Middle School Arts & Enrichment

At the heart of differentiated instruction lies student choice. Arts & Enrichment is a robust cross-disciplinary program where Middle School students are offered choice in a multitude of areas including visual arts, drama, music, physical activity, and service learning. Within a framework of prescribed experiences and numerous choice-driven courses, students have the opportunity to try new things and extend their existing interests. Courses range from semester-long to year-long and can vary from year to year, based on student interest, and are taught by Peabody faculty as well as experts and enthusiasts from our local Charlottesville community.

Middle School Seminar

The intention of Peabody’s 5th-8th grade Class Seminar program is to offer our middle school students opportunities to expand their perspectives, develop life skills, and engage with Peabody’s learner traits. Class Seminar is an opportunity to help our middle school students grow as well-rounded individuals, connecting their personal self-development with the development of a deep interest in being a positive force in their community.

Together, the teachers of the Class Seminar program will work to:

Aim the compass of our work towards the guiding question that connects our collective efforts: “What makes a healthy community?”
Intentionally integrate and reinforce Peabody’s learner traits as the opportunities present themselves
Connect our students in meaningful ways with community resources (guest speakers/teachers, project mentors, opportunities to help or serve, field trips, etc.)

Middle School World Language (French and Spanish)

World Language study in our middle school builds on the lower school foundational experience and takes students into a deeper level of practice. Both language programs address all four competencies: listening, speaking, writing and reading. Immersion is commonplace in our classrooms with the vast majority of instruction delivered in French or Spanish. When possible, students engage in regular communication with classes in other countries, via video conferencing or letter-writing to practice their skills and to establish authentic relationships with native speakers. Optional international travel experiences also provide opportunities for students to extend and enrich their language study. In addition, students participate in special projects such as performing plays for their peers or writing stories with a partner school in the targeted language. As culture is an important component of world languages, our program also features regular current and traditional events. When students complete Peabody’s World Language program, they acquire a strong language foundation and communication skills to carry with them into the world.

Tech/Engineering (All grades)

The Technology program at Peabody School is designed to guide students from K through 8th grade to develop the thinking habits and skills of a problem solver equipped to engage the challenges of today and the future. Through in-depth hands-on projects approached with a spirit of joyful curiosity, we guide students to be makers, not just consumers. We foster a culture of “What if…?”, “I wonder how that works…?” and “I bet you I could make that.”

Students in grades K-8 attend technology classes in our ENIAC 6 Lab, inspired by the female programming pioneers who learned how to program the ENIAC, the first general-purpose programmable computer. Nobody had done this before, but they took on the daunting challenge with determination and joy. Our curriculum cultivates that same determined and joyful spirit of the ENIAC 6 programmers in the face of problems that have never been solved before.

Our technology curriculum is composed of three primary strands: Programming Concepts, Physical Computing, and Engineering & Design/Making. Programming Concepts begins with ScratchJr in Kindergarten and builds toward more sophisticated languages, culminating with Circuit Python in 7th and 8th grade. The Physical Computing strand explores the intersection of programming and our physical world through interacting with and programming robots and having hands-on experiences using microcontrollers. Engineering & Design/Making introduces students to a broad range of topics related to applied physics and design, such as simple machines, electrical circuits, computer-aided design, and prototyping. Starting in 3rd grade, students use Tinkercad, and by 8th grade they progress to OnShape (a professional 3D CAD program). They also have 3D design experiences with vector design, laser cutting, and hands-on construction practice using a variety of tools and materials.

Outside of technology class, productivity skills and digital citizenship are taught in authentic academic contexts, allowing students to develop these skills and understandings in a way that is more meaningful to them. Students in grades 4-8 are issued their own Chromebook, which allows them to have ready access to technology whenever the need arises. Our K-3 students each have a school-issued iPad to use in their core classes, including technology class and other specials classes.

Additionally, we offer a variety of topics in our middle school enrichment classes. Enrichment class offerings change yearly, but recent classes have included video game creation and Introduction to VR/AR. Peabody also has a First Lego League team, open to students in grades 5-8, which competes against other schools each fall.

Outdoor Education

The Peabody Outdoor Education program is designed to provide students with experiential learning in a natural setting and to foster a connection with their local environment. The Peabody Woods and the Piedmont Prairie serve as our classroom, containing endless opportunities for exploration year-round.

