Camp Agawam 2023

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On September 27th, our 7th and 8th graders packed their bags and set off for the highly anticipated annual trip to Camp Agawam. With beautiful weather on the horizon and an emphasis on teamwork and bonding, we knew this annual trip was destined to be a memory-maker from the moment they loaded up the bus. 

A key focus of our Camp Agawam experience is teamwork and collaboration, and our students wasted no time in demonstrating these essential skills! From the minute they disembarked from the bus, they stood shoulder to shoulder forming a line to pass down their luggage and groceries for this trip! Their ability to work together quickly and efficiently created a strong foundation of teamwork for the days to come.

When the day came to an end they shared a special moment by reciting their vulnerable and oftentimes humorous poems they had written earlier in the day underneath the moonlight. Crafting these works took courage and vulnerability, but the shared experience left everyone inspired.

The following day our 5th and 6th graders joined in on the fun, turning the Camp Agawam trip into a true multi-grade adventure! This collaborative approach not only strengthened the bonds among the students but also created a sense of unity across different age groups. 

During the day they spent time paddle-boarding on the picturesque lake, fishing, and of course…soccer! They ended the day with a group of students who made a delicious dinner, while the other group cleaned up the Camp Agawam. This was the perfect example of putting our mission into action and living well on the planet. 

As the camp adventure came to a close, students joined in a game of predator/prey which challenged the students' teamwork, and encouraged them to work together to navigate the wilderness and outwit their peers!

Friday morning, the students were awoken hours before dawn to make a big decision. Stay comfortable in bed or make for the summit of nearby Rattlesnake Mountain to see the sunrise. Most everybody went for the ascent and we began our last Agawam day together by screaming the Breakwater cheer at the rising sun.


Our students returned to their families brimming with great memories and certainly tired from the adventures! We'd like to express our heartfelt gratitude to Camp Agawam and to Erik Calhoun, one of our dedicated Board Members and the Director of the camp. His support and collaboration made this trip possible, enriching the lives of our students in countless ways.

A Letter from Co-Directors Maggie Lyon and Tom Fisher

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Welcome to the 2023-2024 school year.

Thank you for choosing Breakwater and trusting us to help develop your child’s sense of curiosity, compassion, and determination. 

Breakwater’s 67th year is off to a great start! As Co-Directors of Breakwater Learning, we are thrilled to bring our community together to share in Breakwater’s spirit of honoring and engaging in the work of living well on this beautiful planet. We are inspired by and are eager to build upon the greatest strength of our school: the faculty, staff, students, and families that commit to our shared mission with passion and care.

Breakwater students are already exploring the world on adventure trips, embracing new units of study, and finding joy in their interactions with learning and one another. Examples include the kindergarteners ringing the bell each morning to start the school day, friends greeting one another with hugs and excitement, the teachers setting up routines so individuals can find success, weekly Community Meetings, and so much more. Whether it’s a child’s 13th and final year or their very first school year, these days at Breakwater will bring authentic growth, guided challenges, carefully chosen risks, and the innate joy of learning something new. 

In planning for Breakwater’s future, we identified areas of potential growth which include: 

  • Better communicating who we are and who we are not

  • Effectively showing each other, the Breakwater community, and prospective families what it looks like when we are at our best 

  • Optimizing the educational experience in all aspects of Breakwater Learning

  • Increasing enrollment in our day school

  • Building a development plan that includes increased alumni family support

  • Constantly striving for a more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and just community  

We believe that this plan will directly impact our ability to tackle strategic priorities, which include constantly improving an educational environment that we believe in deeply, and better supporting the faculty and staff whose dedication and professionalism create this learning environment that we all value so much.

Our educational environment is not just made up of students and teachers. We are a community, and we know that parents are valuable team members in our shared goal of providing the best possible environment for Breakwater Students. That sense of community has been affected by the last few years of greater isolation, but we look forward to partnering with you this year to help restore that sense that Breakwater belongs to all of us. We need your feedback, your ideas, your sense of fun, and your presence. Please don't hesitate to come to campus at drop off and pick up in order to meet and greet one another on the playground. Please don’t hesitate to talk to your child’s teacher in order to better understand the work they are engaged in with your children. We believe in what we do here, and we want you to see it. And please help develop that sense of community by coming to events as you are able so we can connect to our shared values. 

The next fall events include:

  • Parent Night (October 12th, 5:30-7:30) to engage with your classroom parent community and listen to the teachers' work.

  • Breakwater Work Day (November 3rd, starting @ 1:30) to give back to our campus as we initiate a refresh of our grounds and buildings. 

  • Our annual Harvest Fest (November 4th, 11:00-1:00) to gather for a shared meal.

Let’s come together and celebrate. Our faculty and staff may be the heart of the school, but our community is the heartbeat. 

With gratitude and curiosity for the future,

Maggie and Tom

Looking Back at the 2022-2023 School Year

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As the 2022-2023 school year comes to a close, we are full of gratitude for all the curiosity driven learning, the friends and connections we have made, and the adventures we have embarked on. Some adventures were in the classroom, on the playground, and around Portland while some were on the mountains in New Hampshire, rainforests of Costa Rica, or city streets of New York. Whether close to home or miles away, we thank all our students, teachers, families, and community members who played a part in the magic of this school and after school year. 

