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Special Areas

All Old Kings Elementary School students attend special area classes each day. These classes recognize multiple intelligences within our students as they engage in learning connected to art, marine science, media, music, and physical education.

Special Area Classes

Art

The philosophy of the OKES Art Studio is that the student is the artist, and the art room is their studio. Over the course of the school year, students are invited to think about the question—what do artists do? 

With a variety of media centers, which are available at any time, students learn that artists can draw, paint, collage, sculpt, build, print, sew, weave, and much more. During demonstrations at the beginning of class, students learn various age-appropriate techniques for each media center that build upon one another over their years at the school.

During Each Class, Students are Expected To:
  • Come up with an idea for what they wish to create
  • Choose the media with which they will bring their idea to life
  • Work through false starts and mistakes
  • Decide how long to work on an artwork
  • Determine when an artwork is finished
  • Share their finished and in-progress work with their peers

Relevant artists, techniques, and suggestions are given to individual students as needed. Students also learn about the "Studio Habits of Mind" and how they can use them to become better artists.

Marine Science

In Marine Science special area classes, students explore a wide variety of concepts through inquiry-based learning.

Examples of Explorations Include:
  • Research the variety and impact of marine science careers
  • Use the engineer design process with building a water vessel aligned to the topics of buoyancy, stability, and propulsion
  • Investigate sea organisms' anatomy with multiple dissections
  • Explore the life cycles of fish by raising and releasing Trout and Striped Bass
  • Research and observe marine life adaptations by comparing bivalves to gastropods with a clam dissection

Media

Students utilize makerspaces and use makerspace tools to move from passive receivers of knowledge to real-world makers. Students enjoy read-alouds and analyze how setting, events, conflict, and characterization contribute to the plot in a literary text.

With guidance and support from a teacher, students use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish a finished product relating to a work of literature. Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful, or imaginative solutions.

Music

Students gain an appreciation of music through the study of music theory, history, and the development of musical skills. 

Lower Grade Levels
  • Develop skills using singing, rhythm sticks, scarves, and dance
Upper Grade Levels
  • Develop skills using the piano keyboard, STOMP style percussion, guitars, barred instruments, as well as iPads

Physical Education

Students will learn the basic skills needed to participate in all activities included in an outstanding physical education program.

Grades K–2
  • Develop fundamental motor skills such as throwing, catching, kicking, running, jumping, and skipping, while learning about sportsmanship and emotional well-being

Grades 3–5
  • Focus on physical fitness
  • Develop the knowledge and behaviors associated with a healthy, active lifestyle
  • Gain a variety of different sports skills, including teamwork, sportsmanship, and fair play