Last week, the lower school library hosted its annual Book Fair, where attendees partook of a wide selection of books for all reading levels. A variety of fiction (from sci-fi to historical fiction to mysteries) and non-fiction (history, sports and biographies) were available for both children and adults.
“The Book Fair promotes reading at all levels, and provides more books to our community,” said lower school librarian Kathy Clark. Because the Book Fair coincided with Grandparents’ Day on Friday, “parents and grandparents purchase books that their students are interested in reading, titles for summer reading and gifts,” she continued. Families also often show their generosity and gratitude to Harker teachers by purchasing books for the classrooms. Money raised by the Book Fair goes into library budget so that more books can be purchased.
By Clark’s estimation, the Book Fair started in 1998 and was first held in the lower school gym’s lobby. In addition to being a great way to find new books, the Book Fair also fosters “a sense of community!” Clark said. “Students and their friends meet in the library, sharing the books they find. Parents meet in the library too, talking about the books their students want to read. Our library staff spends a lot of time recommending titles that are appropriate for the various age levels, and it gives us a chance to get to know the parents a little better.”
Parents also get involved with the Book Fair by volunteering to run the cash registers and assist students in finding books that interest them. “We can’t operate the fair without them,” said Clark. “Some volunteers return year after year because they enjoy working during the fair.”
Last week, the lower school library hosted its annual Book Fair, where attendees partook of a wide selection of books for all reading levels. A variety of fiction (from sci-fi to historical fiction to mysteries) and non-fiction (history, sports and biographies) were available for both children and adults.
“The Book Fair promotes reading at all levels, and provides more books to our community,” said lower school librarian Kathy Clark. Because the Book Fair coincided with Grandparents’ Day on Friday, “parents and grandparents purchase books that their students are interested in reading, titles for summer reading and gifts,” she continued. Families also often show their generosity and gratitude to Harker teachers by purchasing books for the classrooms. Money raised by the Book Fair goes into library budget so that more books can be purchased.
By Clark’s estimation, the Book Fair started in 1998 and was first held in the lower school gym’s lobby. In addition to being a great way to find new books, the Book Fair also fosters “a sense of community!” Clark said. “Students and their friends meet in the library, sharing the books they find. Parents meet in the library too, talking about the books their students want to read. Our library staff spends a lot of time recommending titles that are appropriate for the various age levels, and it gives us a chance to get to know the parents a little better.”
Parents also get involved with the Book Fair by volunteering to run the cash registers and assist students in finding books that interest them. “We can’t operate the fair without them,” said Clark. “Some volunteers return year after year because they enjoy working during the fair.”
VA (Grades 7-8) Boys Basketball: The Varsity A team, coached by Richard Amarillas, finished in second placein the WBAL with a record of 8-2 and went 8-3 overall. Team awards went to Brandon Wang, grade 8, and Matthew Chen, grade 8 (co-MVPs), Om Tandon, grade 7 (Eagle) and Michael Sullivan, grade 8 (Coaches).
VB (Grades 7-8) Boys Basketball: The Varsity B team, coached by Tim Hopkins, finished in third place in the WBAL with a 4-2 record and went 4-3 overall. Team awards went to Kyle Leung, grade 7 (MVP), Zachary Blue, grade 7 (Eagle) and Max Pflaging, grade 8 (Coaches).
VB2 (Grades 7-8) Boys Basketball: The Varsity B2 team, coached by Jon Cvitanich, finished in fifth place in the WBAL with a 2-4 record. Team awards went to Jordan Labio, grade 7 (MVP), Kai Stinson, grade 7 (Eagle) and Vishal Rohra, grade 8 (Coaches).
JVA (Grade 6) Boys Basketball: The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Mike Delfino, finished in fourth place in the WBAL with a 4-2 record and an overall record of 4-4. Team awards went to Vyom Vidyarthi (MVP), Gary Jin (Eagle), and Advay Monga and Bowen Xia (Coaches).
JVB6 (Grade 6) Boys Basketball: The Junior Varsity B6 team, coached by Raul Rios, finished in undefeated first place in the WBAL with a 5-0 record! Team awards went to Rohit Yalla (MVP), Rushil Jaiswal (Eagle) and Haden Andrews (Coaches).
