Our art teacher uses Disciplined Based Art Education that promotes education across four disciplines within the arts: aesthetics, art criticism, art history and art production. It does retain a strong tie to studio instruction with an emphasis on technique. Among the objectives of DBAE are to make arts education more parallel to other academic disciplines, and to create a standardized framework for evaluation.

In the K4-6th Grade art room, the focus is to create, appreciate, and enjoy art by exploring various artistic styles and historical periods of art following the Alabama Course of Study for Visual Arts.

We begin art making with foundational skills based on developmental stages and move into creating more complex masterpieces inspired by famous artists and themes. We look at works of art and discuss them by describing, analyzing, and interpreting what they see. We use various media including several types of paints, oil pastels, markers, colored pencils, collage papers, printmaking, and clay to help enable them to create their own works of art. We celebrate the artistic pursuits of each student by displaying student art at the LSA Art Show in the spring. The end of the school year culminates with the creation of a student art portfolio as well as a digital art portfolio on Artsonia.com.

Students at LSA have a wide range of musical experiences in their weekly class!  The music curriculum is a creative and active learning experience in which all K4 – 6th grade students participate. To reach the whole musical learner, while also meeting the standards, music classes will incorporate a wide variety of teaching techniques that encourage student interest and participation. Children in the music classes will experience a progression of learning music that centers around learning instruments and an active understanding and use at different levels of rhythm, melody, harmony, form, timbre and creativity.

Students will play games associated with learning music, experiment with a variety of instruments, practice for school-wide performances and show their talents through specific organizations and clubs.  Students in the intermediate grades learn to play the recorder, as well as gain experiences with guitar, keyboards and technology integration.  Additionally, we have a LSA Lower School Choir that is sponsored by our music teacher, featuring performances at special events. Beginning in 6th grade, students can participate in the beginning band in preparation for more in-depth musical expression.

The mission of the Anne Alsobrook Library Media Center is a collaborative space that is the hub of our school, K4through 12th grade.  It is open from 7:30am – 3:30pm each school day and has approximately 17,000 books and resources for students and faculty.  The media center’s recent renovations have offered a coffee bar, collaborative area with new furniture, and smart board for student studies/collaboration, study counter, cozy and unique reading nooks, as well as new speakers for whole group instruction and presentations.

The primary goals are to provide access to resources to meet the curriculum and pleasure reading needs of our students and faculty, to help our students and staff become more effective and lifelong users of ideas and information, and to plan with and assist our teachers in strengthening the teaching/learning process. Open access to a quality school library program is essential for students to develop the vital skills necessary to analyze, evaluate, interpret, and communicate information and ideas in a variety of formats. Because of this belief, our library media center operates with a modified flexible schedule: All K4, Kindergarten, and 1st grade classes come to the Media Center each Friday for circulation and storytime.

Monday through Thursday, the Media Center is open for students and teachers to use for circulation, research, and projects. Students, classroom teachers, and the Media Center Specialist become partners in the learning process with a flexible library schedule. This schedule fosters collaboration between the Media Center Specialist and teachers allowing for optimum integration of resources. Collaboration with classroom teachers to design, implement and evaluate inquiry lessons encourages a high level learning experience for students and is the catalyst that makes the integrated library program work. During the lesson planning the classroom teacher brings the knowledge of subject content and the student needs. The Media Center Specialist contributes a broad knowledge of resources and technology, an understanding of modern teaching methods, and a wide range of strategies that may be employed to help students learn inquiry skills. Together they are able to provide differentiated and adaptable experiences for students of all abilities and interests to meet the requirements of the curriculum.

STEM incorporates the academic disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. In Lower School STEM classes, students work collaboratively in teams to solve design challenges and develop engineering skills. Perfect as an academic enrichment course, STEM allows students the opportunity to stretch their critical thinking abilities and problem-solving skills as they construct and test physical prototypes in a stress-free and supportive environment. Communication skills are nurtured throughout the cooperative process. What a fun and practical way to reinforce classroom learning, increase collaboration and enhance productivity through learning together!

We also sponsor a Lower School Engineering Night that features rotations with STEM challenges that parents and students participate in with teacher facilitation.  Breakout sessions might include demonstrations by Auburn University or Lee-Scott Robotics Team students and creating answers to challenges associated with distance or mobility.  Engineering Night happens one time per year and often hosts over 150 students/parents!  It has been an important way to connect with community stakeholders, engage students in a variety of engineering challenges that they can apply later, generate interest in STEM and finally, provide a great night out for families to connect and be involved at school!

The Lee-Scott Academy Lower School has a technology device approach of 1:1. Each student is given an iPad to be used for instructional enhancement and can utilize these in regular classrooms as well as technology classes. Additionally, students attend weekly classes with a focus on equipping them with the tools and skills they need to succeed in today’s ever-changing digital world. Instruction follows both the Alabama Course of Study for Digital Literacy and Computer Science Standards and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards. Students are instructed in using the most current working applications such as the G Suite for Education (Google Drive, Docs, Gmail, Sites and Slides), the Apple Suite apps (Pages, iMovie, Clips and Keynote), Adobe Suite for Education apps (Spark Post, Spark Video and Spark Page), as well as various other applications for writing and publishing books, creating digital posters, creating QR codes to link to their work and even beginning coding.

Technology is meant to be an extension of the regular classroom. It is where “application” is taken to previously unimaginable levels. In this class, students apply what they learn and share that synthesized information through project creation and presentation. Our goal is to have students to think “outside the walls of the classroom” and stretch themselves to question more, investigate more, collaborate more, and achieve more. Technology at LSA is where the students move from consumers of book content to creators of quality, visual, digital content that they can share with their peers, their teachers, their school and, perhaps one day, foster as a career!