Take a look back on the school year with us as our students from Breakwater School and Enrichment Center and teachers share some of their favorite parts of the past nine months.

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Toddler Garden Explorations

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Toddler Garden Explorations

Perhaps some of the biggest users of “Sari’s Garden,” our school garden, are our early childhood friends. Our early childhood teachers facilitate connection with the natural world everyday, providing children rich opportunity to listen, look, question, feel, discuss, and love the things they find all around them. Exploring nature through play, particularly outdoors, provides endless opportunity for growing and learning in a boundless environment. This month, we checked in with our toddler teaching team to learn about their favorite parts of this special Breakwater space. 

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Middle School Music Expansion

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Middle School Music Expansion

An exciting addition at Breakwater this year has been the creation of our middle school band and chorus program. Music has always played a strong role in the Breakwater curriculum - students are introduced to music and songs in our toddler and preschool classes and they learn more about different instruments, rhythms, and basic musical notation in K-4th grade. Our music concerts pre-COVID-19 always filled the gym and featured large and small group musical ensembles and cross grade performances. The addition of band and chorus really builds on the work of the incredible music teachers at Breakwater both past and present. Middle school chorus director, Stephanie Davis, shares, “By the end of fourth grade you can see the students who really want to perfect melodies and rhythms on instruments or those who keep asking ‘when are we picking solos for the performance?!’” Our band and chorus programs now allow students to make this choice and expand on their musical knowledge on a wind/ percussion instrument or through singing. 

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8th Grade Explores Costa Rica

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During late January, our 8th grade students embarked on an adventure of a lifetime to Costa Rica. This culminating international trip has been an 8th grade tradition for over ten years and was the first time the Breakwater trip took place since 2019. Through the Monteverde Institute, students adventured to the ocean, farms, and rainforest. Like all Breakwater overnight adventures, these experiences play a critical role in supporting hands-on immersive learning outside of the classroom. Enrollment Director, Moriah Perry, shares, “From my perspective, every student is out of their comfort zone at some point whether it's being away from parents, flying, being around so many other people, the food, hiking, zip-lining, bugs, etc. Every student faces those challenges head-on and with the help of their peers overcome them at some point during the trip.” Students return with stories of adventure, connection, and an eagerness to share all they have learned. 

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Desert Explorations in Preschool

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Desert Explorations in Preschool

As the temperatures plummet in these early days of February, students in Jane Lambrix’s and Lori Tanguay’s preschool classroom (the Forest Room) are thinking about hot sand, cacti, and the dry heat of the desert. Their most recent emergent curriculum was inspired by a morning meeting question. Every morning in the Forest Room, children and teachers discuss a ‘would you rather question’ and each child must select from two categories. During a January morning meeting, the question was ‘would you rather live at the North Pole or in the desert? After many children selected the desert, Jane and Lori remember, “throughout the day the children [started] asking more questions about the desert - they were intrigued.”

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Kindergarten Forest Friday

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Weekly trips off campus in K-8th grade allow for a deeper connection to our local community and immersive hands-on learning outside of the classroom. In Kindergarten, weekly trips to the woods (most often to Jessieland) have been coined Forest Friday. Established in 1997, Jessieland is a 21 acre nature preserve in Cumberland that was donated to Breakwater in memory of late Breakwater student, Jessie Bullens-Crewe, who loved exploring and playing outside. Over the past twenty plus years, Breakwater students, campers, and families have utilized this special place to play, explore, and connect. For Kindergarten students, teacher Katie O’Toole sees Jessieland as a wonderful place full of rich play experiences, connection, and immersive learning. Katie shares, “the goals of Forest Friday are to use the natural world and the child’s innate curiosity to foster a joyful interest in learning, growing, creating, and community.”

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3rd and 4th Grade Adventures to Pinkham Notch

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This school year, we are excited to bring back many of our overnight field trips for the first time since the 2019-2020 school year. Overnight field trips are an empowering part of the Breakwater School curriculum allowing students to not only dive deeper into topics learned in the classroom, but allow students to become more independent, challenge themselves, and grow their classroom community. One such trip is our 3rd and 4th grade overnight to Pinkham Notch in New Hampshire. Earlier this fall, Maddi's and Alicia's classes climbed both Tuckerman's Ravine and Square Ledge while spending the night at Joe Dodge Lodge!

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A Celebration of the 2021-2022 School Year

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A Celebration of the 2021-2022 School Year

As another Breakwater school year comes to a close, it’s a perfect time to look back on a year of growth, challenge, adventure, and learning. With COVID-19 still very much part of our everyday lives, our faculty, staff, and families rose to the challenge once again and adapted to all the changes along the way. This school year also saw other great adventures from our middle school field trip to New York City and Agawam, a trip on a lobster boat for our 1st and 2nd graders, countless trips to Jessieland, and new friendships formed both during and after school. Join us as our teachers and students from Breakwater School and Enrichment Center share their favorite moments of the school year.

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