MS Intramural Boys Basketball: Team awards went to Ramit Goyal, grade 7 (MVP), Sriram Bhimaraju, grade 7 (Eagle) and Reza Jalil, grade 7 (Coaches). The team was coached by Adam Albers, Dini Wong and Vanessa Rios.
JVB1 (Grade 5) Boys Basketball: The Junior Varsity B1 team, coached by Karriem Stinson and Walid Fahmy, finished undefeated in first placein the WBAL with a 5-0 record and took first place in the WBAL tournament finishing with a 8-0 record overall! Team awards went to Brennan Williams (MVP), Rishan Thoppay (Eagle) and Topaz Lee (Coaches).
JVB2 (Grade 5) Boys Basketball: The Junior Varsity B2 team, coached by Spring Wang, finished in fourth place in the WBAL with a 1-3 record. Team awards went to Jaskaran Ahluwalia (MVP), Krish Arora (Eagle) and Siddharth Sundar (Coaches).
JVC (Grade 4) Boys Basketball: The Junior Varsity C team, coached by Karriem Stinson and Walid Fahmy, finished in second place in the WBAL with a 5-1 record. Team awards went to Kai Nishimura (MVP), Brandon Labio (Eagle) and Mason Brooks (Coaches).
LS Intramural Boys Basketball: Team awards went to Jonathan Li, grade 4, and Dillon Ho, grade 4 (Eagle) and Max Maki, grade 4 (Coaches). The team was coached by Tobias Wade.
VA (Grades 7-8) Girls Soccer: The Varsity A team, coached by Brighid Wood and Hannah Grannis , finished in eighth place in the WBAL with a record of 0-5. Team awards went to Amrita Pasupathy, grade 8 (MVP), Kate Grannis, grade 7 (Eagle), and Haley Hernandez, grade 8, and Maya Hernandez, grade 8 (Coaches).
JVA (Grade 6) Girls Soccer: The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Lex Serafino and Sara Pawloski, finished in fifth place in the WBAL with a record of 1-4-1. Team awards went to Samhita Parupudi (MVP), Isabella Lo (Eagle) and Genieve Malinen (Coaches).
JVB (Grade 5) Girls Soccer: The Junior Varsity B team, coached by Colleen Campbell and Brittney Moseley, finished in second place in the WBAL with a record of 2-2 and an overall record of 3-4. Team awards went to MacEnzie Blue, grade 5, (MVP), Kristin Anthony, grade 4 (Eagle) and Lauren Rossi, grade 4 (Coaches).
LS Intramural Girls Soccer: Team awards went to Amelie Tomberg, grade 4 (MVP), Ameera Ramzan, grade 4 (Eagle) and Ava Zarkesh, grade 4 (Coaches). The team was coached by Colleen Campbell and Brittney Moseley.
LATE WINTER
VA (Grades 7-8) Girls Basketball: The Varsity A team, coached by Richard Amarillas, finished in second placein the WBAL with a 6-2 record and took second place in the WBAL tournament finishing 7-3 overall. Team awards went to Maya Hernandez, grade 8, and Haley Hernandez, grade 8 (co-MVPs), Anjali Yella, grade 7 (Eagle) and Avery Olson, grade 8 (Coaches).
VB Girls Basketball: The Varsity B team, coached by Tim Hopkins, finished undefeated in first place in the WBAL with a 8-0 record and took second place in the WBAL tournament finishing 9-1 overall. Team awards went to Isha Kotalwar, grade 7 (MVP), Kate Grannis, grade 7 (Eagle) and Medha Yarlagadda, grade 7 (Coaches).
JVA (Grade 6) Girls Basketball: The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Jon Cvitanich, finished undefeated in first place in the WBAL with a 6-0 record and took first place in the WBAL tournament finishing 8-0 overall. Team awards went to Isabella Lo (MVP), Claire Anderson (Eagle) and Angelina Burrows and Gemma Chan (Coaches).
MS Intramural Girls Basketball: Team awards went to Samhita Parupudi, grade 6 (MVP), Shaila Tandon, grade 6 (Eagle) and Menaka Aron, grade 6 (Coaches). The team was coached by Raul Rios and Adam Albers.
