Middle School Electives

St. Dennis offers a robust range of electives. Middle School students have the opportunity to choose from an array of unique learning opportunities that suit their interests and expand their knowledge in preparation for high school and beyond.

  • Art

    Students gain skills in creating various pieces of art. This elective may be taken once a year.

  • Books

    Similar to a book club format, books will be read and reflected upon with classmates. May be taken as often as desired.

  • Coding

    Students use block coding to solve problems, create games, and projects that demonstrate and develop basic coding skills.

  • Culinary Arts

    An opportunity to learn a variety of cooking skills. Students make and serve treats during the Christmas and Spring music programs. May be taken only once.

  • Finance

    The basics of home financing and the stock market are covered in this practical, life skill-building class.

  • Fitness

    Students will work on units such as running, yoga, and circuit workouts.

  • Gym

    This elective is required once a semester and features various physical activities.

  • iMovie

    Specifically for 8th graders, students learn how to use iMovie as they create their 8th grade graduation video.

  • Knitting

    Students are introduced to basic knitting-cast on, knit stitch, purl stitch, and how to read a pattern.

  • Lego Robotics

    Students learn and develop programming skills based on lego builds and then program their builds to complete tasks.

  • Music Appreciation

    The students will learn the basic skills of playing ukulele, learn about various genres of music and learn to play a piece of music as an ensemble.

  • Photojournalism

    Heavy on informative and creative writing, students may take this class at any time as they learn skills to create a newspaper.

  • Sewing

    At least two projects are completed during a semester as students learn the basics of sewing.

  • Shop

    Students study models, black boxes, and create actual working models using knowledge of simple machines and basic electricity. In addition, students may have the chance to bring in or work an a project to either see how it was designed, maybe fix a broken item, or work with the teacher to fix an item brought in by a building staff.

  • Spanish 1, 2, 3 & 4

    In Spanish you will learn vocabulary about greetings, body parts, clothing, the house, numbers, months, etc.  Along with this, you will learn grammar and culture of the different Spanish countries. These classes may be taken any year, but must be taken in order as they build on written and verbal skills.

  • Speech

    Students will learn how to organize and present different types of speeches to help boost their confidence and improve public speaking skills.

  • Study Skills

    Students are invited to this class, typically taken as extra support to assist in building academic skills.

  • Vocal

    Students would work on understanding 2-3 part music and sing independently to create harmony.