Specials
Program Specials
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At Brick, the classroom curricula are complemented by Specials. Weekly opportunities to engage with expert teachers in Specials classes enrich our students’ school experiences and supports our commitment to the development of the whole child. We are fortunate to have a team of expert Specials teachers, as well as customized space in the building for each of their programs.
The Story of Art
Art is an expression of creativity and imagination. It enhances the development and learning of young children. Art begins with a young child exploring and discovering materials and continues with skills development. Eye-hand coordination, fine motor development, problem solving, and decision-making skills are all enhanced during art exploration.
At Brick, children are exposed to art formally and informally on a daily basis. Children experience a variety of art materials through different lessons in art techniques. They learn to be the “Boss of the Brush” when experimenting with watercolor paints. They learn how to properly hold a scissor and how to attach a piece of clay to make a cup handle. They create projects that produce satisfying end products in sewing, weaving, papermaking, printmaking, and collage.
While lessons in techniques are important, the concept of Art is broader than just tools, art supplies, and teacher direction. Art for young children also involves open-ended, unstructured activities. It is process-oriented rather than product-oriented. We offer the children a wide range of recycled and natural materials called loose parts. Items such as cardboard boxes, paper towel rolls, bottle caps, egg cartons, seashells, pebbles, and twigs enhance their creative development. These materials are easily manipulated, taped, glued, cut, and formed. Children can combine, redesign, line up, take apart and put loose parts back together in endless ways. This creative process is unguided and does not enforce specific expectations of what the outcome should look like. Children organically explore loose parts. They find a style that is truly their own, all the while learning from and appreciating the work of others.
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The Story of Music
Preschoolers love to sing just for the sake of singing! At this age they are not self conscious about the sound of their voice and most are eager to sing out loud and strong. Their voices are a link between their internal and external selves and singing is a powerful way to manifest this connection.
Through singing our children are learning important musical concepts such as matching pitch and rhythm. They are developing their understanding of melody vs. lyrics and delight in changing the words to melodies they know well. Singing also hones their pre-academic and social emotional skills through rhyming, counting beats, and looking and listening to the sounds and gestures of others.
Learning new songs teaches our children to focus, listen carefully and repeat what they’ve just heard. Some favorite songs at Brick are This Little Light of Mine, Love Grows, Skinnamarink and We’re Going Up. All of these songs include hand motions which help the children build on their fine and gross motor skills, coordination, body awareness and rhythmic proficiency.
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Songs are an excellent way to build phonemic and phonological awareness. The act of singing helps our students pick up on new sounds within words and more fully understand syntax and phrasing. All ages love to sing along with the music room puppets, each of whom have a different letter in their mouth that causes them to sing their words starting with that sound. The children find it “tilarious” when Tiger sings “The Teels on the Tus.” The skills they are building with these activities will help them sound out written letters and words as they learn to read.
Singing as part of a group also promotes self-regulation, self confidence and leadership skills. Our Christmas Chapels were beautiful. Through song the children were able to act as leaders of the service and the confidence and determination they showed were impressive.
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The Story of Spanish
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Research shows that the early childhood years are a critical period for language development. Because the facility for perceiving and producing new foreign speech sounds starts declining at age 6*, The Brick Church School offers a Spanish program using the methods of the Carousel of Languages. The Carousel Teaching System® (CTS) follows a methodology emphasizing the importance of multi-sensory learning through verbal, visual, and tactile association. CTS is based on early childhood themes and learning standards.
Themes and skills grow more complex as children learn and progress. Every age group at Brick has a lesson three times a week. Twice a week our Spanish teacher visits classrooms and speaks Spanish to the children whatever they are doing. Spanish has helped our children to play with sounds and the meanings of words, demonstrating a flexibility in thinking that wasn’t present before this foreign language experience. Our students can often be heard yelling out a hearty “Buenos Dias” to their Spanish teacher when she enters the classroom or they see her around the school or neighborhood.​
*Dr. Lise Elliott, Early Intelligence: How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life, Penguin 2001.
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The Story of Movement
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Adventures jumping across Snake River, rocketing up to outer space, diving under the sea, rolling down Rainbow River, and saving hula hoops that stray into Candy Land are regular happenings in Movement class.
As children grow into their bodies, Movement class helps build a healthy relationship with the physicality that can benefit them for the rest of their lives. Elements of gymnastics, dance, martial arts, and yoga build gross and fine motor skills and engage students in various ways. Hitting balloons and shooting them through hoops, throwing and catching bean bags, completing obstacle courses, showing off leaps and bounds, and silly walking across the room also engage balance, bilateral coordination, backward movement, and crossing the midline in a super fun way. You may even find classes balancing on one leg like a flock of pink or green flamingos!
Movement class benefits other aspects of education as well. Games and activities promote imagination, working together, and spontaneity. Children learn how to follow directions, sequences, and multi-step instructions. Listening ears are being fine-tuned in games like “1, 2, 3, Go!” Eager to expel some energy by class time, movement is a safe and fun release that improves focus for the rest of the school day!​
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The Story of Storytelling
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The oral tradition of storytelling addresses core aspects of literacy, from listening to imagining, from organizing to empathizing, from repeating patterns and echoing to remembering and retelling. We have songs, chants, puppets and props to aid in the telling, but the key elements are voice and eye contact. In the 3’s, 4’s and 5’s classes, we share tales from various cultures. The children identify with the characters who, often against all odds, become the helpers. Some drive the narrative with their cleverness, such as our beloved Coyote or Rabbit or Anansi the Spider. In other tales, the characters feel small or helpless, but find that they are strong together in a way that brings about a satisfying ending.
We begin by making our story space safe with a ritual saying “A story! A story! Let it come—let it go…” The 3-year-olds might help Coyote or Rooster howl or crow, competing to determine who makes the sun come up, and winning the name “The Sun Caller.” Most 3’s agree that Rooster has won (although you might hear Coyote still practicing). In some classes, a child or two suggested that the sun comes up by itself. Some offered vocabulary-enhancing or conceptual/scientific information regarding the horizon and rotation. Before discussion takes place, we mark the end with the same ritual “A story! A story!...”
Another class became helpers to pull up a carrot grown by the boy in a story about a carrot seed. They play members of his family, aided by friends and pets and a strong mouse or two. (The huge vegetable not coming up from the ground is from a folk tale about a turnip, but the world-wide storytelling tradition is one of respectful sharing, so these two stories can come together to make a richer—and more active—ending). “They pulled and they pulled and they pulled-pulled-pulled—but they couldn’t pull the carrot UP!”
The oldest classes have identified as helpers by carrying a huge python named Nyangara to the Chief. Nyangara is the Chief’s doctor, and only he can save the sick leader. When the grown-ups are fearful of the snake and forget the magic chant that will keep them safe, the children overhear and offer their help, arms over each other’s shoulders (like weaving, one said). They know the chant; they carry the huge snake and come to the rescue. And our classes were indeed brave and saved the Chief! After we “let it go…” everyone still felt the power of that (classroom) community.
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The Story of Library
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Library is both a central part of children's experience at Brick and our biggest parent volunteer opportunity. Our extensive book collection is housed in a cozy, inviting room which children visit weekly. A carefully curated selection of books awaits them on child-sized display shelves, and each student chooses two books to check out and take home for a week.
Our school librarian works closely with teachers to ensure that our ever-growing collection is current and supports each classroom's curriculum and project work. She also coordinates with the PA Library Co-Chairs with regard to volunteer staffing and our annual Book Fair.
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