Enrichment Classes

Physical Education

Physical education is an integral component of total Catholic education. To lead a productive life, students must be physically fit and understand the importance of maintaining physical fitness. Students develop skills and behaviors that enable them to participate in co-operative games, learn to practice socially acceptable behaviors, and respect diversity. Physical activities offer an opportunity for students to attain success and self-esteem in a positive manner. Through Physical Education a student can appreciate that sound development of the mind and body are ways of becoming a happy fulfilled child of God

In the elementary grades the focus is on movement skills and the introduction to games and sports. They learn about motor movements, skills, object control, and smooth transitions between motor skills. Lessons also include how to maintain a healthy body.

Middle School continues to focus on many of the elementary skills while advancing their knowledge on individual and team sports. Lessons focus on sportsmanship, team work and how to handle the competitiveness of the athletic world. The middle grade students learn about advancement in the bodies cardiovascular system and preventing and coping with injury. The goal is to enjoy sports and physical activity.

St. Mary Physical Education continues to support fair play, sportsmanship, education and living a healthy life style.

Kindergarten through 8th grade are scheduled two full periods a week.

Library

Our St. Mary School library allows our students and teachers to access materials they need to help them learn and teach and makes an important contribution to our school.

St. Mary library uses Follett to enable students to checkout and renew books from home and contains an eBook feature which allows students to check out books from the school library on devices such as the Chromebook, iPad and iPhones. 

Spanish

K-3 Spanish classes receive a strong foundation of Spanish by learning basic vocabulary, greetings, numbers, family members, animals, place to go, and much more! We use fun activities to engage students. Your children learn to sing songs, play games, watch fun character videos, and even use iPads to further their learning! This is a great start for your child and their learning for the future.

In grades 4-5 students continue their exploration of Spanish by studying sentences structure, nouns, adjectives, articles of verbs and their conjugations. We learn and memorize dialogs in different situations, such as "at the market", "in the airport" and, "at the restaurant". Fourth and fifth graders also take part in a group research project. The project gives the students an opportunity to research Spanish speaking countries and learn their cultures and customs.

In grades 6-8 learning continues with students focusing on mastering verb conjunctions. Students review previous topics from years past and study sentences structure in more depth. Our students leave here in 8th grade extremely prepared for high school Spanish!

Journalism/Yearbook

Journalism 6 is designed to introduce students to what it means to practice journalism. Students gain an understanding of the 1st Amendment, how it affects us as citizens, and how it affects journalism/journalists. Students explore journalistic ethics, writing news, features, sports, and editorial articles, and ultimately practice reporting, interviewing, self and peer editing, photojournalism in print media, and more. Students gain an understanding of and appreciation for the power of the press and the power of the written word. 

Journalism 7 students continue to develop writing and publishing skills, work on graphic design and team project work.  Students produce The Falcon Flyer to be enjoyed by the St. Mary School community.

In Yearbook 8, which consists of 2 nine week long classes, students study yearbook layouts, interview etiquette, photojournalism, double page spreads and other class related concepts. Students use Yearbook Class equipment and Balfour's proprietary software program to create a memorable yearbook for St. Mary School.

Journalism classes follow the Media Literacy and Newspaper, Become a Journalist, and Go to Press curriculums for middle school students provided by the Newspaper Association of America.