Lower School Newsletter - April 14, 2021

NEW AND UPDATED INFORMATION

A big thank you to all the families who joined us for our Virtual Engineering Night last Friday. We had a fabulous turnout, and it was certainly great fun to see the creativity of our Lower School engineers at work as they took on a variety of Lego challenges. Special thanks to our Department Chair for Innovation Joey Starnes for organizing the event, Assistant Director of the Lower School Robyn Nichols, Fifth/Sixth Grade Innovation Lab Teacher Sarah Magner, Assistant Second Grade Teacher Marcia Visaggio, and Lower School P.E. teacher Thomas Flynn for facilitating the break-out rooms.

Major Minors "Drive-In Concert"

Thursday, April 15, 6:30 p.m., Upper School parking lot

Enjoy the music of Flint Hill's a cappella group, the Major Minors, from the comfort and safety of your car! This live musical performance will be transmitted by FM radio to attendees enjoying the show from their vehicles in the Upper School faculty parking lot.

Lower School Virtual Math Night

Friday, April 23, 6 p.m.

The Lower School Virtual Math Night will be held on Friday, April 23, 6-7 p.m. via Google Meet and will be hosted by the Lower School faculty and staff! Students in grades JK-6 should prepare themselves for an evening that all learners will enjoy. Students will be participating in various math activities that integrate movement, mathematics, logic, and creativity. Experience the joy that math can bring into our students’ worlds! Please use this link to register for the event, by the evening of Wednesday, April 21.
Prior to Math Night, parents and students can enjoy ST Math’s Family Webinar. There are two options for this event — April 20 at 6 p.m. CLICK HERE to register or April 22 at 9 pm CLICK HERE to register.

Join the fun! JK-12 Virtual Parent Trivia Night

Tuesday, April 27, 7:30-9 p.m.

Flint Hill is hosting a Virtual Parent Trivia Night!

Both newly-enrolled and current parents of students in grades JK-12 are invited to a night of fun and community-building! Whether you are a tough competitor who could compete in a Jeopardy championship or you’ve never won a Trivial Pursuit game in your life, all skill levels are welcome! The goal is to have fun and make connections with other Flint Hill families.

Sign up here to participate. The event will be hosted by Trivia Hub and will feature a live host. You have the option to sign up with a team or be randomly assigned to a grade level team. Teams will be in breakout rooms as they huddle up to determine their answers so the evening will be a combination of time with all participants and small group fun.

And did we mention prizes? In addition to bragging rights, there will also be Flint Hill swag for the winners!

Making the Learning Visible

In the Lower School, our teachers provide a learning environment where students are actively involved and encouraged to inquire, and the activities are interactive, hands-on and student-centered. Teachers also provide authentic learning opportunities that are relevant to the child’s life experiences. Choice is a great motivator for our students, and very frequently, the inquiry that ensues is based on the students’ interests and passions as a class. Teachers are also intentional about providing field trip opportunities that enhance the learning experience.

Kindergarten students have been exploring the elements of stories all year. Recently, KA read “The Mitten” by Jan Brett. Students were inspired to take on the roles of the characters in the story and act it out themselves. Following the engineering design process, students created animal masks and costumes from paper and other materials in their classroom maker space. They created a set for their production by painting a collaborative mural and repurposing cardboard boxes, combined with sticks and pinecones from their campus walks, to create trees. The students who are virtual learners narrated the pages in their own words, while in-person students acted out their roles as the characters. They demonstrated empathy, collaboration, creativity, and patience as they made the story come to life.

Over the last two weeks, first graders participated in four virtual workshops: Moving Through Math Toy Story: Lucky the Leprechaun's Growing Patterns Arts Integration. The sessions were presented by Marcia Daft. Students practiced voice, gestures, and facial expressions as they retold and acted out the story of Lucky the Leprechaun. Students learned about increasing and decreasing patterns and applied new vocabulary to explain a pattern. Students also used story maps, voices, gestures, and facial expressions to create their own stories with increasing and decreasing patterns and to explain the mathematical understanding of patterns.