Outdoor Education classes in grades K-4 include a combination of observation, inquiry, free-play, and nature art. Through a lens of place-based learning, we explore a variety of topics including tree identification, birdwatching, stream ecology, environmental stewardship, outdoor survival skills, and more. The outdoor classroom allows students to experience the mental and physical benefits of being outdoors, from practicing relaxation at their sit spots to building gross motor skills. Students find joy in caring for the life in our schoolyard and grow into passionate stewards of the land.

The Outdoor Education program also aims to prepare students for their intensive environmental science curriculum in 5th and 6th grade. Students in grades 5-8 have the opportunity to take specialized Arts & Enrichment elective courses that relate to Outdoor Education, such as Field Ecology and Restoration and Invasive Management Team.

Middle School Science

The goal of MS Science at Peabody is to develop data-driven, critical thinkers. We accomplish this by laying a solid foundational understanding of our universe before challenging students with ambiguity and real problems.

Beginning with environmental science and chemistry, our students explore the building blocks of our universe through hands-on inquiry, asking the “why” questions about the world around us and learning how to seek out their answers. Students grow to embrace what it means to be an observer as they develop the technical skills of professionals in the field: watershed ecologists as we explore local water bodies, geologists during our rocks, minerals, and soils unit; rangeland ecologists through our restoration of local tallgrass prairies; sustainability advocates; and even gastronomists as we investigate how chemistry shapes our food. Chemistry is the glue that holds all these units together and students head into physics and biology as solutionaries, actively involved in environmental stewardship.

Our physics program begins in the Newtonian world focusing on how things move and interact. Every Law of Motion is tested using real data from running, throwing objects through the air, and failure-testing popsicle bridges. Electricity, waves, and magnetism are tested experimentally before culminating in an electric guitar project where students build working guitars completely from scratch.

Finally, our biology program is a survey of all things medicine starting at the micro-scale with gene regulation and ending at the macro-scale with ecology. We are fortunate enough to have a deep community of healthcare professionals such as doctors, surgeons, researchers, and drug developers that provide real world expertise to bring our different subjects to life. Our biology course culminates in a capstone project that challenges our 8th graders to pitch a biotech startup idea to a board of potential investors to help them understand how decisions are made in the real world.

Middle School Social Studies

The goal of Peabody School’s social studies program is to develop students into compassionate, informed, global citizens. By considering essential questions at every grade level that are rooted in themes, students wrestle with big ideas and engage in perpetual reflection and refinement of their initial conclusions when faced with new, and sometimes conflicting, information. Students learn to question how we know what we know and to consider why we study the past at all. We believe that a sense of perspective is essential to understanding and communicating with one another, regardless of where we happen to live, locally or globally. As a result, we seek out others’ stories, learn why they matter, and begin to understand our own.

A blend of instruction in geography, history, and civics helps students to uncover the rich connections linked to “place” and begin to learn why a sense of “where” is so important. Whether they are teaching ancient cultures or modern history, our teachers are intentional in their instruction with a focus on including a wide range of perspectives and voices, utilizing primary source documents, and featuring texts in authentic voices. Our students learn to scrutinize sources and to become careful consumers of information. Whenever possible, guest speakers and field trips are featured to augment the program.

Middle School Math

$Middle School Math$

A course progression of 5th grade math, Pre-Algebra, Algebra, Geometry, and Algebra 2 is offered at Peabody School. We believe that a growth mindset is highly consequential for determining student success, therefore, we embrace mathematical problem-solving, thinking outside the box, embracing and learning from mistakes, and real world applications. Students are appropriately challenged and well-prepared for future high level math courses in high school and beyond.

We offer opportunities beyond the traditional math class for students to engage in math enrichment, including GEM (Girls Excelling in Math) and MathCounts.

Middle School English

English at Peabody School is a challenging pre-AP style program designed to prepare students for future high school AP English courses. Through anchor texts and text sets, students engage with essential questions, engage in close reading tasks, make connections in their learning, and recognize relevance in classic and modern texts. Writing to learn and writing to think are integral components of the program, with students having challenging and varied writing experiences across modalities, including analytical, expository, synthesis, and creative modes. Robust class discussions, journal-writing, vocabulary, and grammar also feature in the program. Developing a deep understanding of oneself as a writer and as a reader, equips our students with the skills and self-awareness to move confidently into future English tasks.

In the spring of 8th grade, students develop a capstone multi-genre writing project on a topic of their choice that falls within the course theme of Adversity, Conflict, & Change. Using a variety of different genres and modes (literary analysis, poetry, personal narrative, op-eds and other real-world genres, etc.) students create a robust, cohesive project that takes the reader on a deep dive into their topic. In May, parents and students are invited to partake of the projects during Multi-genre Magnificence.