Enrollment Contracts 2022-23
Your child’s Enrollment Agreement for the 2022-23 school year and all re-enrollment forms are now available in the parent portal. We look forward to continued success together!
Your Enrollment Agreement and Enrollment Fee are due no later than 4 pm on Wednesday, February 9, 2022, in order to hold your child’s space for the 2022-23 academic year. The deadline for re-enrollment is firm. There are already substantial waiting lists in many classes, and places will be offered to waiting families after 4 p.m. on February 9. If you wish, please follow this link to pay the Enrollment Fee digitally.
Thank you for your continued trust in us to provide a dynamic educational experience for your children. We understand the tremendous responsibility we have to our students, and we value the ongoing partnership we have with you!
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Thank you, Guest Teachers!
In the last couple of weeks, our classrooms have been enriched by several special guest instructors sharing their talents and expertise. We are so grateful to Dr. Cheryl Gaughen (Parent, '24, '27) for sharing her medical expertise to help introduce our 3rd graders to the miraculous functioning of cells; to environmental scientist Nicola McGoff (Parent, '24, '26, '29) for introducing our 4th graders to the tools, techniques, and simple machines for doing science "out in the field;" and to software engineer Will Mayo (Parent, '26, '28) for illuminating some of the marvels behind the process of app development. And while we're acknowledging the special contributions of our guest teachers, we would be remiss not to thank our multitalented superstar substitute teaching coordinator Michelle Krentz (Parent, '27) for her versatile, adaptable, and relentless efforts to help ensure that every single classroom doesn't skip a beat when a faculty member can't make it to school. It sometimes seems like she's teaching in multiple places at once, and we are lucky and grateful to have her at Peabody. Thank you all!
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Writer's Eye Competition
Congratulations to Grade 5 student, Katherine Barth, for winning second place in the Elementary School division for her poem Desert Day.
Now in its 35th year, Writer’s Eye challenges writers of all ages to use visual art in The Fralin as inspiration for the creation of original poetry and prose. This annual ekphrastic writing program—introduced by docents Carole Armstrong and Valerie Morris in 1986—has become the museum’s flagship educational offering.
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Teen & Pre-Teen Sexual Health
Please join us on February 1st from 6-8:00 PM for this virtual session. This session features Debbie Roffman, human sexuality educator, consultant, and author of Talk To Me First: Everything You Need to Know to Become Your Kids' Go-To Person. More info about Debbie & her publications can be found at https://sexandsensibility.net/
The link to the session is below: The Passcode is Misha1.
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Kinder-ecology
"Hey everyone, who can tell me what a food chain is? Kennedi?"
"Well, isn't it like when an animal eats a plant, and then another animal eats the animal that ate the plant?"
"Exactly!" Ms. Canonico answers. "And what our scientific word for the animal that ate the plant?"
"Primary consumer!" several students respond in unison.
"Yes! And what about the animal that eats other animals, but doesn't have to worry about others animals trying to eat themselves?
Nimit?"
"That's an apex predator."
What some of us may have muddled through in undergraduate Biology, Peabody's kindergartners are tackling with aplomb and zeal. After their review of some of these ecological concepts and terms, Ms. C guides them through a hands-on activity creating food chain models to reinforce those concepts. A sample is projected onto the front board with terminology included as a reference guide, so that students may work independently, practicing their emerging writing skills and early literacy and decoding skills even as they reinforce and deepen their understanding of ecological science. From there, they'll have the chance during their outdoor education classes with Ms. Geneva to explore and discover in the Peabody woods what this looks like in real life: What kinds of producers do we have? What primary consumers can we find? Is there any evidence of apex predators, or even secondary consumers? For those of us old enough to remember that old early '90's poster, "All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten," this feels like a pretty amazing foundation.
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Join Us for Peabody Partners in Action!
Hiking Club Outing Rescheduled: The first hiking club outing around the Ragged Mountain Reservoir originally scheduled for Saturday (Jan 29th) is postponed until next Saturday (Feb 5th), 10:00 AM, meeting at the upper parking lot. This decision is based on the snow and ice forecast for Friday night, and cold temperatures all weekend. The reservoir trails will be a total mess, and that's if we could get to the reservoir at all. If the weather is very cold or icy next weekend we will just cancel and go again at the end of February (26th).
Peabody Partners Schedule
1/29 Hiking Club RESCHEDULED to FEBRUARY 5: Peabody’s new Hiking Club, led by Peabody parent and environmental scientist Nicola McGoff, will have their first outing on January 29th February 5th. An enterprise for fairly hardy hikers, the first hike will circumnavigate the 7-mile perimeter of the Ragged Mountain Reservoir. The group will meet in the upper Ragged Mountain parking lot at 10:00 AM, and expects to complete the hike in about two hours. There is no age limit to participate, but any prospective participant under 8 years old should probably have hiking experience. If you plan to join, please RSVP to Nicola at [email protected] by 9:00 AM on February 4th. In case you’re interested but already booked on the 5th, the group does plan to hit the trails every last Saturday morning of each month: February 26th, March 26th, April 30th, and May 21st (due to the Memorial Day holiday).