JVB (Grade 5) Girls Basketball: The Junior Varsity B1 team, coached by Karriem Stinson, finished undefeated in first place in the WBAL with a 6-0 record and took first place in the WBAL tournament finishing 8-0 overall. Team awards went to Minal Jalil (MVP), MacEnzie Blue (Eagle) and Tanvi Sivakumar (Coaches).
JVC (Grade 4) Girls Basketball: The Junior Varsity C team, coached by Spring Wang and Belle Carley, finished third place in the WBAL with a 4-2 record. Team awards went to Selena Chen (MVP), Finley Ho (Eagle) and Lily Peng (Coaches).
LS Intramural Girls Basketball: Team awards went to Anika Rajaram, grade 5, and Jessica Hu, grade 5 (Eagle) and Ameera Ramzan, grade 4 (Coaches). The team was coached by Tobias Wade.
VA (Grade 8) Boys Soccer: The Varsity A team, coached by Brighid Wood and Hannah Grannis, finished in fifth place in the WBAL with a record of 0-8. Team awards went to Rigo Gonzales (MVP), Michael Pflaging (Eagle) and Edward Sun (Coaches).
VB (Grade 7) Boys Soccer: The Varsity B team, coached by Brighid Wood and Sam Salfen, finished in fifth place in the WBAL with a league record of 3-3-1. Team awards went to Alexander Guo (MVP), Ryan Barth (Eagle) and Chase White (Coaches).
JVA (Grade 6) Boys Soccer: The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Lex Serafino and Dini Wong, finished in fifth place in the WBAL with a record of 1-5. Team awards went to Bowen Xia (MVP), Daniel Chen (Eagle), and Vyom Vidyarthi and Advay Monga (Coaches).
JVB (Grade 5) Boys Soccer: The Junior Varsity B team, coached by Colleen Campbell and Brittney Moseley, finished in first place in the WBAL with a record of 5-1. Team awards went to Ryder Hewitt (MVP), Simon Kirjner (Eagle), and Kaan Kurtoglu and Jackson Powell (Coaches).
LS Intramural Boys Soccer- Team awards went to Vladimir Shchegrov, grade 4 (MVP), David Kelly, grade 4 (Eagle) and Ayden Grover, grade 4 (Coaches). The team was coached by Walid Fahmy.
Congratulations to all our athletes and coaches for a great winter season!
Five teams of Harker fourth and fifth graders were winners at The Tech Challenge, held March 30-31 at The Tech Museum of Innovation in downtown San Jose. The theme of the competition, “No Roads, No Problem,” challenged students to create a hovercraft that could traverse various terrains.
Get Teched – made up of fourth graders Risa Chokhawala, Rohan Goyal, Brandon Labio and Trisha Shivakumar – was one of three teams in the Grades 4-5 category to receive the Outstanding Overall award for best overall performance. Also winning Outstanding Overall was Donut Dogs, composed of fifth graders Janam Chahal, Sofia Shah, Brenna Ren and Ananya Pradhan, which also earned second place in the video contest.
Fourth graders Kamala Smith, Ameera Ramzan, Adrian Roufas and Nicholas Knauer – known collectively as Yes We KAAN – received the Outstanding Engineering Journal award, while Orange Duo, consisting of fourth graders Neel Kumar and Cole Uhlig, were presented with the Judges’ Inspiration Award. Best Teamwork went to the Hover Eagles, comprising fourth graders Orion Ghai, Samaara Patil, Nikhil Bawa and Aanya Mukherjee.
Five teams of Harker fourth and fifth graders were winners at The Tech Challenge, held March 30-31 at The Tech Museum of Innovation in downtown San Jose. The theme of the competition, “No Roads, No Problem,” challenged students to create a hovercraft that could traverse various terrains.
Get Teched – made up of fourth graders Risa Chokhawala, Rohan Goyal, Brandon Labio and Trisha Shivakumar – was one of three teams in the Grades 4-5 category to receive the Outstanding Overall award for best overall performance. Also winning Outstanding Overall was Donut Dogs, composed of fifth graders Janam Chahal, Sofia Shah, Brenna Ren and Ananya Pradhan, which also earned second place in the video contest.
