Special Areas

When you enter the Bright library, there is a sense of warmth, joy and tradition. Our librarians promote reading, encourage investigation and assist in developing enthusiastic readers. Our students learn to enjoy reading and being read to, as well as browsing the shelves for great books to check out. On any given day, students eagerly walk through the library to return books or check out new ones. Each grade visits the library and benefits from instruction and a curriculum designed to teach students to access, evaluate, and interpret information from printed materials. Early childhood students participate in story time while lower grades study great authors and genres aligned with their classroom units of study. Our elementary students are introduced to the steps of research. Upper grades build upon the methods for interpreting information in order to graduate with the best possible training, so they can become life-long readers and skillful users of information in the 21st century. (Grades JPK-5)

The P.E. program directs students toward a lifetime of physical fitness by creating an environment of age-appropriate child play that is motivating and fun. The curriculum is designed to communicate health and fitness knowledge, teach locomotor and non-locomotor physical skills, introduce sports skills, and create a positive attitude about life-long fitness. Appropriate health and physical activities are carefully designed for all ages allowing your child to build upon skills learned each year. From scooter races to parkour courses, each week in P.E. brings enthusiasm to our students about being healthy and staying fit for life. Who are we? Bright Fit! (Offered daily for grades K-5; rotating for JPK and PK)

Believing in acquired knowledge application, Bright's woodworking shop offers hands-on experiences literally! Each child has an opportunity to experience the process of taking raw wood and creating a work of art. Through this step-by-step process, students develop math skills and learn to use mechanical and spatial relationships. Students are introduced to shop in PK with basic, developmentally appropriate projects. As students grow and move from one grade to the next, their projects in shop also grow in degree of difficulty. There is strong integration between the shop projects and classroom curriculum. Through the projects they create in shop, they are building habits of attention, perseverance, patience, and self-control. (Grades PK-5)

Using the National Educational Technology Standards as our framework, Bright School’s technology curriculum builds a comprehensive set of computing skills for students and prepares them to use technology effectively in order to live, learn, and work in the 21st Century. Multimedia and Web 2.0 tools are used to engage students in creativity and collaboration. Basic keyboarding skills, software use, and research skills are practiced and complement the classroom curriculum. Students learn how to be responsible digital citizens as they evaluate information, cite online sources, respect copyright and fair use laws, and safely use the Internet. Technology empowers our students and facilitates the learning process at Bright School. While dedicated technology instruction occurs in grades K-5 in the computer lab, technology is integrated into the school’s curriculum through classroom activities and daily instruction. Interactive whiteboards are used in all classrooms to enhance learning. Students in fifth grade utilize netbooks to facilitate independent and cooperative learning. IPads for teachers and students in grades PK-4 are used for exploration and discovery in the classroom learning environment.