Last Saturday, fourth graders and their families took part in the 32nd Annual Potomac River Watershed Clean-Up. Around 30 Huskies showed up at Bordeaux Recreation Area, in Reston, to pick up trash. They did a fine job, spending 90 minutes picking up 20 bags full of trash!

In science, fifth grade students are currently studying ecosystems. On Monday, 5B went on a walking field trip through the Oak Marr neighborhood and along the trail between the Lower School and Middle and Upper School campuses. The purpose of the trip was to hunt for decomposers and observe micro ecosystems. Microecosystems inhabit very small areas such as a water droplet, a single leaf, or the cool, damp space under a log — the conditions may be quite different from the habitat as a whole but just right for the organisms that live there. They spotted several Eastern worm snakes, a frog, worms, millipedes and even Brood X cicada nymphs! The rest of the fifth grade classes will be completing the same field trip during this week and next.

Students in sixth grade science had to wait for a sunny, calm day during class time to complete this activity using solar-sensitive material and different objects with varying translucency. They placed the objects on the cloth, arranged them in a creative way, set their project in the direct sunlight for 10 minutes, and patiently waited. They completed this project by washing out the light-sensitive chemical. The result was varying amounts of sunlight reaching the cloth through or around the shapes and showing up as these final products to observe and reflect.

Creativity Corner

As we enjoy spring, here are this week’s suggestions for fun and creative activities for families to try at home from our Department Chair for Innovation Joey Starnes.

Articles

10 Tips for Parenting Preteens

School Store Update

Have questions about items in the store? Click here to schedule a 15-minute virtual meeting with Adrienne Robinsn. Don’t have time to make an appointment? Feel free to email me with any questions, and I will be happy to make suggestions for your next purchase.

Need outerwear for the spring weather? Check out the links below for some great options.

Restock Alert!

We are working with our vendors to restock boys’ shorts. Inventory should arrive in the next two weeks. Check out the Restock Alert tab for items that have been recently restocked.

How do I make an exchange or return?

Please contact Adrienne Robinson within 30 days of your original purchase.
Exchanges may be made for the same item in a different size or for an item of equal value.
We are happy to issue a refund for items that did not work for you.

UPDATES AND REMINDERS

Virtual Lower School Transition Coffee

Thursday, April 15, 9-10 a.m.

In preparation for your child/ren’s transition from one grade level to the next, we ask you to save the date and join us for the upcoming Lower School transition coffee. Parents of students in grades JK-5 will have the opportunity to visit and meet with a teacher from one of the classrooms in their child’s next grade level. We will discuss the transition from one grade level to the next; you will receive information about summer enrichment activities, and we will share an explanation of this year’s summer learning. The program begins at 9 a.m. Here is the link to the Google Meet. I look forward to seeing you at the coffee.

Parent Education Webinar — Social Media, Tech, and Social-Emotional Health

All parents in the Lower, Middle and Upper Schools are welcome to attend this webinar on Thursday, April 15, noon-1:15 p.m. Please register using this link and contact Director of Counseling Ilana Reyes with any questions.

Join us for a refreshing, practical, and eye-opening presentation about parenting in the digital age — featuring The Social Institute’s founder and CEO, Laura Tierney.

Laura will share the latest updates and best practices to:

Strengthen communications with your children through student-respected conversation starters about social media and technology.
Empower students to navigate social-emotional health, social media, and technology during this uncertain time.
Discuss concerns related to the pandemic, while learning insights shared by students and researchers.
Develop shared family standards for balancing technology in healthy ways.
Inspire everyday use of important lessons that seventh-eighth grade students will learn during advisory.

We look forward to you joining us for this dynamic and informative session!

