St. John of Damascus Academy

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St. John of Damascus Academy
401 N. Fairview Avenue, Rm. 11
Goleta, CA 93117
Phone: (805) 692-0860

The world's past effects both the present and the future. In order to provide students with a context for the modern world, we emphasize the chronological study of faith and history. To the largest extent possible, we integrate our other subjects with faith and history so that our students can see how the pieces they are learning integrate together and fit into a wider whole.

In the 1st Grade, for example, our students study the books of Genesis through Deuteronomy in their Faith lessons. Within these lessons, the students learn about Abraham's departure from Mesopotamia for the Promised Land. At the same time, they study Mesopotamian culture and geography in their History lessons. In their Science lessons, they study the river habitat of the Tigris and Euphrates valley. In Art classes, the students make replicas of the cylinder seals used by the ancient Sumerians to sign their letters.





Lower School

Taking a multifaceted approach, our Lower School English program emphasizes instruction in phonics, reading comprehension, grammar, and literary response and analysis with a particular focus on developing writing skills. We use a combination of programs to help each student achieve mastery of basic language arts skills. Some of these programs include Open Court, the 7 Traits writing program, and Shurley Grammar. From the beginning of kindergarten, students hear good literature read to them. As they grow in maturity and abilities they are also encouraged to continue that reading of quality literature with their classmates and independently.

Middle School

English Studies in Middle School include a carefully woven program of vocabulary development including the use of Greek and Latin roots, reading and analysis of short essays, reading of great literature, journal writing, and major research papers. A significant emphasis is placed on writing with attention being given to ease of writing, sophistication of expression, and logical flow of ideas. Between creative writing, journaling, note taking and work on reports and papers Middle school students on average write about 3 - 4 pages a day.





Lower School

Instruction in oral Latin begins in Kindergarten. In the second grade Academy students begin reading and writing Classical Latin. By the time they graduate from our Lower School program in the 4th grade they have covered the basics of Latin Grammar approximating one year of an introductory college course in Latin.

Each year Academy students in third grade and above participate in the National Latin Exam – an exam designed primarily for Jr. High and High School Students. Last year, despite their youth, our entire 3rd Grade class scored at or above the national average for the introductory exam.

Middle School

Middle School students begin with the 3rd semester of the Nationally recognized Cambridge Latin Course. In the 7th and 8th grades they read actual Latin authors including Cicero and Vergil. In addition to their Latin studies Academy Middle School students begin Classical Greek. Using the Oxford University Press series titled Athenaze, Academy students spend the 5th and 6th grades acquiring a basic knowledge of Greek grammar that approximates one year of an introductory college course in Classical Greek. By the 7th and 8th grade they are ready to move on to actual Greek authors including excerpts from Aesop, Herodotus, Xenophon, and Plato.





Lower School

In the course of our lower school program, Academy students complete a systematic study of the Bible. From Kindergarten through 2nd Grade world history is studied in parallel with the historical books of the Old Testament from Genesis through the Exodus, the rise and fall of the Kingdom of Israel, and the deportation to Babylon. 3rd Grade students study the remaining book of the Old Testament -- the prophets and wisdom literature and move onto the New Testament to study the gospel of Mark in the context of the fulfilled prophecies of the Old Testament prophets. The New Testament, specifically the gospel of Luke, the book of Acts, and selections from the epistles, is studied in 4th Grade.

Middle School

Middle School students begin with the gospel of John and then move on to a systematic study of Christian Doctrine and the History of the Church including the great Christological debates of the 4th century and the doctrine of the Trinity.





Lower School

At the Saint John of Damascus Academy we move through history chronologically, beginning with the earliest civilizations before we move on to the Middle Ages and the Modern World. The Academy's Lower school history program focuses on the Ancient World from pre-history to the Roman Empire. Kindergarten students move through an overview of the ancient world as a whole. In the next four years 1st to 4th grade students go back over this period in more detail. 1st graders concentrate on the period from pre-history to the Old and Middle Kingdoms in Egypt. 2nd Graders concentrate on the great power struggles of the 1st and 2nd centuries BC in the fertile crescent between the Egyptians, Mitanni, Hittites, and later the Canaanites, Israelites, Assyrians and Babylonians. In the third grade students study the emerging Persian Empire and its clash with the growing Greek city states. We then spend most of the year studying ancient Greek civilization through to the time of Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Kingdoms that followed him. Year 4 covers the Roman Empire. Throughout our Lower School curriculum we integrate faith, history, art, and science to the greatest extent possible. For example, when 1st grade students study the stories of Joseph and Moses during their Faith classes, they also learn about ancient Egypt in History class, study the mechanics of tools used to build the pyramids (levers, ramps, wedges, etc.) in science class, and study Egyptian funerary art in art.

