Specials and Extracurricular Program : Harborlight Montessori School

Specials and Extracurricular Program

Harborlight provides a rich program of instruction in Art, Music, Chorus, Drama, Spanish, Physical Education, Chess Club, and Before & After School Program for all students beginning in the Early Childhood Education Program and continuing through Middle School. The program emphasizes development of skills and the understanding of creating, performing, and responding to different media.

ART

The Art program, which includes art history, presents a holistic and balanced approach to the art curriculum. The focus is on providing guidance to encourage creative and critical thinking skills, self expression, mastery of technique, observation skills, problem solving and perceptual awareness. This encourages the student's desire to experience and enjoy the world around them.

Art is integrated with the curriculum throughout the school. For early childhood students, art is a "hands-on" program which is process orientated rather than product-oriented. Art appreciation, art history, learning about artists and various styles of art, exposure to various mediums, daily and weekly activities, and incorporating art into other subject areas is all part of a very rich experience in art.

Starting in the kindergarten year and continuing through middle school, Harborlight students attend weekly art classes where they are exposed to as many different media as possible. Clay, pen & ink, pastels, painting, printmaking and textiles are only a few of media experienced by the students.

MUSIC

Harborlight's music program is based on Orff-Schulwerk. Early childhood students learn the basic elements of music by singing, matching pitch, learning rhythm, playing instruments, and movement. The early childhood students are also given an introduction to aspects of drama.

In the elementary program, the concept of a musical staff with pitch and rhythmic notation is introduced, and students begin to use standard musical notation to compose and perform their own music. They will sing in unison more advanced songs and further study the elements of music (melody, harmony, tempo, rhythm and dynamics). Students present a winter music performance for the Harborlight community.

CHORUS

The children are invited to audition for the chorus at the beginning of the year. Those chosen, meet once a week to rehearse for special events such as the Winter Program, Montessori Week special events and Eighth Grade Graduation. The children experience vocal warm-up techniques, sight singing, singing in parts, rounds and canons. They are introduced to a variety of music that is both fun and challenging. During the spring much of the chorus time is utilized to help soloist in the musicals rehearse their songs.

DRAMA

All elementary students participate in a drama program, in which they play theater games, learn the basic concepts of being on stage and the elements of acting. Every year, children present for their families and classmates an end of the year play. The children participate in rehearsals, set design, costume making, make-up application and a final performance.

SPANISH

Students at Harborlight begin learning the Spanish language at age three. Spanish is taught through Total Physical Response (TPR), an interactive, hands on Spanish Program, in small and large group activities. TPR introduces language through the use of commands and children demonstrate their understanding through action responses. The student hears the word, sees the motion, and repeats the motion. The child's kinesthetic response increases long-term memory of the word. Spanish activities are also part of the regular classroom environment. Students may practice Spanish during class time through a number of activities that emphasize enriching the child's receptive and expressive Spanish vocabulary.

Early childhood students have a weekly Spanish lesson and also practice Spanish between classes by manipulating Spanish learning materials and reading Spanish books.

Elementary students have Spanish lessons twice a week and practice between classes by using classroom materials. While in Spanish class, routine activities are carried out in Spanish with an emphasis on pronunciation. Cultural topics are studied using games and interactive activities. As the students progress, basic writing skills, conversation and verb tenses are studied.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Kindergarten children enrolled in the Academic-day Early Childhood Program take part in gymnastics and swimming at the nearby YMCA Aquatic Center and Gymnasium Center. A non-competitive approach is taken in all of the physical education activities.

Children enrolled in the Elementary Program participate in a rotating program of swimming, sports, Tae Kwon Do, gymnastics and adventure programs. Middle school students participate in different sporting programs during their cycles including skating, kayaking, tennis, skiing and snowboarding.

The Harborlight Riptide - Athletics at Harborlight: The Harborlight Athletic Program is our Montessori School's interscholastic sports program. The teams are scheduled to play soccer and basketball, and more sports will be added as the athletic program grows. We aim to schedule games with other schools that share out philosphical approach to sports and against whom we are evenly matched. Our students will play inthe Montessori Athletic Conference (The M.A.C.).

MEDIA LITERACY

Harborlight Montessori School has developed a Media Literacy Program that is designed to provide students in grades 1-6 with both the technical and the cognitive reasoning skills necessary for them to become informed contributors in the 21^st century digital society. Our program is based upon the Massachusetts Technology Literacy Standards, the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) developed by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), as well as the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Literacy skills developed by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.

The Harborlight Media Literacy Program is designed to teach students how to use a wide variety of media tools, while guiding them in the critical thinking process. It assists them in developing the technical skills necessary for effective technology-based communication, and ensures that they will be able to use technology to gather, process, analyze and present information. Through special projects and group discussions, students explore the concepts of safety, ethics and productive citizenship in the digital age. By evaluating various media sources, they come to understand that information may be biased and/or deceiving. They practice deconstructing sources and discover that the Internet, while easy and entertaining to use, is not always the best source of information. During this process, they learn that a critical mind is the cornerstone of an informed society.

CHESS CLUB

The Harborlight Scholars chess club meets twice a week for lessons from their coach and practice play. Players of all levels practice mating patterns, tactics, openings, and strategies. Sportsmanship is highly regarded as the team is continually challenged via chess problems and tournaments. Players are encouraged to learn end game tactics early. For example, after a mastery of the pieces and their value, students begin to explore various end game situations. It is not uncommon for students to begin practice with "walk the dog," a closing exercise where two rooks and a king produce an ultimate checkmate. Beginner and Advanced chess problems, offered at the end of the period, provide students with the opportunity to consider various checkmate possibilities with only one solution. Students enjoy the challenge and are elated to find solutions.

During practice sessions, students are often matched with equally skilled players. Based loosely on the Elo ranking system, used by the Federal Chess Federation, students are awarded points in mutually agreed upon "ranked" games. Students also have the option to play "unranked" games where personal ratings are unaffected despite the outcome. When engaged in a tournament, the rank of a player helps determine his equal match from other schools.

Interscholastic Tournaments are held bi-monthly with the surrounding chess community. The Harborlight Scholars have competed against Brookwood, Cove Elementary, Tower, Holten-Richmond Middle School, and Glen Urquhart among others. There are also Interscholastic Team Chess Tournaments where the top four ranked players represent Harborlight. Thus far, The Harborlight Scholars are undefeated. A Team Captain is elected at the beginning of each season.

BEFORE & AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM

Child care is available from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. or 3:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. for all pre-school aged children. The children have snack, outdoor recess (weather permitting), indoor activities, games and different projects during these hours.

The Elementary After School Program offers sports on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The students are involved in soccer, capture the flag, basketball, volleyball and cooperative, team building games. On Tuesday and Thursday, students can choose between cooking and art projects or games such as ping pong, four square and other indoor activities. The children are also given time to complete homework assignments during this time.

Click here to view a sample of our Elementary Creative Discovery Clubs & Classes, and those specifically for Early Childhood.

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Specials and Extracurricular Program