At a time when children are deeply curious, willing to take academic risks, and are developing a profound understanding of the world around them, Middle School at MKA provides a thoughtful and intentional transition. Guided by faculty who are designers and facilitators in their students’ growth and share their desire to grow, middle schoolers advance academically, socially, and emotionally.
Grades 4-8
Transforming Through Connection
By engaging students’ intellectual curiosity and enthusiasm for learning in an innovative, engaging, and challenging academic program, faculty help students to become self-reliant learners who strive for academic excellence. A school-wide focus on developing positive social and emotional skills is essential to students' understanding themselves and to their success as learners.
LEARNING AT THE GROWING EDGE
Middle School years are a time of discovery, growth, and increasing independence. Here, hallmark programs are designed to channel students’ emerging identities and interests into deeper thinking, stronger collaboration, and broader perspectives. Learning is active, integrated, and supported by a network of trusted adults who know and celebrate each student.
All Middle School students build strong research and writing skills through meaningful, collaborative projects. Fourth graders practice responsible note-taking while studying Native American tribes and creating exhibits. Sixth graders research social activism tied to The Watsons Go to Birmingham–1963.
The Eighth Grade Science Project showcases STEM+ at the Middle School through student-driven, long-term research. Using tools like laptops, programming, robotics, and 3D printers, students collaborate to design, experiment, and engineer solutions that reflect real-world scientific innovation.
Every seventh grader studies a core Shakespeare play in English and performs a one-hour adaptation. In partnership with the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, students are coached by professional actors through scenes from classics like Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet, blending literature, arts, and humanities.
Through Project Citizen, eighth-grade students begin to see themselves as changemakers by identifying local issues and proposing real policy solutions. They examine complex issues and take meaningful action, which are foundational to becoming engaged global citizens.
Social-emotional learning (SEL) helps Middle School students build the self-awareness, empathy, and character needed to form positive relationships and make responsible decisions. Through tools like the Wellness Wheel, students reflect on the seven dimensions of wellness and learn how to prioritize balance, develop healthy habits, and bring a deeper sense of purpose and care into their daily lives.
MKA students work to develop habits of inquiry and reflection as the building blocks of their own moral and intellectual character. A key example is the Middle School Ethics Roundtable, a student-led group that meets regularly to explore how MKA’s Character Standards apply to everyday decisions and community life.
The Middle School offers a variety of clubs and activities that encourage enthusiastic participation, foster friendships across the grades, and allow students to take a well-earned break from the classroom. A few of the groups offered each year include Student Government, the Chamber Singers, Student Ed-Tech Leaders (SETL), and Jazz Band.
WHAT LEARNING LOOKS LIKE
With a focus on inquiry, creativity, and hands-on learning, the Middle School fosters extended, experiential, and collaborative classroom experiences that expand students’ knowledge and enable them to make connections to the world around them. With this in mind, collaborative opportunities are carefully structured to leverage student voices. Across all disciplines, teachers provide copious feedback and frequently encourage students to revise their thinking, not just edit their work.
Students build close partnerships with their teachers through class interaction as well as by working with them in small groups or individually in Collaborative Work Period, during recess, or after school.
Middle School faculty are dedicated to and embrace the joys of teaching students this age. They develop lifelong learners who are reflective humans, change agents, and skillful communicators and collaborators by fostering independence through providing challenge, guidance, and support as students work towards growth.
The daily schedule provides age-appropriate opportunities for innovative teaching and learning. All Middle School students enjoy two outside recesses daily, which research has indicated are essential not only to health, but also to effective learning. Every day, Collaborative Work Periods enable students to work with teachers or peers, or independently.
Lower House students (grades 4 and 5) follow a modified elementary school model, in which they learn and travel to most classes with their advisor groups. Lower House students have their own dedicated lunch period.
Upper House students (grades 6–8) move throughout the school according to individualized 10-day schedules. All students engage in core academic courses that include English, history, math, science, world language, fine and performing arts, physical education, and health. World language offerings are Chinese, French, and Spanish. Fine and performing arts include dance, music, theater arts, media arts, and visual arts.
Students may also explore and extend their interests by participating in a variety of school-day activities, such as advanced music groups (Advanced Strings, Jazz Band, and Chamber Singers), robotics, Student Government, Student Ed Tech Leaders, and Green Group. After school, all students can participate in specialized clubs, such as Robotics, Stagecraft, and Stop Motion Video. Upper House students are able to join a wide array of interscholastic team sports.
The Middle School advisory program guarantees that every child has at least one adult at school who knows him or her well and serves as both advisor and advocate. Middle School students begin their day in advisory, where they can connect with faculty advisors and get academic advice. In order to succeed, students must first feel a strong sense of belonging to a community that values who they are. This begins in advisory and extends to all aspects of school life.
During extended advisor periods, Middle School students engage in a curriculum designed to help them build the social and emotional skills they need to be productive students and members of the MKA community. These include understanding their own emotions, relating to others, seeing and valuing different perspectives, conveying empathy, and communicating effectively. Students learn and practice these skills regularly so that they can better understand themselves and develop meaningful relationships.
Middle School at MKA is where confidence takes root and character is shaped. In a community that values kindness and courage, our students begin to lead with open minds, growing hearts, and a vision for a future they can inspire.Carlaina Bell, Ed.D.Head of Middle School
Facility Feature
Middle School Fields Complex
The school’s largest and most versatile outdoor facility. The 3.45-acre complex enhances both academic and athletic programs, emphasizing teamwork, resilience, innovation, and balance as essential parts of learning. FLEX offerings provide opportunities for students to explore interests, collaborate, and recharge.
