Health and Safety Protocols Update

According to the CDC community-level data, we are now at the "medium" level. If we maintain this status this week, masks will be optional at Peabody School starting on Monday, March 21st for students in Grades K-8. Please be on the lookout for a separate email this week with further information and instructions regarding this change.
Family Speaker Series-Virtual Book Club with Katie Hurley: Raising Strong, Confident & Compassionate Girls

In preparation for our April 12 (6- 7:30 PM) virtual "book club" with author and child development expert Katie Hurley, we're offering an opportunity to order a copy of "No More Mean Girls: The Secret to Raising Strong, Confident, and Compassionate Girls" through our partnership with local business New Dominion Bookshop! Please follow this link to order your copy: https://forms.diamondmindinc.com/peabodyschool/book_club

Orders will be accepted until Monday, March 21. Books should arrive before Spring Break and will be sent home with your student. 
Peabody Alumni Panel-Recording Now Available
For 7th and 8th grade families

Thank you to everyone who joined us for the Alumni Panel this past Friday! In case you missed it, you can view the recording below!
Camp Invention

Camp Invention is coming back to Peabody School IN PERSON! This inspiring experience has received rave reviews from campers, parents, and teachers, and now it’s returning with an all-new program, Explore! From July 11 to July 15 (9 am-3 pm), rising 1st - 6th graders will team up with friends for fun, hands-on STEM adventures, from adopting a robotic fish to exploring space to building robotic artists and marble arcades! Each activity sparks creativity and builds confidence. Secure your spot by registering online and using promo code SUM25 by 3/31 to save $25.

Also available: Leaders in Training opportunity for rising 7th-9th graders
Contact Amy Brudin, Director, with any questions, at amy.brudin@peabodyschool.org
Learn more about Camp Invention 2022: Explore! on YouTube!

Blue Ridge Food Bank Food Drive
Through March 25th

Neighbor 4 Neighbor Food Drive at Peabody, supporting the Blue Ridge Food Bank. Students are invited to be hunger heroes by bringing in canned veggies, soups, stews, & chilis; cereals, nut butter, pasta, sauces, rice, grains, canned tuna, paper products, baby food, diapers, soap, and feminine products. Collection bins are posted inside all of the school’s primary entry doors.  
Oh, To Be A First Grader Again, Part 2: Did the Romans learn this much from both their planning and their mistakes?

The Romans couldn't build Rome in a day, and this month Mrs. Armstrong's first graders have had a chance to discover why. "We've been getting to learn about the ancient Roman empire and see pictures of some of the amazing structures that were built during that era. I remember that many of you were really impressed by the architecture of the Colosseum, so, to help bring that challenge to life for you, you're going to have a chance to work with a partner these next couple of days to build your very own model of the Colosseum." The class reacted as if they had just seen Jupiter. The students were split into pairs and given guidelines and materials for building their model monuments. Then, the real challenge:
"Before you start building, every team will spend 15 minutes planning together. Nobody should start building until you have a plan for what you'll build and how"
Someone raises a hand.

"Mrs. Armstrong, can we make mistakes on our model after we've made our plan? Or are we making a plan so that we don't make mistakes?"
Wow. How does one explain to a first grader the complex dynamic between planning and learning from mistakes?
"That's such a good question! You can use your plan to help you agree upon and guide you towards what you want to make. But just like using a map, sometimes you'll encounter things along the way that will require you to find a different route than the one you had planned to get there."
A valiant effort, to be sure, but it wasn't entirely clear from anyone's countenance how much sense that distinction actually made to anyone. Nonetheless, off they went, to their credit every single pair of young architects worked cooperatively, eagerly, and with determination to draw up a plan for their model Colosseum. No one agreed on everything, but it seemed pretty clear that they had all developed skills somewhere along the line to navigate those disagreements productively and constructively.
Before they began construction I had to leave the class, but that one question hung with me: how does one impress upon a young person simultaneously the value of planning and the not entirely congruent value of learning from mistakes? When I checked back in a few days later, the actually rather simple answer emerged almost immediately: allow them to do both. The time they were given to plan offered them the opportunity to envision something, collaborate towards a shared goal, and at least consider some ways that they might make the best use of their materials to reconstruct the elements of the model Colosseum that struck them as being most essential to its structure. After having the chance to then try to execute those plans, every student was able to articulate things they would have done differently if given the chance to build Colosseum v 2.0. Some teams discovered through the experience that certain materials were incompatible with one another which resulted in admittedly life-like ruins, and suggested new ways to try to build the same structures; others felt dissatisfied with the structural outcomes and proposed modified approaches to the architecture. No one seemed defeated or done; only eager to do some more planning and more learning from new mistakes. How lucky we feel to have Mrs. Armstrong at Peabody, for the culture of groundedness and assurance and support that she cultivates, and these kinds of opportunities to learn valuable lessons through experience that she orchestrates.
Join Us for Peabody Partners in Action!