Middle School

Middle School History begins with the Medieval world following the fall of the Western Roman Empire and continues to proceed through history chronologically, covering the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the early Modern, and Modern periods. Students learn to write in depth research papers. An emphasis is placed on the development of a thesis supported by strong evidence and sound logic.





Lower School

As a classical school, we emphasize literature in our curriculum. We use great literature as one means of training our students to recognize, and be attracted to goodness, beauty, and truth. From the earliest possible moment our students read and have read to them great literature. Our youngest students enjoy literature like The Epic of Gilgamesh (children's version), Winnie-the-Pooh, Dr. Seuss, various fairy tales, The Narnia series, Charlotte's Web, and The Wizard of Oz. Third and fourth grade students enjoy children’s versions of Homer and the Aeneid and well known children’s literature like, Anne of Green Gables, The Incredible Journey and the Hobbit.

Middle School

Academy Middle School students begin a ‘Great Books program’. Each Student reads 10-20 books in the course of a given year including Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Treasure Island, A Secret Garden, Little Women, To Kill a Mockingbird and works of Dickens, Shakespeare, Bronte, and Dumas. As they read, students participate in class discussions and write their thoughts and reflections in a journal which is graded twice a week.





Lower School

The goal of the lower school math program at St. John of Damascus is to have students competent in math facts and procedures, conversant with the language and symbols of math, and confident in problem solving. We work to meet or exceed the California state standards of math at all levels. The lower grades use Abeka as a basic text. This text works toward mastery in basic facts, operations with whole numbers, fractions, and decimals, time, money, measurement with both English and metric system, simple probability and statistics, and basic geometry. The basic program is augmented with Houghton Mifflin materials and a variety of math manipulatives and hands on activities including our recently acquired “Hands on Equations" program.

Middle School

The goal of the middle school math program at St. John of Damascus is to solidify the facts, procedures, and problem solving skills learned in the lower school and to prepare the students for the more abstract math and logic they will encounter in the higher levels of math. The Houghton Mifflin 5th grade math text includes operations with integers, exponents, solving simple algebraic equations and more complex problem solving than students have previously encountered. They continue working with “Hands on Equations” to build the concepts of solving algebraic equations. The 6th and 7th grade math texts constitute a two year rigorous classical pre-algebra course entitled Mathematics: Structure and Method, often referred to as the “Dolciani” series. Students are also challenged to solve various logic and reasoning problems. After this preparation students continue into Algebra with the same series in the 8th Grade.





Lower School

Lower School science is integrated with the Faith/History curriculum. When students study Abraham in the book of Genesis they also study the Mesopotamian river culture out of which he came (in history) and continue with a detailed study of river habitats in science. Similarly, when the students learn about the Israelites' 40 years of wandering in the wilderness they study desert habitats in science. In addition to these integrated science lessons the academy science curriculum covers a variety of other topics in Earth Science, Life Science, and Physical Science. For example, 3rd and 4th grade students study Magnetism and Electricity. In Magnetism, the students use ceramic magnets to learn about magnetic forces and the Earth’s own magnetic field. We build and use simple compasses to further enhance learning about the use of magnetic fields in navigation. We then learn and study about the unique relationship between magnetism and electricity. Students use batteries, coiled wire, and iron cores to build electromagnets and use them in our laboratory studies of this phenomenon. We build a simple electro-magnetic motor to help explain the theory behind motors we use in everyday life. In electricity, students concentrate on circuits using light bulbs, student-made wires, switches, and connectors. We learn about the basics of circuits in series and parallel and learn as to which is more appropriate for given applications. The students begin to diagram simple circuits and eventually design and build circuits with specific properties.

