Special Event

Whenever you turn on the news lately, you always hear about two main topics, jobs and the economy. You may think it is too soon to think about what jobs your Lower School children may have someday, but I don’t feel that is the case.   As Lower School Head, I think of it quite often in the skills we need to teach children at this age to be successful as they grow older.  In Lower School, we build the foundation for job specific skills to be learned in later years.  As you know in building anything, the base is most important.  Get it right and everything else can be layered successfully on top.  At Wardlaw-Hartridge we are always looking for ways to make the foundation stronger for our students.

In looking towards the future, we often wonder what types of jobs will be available when our Lower School students reach the ages where they are planning their career paths. In order to become more informed on this topic, we have been having conversations with Professor Bill Rodgers,  the Chief Economist at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. We would like to bring the entire community in on the conversation and The Wardlaw-Hartridge Parents’ Association is sponsoring an evening with Bill Rogers on Thursday, April 7th at 7:00 to do just that. I would encourage you to come and hear what he has to say about the future of jobs and what trends are in the job market that may affect our youngest students someday.  More information about the evening is coming home in your child's backpack.  If you have any questions or would like to RSVP, please contact Linda Coleman in the Admissions Office.

Along with jobs, economics is also an important topic to introduce to young children.  Professor Rogers has created a website called EconKids (http://econkids.rutgers.edu/econkids-home-econmenu-154 ) to help parents and teachers introduce economics to children.  Another good resource for materials, ideas, and books about teaching your children about money is
http://www.extension.umn.edu/Youth&Money/  It is never too early to teach children good money habits.  The benefits of this early education last a lifetime!  I hope you find all of this information helpful and will attend the talk by Professor Rogers on April 7th in the Upper Snowdon Library.

Happy Spring!
Mrs. Baier

March came roaring in...

Well, the weather keeps teasing us…one day spring…the next back to winter.  Hopefully, we will turn the corner over spring break.  I hope everyone has an enjoyable two weeks off.  We’ll see you again on March 28^th.

It was a fruitful first two weeks of March.  There were lots of exciting classroom activities going on in the Lower School.

On March 2^nd, we celebrated the birthday of Dr. Seuss.  Student in PreKindergarten, Junior Kindergarten, Kindergarten, and 2^nd grade gathered in the library to share stories.  The 2^nd grade students read Dr. Seuss stories to their younger friends and at the end, Mrs. Burg read The Cat in the Hat to everyone.  As you can see from the pictures, everyone got into the spirit by wearing their very own Cat in the Hat hat.  At lunch, Mrs. Burg played videos of students in Kindergarten through 5^th grade telling about their favorite Dr. Seuss books, with some Lower School teachers sprinkled in for fun.

 

Last week, the 4^th graders had a guest speaker, named Beverly Friend in the Upper Snowdon Library.  Beverly Friend is a Native American from the Cherokee nation whose family lived in the Woodland Region. She was a close friend of Lone Bear, whose photo appears in the fourth grade social studies book. Lone Bear came to speak to the Wardlaw-Hartridge fourth grade classes for many years until his death. Beverly Friend promised Lone Bear that she would carry on the tradition of speaking to children about the Native Americans. Many of the artifacts she brought to share with the class actually were owned and used by her grandfather and father. Here are a few pictures of her visit.

 

The 5^th grade students shared their Museo de Piramìdes Maya in Spanish class this week.  Each student researched a Mayan Pyramid of his/her choice and made a model of it.  The rest of the Lower School students visited the museum and listened to the 5^th grade students give information about their chosen pyramids as they toured the Spanish classroom.  Here are some pictures from both Museo de Piramìdes Maya days.

The chicks have hatched…the chicks have hatched…as you may have heard the eggs loaned to us by Quiver Farm hatched in the science tech room this week.  There were 8 cute, fuzzy, little chicks bopping around until Friday when they headed back to the farm.  The students were delighted to see them come out of their shells.  Thank you to Mrs. Meier for arranging this opportunity for the students.

On Thursday, I visited a 2^nd grade art class.  The students were using colored tissue paper to make watercolor “paint” on their pictures.  What a unique idea!  The students were quite excited about this new way to paint. 

On Friday, the 3^rd grade students shared their Native American knowledge with family and friends at the 3^rd Grade Native American Pow-Wow.  Students in both classes created displays and presentations or skits to show what they have learned.  It was a wonderful way to share all of the work they have done in class with family and friends.

 

The culmination of our week was the 1^st and 4^th grade performance of Little Red Riding Hood…a musical with a twist!  Both grade levels have been studying fairy tales at their own level in the classroom.  This event was a great way to have collaboration among the grade levels.  It also shows how well students at Wardlaw-Hartridge perform in front of an audience.  By starting at these younger levels, public speaking becomes a normal part of life.  I would like to say a very special thank you to Mrs. Jacobson, Mrs. Molloy, Miss Colandrea, Mrs. Ritz, Mrs. Burg, and Mrs. Caldwell for their hard work in making the show a reality.  Thank you, as well, to Mrs. Rappold for providing the “poodle skirts.”  The students did a wonderful job and will always have the lasting memory of this performance. 

Warm wishes for a wonderful spring break!

Mrs. Baier