Thanks to all of our Peabody families who came out last Saturday afternoon to help clean up the Rivanna River's banks and remove some pesky invasive plants. For these next couple of weeks, we invite Peabody families to donate non-perishable foods to support our Neighbors 4 Neighbors Food Drive, to help restock the Blue Ridge Food Bank.

March

7-25: Neighbor 4 Neighbor Food Drive at Peabody, supporting the Blue Ridge Food Bank. Students are invited to be hunger heroes by bringing in canned veggies, soups, stews, & chilis; cereals, nut butter, pasta, sauces, rice, grains, canned tuna, paper products, baby food, diapers, soap, and feminine products. Collection bins are posted inside all of the school’s primary entry doors.  

26: Hiking Club: Hiking Club will meet in the Peabody parking lot at 10:00 AM and proceed from there to hike and explore the Biscuit Run Natural Area from 10:00-12:30. Please RSVP to Nicola McGoff if your family or child(ren) plans to attend. Parents are encouraged to join in but not required

Music Together: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Dori Freeman @ The Front Porch
 
April

2: Partners for the Earth will meet at Rivanna River Company at 3:00 PM Saturday to clean up riverbanks, help clear invasives, and plant natives. Please bring your own gloves, drinking vessels, and snacks if you'd like to enjoy some time picnicking together afterwards.
Sustainability Blip of the Week: Greener Living
By Earth Action Team

What is Greener Living?
Making the choices to conserve and preserve the environment’s natural resources is called Greener Living. This is an environmentally ethical and eco-friendly choice. Not everyone is willing to give up what they have and take risks to help support the environment. 

Interesting Facts:
Don’t keep your lamp next to a thermostat because the heat that the lamp emits triggers the thermostat and will make it cool the room excessively
Freezers can really contribute to your energy levels. Keep your frozen or refrigerated items towards the front and have an organization system so that you don’t have to spend as much time searching for the things you need.
Producing one ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees, 3 cubic yards of landfill space & 7000 gallons of water
In America, if 1/10th of newspapers were recycled, 25 million trees would be saved each year.
  
What Can You Do?
Recycling and composting are great ways to get started. Always look for ways where you can reuse stuff, such as shopping bags. Also avoid disposable products, plastic forks and spoons, towels, napkins, and cheap plasticware. Buying only what you need or will use also helps, lots of people buy clothes that they will never wear, wasting cloth and money. Donating used goods or the items that you don’t use (but still are in good condition) are good ways to contribute to your community. 

Challenge of the Week: 
Try to go a day without using any form of single-use plastic!
No single-use plastic bottles, juice boxes, jugs, shopping bags, plastic containers with necks. 

What People are Doing:
There are many people who work to live greener. It isn’t hard to find examples of people doing things to help the environment. Just take a walk around a neighborhood and you may find solar panels on a house or a garden outback. But one especially good example is Johan Verink from California. Watch this video on CNN about one family's efforts and challenges to reduce their carbon footprint

Sources:
2022-23 Academic Calendar

Please see the Academic Calendar for the 2022-23 school year below. The first day of school will be on August 24th. Please note that some event dates may shift over the summer. Vacation days and days when school is not in session will not be modified.
Theater Arts Camp

Ms. Saunders, Ms. Parr, and Ms. Colleen are so excited to be offering a Theater Arts camp this summer! Please see this flyer for details. To register and find instructions for submitting payment, please fill out this form. Registration is first-come, first-served once you have filled out the form and paid in full to reserve your spot. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to one or all of the instructors!
We Love our Peabody Students and Teachers!