Electives

Are you fascinated by the animal kingdom and eager to learn more about their anatomy, behavior, and unique characteristics? If so, then Animal Lore is the class for you.

In this course, you'll explore the fascinating world of animals, from insects to sharks, spiders to wolves, lions to snakes, and even venomous creatures. Through a combination of drawing and labeling assignments, discussions, and videos, you'll gain a deep understanding of each animal's physical structure, predator/prey relationships, and eating habits. Animal Lore also delves into the myths, legends, facts, fiction, and skills of animals. You'll discover the truth behind popular animal tales and uncover some of the lesser-known facts about these fascinating creatures.

So whether you're interested in pursuing a career in zoology, or simply have a passion for all things animal-related, Animal Lore is the perfect class to deepen your knowledge and appreciation of the animal kingdom.

Are you interested in exploring the world of art and design? Do you want to learn how to create beautiful, unique pieces that express your individuality and creativity? In our Fine Art and Design elective class you will discover a variety of art concepts, including drawing buildings, people, places, still life objects, and cursive/calligraphy. You'll learn how to mix colors with paint, pigments, and pastels, and explore various painting techniques that will help you bring your artistic vision to life. During the course you will explore how art has influenced cultures, society, and history throughout the world. You'll learn about famous artists, their work, and the impact they had on the art world and beyond. And you'll also discover how art can be used to express ideas, emotions, and beliefs, and how it has played a critical role in shaping our world.

Chaboya's Leadership Class* is an elective class that is available to all seventh and eighth grade students interested in building a positive learning environment and school culture at Chaboya. The Leadership class organizes and hosts many activities for students, including noontime activities, special event days, assemblies, dances and more that help build student connections to school. The students are also taught public speaking, organization, and community service skills in the class. Additionally, students will participate in the decision-making process affecting day-to-day student life at Chaboya. The overall goal is to build school spirit and pride that will lead to encourage students to feel connected to the Chaboya community and to succeed academically.

*Application Required - Students interested in taking this elective must complete the Leadership Application. The application link is available in the student Elective form. Forms must be submitted by the Elective Enrollment due date.

*Teacher Recommendations - This class also requires three teacher recommendations. The Teacher Recommendation form is linked in the Elective form.

Students will go on an adventure together to experience several real life situations and how to succeed in them. We start with expanding our knowledge of ourselves, where you are going to grow, our confidence in different areas of our life, success in goals, how we manage time and to grow motivation. Then we learn how to ace job applications and a job interview, maintain a job, plan a budget and manage our money, rent our first place to live, furnish it, then cook and current nutrition choices and practices for optimum health.

Skills learned from core subjects (math, science, social studies, and language arts) are applied to real-life situations in order to better prepare students for their futures. Personal and social cooking is highlighted. The program includes: Food Science, Nutrition; Consumer Education and Personal Budgeting; Goal Setting and Independent living; job applications; and interview techniques.

The Chaboya RTI class is for direct reading intervention instruction for students who will benefit from additional reading lessons in a small group setting. This is a focused class to help with:

• decoding multisyllabic words,
• fluency,
• vocabulary,
• morphology, and
• comprehension.

The program’s structure includes teacher modeling, guided practice, immediate corrective feedback, and cumulative review — all evidence-based practices that help older students build automaticity and confidence. There will also be time devoted to literacy games and earned rewards. 

Sonic Studio is an engaging elective where students explore the fundamentals of music through a mix of music reading, theory, history, film music, and the language of music. Students will participate in both, written assignments and hands-on activities using mini portable keyboards provided in class. The course emphasizes class preparation, homework, and active participation, aiming to develop students' understanding of music's role in the world. 

This introductory course emphasizes listening, speaking, reading, and writing in Spanish. The topics featured are focused on everyday life and include common expressions of greeting, nouns and articles, vocabulary associated with school, family, city-life, foods/restaurant, and taking a trip. The class activities are designed to immerse students in the Spanish language and culture. Communicating in Spanish will be developed and enhanced by small group activities, writing and performing dialogues, games and music. Technology and visual aids are used to further differentiate instruction. The objective of this course is to enable students to communicate using sentences in the present tense and by the end of the year, exploring the present progressive and past tenses. Spanish is only offered to 7th graders becoming 8th graders. 

Do you enjoy photography, graphic design, writing, and capturing memorable moments?

Yearbook is a creative, collaborative course where students work together to document the school year and produce the official school yearbook. Students will learn photography techniques, page layout and design, interviewing and journalistic writing skills, and the fundamentals of visual storytelling. As members of the yearbook staff, students will attend school events, take photographs, conduct interviews, and create engaging pages that reflect the experiences and achievements of our school community. This course encourages creativity, teamwork, responsibility, and attention to detail while providing students with the opportunity to leave a lasting legacy for future generations.

No, changes cannot be made once an elective request form has been submitted, so please choose wisely.

Prior to the first day of school in August, students and parents will have access to PowerSchool containing their student's schedule and their elective classes.

Once selected and scheduled, elective classes cannot be changed.