series is based on the concept that children learn mathematics by experiencing the world around them. This series helps students discover concepts through hands-on activities, by thinking mathematics through solving problems and making decisions, by communicating and sharing discoveries in cooperative learning groups, and by building computational and problem-solving skills with a variety of practice experiences. This series also stresses memorization of facts and encourages the use of calculators as devices to check answers.

SCIENCE
Harcourt Brace, the publisher of our science series, employs a dynamic approach to understanding science. The students explore science by wondering, planning, investigating, reflecting, sharing, and acting. Through a variety of experiences and choices, all students succeed in exploring a wide variety of topics. The program correlates the disciplines of science and those of other subjects. This series covers the natural world, wildlife, basics of chemistry and physics, and earth sciences. It is the per-fect text for the inquiring mind.

SOCIAL STUDIES
An emphasis on social studies begins in the fourth grade. Macmillan/McGraw Hill is the publisher of our social studies series. This series is designed around a carefully developed sequence. The logical develop-ment of content matches the students' growing awareness of the world. The content emphasizes United States geography, history, and citizenship. There are clear, captioned photographs and drawings to enrich the content. Skills are developed in map and globe skills, chart and graph skills, time skills, thinking skills, citizenship skills, and reading, writing, and study skills. In sixth grade, to broaden the students' awareness of the world, the students are presented the continents of the world. Each continent, other than North America, is concentrated on for five to eight weeks.

HANDWRITING
We use the D'Nealian Handwriting Program. D'Nealian introduces the letterforms, size, slant, and spacing used for manuscript and cursive hand-writing from the beginning. This single continuous stroke used to form the D'Nealian manuscript letters practically eliminates common reversals. This program offers a timesaving, less-confusing transition to cursive writing from manuscript. At the kindergarten level, this program provides for pre-writing skills; fine motor coordination; shape discrimination; top, middle, bottom, over, and under. In the first through sixth grades, this program introduces basic concepts for manuscript, lowercase, and capital letters in related letter groups, cursive letter formation, and a range of practical applications.

FINE ARTS
Appreciation of music is developed from secular wholesome songs as well as from spiritual songs used during Mass. Students go to vocal music class once a week. During this time--among other things--the students:

1. learn to keep a steady beat
2. gain experience with pitch classroom instruments (e.g. bells, xylophone, glockenspiel)
3. gain experience with unpitched (percussion type) classroom instruments (i.e. finger cymbals, tone blocks, rhythm sticks)
4. learn to read music
5. learn about famous composers and their music

Through our Christmas program, the students learn to sing in unison before an audience. Moreover, the fourth grade students learn to play re-corders (flute-type instruments). In addition, we offer an excellent intermediate band program for fifth and sixth grade students. Volunteers gifted in art help the classroom teachers instruct the students either in the Art Room or in the classrooms. The volunteers help enrich our art program by sharing their artistic skills and knowledge of art. Each child is given an opportunity to be creative and is exposed to a wide vari-ety of art media. Through our art program, the students begin to foster an appreciation of art and its history.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION
We incorporate calisthenics, locomotor movements, rhythms, and team games in order to achieve the following: strength, flexibility, agility, muscular endurance, cardio-respiratory endurance, motor skills, eye-hand coordination, eye-foot coordination, and manipulative skills. Muscle groups, importance of fitness, and nutrition are discussed. We also teach basic skills and rules for group games. Our goal is to help the children be-come physically active and learn the importance of a healthy lifestyle.

DISCOVERY ROOM
In our Discovery Room each student receives a chance to experience activities that make learning fun. The students learn interesting facts and then share their information with others throughout the school. The stu-dents enthusiastically attend the Discovery Room for approximately 30-40 minutes each week. The focus during the first semester is a country/culture, which culminates with an Ethnic Day in January. The second semester’s focus is on the writing process and the creating a book. Computers are also used extensively in the Discovery Room.

COMPUTER LAB
The students go to the computer lab weekly. The computers are used to reinforce subject matter introduced by the teacher in the classroom, as well as used for research. This exposure to the computer lab not only helps the student become computer literate, but also enhances their regular curriculum. Students also have the opportunity to use the computers that are available in the classrooms. During the 2006-2007 school year, our school added approximately 50 newer Internet capable computers.

SPECIAL ACTIVITIES
Our students become well-rounded through many of our special activities. Each year we have a major Christmas production. The sixth grade students are involved in the Seder Meal, and sixth grade graduation. All students participate in the school's Research Fair. A class field trip is encouraged to enhance the curriculum at every grade level. Community speakers are invited to augment the class curriculum, when appropriate.

SUPPORT GROUP
We encourage and foster teacher/parent interaction. The Parent Teacher Connection is a good example of this interaction. We have a network of parents that support and promote our Catholic School System. Our parents are a special community of caring adults with similar goals and de-sires based on a religious philosophy. We are very dependent on our parents for making our hot lunch program, library program (checking books out), sports program, and school fundraisers successful. The relationships that grow bind us together in a united system.