enrichment
13 SEP
ART
As our P.E. program is customized for the students we serve, so is our visual arts program. The visual arts curriculum at North Bridge Academy serves gifted visual-spatial thinkers. How do we harness and challenge this strength? How do we nurture their artistic self-expression and expand their imaginations? We provide them with an art teacher, guest artists and a supportive environment to explore their artistic inclinations, to encourage risk taking and to discover alternative ways of knowing the world and relating to those in it. They will practice artistic reflection as they experiment with different art mediums and perspective: (e.g., Why does art make us feel a certain way?, What are the similarities and differences in different styles? What can I learn that will enhance my own artistic expression? The art program will be offered twice a week.
STEM
Dyslexic learners are gifted inventors and creative deep thinkers. In STEM class, we learn to be gentle with ourselves through the creative process, as our first attempts at most things often look messy and are unrefined. In STEM, students learn to work as a team to solve problems with creative solutions. We use hand tools to make prototypes of our ideas and practice listening carefully for insights from each other for new directions and improvements. As our projects grow and change through the iterative design process, we learn that persistence is the key to making what we create match our ideals.
Expressive arts
Expressive Arts at North Bridge Academy blends mindfulness and social-emotional learning with music, movement, digital arts, creative writing and theater arts. The year begins with a focus on self-awareness, -discovery, and -expression, as students explore who they are as individual artists. As the year progresses, students’ awareness turns from the inner process to the outer impact, as they begin to channel their creativity toward longer-term group projects with themes that include kindness, identity, belonging, and world citizenship, culminating in an end-of-year showcase for the larger NBA community.
Physical Education
Every day the students have a 20 minute break in the morning and a 45 minute lunch/recess break in the mid-day. P.E. classes are led by staff and are forty-five minutes each. Instruction meetw state standards and incorporates social-emotional concepts from Responsive Classroom and CASEL ​
​
Fundamental to our program are the following objectives:
-
Teamwork
-
Coordination
-
Skill building
-
Game playing
-
Body awareness
-
Good sportsmanship
