Elementary

As witnesses of the Gospel, our parents, teachers, and administration strive to educate and develop each student to reach his/her potential spiritually, intellectually, emotionally, socially, and physically.

St. Mary's Academy collaborates with parents, the primary educators, students, and teachers to empower each child in our school community to become a lifelong Catholic steward and contributor in our world.

Faith-filled Catholic who:

• Celebrates faith through worship, prayer, sacraments, Christianstewardship, words and actions.

• Demonstrates an understanding of the teachings of the Catholic faith.

• Uses Scripture as a guide in his/her daily life.

Responsible citizen who:

• Accepts responsibility for his/her decisions and actions.

• Respects the uniqueness of each person.

• Participates in school, community and church activities.

• Demonstrates tolerance through his/her daily actions.

• Makes healthy choices.

Active life-long learner who:

• Demonstrates basic skills and knowledge.

• Uses critical thinking skills.

• Participates in the fine arts.

• Sets realistic goals and creates quality work.

• Evaluates own work and recognizes personal learning styles.

 Confident communicator who:

• Exhibits strong written and oral communication skills.

• Uses technology skills.

• Works independently and with others.

Curriculum

Religion/Family Life:  Daily schoolwide prayer, monthly Masses, Advent/Lenten reconciliation, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Call To Faith Religion series, sacramental preparation (grade 2), annual retreats, ACRE (Assessment of Catechesis/Religious Education) assessment (grade 5), Christian Service Projects.

Language Arts:  Vocabulary development, comprehension, written response to literature, and discussion through the Reading Street Scott Foresman series and selected core literature books, Houghton Mifflin English series, and COMPASS Language Assessment program. The students use of the Language computer lab to reinforce writing skills and higher level thinking skills.

Spelling:  Zaner Bloser phonetic spelling program which includes dictionary work, synonyms, antonyms, prefixes and suffixes; and word origins.

Handwriting:  Zaner-Bloser printing and cursive handwriting instruction (grades K-5)

Math:  McMillan McGraw Hill series (grades K-5); Prentice Hall and McGraw Hill series (grades 6-8); accelerated (grade 6) and advanced (grade 7-8) instruction; Renaissance Learning Math Facts in a Flash (grades 1-3); Renaissance Learning STAR Math Assessment program; Renaissance Learning Accelerated Math (grades 4-8)

Science:  Students explore their world to discover God's gifts of life and beauty.  Through the use of higher level thinking students learn to use the Scientific Method to investigate a problem, isolate variables and experiment to gather data and analyze the outcomes to reach an intelligent conclusion. The MaGraw-Hill Science Louisiana series is used.

Social Studies: 

Physical Education:  Basic skills, rules, teamwork and sportsmanship.

Technology:  Skill instruction in computer basics; the Internet; keyboarding (Ultra Key); word processing, spreadsheets, digital presentations, database, desktop publishing, multimedia through Beyond Technology Education curriculum; Internet safety education; and integration of technology in curricular subject areas.

Fine Arts:  

Music: Weekly music instruction.