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
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
It’s time to 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 puts 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.
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
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 Constitutional Law, Engineering, Economics and Finance, Sports and Society, and Creating Virtual Reality Experiences, just to name a few.
Advisory Program
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 informal weekly meetings, advisors focus on developing studying and class strategies, process personal relationships, and facilitate effective, efficient communication among faculty, students, and parents.
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 compete with grace and school pride, win or lose.
The Performing Arts at Breck provide students more than just the chance to grow and explore their own selfexpression 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.
Please see the course guide at breckschool.org for more details.
Elective offerings can vary from academic year to year.
This list is just a sampling of elective courses students can take in the Middle School.
Writing for Real Audiences, Constitutional Law, Creating Virtual Reality Experiences, and Model United Nations.
Literacy
I
Computer Science, Tinkering/STEM Sampler, Newsroom, Intro to Economics, Sports and Society,
nformation
Wellness
Library and Media
Project Adventure Health Physical Education Outdoor Education
Library and Media
Outdoor Education
Project Adventure Health Physical Education
Library and Media
Library and Media Electives
Project Adventure Health Physical Education Outdoor Education
Performing & Visual Arts
Beginning Band String Orchestra
Year-Long Courses
Semester Courses Choir Dance Exploration Contemporary Dance Stagecraft Visual Arts Theatre I-II
Year-Long Courses Chamber Chorale String Orchestra Concert Band Wind Ensemble Dance Reperatory
Religion
World Religions
Hebrew Scriptures
Christianities
Project Adventure Health Physical Education Outdoor
Education
Drama Choir World Music Theatre I-III Stagecraft Visual Arts
Contemporary Dance
Semester Courses
Ethics
Advanced Programs for Immersion Students and Heritage Speakers and Advanced Upper School Courses are available in Chinese, Spanish, and French. Placement in Upper School language courses available dependent upon fluency with language.
World Languages
Chinese 5 Spanish 5
Spanish Novice A-C
French Novice A-C
Chinese Novice A-C
Novice A-C Chinese 6
Novice A-C
Chinese Novice A-C
Chinese 7 Spanish 7
Spanish Novice A-C
French Novice A-C
Chinese Novice A-C
Chinese 8 Spanish 8
Spanish Novice A-C
French Novice A-C
Chinese Novice A-C
Curriculum Overview
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
This program, utterly unique to Breck, immerses students in our great Minnesota outdoors to connect with nature, form lasting connections to one another, and uncover the leaders within. From orienteering to fire building, archery to canoeing, students learn to lead, follow, build compassion for one another, and understand the responsibility of stewarding the environment we share.
Health
Health education provides students with important knowledge and skills to maintain their physical, social, and emotional health. Here, students learn about positive behaviors and lifestyle choices, risks of injury and illness, disease prevention and management strategies, and an understanding of their own growth and development.
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’ selfconfidence and self-esteem while participating in a variety of developmentally appropriate activities, all while promoting an affinity for an active, healthy lifestyle.
Building towards greatness.
Be a Mustang
As part of our mission to educate the whole child, Be A Mustang, a uniquely Breck program integrated into Middle School advisory, provides opportunities for students to develop communication skills, resist negative peer pressure, set reasonable goals, make thoughtful, informed decisions, and increase self-confidence and motivation.
MindWorks
Our signature MindWorks program is a research-based initiative developed by Middle School faculty and Breck’s Peter Clark Center for Mind, Brain, and Education. Advisors use cognitive flexibility, goal-setting, and metacognition to foster growth mindsets and promote self-advocacy skills in their students.
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 Afton Alps. 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 Include Grade 6
Washington, D.C. Grade 7
Wolf Ridge Grade 8
Catalina Island
“Middle School at Breck is a special time. I’ve had so many opportunities to form meaningful relationships with my peers and teachers.”
Emi Middle School Student