Specials

  • Braelinn Elementary has an excellent program of “specials” – art, music, physical education, and technology. Contact info for the specials teachers can be found on the Faculty and Staff page. A list of times when each grade has specials can be found here. Information about the media center is listed separately.

    Art

    Students attend art class one time per week. The art room is a place where we promote creative thinking and learn technical skills using various art materials from paint to oil and chalk pastels to pottery. Students learn about famous artists and techniques and have the opportunity to develop their own styles. We incorporate curriculum from their regular classroom when possible. Some of the items we have learned about or practiced in art by grade this semester are:

    • Kindergarten:  Van Gogh’s Starry Night, texture, cutting, pasting, drawing, relief printing, and mosaics
    • First Grade:  Symmetry and scissor cutting skills, mosaics, shadow, perspective and shading in Barbara Firth’s illustrations, mixed media, chalk pastels in history and in Audrey Wood’s illustrations
    • Second Grade: Etchings, Warm vs Cool colors, shadow, perspective and shading in Barbara Firth’s illustrations, mixed media, chalk pastels in history and in Audrey Wood’s illustrations
    • Third Grade: Picasso and Cubism, color theory, clay sculptures in animal habitats, shapes, castles
    • Fourth Grade: Chalk pastels, color theory, shading forms, clay sculptures
    • Fifth Grade:  Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, proportional grid drawing, oil pastels

    Music

    Students attend music with their class once a week for a 40-50 minute lesson. We work on many different skills throughout the year such as reading music, ear-training, singing, dancing, playing instruments, composing, and improvisation. All students will play the Orff Instruments, Boomwhackers, and handbells several times this year, in addition to many other unpitched percussion instruments. We will also enjoy learning many new songs, learning about the music of other cultures, playing sound stories, and learning how to read/play basic rhythms. All students are encouraged to develop an appreciation of music. I strive to make music a fun and enjoyable experience for all of my students. The music curriculum taught is based on a set of National Music Standards.

    K – 2 students learn many musical concepts through creative play and movements. In addition to the basic activities listed previously, older students will study and learn about more advanced musical ideas and concepts. 3rd grade students work through a book called M is for Music and learn more advanced musical terminology. 4th and 5th grade students work though a book called The Story of the Orchestra where 4th grade students do an in-depth study of the instrument families and origins of instruments, and 5th grade students do a study in music history, starting with the Baroque Era and ending with the Modern Era – placing an emphasis on learning about different musical styles and various composers. In the spring, 4th grade students have the opportunity to play the song flute, and 5th grade students do an in-class project where they create a commercial and learn about how music fits into advertising and other creative art forms.

    Technology

    We have 21st century kids who need to master 21st Century skills!! Braelinn Elementary School’s Computer Specials is designed to prepare our children to use those 21st Century technology skills in the classroom. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has created standards for students called NETS. Georgia NETS addresses how students demonstrate, through technology, their Creativity, Collaboration and Communication, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making, and most importantly Digital Citizenship. The Fayette County School System technology infrastructure is Google products that allow our students to accomplish the standards laid out in Georgia NETS. Braelinn students will be using Google Docs,Google Presentation, Google Spreadsheets, Edmodo, Brain Pop, and Study Island all integrated into their curriculum. Technology at Braelinn will be used to improve student performance by supporting the grade level curriculum objectives. The traditional three R’s of education have been replaced with the four C’s: critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration. All of this is explored in Computer Specials at Braelinn in a way that is fun and interactive. 

    Physical Education

    During the course of education, students will be encouraged to give their best and to accept that they may not be the BEST at everything we do. Our goal is to develop the courage to do our best at all times. With the current trend of playing on handheld devices, students are challenged to participate in group activities. Most adults don’t quite have the ability/opportunity to provide experiences for groups and problem solving in this manner. When we were children we learned to solve our disagreements in order to continue a friendship. It was called compromise! Children today would quite often rather walk away, leaving everyone upset, and move to another game, group or even leave the friendship. Learning to express differences of opinion, enforce rules, and perhaps the most difficult of tasks – “getting out” with no “reset” button are just a few of the difficult tasks that I feel are the core of my challenge as their teacher to help them with. Add to that the government's decision to address the epidemic of unhealthy children/adults through fitness testing and I have a full plate! The good news is that we work very hard to address all of this and have fun in the process. The main ingredient is your support and understanding through this process. Help your child to develop the courage and confidence to fail! Yes, that’s right. Progression of skills can be frustrating and scary, but if they can hang in there and NEVER QUIT we will succeed! We have to laugh together when we stumble and cheer when we actually get it right! I believe that we must be able to fail numerous times quite often before we succeed in order to feel the true sense of satisfaction from a “real” accomplishment. We do not give trophies for showing up!