Middle School

Middle School science continues to be integrated with History. In addition students study some history of science and Chemistry, Physics, and Biology to prepare them for more rigorous study of these subjects in High School.





Lower School

Our Kindergarten class begins their musical training through piano lessons. In the second grade students also begin to learn recorders and choir. Lower School students receive rhythm and ear training, learn how to read staff notes and construct scales, and are introduced to intervals, key signatures, and accidentals. In choir students learn proper breathing techniques, sight singing, and intonation of different pitches. A variety of pieces give the students the opportunity to learn to sing in unison, and in two and three part harmonies.

Middle School

Middle School students at the Academy continue with piano and choir. Instead of recorder they choose to pursue instrumental work with either violin or clarinet. Students become acquainted with different musical periods and many of history's famous composers. After learning some important pieces written by these composers, the students are encouraged to compose their own pieces; demonstrating an understanding of dynamics and differing tempos as well as promoting creativity and expression. Both Lower School and Middle School students perform several times a year including an annual Christmas Concert and Spring Concert.





Kindergarten art is integrated into almost all of our classroom activities. Students are given ample opportunities to explore various media, including watercolor, tempera paint, oil and chalk pastels, clay, crayon resist, and collage. Kindergarten art projects include Letter Trains in Language Arts, Mycenean clay pots in History, burning bush collages in Faith, and seasonal activities, among others. Students work on developing fine motor skills as they practice coloring, cutting, and pasting.

The first graders start with learning about God as the Creator of all. They start their art class by fashioning their very own art shirt that they create with paints and stencils. They will follow a historical path learning and creating their own simulations of Sumerian cylinder seals, Cuneiform writing tablets, Egyptian diorama’s, and funerary canopic jars. The children explore using color theory, light and dark, textures, paints, oil and chalk pastels, and clay. Students learn artistic and creative perception by processing, analyzing, and creating. They learn to describe and replicate repeated patterns that God has created in nature and in works of art. Emphasis is put on line, color, shape/form and texture.

The second graders review learning about God as the Creator of all. They start their art class by fashioning their very own art shirt that they create with paints and stencils. The children follow a historical path creating models of obelisks, drawing and painting items from King Tut and his tomb, and forming clay models of Ramses II. They continue to learn and describe and replicate repeated patterns from nature and works of art. The children demonstrate beginning skill in the use of art media, such as oil pastels, watercolors, and tempera. They experiment with creating different textures by using simple tools. Emphasis is put on line, color, shape/form, texture and space.

The third grade students review creation and the colors God has given us; primary, secondary, tertiary and how they work together. Emphasis is put on line, color, shape/form, texture, space and value.

The fourth and fifth graders review the colors God has given us; primary, secondary, tertiary, complementary and how they work together. We start the year by fashioning their very own art shirt that they create with paints and stencils. The next major project we work on is to follow a directed drawing of a roman soldier. We then sculpt our own roman soldier from clay and have it fired. One of the concepts we work on is proportion (in face, figure) as used in works of art. We take a field trip to the Getty and observe artistic processes, skills and intent in original works of art. We take a field trip to the annual I Modanari ("street painter" in Italian) festival and create our own chalk drawing at school. This year we are working on designing our own Mosaic school sign.

The sixth grade students create their own Illuminated manuscripts by choosing a Psalm. Create paint using pigments, Draw icons using the grid method. aint icons using paint that we have created with pigments.

We are thankful to have an outstanding chess coach at the Saint John of Damascus Academy. Andrew Svehaug, 2 time national scholastic chess champion, and founder of the American Chess Institute, has been working to develop the Academy’s chess program since 2005.

Lower School

All lower school students at SJDA are involved in a weekly chess club during school hours. Students begin with movement of pieces and then progress to basic strategies and tactics.

Middle School

Middle School students have the option to continue with their chess training or pursue other interests (see Independent Study Program). Those who continue with chess receive instruction through weekly lessons, workbook exercises, and lots of practice games. Students participate in 4 or 5 tournaments through out the year and this year we will be sending our first team to Nationals in Tennessee.

Copyright @2006 St. John of Damascus Academy