2/5 Rivanna River Clean-up: Interested Partners will meet at Rivanna River Company at 3:00 PM Saturday to clean up the riverbanks and enjoy some hot apple cider together afterward. Please BRING YOUR OWN DRINKING VESSELS if you’ll want to share some cider. RSVP to Eric if you plan to join us.
2/17 TBD
2/25 Music Together: An Evening With Charles Owens & Friends @ The Front Porch, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm. Anyone who might be interested in volunteering as ushers or helpers (and enjoying the show for free) can email Eric and he’ll connect you to the right person at TFP.
2/26 Hiking Club: Location TBA
3/5: River Clean-up and invasive plant removal. Partners will meet at Rivanna River Company at 3:00 PM Saturday to clear invasive plants, clear litter, and enjoy some refreshments together afterward. Please BRING YOUR OWN DRINKING VESSELS
3/26: Hiking Club (location TBA) and Music Together: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Dori Freeman @ The Front Porch
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Annual Fund
It is not too late to participate in the Annual Fund! Your participation in the Peabody Annual Fund provides essential operating support to Peabody. Income from tuition does not cover all of our operating expenses. The generosity of our community supports almost everything that keeps Peabody running, from salaries and classroom technology to arts and supplies. Lastly, the Fund supports financial aid as we ensure that any student can share in the Peabody experience. We hope that you will support Peabody in this area and that you will keep in mind that your Annual Fund gift, of any size, really matters to the school. Let's all MAKE AN IMPACT!
Thank you in advance for your consideration of a gift to Peabody School for the 2021-22 year and for being such strong supporters of our wonderful school! Please remember to keep us in your plans for the end of tax year giving.
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Sustainability Blip of the Week: Carbon Sequestration (Soil)
By Earth Action Team (Hazel L., Lisa C., Madeleine B., Nora R.)
What is Carbon Sequestration?
“a natural or artificial process by which carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere and held in solid or liquid form.” - Definition from Oxford Languages.
Basically, this means that Carbon Sequestration is the process of capturing and storing carbon from the atmosphere in other places like soil, plants, or water. It reduces the carbon in the atmosphere which helps reduce climate change.
Interesting Facts:
“Improved soil health: soil carbon sequestration helps restore degraded soils, which can improve agricultural productivity.” -The American University.
When soil health improves, it absorbs more runoff from precipitation to lessen flood damage and supports a healthy lesser water cycle to reduce droughts
The making and cooling of foods and drinks, chemical and fertilizer continuing food can also help carbon sequestration
What Can You Do?
Planting is very important to help sequestration of carbon because of photosynthesis and other plant activities. You can plant grass, bushes, and trees, especially those that are native to our region and co-evolved with our local microbiome. Young growing trees are often best. If you have space in your yard, plant trees, bushes, and native grasses.
You can also support healthy soil in your yard, by planting native grasses that co-exist and support the soil microbes and fungi that make soil healthy, and by leaving grass clippings and leaf litter on your lawn after it has been mowed. These leftovers provide material for important decomposers like fungi and bacteria to live on and create new soil with.
Challenge of the Week:
Plant three plants or seeds. If you plant a tree consider a live oak, southern magnolia, or bald cypress.
What People are Doing:
Companies are developing carbon technologies and this is one way to bring carbon out of the atmosphere. Some examples of companies are Carbfix, Global Thermostat, CO2 Solutions by SAIPEM, Net Power, and Carbon Engineering. These companies build technologies that can directly take carbon out of the atmosphere. All of these companies have carbon-capture plants around the world. Most of the CO2 that is captured is stored underground.
Sources:
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5K in February!
Calling all Peabody Middle School runners (and families of runners) - Bring your warmest layers and join Ms. Harper on Saturday, February 12th for the 'Freeze Your Socks Off' Fun Run / Walk at Darden Towe Park. This race, sponsored by the Charlottesville Track Club, will benefit the Ronald McDonald House of Charlottesville. Event details and registration can be found HERE. If you would like for your child (or family) to participate, please register for the event and email Ms. Harper at [email protected] - to let her know that you're signed up. She will meet runners before the start of the race and run with the group. Feel free to email Ms. Harper with any other questions.
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Parent Information Center
- If your student has received a booster vaccine, please contact Nurse Tara so we can update our records. Thank you!
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Parent & Educator conference on February 3rd-5th, 2022. The Gift-a-Palooza is a 3-day online event dedicated to bringing a deeper look at the issues, challenges, and joys of being a gifted and multi-exceptional individual over a lifetime.
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