Music

The main emphasis of our Elementary, Kindergarten, and Pregrades music program is instilling a love of music in all children. Movement activities, playing rhythm instruments, learning notation, and performance opportunities all help to develop an interest in music. There is nothing like the sound of children’s singing and laughter!

The Intermediate music program at St. Luke’s offers students the opportunity to explore many different avenues of expressing creativity. 4th and 5th grade students learn through their use and mastery of two-part songs, Solfege sightsinging, and choral choreography. 6th and 7th grade music students explore the wonder of music through three-part music and continued Solfege. The music program nurtures each student as they express themselves through music.

Drama

“All the world’s a stage..” The drama program at St. Luke’s is a vibrant and active part of the Intermediate School. All 4th thru 7th grade students have drama classes weekly with a Drama elective class offered to 8th and 9th grade students. The drama elective class explores the fundamentals of acting, analysis of play structure, playwriting, directing, technical theater, and musical theater. The elective students perform two one-acts during the school year, and also perform in the annual mainstage play/musical. The drama program seeks to instill self-confidence, concentration, team spirit, and a love of good theater in all the students.

Visual Arts

The visual arts room is full of color and creative activity. Our students have art resource in junior kindergarten through 7th grade with an 8th/9th elective studio art class. The junior kindergarten through 5th grades learn the elements of visual art, such as line, shape, value and color with classic masterpieces as well as their own hands-on projects. Emphasis is placed on effort and participation. As the students progress to the 6th and 7th grades, art history is taught with projects to accompany each major era (Egyptian Cartouche or Andy Warhol pop art projects). The 8th/9th grade elective class explores various media including drawing, painting, and decorative arts in more depth as the students mature. The main focus of the art program is to build a knowledge base of the richness of the human experience through the arts while having a wonderful time on the way. All students’ artwork is featured in our school-wide Art Gala in the spring.

Spanish

“Hola” is just one greeting you may receive from St. Luke’s students. Beginning in preschool with an introduction to everyday vocabulary through song and games to the extended proficiency in the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing in ninth grade, Spanish is integrated throughout the school. Conversational Spanish is taught once a week in pregrades through 5th grade. The program is expanded to five periods a week in 6th and 7th grade where Spanish IA is taught. Spanish I B is taught to 8th graders and Spanish II to 9th graders in their daily schedule.

Latin

The Latin elective in large part follows the National Latin Exam Syllabus. The NLE plan falls under three main headings: Language, Culture, and Civilization. At the same time that students encounter features of language, they also acquaint themselves with Roman culture, with words derived from Latin, and with expressions, quotations, and concepts which have come down to us in the original language. The goal is to integrate all features of the study of Latin so that students will find it intrinsically interesting as well as practical. Latin is offered to 8th and 9th grade students.

Physical Education

Juggling, Sponge Ball, Hula Hoops, Kickball, and the BIG Pink Ball are just a few of the games and equipment that are used in P.E. Fourth through 9th grades participate in P.E. five days a week and Junior Kindergarten through third three days a week. In P.E. our students test their physical limits and strive for personal goals. The Presidential Fitness Testing and the P.E. Challenge occur alternating years for grades 1-6 while grades 7-9 participate in the Presidential Fitness Testing annually. Our Winter Sports program is an integral component of the educational program at St. Luke’s. It provides meaningful opportunities that enhance the daily physical education curriculum for students in Kindergarten through 9th grade. It typically takes place for several days between January and February and includes on-site and off-site programs for students. The winter sports may include skiing, snowboarding, swimming, bowling, lacrosse, gymnastics, soccer, karate, tennis, walleyball, dance and cheerleading.

Library

The Garton Library is open to all students, with formal library instruction given to Pre-Grades through Grade 5. Students in grades 6-9 use the library for research, specific classroom assignments and projects and pleasure reading. The Library program at St. Luke’s has many activities that foster a love of reading, from celebrating Dr. Seuss Week to reading special stories during Week of the Book.

Technology

Creating a Power Point presentation in the computer lab to using laptops in the classroom, technology is an integral part of a student’s day. Pre-K through 7th grade have formal instruction in the computer lab starting with simple drawings and keyboarding skills progressing to multimedia presentations and programming. Laptops are available for classroom use throughout the day for research, Reading Counts tests, and classroom projects.

Religion/Philosophy

8th and 9th grade students participate in a religious literacy class, as well as taking a look at the nature of knowledge, the bases upon which knowledge claims rest, ways of knowing and areas of knowledge.