Fourth graders Kamala Smith, Ameera Ramzan, Adrian Roufas and Nicholas Knauer – known collectively as Yes We KAAN – received the Outstanding Engineering Journal award, while Orange Duo, consisting of fourth graders Neel Kumar and Cole Uhlig, were presented with the Judges’ Inspiration Award. Best Teamwork went to the Hover Eagles, comprising fourth graders Orion Ghai, Samaara Patil, Nikhil Bawa and Aanya Mukherjee.
Five teams of Harker fourth and fifth graders were winners at The Tech Challenge, held March 30-31 at The Tech Museum of Innovation in downtown San Jose. The theme of the competition, “No Roads, No Problem,” challenged students to create a hovercraft that could traverse various terrains.
Get Teched – made up of fourth graders Risa Chokhawala, Rohan Goyal, Brandon Labio and Trisha Shivakumar – was one of three teams in the Grades 4-5 category to receive the Outstanding Overall award for best overall performance. Also winning Outstanding Overall was Donut Dogs, composed of fifth graders Janam Chahal, Sofia Shah, Brenna Ren and Ananya Pradhan, which also earned second place in the video contest.
Fourth graders Kamala Smith, Ameera Ramzan, Adrian Roufas and Nicholas Knauer – known collectively as Yes We KAAN – received the Outstanding Engineering Journal award, while Orange Duo, consisting of fourth graders Neel Kumar and Cole Uhlig, were presented with the Judges’ Inspiration Award. Best Teamwork went to the Hover Eagles, comprising fourth graders Orion Ghai, Samaara Patil, Nikhil Bawa and Aanya Mukherjee.
Yesterday, second graders held the annual Ogre Awards, in which 88 students celebrated the characters of their favorite folk tales from all over the world at a special ceremony. Students spent the previous months reading stories from various parts of the world, including China, India and Norway. Their favorite characters from each of these stories were then given special awards in a variety of categories at the show. Students from each grade 2 homeroom also dressed up as characters from the stories they’d read.
Each Ogre Awards also honors members of the Harker community. This year the show recognized grade 2 teachers Ali Bo, Ayesha Tahir, Kerri Clifford and Sejal Mehta.
Earlier this month, the lower school hosted the Kids Heart Challenge to raise money for the American Heart Association as well as increase awareness of the importance of a healthy lifestyle. Formerly known as Jump Rope for Heart, the event raised $13,067 as students jumped rope and hula-hooped to show their enthusiasm for the fun and healthy benefits of exercise. Schools across the country hold their own Kids Heart Challenge events every year, and Harker’s involvement stretches back to 2000, when it was brought to the lower school by P.E. teacher Jim McGovern. To date, Harker has raised more than $200,000 for the American Heart Association.
At Monday’s pajama assembly, grade 3 students received a visit from their grade 10 Eagle Buddies to mark the conclusion of another successful pajama and book drive. The annual effort collects pajamas and books to donate to the Pajama Program, which distributes them to children living in shelters, temporary housing or otherwise unstable conditions. This year’s drive collected 272 pajamas and 489 books.
Students arrived dressed in their preferred sleepwear and the third graders each brought a book to read with their buddies. Continuing with tradition, upper school division head Butch Keller was a hit with the students gathered at the gym, as he arrived in his pajamas and delivered a delightful bedtime story from his rocking chair.
Late last month, the Japan Information and Cultural Center at the office of the Consulate-General of Japan in San Francisco recognized three Harker students in its annual New Year’s greeting card contest. In the middle school division, seventh grader Shareen Chahal received special recognition and Jessica Wang, grade 6, was awarded an honorable mention. Momo Matsui-Disini, grade 2, received an honorable mention in the elementary school division.
This contest invites local students to participate in the Japanese tradition of sending New Year’s cards (“nengajo”) to their loved ones. These and other greeting cards that Northern California students submitted for the contest (more than 640 in all) will be on display until Feb. 21 at the Japan Information and Cultural Center, located at 275 Battery St., Ste. 2100, San Francisco.