About The Social Institute

The Social Institute partners with schools nationwide to empower students, parents and educators to navigate social-emotional health, social media, and technology positively through comprehensive, gamified lessons that meet students on their level. By reinforcing character strengths like empathy, integrity, and teamwork and by showcasing their role models (from parents to U.S. Olympians), we help students be their best selves to “win at social” — social interactions and social media. As digital natives and parents ourselves, we bridge the needs of students and parents. Our partners include Ravenscroft School, Gaston Day School, Gilman School, Woodward Academy, U.S. Olympic athletes, Duke Men’s Basketball, ESPN, and other forward-thinking institutions around the nation.

“Where the Sidewalk Ends — An Evening with Shel Silverstein's Poetry”

The fifth and sixth grade play, “Where the Sidewalk Ends — An Evening with Shel Silverstein's Poetry” will be presented live via Google Meet, Friday, April 16 at 7 pm. The fifth and sixth grade drama club has created an original virtual show based on the comic poems of Shel Silverstein. Please join us for an evening of fun that is guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

Rising Seventh Grade Parent Coffee with Brian Lamont/Course Selection:

April is the month for rising seventh grade students and parents to receive helpful information about Middle School to ensure a positive transition.

The Rising Grade 7 Virtual Division Coffee: Parent Orientation will take place on Thursday, April 22, 9-9:45 a.m. Middle School Director Brian Lamont will present the ins and outs of the grade and what you can expect as a family, as your rising seventh grader begins their Middle School journey. Google Meet link
The Rising Grade 7 Virtual Division Coffee: Course Selection will immediately follow, 9:45-10:30 a.m. As a continuation of the Parent Orientation (and using the same Meet link), Brian Lamont will review and discuss course selection for seventh grade. Google Meet link (same link as the previous session).
In preparation for their course selection, your child will also receive pertinent information about seventh grade course selection, as Mr. Lamont will visit each advisory to discuss details and answer questions about the Middle School, the week of April 19.

Virtual Math Night

Friday, April 23, 6-7 p.m.

We have been so impressed with the resilience, compassion and perseverance our Lower School students continue to show each day. We have been very closely monitoring their social and emotional well-being, cognizant that life is so different for them right now. While we continue to meet our goal of keeping our students safe in their cohorts, we have continued to look for innovative ways for them to interact socially and meet and strengthen social relationships with their peers throughout the grade level. Our Virtual Math Night will take place on Friday, April 23, 6-7 p.m.

Upcoming Events

Lower School Virtual Division Coffee, 9-10 a.m.
Thursday, April 15
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Parent Education Webinar — Social Media, Tech, and Social-Emotional Health
Thursday, April 15, noon-1:15 p.m.
All parents in Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools are welcome to attend this webinar. Please register using this link, and contact Director of Counseling Ilana Reyes with any questions.
Add to Calendar

Husky Pride Dress
Friday, April 16

Grades 5 and 6 Virtual Student Supply Pick Up, 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
Friday, April 16

Grades JK-6 Virtual Student Supply Special Pick-Up, Grandparents and Special Friend Project Supplies, 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
Friday, April 16

Grades 5-6 Virtual Play, 7-8:30 p.m.
Friday, April 16

Lower School Morning Meeting, 8:15-8:30 a.m.
Monday, April 19

Virtual Arts Jam, 7-10 p.m.
Wednesday, April 21
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Rising Grade 7 Virtual Division Coffee: Parent Orientation, 9-9:45 a.m.
Thursday, April 22
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Rising Grades 7 and 8 Virtual Division Coffee: Course Selection, 9:45-10:30 a.m.
Thursday, April 22
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Husky Pride Dress
Friday, April 23

Lower School Virtual Headmaster’s Parent Discussion Series, 9-10 a.m.
Friday, April 23
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Lower School Virtual Math Night, 6-7 p.m.
Friday, April 23
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Lower School Morning Meeting, 8:15-8:30 a.m.
Monday, April 26

JK-12 Virtual Parent Trivia Night
Tuesday, April 27, 7:30 p.m.
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Husky Pride Dress
Friday, April 30