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Academic Program Offered at St. John's Catholic School


Accreditation


St. John's Catholic School is accredited by the following organizations

  • National Catholic Educational Association
  • Arkansas Nonpublic School Accrediting Association

Curriculum


St. John’s Catholic School follows the Little Rock Diocesan and Arkansas State Requirements regarding specific courses, time allotments, and basic materials. St. John’s School offers a balanced curriculum including Religion, Language Arts (English, Reading, Literature, Oral and Written Communication, Speech, Handwriting, Spelling Usage and Grammar), Science, Mathematics, and Social Studies (History, Geography, Civics, Economics and Sociology), Spanish, Art, Music, Health, Physical Education, Computer Science and such electives as deemed practical and helpful i.e. Environmental Studies.

All Catholic schools in the Diocese of Little Rock use approved textbooks in the instructional program. In addition the Title I program is used to meet the special reading and math needs of students.

Click here for the Curriculum Guide for Arkansas Catholic Schools located on the Diocese of Little Rock Website.


Enrichment


St. John’s School offers a wealth of enriching opportunities for students over and above a very solid and sound curriculum.

Technology Program:

Students and faculty enjoy up–to–date resources that enrich research, learning and interacting with the world. Since 2000, through a gift of the Callahan family, St. John’s School has been a leader in the Diocese of Little Rock and the city of Hot Springs in offering the most current technology to student, faculty, and parents. Through IBM Grants technology has become an integral part of our curriculum. A computer lab of twenty-five stations and projector, classrooms equipped networked workstations and state of the art SMARTBOARDS or SMART Panels, and Wireless Laptops all contribute to our incredible learning environment.

Many textbooks (Math, Social Studies, and Science) have Internet components. In addition, Edline.net, BrainPop.com, Arkansas State Library Resources, and netTrekker.com (through Hot Springs School District) are resources that enhance and enrich our curriculum.


Spanish:

St. John’s School offers Spanish to Pre–Kindergarten through eighth grade. Each class is taught by a licensed, experienced, Catholic Spanish teacher with a Master’s degree. The primary focus is to provide students with a positive introduction to learning a foreign language. As the students progress through the program they will have a solid foundation that will prepare them for high school. Pre–Kindergarten and Kindergarten students experience the language once a week through songs, puppetry, books, games, and videos. First through third grade have Spanish once a week for thirty minutes. The program includes vocabulary building and writing skills. In addition, students are introduced to Catholic prayers in Spanish, and they experience Hispanic cultural activities.

Fourth and fifth grade students meet once a week for fifty minutes. They use a new textbook called Learn Spanish With Grace, a unique Catholic approach to learning Spanish. The program teaches the fundamentals of grammar and pronunciation with strong moral content, Catholic prayers, instructive songs, and games.

Sixth through eighth grade students have Spanish twice a week for fifty minutes. Students practice Spanish one day a week in the computer lab using The Rosetta Stone software package. The self paced, interactive course focuses on listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. In addition to the lab session, students also practice fundamentals of grammar and sentence structures in a classroom setting, as well as experience the culture of Spanish speaking countries.


Art:

St. John’s offers art classes for each student, once per week. Younger grades (Three Year Old Pre-K through Kindergarten) receive art instruction for 30 minutes. Older grades (First–Eighth) spend 45–55 minutes per week in art. St. John’s has a very well–equipped art classroom, with ample supplies to stimulate creativity. Art at St. John’s is taught with emphasis on both hands–on technical instruction and art history. Students learn both how to create art and why art was created by others.

In the area of technical instruction, the following are studied:

  • Art Elements (form, line, shape, color, texture, space, and value)
  • Art Principles (emphasis, balance, harmony, unity, variety, movement, rhythm, and proportion)

Each of these elements and principles is taught by hands–on application in a variety of media. In addition, students are also shown examples of the utilization of the elements and principles in art pieces already created.

Students learn that art is created in a community, with some projects being collaborative in nature. For example, students have worked together as classes to create Christmas villages out of recycled materials. Each student created their own dwelling, and worked together to arrange them into a town.

Students are also encouraged to enter competitions, both local (Have a HeART for Art, Young Arkansas Artists) and national (Doodle for Google, Art Stamps). Students from St. John’s who have entered these competitions have received recognition for their talents. Students at St. John’s are also taught creativity, economy, and care of our resources by turning ordinary items into art. In celebration of Earth Day, St. John’s students created an installation composed of recycled materials that was on display the local shopping mall for several months. Finally, students at St. John’s are taught that art incorporates other disciplines—science, history, music, sociology, literature, math, philosophy—and that a better understanding and appreciation of art enhances these disciplines. Getting children excited about being creative is very beneficial, as studies have shown that it may carry them through their childhood and adult years with a more symbiotic approach to everything they do.

Music:

Physical Education: