Middle School (Grades 5–8)

Student examines an Ozbot submerged in water

Adolescence is a time of self discovery. The Green Acres Middle School allows students to discover themselves as leaders, thinkers, and change makers.

Take risks.

Dig deeper.

Go further.

Program overview

Academics

Middle School offers increasingly sophisticated concepts across subject areas: deep mathematical thinking, challenging literature, scientific experimentation, physical education, and opportunities to engage the world creatively with music and through studio and performing arts. At Green Acres, these serve as the foundation of our program, with teachers and students building on them as they question, debate, experiment, and reflect collaboratively on what they are learning.

We expect students to work hard and to think hard. Our program is built around challenging projects that are collaborative and authentic to develop the kinds of skills our students will be honing for the rest of their lives.

And, most notably, our students learn to love learning. No skill or predisposition is more integral to success in our fast-changing world. By inspiring students with thought-provoking challenges and by allowing students to explore their passions within the structures of the curriculum, Green Acres helps to inspire the innate curiosity that all children have.

Social development

Our students learn to advocate for themselves, for those around them, and for their beliefs and passions. Green Acres students are empowered as learners to find their voice and to use it. As a result of the very small student-teacher ratio and the excellent, engaging faculty, students learn to seek out the answers to their problems, to ask when they need help, and to understand when they don’t know something in order to figure out their path to learning.

While we most certainly prepare students to enter high school, we also prepare them to lead meaningful lives as teenagers and adults. We help them understand themselves, as learners and as people. We guide and encourage students to learn from their mistakes and to resolve conflicts. Our students leave Green Acres full of the confidence they need to take on both the challenges we see today and those we have not yet even imagined.

Advisory

Academics and social development are expertly blended to form a strong advisory program for our 5th–8th grade students. The overarching goals of the Middle School advisory program are to ensure that each student feels included as an integral part of the overall community and finds ways to be academically and socially successful. During the advisory period, students engage in discussions and activities related to important life topics—a list that is generated by both students and advisors. Topics include health and wellness, digital citizenship, social justice, diversity, problem solving, independent thinking, study skills, time management, communication skills, stress management, goal setting, and self-reflection.

Middle School curriculum

Click a tile to learn more about each subject.

Social studies & world studies

Language arts

Math

Science

Techxplorations

Visual & performing arts

Spanish

Physical education

Library

Middle School touchstone experiences

A touchstone experience is an experience that makes learning at Green Acres unique and transformative.

Spring musical

At Green Acres, we want kids to learn by doing and to demonstrate their learning in meaningful ways. Our Middle School musical gives them the opportunity to demonstrate what they’ve learned in their arts classes by participating in the spring musical production. Of course, some kids are stars on stage. Others participate in the chorus. Students paint the sets, design marketing posters, and serve on tech crew to manage lighting and sound. But, one way or another, all of our students demonstrate how they’ve grown as artists by pitching in with the musical. It is just another way that we encourage students to engage meaningfully in their learning.

Outdoor educational trips

As the name suggests, Green Acres is a school that wants to get kids active and learning out in the world. In this spirit, all of our Middle School students go on 3–5 day excursions where they experience the world, learn about themselves, and cultivate friendships. These trips are truly “outdoor education” trips, with adventures to everywhere from the Bar-T mountainside to the Chesapeake Bay to Chincoteague Island to as far afield as New Orleans. These trips are part of the way that we help our students to cultivate their natural curiosity to become inspired learners, and we often hear back from alumni that they are truly unforgettable, life-changing experiences.

Student-led conferences

We want our students to know themselves, to cultivate a practice of sharing, and to have the poise and courage of self-advocacy. These lie as the foundation for our Middle School student-led conferences, which are a learning feature for all of our Middle School students beginning in the spring semester of 5th grade and continuing biannually through 8th grade. Students complete a self-reflection for each class and conference with teachers, who often challenge them to look more deeply into themselves and the work that they have done. After completing the self-reflection, Middle School students attend and lead conferences with their advisory teacher and with three other teachers, respectively. Supported by the conference teacher, students use this forum to share their own learning, accomplishments, and areas of growth with their parent(s)/guardian(s). Over time, they cultivate the skills of looking deeply within themselves and understanding their growth and challenges. And, in sharing those insights with their teachers and their family, they learn to share and self-advocate. By the time they are 8th graders, students spend the bulk of an hour structuring and sharing their thoughts and work with their parents and advisors.

The Olympics

At Green Acres, we value play and the ways in which it can be used to reinforce student learning. Established in 1966, the Green Acres Olympics is a tradition that ends each school year on a high note. All of our 6th, 7th, and 8th graders join teams that engage in friendly competition, often reinforcing what they’ve learned throughout the year in PE and their academic subjects—and sometimes just giving them the chance to be silly and have fun. Our students work hard throughout the year, and we greatly value giving them the opportunity to celebrate their learning through our year-end Olympics.

Techxplorations (grades 5 & 6)

As a supplement to their science, math, and art curricula, 5th and 6th graders benefit from techxplorations. In this hands-on course, students hone their computational thinking skills (decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, algorithm design), engage in the design process, and get an introduction to computer programming. Some essential questions that have guided past explorations include:

Are robots useful in helping populations affected by natural disasters?
How can we help young students learn coding?
How do toy companies use technology to enhance their products?

Black Americans in History Museum project (grade 6)

At Green Acres, we want our kids to learn to change the world. We do this, in part, by helping them learn about others who have made a difference as inspiration for their own bright futures. In an integrated social studies/language arts project in 6th grade, students each research an important Black American in history using primary and secondary sources. They learn notetaking skills, including the Cornell format, which encourages students to jot down key words and questions, then respond to them and summarize their learning. They construct a biographical essay and presentation display, telling about the lives of these great Americans and the changes that they brought to our society. They share these with the public during a culminating Black Americans in History museum event. During this project, students learn about change and great Americans as they reflect on their own capacities to bravely face the problems in their communities and the wider world around them.

Fancy a challenge? Take our 6th graders' significant Black Americans in history quiz.

Black-and-white darkroom photography (grades 7 & 8)

Black-and-white fine art photography is alive and well at Green Acres! We always say that we are involved in a process that is perhaps the highest level of human expression: that of creating art. Working with film is truly a hands-on experience, as students shoot the film, put it in tanks in total darkness, develop it, print contact sheets for editing, print larger images up to 11x14 with enlargers, and then dry-mount the finished piece while also naming their final work. One can see 7th and 8th graders developing their own "style" in creating images that interest them, while they are making something unique to the world. Many of our graduates continue to pursue photography after Green Acres and credit the program with igniting their passion.

8th grade capstones

Week-long trip to New Orleans

Our 8th grade year is filled with capstone experiences for our students, both inside and outside the classroom. In May, our 8th graders take an unforgettable journey to New Orleans, LA, where they engage in many kinds of meaningful learning experiences. Part of the trip is spent in service, working in public parks and gardens or helping in schools. They reinforce their 8th grade study of world history with a visit to the World War II Museum, and, of course, they experience many of the inimitable cultural features of this unique city, such as the food, the architecture, and the people. They even take an airboat tour through the swamps around Des Allemands, meeting alligators and other wildlife along the way! It is a truly unforgettable experience of giving and learning that our students take with them as they head off to high school.

Model United Nations

As the culminating project for their last year at Green Acres, our students demonstrate their capacity to research, their poise and intelligence, and their deep engagement with the world around them by representing a country in our Model United Nations. Students spend two days giving speeches, engaging in debates and rebuttals, and challenging themselves and each other to find common ground on important issues of our day as representatives of national players on the world stage. These debates are open to the public and even broadcast online, so students' drive to be prepared and to acquit themselves admirably is great. It’s an amazing opportunity to see the thoughtful, articulate, empowered people that they have become.

"This I Believe" speeches

Another unforgettable moment for 8th graders—and a meaningful moment for all of us in the community—is their presentation of a "This I Believe" speech to our entire Middle School at our end-of-the-day meeting. Eighth graders each choose something they believe in to talk about as it has related to their life and belief system. They learn more about themselves as they articulate their reasons for choosing to write and speak about this belief, and they learn how to be leaders and contributors to a healthy community through the practice of sharing their belief. It is a chance for all of us to appreciate the thoughtful, caring young adults that they have become—and the amazing people they are becoming.

Three-chapter memoir

One enduring focus at Green Acres is helping our students to understand themselves deeply. For this reason, we have student-led conferences, as well as reflective exercises throughout the curriculum and across the years. One of the culminating writing units in 8th grade is the memoirs unit. Throughout Middle School, students write a variety of personal narratives as they learn to exhibit higher-order thinking skills in discussions and in written responses. Our multi-chapter memoirs are a creative way for them to dig deeply into their experiences and accomplishments as young people—a way for them to understand themselves as powerful actors in their relationships and communities as they make a thoughtful transition into adolescence and the responsibilities of high school and beyond.

Climbing Old Rag

Our 8th grade students take a hike up Old Rag Mountain in the Blue Ridge, described by the National Park Service as the most popular hike in the Shenandoah. It is an adventurous hike, too, with a few steep stretches and some boulder scaling to boot. The physical challenge is fun and rewarding, even more so when they reach the top and see the panoramic views. The Old Rag hike is yet another memorable moment in their 8th grade year of memory-making as our students prepare themselves to shine in their respective high schools.

Green Acres' philosophy bred a curriculum that gave me the freedom to explore and find my interests, instead of one that was simply interested in evaluating my intelligence or ability to regurgitate information. So I left Green Acres having absorbed the principle that education isn't about finding or assessing your limits, but about expanding your horizons.

Kat '12, St. Luke's School '16, Massachusetts Institute of Technology '20