Academic Excellence

Physical Education and Health
Calvert's Physical Education and Health classes emphasize collaboration, working together for a goal, and respect for self and others. In Fifth Grade, the program ties directly into the theme of transition by helping children understand how their behavior and choices impact themselves and others. In older grades, children study stress and the impact it has on the body, the effects of drugs and alcohol, and the importance of nutrition and cardio-vascular health.

Additionally, children learn cooperation and teamwork to use on the athletic fields and in the classroom. The rules and history of different sports are also a part of the learning. In Eighth Grade, each child completes a CPR and First Aid training class. Physical Education is taught during the day and is closely aligned to the optional intramural and interscholastic sports offered at Calvert.

Foreign Language
In Fifth Grade, children choose either Spanish or French to study for their four years of Middle School. The first year focuses on basic language skills: comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing. Children participate in a variety of activities and projects to communicate and understand simple greetings, expressions, grammatical concepts, and communicate about topics of everyday life.

In Sixth Grade, children complete group projects to further develop communication skills, review the present tense, and are introduced to the past tense and other grammatical concepts. In Seventh and Eighth Grade, children are exposed to cultural aspects of the countries where their chosen language is spoken.

They engage in complex dialogue and projects to communicate about celebrations, travel and vacations, sports, health and body, and daily routines. Children fine-tune and practice skills and vocabulary, and the imperfect and future tenses are introduced. Children use technology, write paragraphs and dialogues, and create brochures as well as watch short films and read short stories to enhance the learning process.

Fine Arts
Children rotate quarterly through a program which includes Studio Art, Music, Rhetoric, Art History, and Digital Arts in Fifth and Sixth Grade. In Seventh and Eighth Grade, children are allowed to select Studio Art, Music, Digital Photography, or Drama to study more in depth for a semester.

In Studio Art, children are introduced to relief printmaking, the concepts of negative space and contrast, collages, self portraits, charcoal still life drawings, and acrylic paintings on canvas. They practice observational drawing skills while focusing on the art elements line and value. They create clay sculptures and complete other projects related to their studies of Egypt, Africa, Greece and Japan.

Music begins with the piano keyboard. Children become composers, record their songs into the memory of the digital keyboard, and then learn to play several chords and strum in rhythm to familiar songs they know on the guitar. The older children break into a small combo comprising of drums, bass guitar, guitar, keyboard, and vocals, and learn songs as a group to perform in a variety of settings.

Rhetoric is designed to build on the public speaking skills gained in the Lower School and exposes children to various types of speeches.

Art History supports and enhances work done in History and Geography with a more detailed exploration of the art, culture and additional artifacts of the regions studied. The older grade version exposes children to the extraordinary period of change that was the Renaissance as they learn about everything from architecture to painting and music through reading and hands-on activities.

Digital Arts consists of an introduction to digital photography and Adobe Photoshop. Children take their own photos, then alter and enhance these photos to create different effects and improve the images. They learn common terminology and principles regarding digital photography, photo editing, typography, graphic design, and webpage development. Digital photography focuses on photo composition, lighting and perspective and familiarizes children with digital cameras and different shooting techniques.

In Drama, the children participate in the production of a play from acting to set design and construction, and produce their own play in the spring.