Dear
,
Sometimes I forget to be appreciative. I get caught up in the pace of the day and get stuck inside my head. A wise head of school once told me that gratitude is a discipline--something we need to practice daily, not just on a day in November.
 On this day, I am grateful that High Meadows is a community that works hard to keep children safe, both physically and emotionally. With the horrible violence visited upon Paris last week, we are reminded that, as parents and teachers, keeping our children safe is our top priority. And helping children to feel safe is absolutely critical to their emotional health. In this excellent Time Magazine piece, the author shares suggestions that are perfectly aligned with the way High Meadows helps children feel safe when tragic news is all around us.
As we all embrace the discipline of gratitude, I invite you to join me in reflecting gratefully on the beauty of the safety and love we all provide our children. That's truly the spirit of Thanksgiving.
Take care,
Jay Underwood
Head of School
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Don't miss these great opportunities to join us at High Meadows!
Admissions: An Evening to Inform
Thursday, December 3rd 6:30-8:00 pm
High Meadows Library
This event is a great opportunity to hear more about our school history, philosophies on education, and to ask questions! Join us for time with our Head of School, Principals, and Director of Educational Advancement.
Admissions: Preschool Preview
Thursday, December 10th 10:00-11:00 am followed by a campus tour from 11:00 to noon
Preschool Building
This event allows parents to spend time exploring our preschool classrooms, and to observe preschoolers in action! Stop by for a quick visit, or stay for a full campus tour.
An Evening with Alumni
Wednesday, January 13 7:00 pm
Community Center
You might wonder what High Meadows alumni do once they've graduated and moved on to high school, college, and beyond. Come hear from our graduates about how High Meadows prepared them for their next adventures. We encourage all current High Meadows families and those considering High Meadows for their children to attend.
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Come Sail Away with Education for Sustainability!
By Education for Sustainability Teacher Michelle Griffin
Where does an understanding of physics, engineering and renewable energy sources begin? For High Meadows students, it starts in the First-Second Grade indoor and outdoor classrooms! During their Education for Sustainability (EfS) class, students, guided by their wonder and curiosity, posed the following questions:
- What are the forces in nature moving things that cannot move themselves?
- Answer: Wind and Gravity!
- Can we catch the energy of wind and somehow use it?
- Yes! Kites, pinwheels, wind turbines, wind chimes, sailboats!
- Hmmm. I wonder if the design of these things makes a difference in how much wind they catch.
- Let's build and test model sailboats to find out!!
Thus began a dynamic discussion leading to ideas around building materials and designs of a model sailboat. The students brainstormed materials to reuse or recycle for making model boats. The class brought in "found" items from their homes, and we explored nature for anything that might "float" and "catch the wind."
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| 1/2 students experiment with their sailboats. |
Working in teams, students used these materials to design and build the boats that we would later test on the school pond. Cooperation, communication, teamwork, empathy, listening skills, and PURE JOY--that's what "floated" around my classroom during boat-building days! And then the day of experimentation! As usual, I was blown away by the students' insights, ideas and strong desires to "try again, Mrs. Griffin! Can we try again? We know more now! I NEED to try again." And so we will. To see students working in a team to design and build, click here!
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Rag Dolls Help Students Tell Their Family Story
By 1/2 Teachers Marli Goro and Liz Thompson
If you enter our First-Second Grade classroom, you will find us hard at work exploring how people all over the world use games and toys to learn, teach, and share cultural values and traditions. In the Goro/Thompson class, we learned that dolls are one of the oldest toys in history. So, after readingThe Chalk Doll, a Jamaican tale of a mom's love for her own handmade "rag doll" growing up, we decided to make our own rag dolls. We learned to sew the stitches, knot the thread, untangle the thread. We stuffed our dolls, named them, and brought them to life.
Over the Thanksgiving holidays, the Great White Sharks will take their rag dolls home. Using photographs, each child will "tell the story" of their own family traditions at this special time of the year. The pictures will be placed on scrapbook pages and shared with our classmates. We can't wait to share our memories and traditions!
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| The Great White Sharks class shows off their rag doll creations. |
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Historic Roswell Tour Offers Fourth-Fifth Classes Insights on Civil War
By 4/5 Teachers Faith Burke and Becky Yardley
Last week the Fourth-Fifth classes of Burke/Yardley and Beacham/Smith visited historic Roswell as part of our PYP unit on conflict, in which we studied the Civil War. Prior to our tour, the Burke/Yardley class read Turn Homeward Hannalee by Patricia Beatty. This historical novel focuses on a young female mill worker in Roswell who is charged with treason against the Union for making cloth for the Confederate Army. While the character of Hannalee is fictional, the events depicted are true. After the mill was taken over by Union troops, the workers, many of whom were women and children, were held in the Roswell Town Square in July, 1864, for five days before being sent to Kentucky and Indiana. Our students stood in that same Square while Docent Coordinator, Lisa Simpson from the Roswell Historical Society, explained what the workers experienced. From the Square, we visited Primrose Cottage and Bulloch Hall, both owned by early Roswell settlers. We were also able to visit The Old Bricks, constructed in 1840 to serve as apartment-style housing for the Roswell Mill workers.
At Roswell Presbyterian Church, the first church built in Roswell, we sat in the pews and saw the balcony area where the family slaves would sit during services. After lunch, the classes were joined by Fourth-Fifth teacher Brian Ivey, who guided our group to the ruins of the Roswell Mill, burned by Union troops after its seizure. Our final stop was Founders' Cemetery, where we saw the gravesite of Roswell King, founder of the city of Roswell and owner of the Roswell Mill. Seeing our city's historic sites and hearing stories of real people enabled our students to connect more fully with their classroom studies of the Civil War. Our walking tour provided the students with a deeper understanding of the War's effects on our city and its people.
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| Docent Lisa Simpson outside The Old Bricks. |
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Apply Now for the 2016-17 School Year
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Planning to submit an admissions application for the 2016-17 school year? Now is the time to get started! To apply, click here and follow the directions to set up your application account.
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All Students:
No School -
Conferences
Thursday, Nov. 19 and Friday, Nov. 20
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Thanksgiving Break
Monday, Nov. 23-Friday, Nov. 27
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Winter Concert,
All Bands
Tuesday, Dec. 1
5:00-6:00 pm
Community Center
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Community Board Meeting
Tuesday, Dec. 1
6:15-7:30 pm
Library
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Admissions: An Evening to Inform
Thursday, Dec. 3
6:30-8:00
Library
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Secret Shop
Monday-Thursday,
Dec. 7-11
Community Center
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SHARE Meeting
Monday, Dec. 7
8:45-9:45 am
Library
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Community Gathering, Parents Welcome
Tuesday, Dec. 8
8:30-8:50 am
Community Center
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Coffee and Conversation on Multiage Classrooms with Margaret Jones
Wednesday, Dec. 9
8:45-9:45 am
Early Years Commons
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Put your 2016 Taxes to work now!
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Miss Speaker Kevin Carroll
This Week??
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Hearing great things about our recent speaker Kevin Carroll and want to know more about his thoughts on the importance of play in all of our lives? You can still order his books online at
www.BN.com and have the proceeds benefit High Meadows School. From the payment page, scroll to the very bottom and choose "Check this box if it is a Bookfair Order." Enter Bookfair ID 11742194.
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Have you ever wondered why the High Meadows chickens are so friendly? It's because they were hand raised by our preschool students! Preschoolers learned about tending to the needs of the baby chicks, while the chicks learned to be comfortable being handled by children. You never know when you'll run into one of our chickens strolling confidently around campus.
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