The students celebrated the holidays by making gingerbread houses! Check out their engineering skills as they worked with icing to get the walls and roof to stay together. They then utilized their creativity to make these into adorable structures. It was a fun project for all!
Our students in grades 5-8 supported Loudoun Pet Pantry by running a pet food drive and making dog and cat blankets from fleece. We delivered over 1,000 pounds of food to the Pantry and 24 blankets to keep the animals warm. They needed that this week!
Every Friday, our 8th grade students participate in our mentoring program, providing guidance to our younger students in grades K-2. The group, led by one of our middle school teachers, Ms. Swarns, does a different activity every week – from reading books, to doing puzzles, to building with legos or blocks, to working with playdough. Each 8th grade student is paired with a younger counterpart and works to build an engaging relationship. This is such a great opportunity to have our older students show their maturity and support, and for our younger students to be further connected to our school community. Check out the Thanksgiving project they made together!
The Lower School (K-4) celebrated the day before the break with our Kindness Star awards! Students earn these for random acts of kindness including helping other students, being kind to their siblings, doing tasks for their teachers, and always thinking of others. This time, we saw amazing GIRL POWER from our 6 winners (one per class). Congrats to all our students for being so kind and caring during this holiday season.
Our students celebrated the start of the holiday season with all school BINGO! The 8th grade students mentored their younger peers in grades K-2 while the students in grades 3-7 played together in our middle school area. Students won many prizes including homework passes, free lunches from CafeSano, and gift cards from Starbucks, Chick-Fil-A and more. Afterward, we shared some enjoyable time together, feasting on delicious desserts including cake, pumpkin pie and cookies. It was a lovely way to kick off the holidays!
In Social Class this week, Mrs. Parks led lessons on holiday meals, called the “Gobbler Feast”. Students practiced greeting a relative (played by Ms. Gebauer!), how to set the table, and eating manners. Students tasted turkey, rolls and butter, cranberry, salad, and pumpkin pie – and even worked on pouring water and tastefully saying “No, thank you” for non-preferred foods. Hopefully, this will help your Thanksgiving meal be even more enjoyable.
Many thanks to Mrs. Parks (and her helper Ms. Gebauer and the other teachers) who made this one of the special events of the week.
We are having a fabulous day here celebrating Halloween – all in costumes and showing off our creativity and style. All students “walked the red carpet” and announced themselves, followed by voting for the best costume. Many thanks to our wonderful science teachers – Ms. Sklar and Ms. Briggs – who put on a wonderful Halloween science show for our students.
Students in all grades have been hard at work practicing abstract painting techniques and mixed mediums.
Let’s talk about…water! Recently, students in grades 5-6 took a trip over to the Loudoun Water Treatment Plant to learn about one of our most precious resources. We learned the importance of reclamation and how the plant cleans sewage from water so that it can be safely returned to the environment. Believe it or not, Loudoun Water collects 13.8 million gallons per day to service the area. We are thankful for our clean water and having a chance to go see the process in action. Check out pictures from the day!
The 4th grade students traveled to Eleanor C. Lawrence Park in Chantilly to explore watersheds, led by a wonderful and experienced naturalist at Walney Pond. We learned about the importance of water as a natural resource for all life while we examined water quality and compared different aquatic habitats. The students were able to catch and explore goldfish, salamanders, and many other creatures – all while learning about watersheds. The weather was perfect for a beautiful day of education about water!