MS Division Piece

breckschool.org

Middle School

Confidence in knowing.

This is your time. As you change, as you grow, as you discover what you can do… you’ll understand who you can become.

Welcome to Middle School

“At Breck, your teachers get to know you as a learner and as a person, and that really helps you have the best time at school.”

Ada Middle School Student

Welcome

Middle School at Breck provides an abundance of student opportunities to both fortify areas of interest and delve into uncharted regions.

In approaching these opportunities, we encourage students to both ask and field questions, to seek and provide answers, to initiate new friendships and nourish existing ones, and to appreciate the diverse experiences that members of our community bring on a daily basis.

Now is the time and place to help students navigate their individual journeys toward a more defined sense of self as members of a larger community. Our accomplished, experienced faculty collaborates with, guides, and engages students in an appropriately challenging yet supportive program.

Through intentional time dedicated to supporting students’ learning, growth, and development, Middle School students learn to understand their place in the world and their role in supporting the common good. Upon completion, students are poised, confident, and ready for what awaits in the Upper School.

Sky Fauver Middle School Director

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Middle School

It’s time explore.

Academic Challenge Spanning grades 5 to 8, the Middle School experience at Breck is dedicated to providing a safe environment for students to navigate their journeys as academics, artists, athletes, and members of a larger community. Guided by an accomplished and veteran faculty, students actively engage in a program designed to challenge and support them.

Interdisciplinary Learning When a student learns to apply the skills they’ve gained in one subject to the learning of another, it deepens their understanding of both. Throughout Middle School, our faculty put specific emphasis on enhancing their curricula by including other disciplines. Culminating in a Grade 8 Capstone Project, this approach prepares every student for the breadth and depth of Upper School.

Academic Program

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to

Middle School is a time of growth and exploration — intellectually, emotionally, and socially. Our curriculum is designed to guide students as they understand themselves, their world, and the role they want to play in it.

Elective Offerings

Advisory Program

Middle School students have the opportunity to enroll in a wide selection of academic electives to expose them to subjects beyond their core curriculum. We offer classes on

As part of our commitment to nurturing the whole child, we assign each student a faculty advisor to be a formal, personal, and academic advocate. During formal and

Constitutional Law, Engineering,

informal weekly meetings,

Economics and Finance, Sports

advisors focus on developing

and Society, and Creating Virtual

studying and class strategies,

Reality Experiences, just to name

process personal relationships,

a few.

and facilitate effective, efficient communication among faculty, students, and parents.

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Middle School

Play to your strengths.

At Breck, every activity is another opportunity to learn.

We offer a comprehensive and competitive athletic program that emphasizes the importance of commitment and preparation, personal growth, and teamwork.

Our athletes strive for excellence in their sport and, independent of outcome, compete with grace and school pride.

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The Performing Arts at Breck provide students more than just the chance to grow and explore their own self-expression and creativity — it’s a chance for them to build something together.

Through dance, music, and theatre, students gain firsthand exposure to the arts and develop the skills and discipline to create something as a group.

Our Visual Arts Department is studiobased at its very core.

Students create work in vivid, beautiful studio spaces under the guidance of real working artists who share their knowledge, talent, enthusiasm, and inspirations that rouse their imagination.

Hebrew Scriptures

Life Science

Christianities

Earth Science

Ethics

Others Bucket Drumming Digital Music Marimba Band World Music

World Religions Energy

Creative Design

Theater Exploratory Theater Intermediate Performance Techniques Advanced Ensemble Theater Stagecraft

Religion Explorations in Science

Art 7

Choir Bel Canto Choir Mustang Treble Singers Mustang Chorale

Science

Art 6

Spanish MS Spanish 1–5 MS Advanced Spanish

Art 5

French MS French 1–5 MS Advanced French

Advanced Upper School Courses are available in Chinese, French, and Spanish.

Placement in Upper School language courses available dependent upon fluency with language.

Chinese MS Chinese 1–5 MS Advanced Chinese

Visual Arts World Languages

Electives

Computer Science, Tinkering/STEM, Newsroom, Intro to Economics, Sports and Society, Writing for Real Audiences, Constitutional Law, and Creating Virtual Reality Experiences.

This list is just a sampling of elective courses students can take in the Middle School.

Elective offerings can vary from academic year to year.

Curriculum Overview English 5

Grade 5

History 6: Minnesota History

English 6

Grade 6

English 7

Grade 7

English 8

Grade 8

Please see the course guide at breckschool.org for more details.

English History 5: Ancient World Civilizations

History 8: Modern Global Issues

History

Mathematics 5 Accelerated Math 5

Algebra 1 Geometry Advanced Upper School Math Courses

Dance Dance Exploration Contemporary Dance MS Dance Repertory

Extended Math 6 Mathematics 6 Pre-Algebra

Orchestra Ensemble Da Capo Camerata Chamber Lyric Ensemble

Extended Math 7 Pre-Algebra Algebra 1 Advanced Upper School Math Courses

History 7: United States History - Immigration & Reform

Mathematics

Performing Arts

Band Beginning Band Concert Band Wind Ensemble

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Middle School

Strong body.

Strong mind.

In order to develop lifelong good habits, all students are required to take four age-appropriate wellness classes per year.

Outdoor Education

Health

This program, utterly unique

Health education provides

to Breck, immerses students in

students with important

our great Minnesota outdoors

knowledge and skills to maintain

to connect with nature, form

their physical, social, and

lasting connections to one

emotional health. Here, students

another, and uncover the leaders

learn about positive behaviors and

within. From orienteering to fire

lifestyle choices, risks of injury

building, archery to canoeing,

and illness, disease prevention and

students learn to lead, follow,

management strategies, and an

build compassion for one

understanding of their own growth

another, and understand the

and development.

responsibility of stewarding the environment we share.

Project Adventure Project Adventure provides our students the opportunity to strengthen their leadership and teamwork skills. Through team-building exercises, individual challenges, and even conquering our campus high ropes courses, Middle School students will learn to take risks, solve problems, and ultimately succeed together.

Physical Education Teamwork. Leadership.

Personal achievement.

Our Physical Education program develops students’ self-confidence and self-esteem while participating in a variety of developmentally appropriate activities, all while promoting an affinity for an active, healthy lifestyle.

Student Experience

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Building towards greatness.

Middle School Competencies

Teaching and learning

Our core competencies —

their learning as they make

creativity, critical thinking,

meaning of their experiences

communication, agency,

and context. As an articulation

well-being, citizenship, and

of both goals and practices, the

collaboration — align and guide

competencies shift teaching

learning experiences to the

from providing information to

specific skills and content that

empowering students to become

propel Middle School students

active meaning makers who seek

to lead lives of intellectual

deep understanding and are able

curiosity, self-knowledge, and

to transfer their learning.

social responsibility.

Students are active agents in

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Middle School

Gatherings & Travel

Think without borders.

Throughout the year, we plan opportunities for the entire Middle School to gather — from the seats of the Cargill Theater to the slopes of Hyland Hills.

In addition, students in grade 6 through grade 8 participate in a trip to deepen an element of their curriculum and grow relationships across the Middle School.

Trips have included Camp Icaghowan Washington, D.C. Wolf Ridge Specific trips will depend on your student’s curriculum.

Lorem Ipsum

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