The Legacy Approach to Arts, Technology and Enrichment

Legacy offers enrichment classes in art, music, physical education, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, computer technology, library usage and Bible study. We consider these "extras” as necessary to providing a well-rounded education that is not offered in most schools today. Legacy features a state-of-the-art computer lab and a science lab for student inquiry and active investigation. Our P.E. program emphasizes physical fitness and the skills needed to play team and individual sports.

Art

The emphasis in Legacy's art studio is creativity, technique, and style. Students learn and use the elements of art and the principles of design through a wide variety of books, slides, and prints. This helps students to develop a critical and historical appreciation of art. Students also study the techniques and styles of master artists (e.g., Van Gogh, O'Keeffe) and replicate them in personal creations. Students use varied art media, including watercolors, tempera, oil pastels, charcoal, pencil, and acrylics. Students also fire clay pieces in the classroom kiln and paint their final products.

In middle school, art courses address the five major components of the California State Content Standards: artistic perception, creative expression, historical and cultural content, aesthetic valuing, and connection and applications.

Music & Keyboards

Legacy provides a well-rounded music program encompassing instruction in theory, vocal music, keyboarding, and music appreciation.  Students learn to read, write, and perform simple melodic and rhythmic notations.  They identify and describe music forms.  Names and works of famous composers (e.g., Mozart, Vivaldi, Bernstein, Gershwin) are introduced according to musical style and era.

In grades kindergarten through fifth, students attend weekly music classes that begin with a music theory lesson followed by keyboard instruction. Legacy students have access to their own keyboard and are able to directly apply the skills they are learning.  Further, students are given the opportunity to compose their own musical pieces and perform in front of the class.

All students in the elementary grades perform in at least one vocal music production per year.  Musical productions usually include choreography, costumes, solos, narrations, and harmony.

Spanish

Beginning in kindergarten, students learn Spanish through the Natural Approach.  Through engaging songs, games, props, and normal classroom routines (such as the calendar), Legacy’s Spanish teachers model the mechanics of the language through dialogue and interactive lessons.  This approach allows students to gain confidence in their own conversational "natural” use of the language.  Opportunities are given to use and experience the language through short real life interactions such as skits, group projects, games, and formal speeches.

Students learn vocabulary through themes such as the calendar, likes and dislikes, food, school, telling time, school, and sports.  The become familiar with regular and select irregular verbs, idiomatic expressions, and grammar rules that enable students to write in present, past, and future tenses.  Listening speaking, reading, and writing are emphasized.  

In the upper grades, Legacy students perform speeches in Spanish, write to and translate letters from pen pals in a Spanish-speaking country, and study geography and cultures of the Spanish-speaking world.  In junior high school, students write and speak more fluently in Spanish.  Verb conjugations and accurate sentence structure are emphasized.  

Spanish is offered once a week in kindergarten, and three times a week in second through eighth grade.  With this unparalleled early foreign language study, Legacy students graduating from eighth grade have the unique distinction of being able to enroll in Spanish 2 as a freshman in high school.

Computer

Legacy’s up-to-date computer lab and comprehensive computer curriculum provide students with the skills to use computers for a variety of purposes.  In each grade, students learn about the function of a computer’s hardware and software.  Classroom projects incorporate the use of desktop publishing, word processing, graphics, digital imagery, spreadsheets, power point presentation, and computer networking.  Students learn to use the Internet safely for research, topical interests, and communication. Keyboarding skills are directly taught and practiced so students gain accuracy and speed each year. A special keyboarding class is offered in 6th grade to enhance students' "touch typing" skills.

Distinctives:

Kindergarten:  Basic computer skills

First Grade:  Microsoft Word

Second Grade:  Microsoft Power Point, Microsoft Publisher

Third Grade:  Microsoft Excel, Parts of the Computer

Fourth Grade:  Build Your Own Website and Internet Research

Fifth Grade:  Networking Computers

Sixth Grade:  Build Your Own Computer with Components

Seventh & Eighth Grade:

- Students are assigned an individual Apple laptop to take Cornell lecture notes on from class-to-class

-Computer animation, and introduction to film-making, basic Apple computer skills, media literacy, computer-assisted drafting,

-Eighth grade students are introduced to the history of technology, as well as other technologies like nuclear power, construction, etc. A final project includes them "making" a new technology.

Physical Education

The Legacy PE program focuses on physical fitness, movement, balance, cooperation, and skills needed for individual and team sports. In the primary grades, students learn locomotor (e.g., running, skipping, hopping, galloping) and non-locomotor (e.g., bending, twisting, stretching) skills that enable them to move with control in their environment.

Students at this level also gain ability in catching, throwing, and striking balls. In the upper grades, students refine skills needed in sports such as football, volleyball, basketball, and soccer. They also experience tennis, swimming, and ice skating units. All 1st-8th graders participate yearly in the Presidential Physical Fitness Program which assesses strength, flexibility, speed, and endurance.

Mandarin Chinese

Mandarin Chinese is an optional course of study that K – 8 Legacy students may enroll in either zero period (before school) or after school, twice a week.  Students learn how to speak, write, and read the Chinese language.

Legacy offers Chinese because many experts predict that today’s youth may face a different world – with a changing linguistic landscape – by the time they reach adulthood.  Because of the current boom in the Chinese economy, future college graduates that speak Chinese may have a significant advantage in the globalized workplaces of tomorrow.

Library

Legacy's library offers storytelling, reading, and literature-related activities to our youngest students in a warm and nurturing environment. Special programs such as Grandparent's Day and book fairs augment the library's resources. Students visit the library on a regular basis to learn and practice library and research skills.

Legacy's popular Accelerated Reader program motivates students to continually read books that are targeted at their reading level. Students select their own books and read at their own pace. When a book is completed, the student takes a quiz on the library's computer. If a score of 80% or better is achieved, the student moves up a reading level and chooses a new book to begin the process again. Incentives and rewards are given along the way as students steadily show improvement in their reading levels.

Bible

Besides the integration of the Bible into all subject areas, Legacy has several venues in which the Bible is formally taught:

-Daily morning devotions & prayer by the classroom teacher

-Enrichment Bible Teacher: A trained seminary instructor teaches a comprehensive view of Scripture through formal Bible lessons and Gospel presentations.

-Memorization of Bible verses

-Chapel lessons

-Missionary Focus - Students are updated weekly on the needs & prayer requests of Legacy-sponsored foreign missionaries.

Educational Field Trips

Legacy believes that active involvement enhances a student's academic, physical and social growth. Therefore, students participate in field trips and overnight educational programs. These experiences enrich Legacy's curriculum and build student interest in life-long learning. Additional fees will be collected for some field trips. Here a few examples by grade level.

-Kindergarten:

Local Dentist Office, Fruit & Vegetable Farm

-First Grade:

Santa Barbara Zoo, Performing Arts Center

-Second Grade:

Aquarium of the Pacific, Whale Watching

-Third Grade:

JPL, Olvera Street (via Metrolink train)

-Fourth Grade:

Santa Barbara Mission, Sacramento/California History Trip (4 days), California Science Center

-Fifth Grade:

Riley's Farm Revolutionary War Re-enactment, Reagan Library

-Sixth Grade:

California Science Center, Winter Camp, Astro Camp (3 days)

-Seventh Grade:

Medieval Times, Winter Camp, Marine Biology Camp (3 days)

-Eighth Grade:

New YorkCity/Philadelphia (6 days), Medieval Times