October 22, 2021 Newsletter

Make an Impact: Annual Fund 2021-22!

The 2021-22 Annual Fund is now officially underway! All families will receive our Annual Report in the mail next week. We are so thankful for everyone that made an impact last year with over $150,000 in gifts made to our wonderful school!

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!

Peabody Family Speaker Series-Mental & Digital Health

We are excited for our first speaker series presenter, Katie Hurley, LCSW. Katie is a child and adolescent psychotherapist, parenting educator, public speaker, and writer. She is the founder of “Girls Can!” empowerment groups for girls between ages 5-11. Hurley is the author of the award-winning No More Mean Girls: The Secret to Raising Strong, Confident, and Compassionate Girls, The Depression Workbook for Teens: Tools to Improve Your Mood, Build Self-Esteem, and Stay Motivated, and The Happy Kid Handbook: How to Raise Joyful Children in a Stressful World. Katie covers mental health, child and adolescent development, and parenting for The Washington Post, PBS Parents, Psychology Today, Everyday Health, PsyCom, and US News and World Report, among other places.

We hope that you can join us virtually on October 26th starting at 6:30!

Save the Date: The First Gathering of the Peabody Partners on November 6th

All Peabody families are invited and encouraged to join us for the first gathering of the Peabody Partners on Saturday, November 6th, from 3:45-6:00 PM at the Monticello-Saunders trail just two miles east of the school. On this and every first Saturday afternoon of the year, Partners will join together in appreciating and supporting the welfare of our local natural resources. For this particular session, we will meet at the parking lot on Route 20 just across from PVCC, where local environmentalists and middle school students from Peabody’s Earth Action Team will first provide some background education about the local ecology, and then some preliminary training for the work we’ll do the rest of the time. From there, we’ll hike over to the Secluded Farm Trails, where we will probably help remediate some of the invasive plant species and support litter clean-up efforts.

RSVP is not required, but if you’re confident you’d like to join, or if you have any questions, you can send a quick email to Eric Anderson just so we know to keep an eye out for you.

Peabody Students make New York Times ;)

By Jo King

Oct. 22, 2021

SCIENTISTS DISCOVER TWELVE NEW SPECIES OF ARTHROPODS

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA—

Scientists based in Charlottesville, Virginia have discovered twelve new species of arthropods: invertebrates with chitinous exoskeletons, segmented bodies, and jointed legs. These recent discoveries include a variety of hitherto unknown arachnids, crustaceans, and insects. A collection of samples is currently on display at the Peabody School, a school for ridiculously awesome people in Charlottesville, Virginia. The samples were collected in various locations around the world during a recent scientific expedition funded by Peabody. Read More...

The Joys and Lessons of Making

With school now well into its second month, evidence of the creative process abounds throughout Peabody. Enter through the front doors and one is immediately regaled by the technicolor splendor of our first-grade artists’ explorations into lines, using oil pastels to create expressive lines on paper, and watercolor paints to fill the negative space between the lines. In Ms. Parr’s words, “This is one of my favorite projects, because it is so accessible for the children to execute, and at the same time really allows for each unique personality and perspective to be expressed beautifully and creatively.”

Anyone soaking in that art who happens also to have a fortuitous sense of timing might at the same time be treated to a musical serenade from the delightfully light, airy, and acoustically tight new Music Room. Depending on the hour, one might be treated to the catchy melodic plinkings of our lower school xylophone orchestras or the groovy complex alchemies of improvisational jazz into which they can evolve under Ms. Fennessy’s and Mr. Wyatt’s inspired guidance.

The creative vibes flow across the hall to and from the ENIAC6 Maker Lab, where, for example, our 3rd graders are thriving from the open-ended invitation to create “something” from simple machines. In one session, Mr. Haske will introduce a new simple machine and give the students an opportunity to experiment with different applications of it. With those experiential lessons in mind, the students are primed and equipped to incorporate that latest device into their grand scheme. The result is a room full of roller coasters, domino rallies, and other convoluted machines that would delight even Rube Goldberg.

Seventh-grade scientists are applying their growing understanding of physics to build bridges; third-grade historians are creating cave painting facsimiles using natural chalks and brushes to deepen their understanding of how context shapes culture; fifth-grade earth scientists have constructed a bug hotel to extend their investigations into habitats and manifest their commitment to ecological stewardship. Practically everywhere one turns, one can find these concrete, creative manifestations of cognitive growth and inspiration. Keep your eyes peeled for more conversation about the pedagogical foundations and benefits of all this creating in future editions of the Panther.