This article originally appeared in the summer 2010 Harker Quarterly.
On a beautiful, sunny afternoon in early May, lower school students were given an opportunity to show off their relatives at the annual Grandparents’ Day. Approximately 180 students had grandparents or grandfriends present and all were treated to a special afternoon.
Chris Nikoloff, head of school, gave the opening remarks and was followed by special grandparents’ Day performances – students in Gr. 1 and Gr. 4 sang songs and Dance Fusion performed. After the performances the students and their families toured the campus, with many a beaming grandparent holding a small hand in theirs. Refreshments were served and visitors met with teachers, viewed art exhibits and reveled in seeing a slice of their grandchildren’s day. Once again this event was extremely successful and we look forward to seeing everyone again next year.
India Abroad, August 13, 2010: Gr. 8 debate students Adarsh Battu, Arjun Kumar,Claudia Tischler and ShilpaYarlgadda are featured in a story about their success at the National Middle School Forensics tournament in Des Moines, IA.
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NSMC) recently announced its final round of college-sponsored scholarship winners, and 2010 graduate Patrick Campbell was named the winner of the National Merit Colby College Scholarship. Harker’s first National Merit winner, graduate Sarah Teplitsky, was announced in April. An additional 21 winners, the most in California, were announced in May. Later that month, three more graduates were named in the third round.
The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) recently released its list of Academic Team Champions for the 2009-10 school year, and Harker’s upper school football, wrestling and boys swimming squads were all named state champions for their exceptional GPAs. Harker tied with San Diego County’s La Costa Canyon High School for the highest number of teams to win the honor.
First day jitters at the start of kindergarten are expected, but many families skip the butterflies altogether by participating in Harker’s KinderCamp, which provides a gentle transition into the school’s youngest grade level.
While conforming to the summer format of morning academics and afternoon activities, KinderCamp’s primary objective is to help students become familiar with the Harker environment, and allow them to learn and practice some of the skills needed for kindergarten.
Faculty never lose sight of the fact that this is a first experience for the kids. “It’s very nurturing,” says veteran kindergarten teacher Grace Wallace. “That is my number one goal: for it to be very welcoming for both the parents and the children.”
The morning academics are designed to engage students in learning through games, songs, crafts and manipulatives. “Summer is very hands-on,” says Wallace. “We want to promote learning in an environment that is really enjoyable, one that makes them curious and want to explore.”
On a recent day, the students stacked Fruit Loops in different combinations adding up to the number five, for a delicious take on problem solving and computation. Playdough provided an opportunity to build finger strength and motor control while learning and practicing shapes.
Weekly themes include Pets and the Fourth of July. Cat crowns, puppy puppets, and Uncle Sam hats challenge a variety of motor, computational, and phonetic skills. “I’m a big believer in implementing a skill through crafts,” Wallace says. Hence the patterns practiced in red, white, and blue pinto beans and the puppets printed with three-letter words. There is a lot of learning going on under the guise of fun and games.
Wallace says she feels like she has done her job if the kids “are happy and love coming to school, and feel that they can succeed here socially, developmentally, and academically.”
Gr. 1 parent Trupti Kapadia is glad she took the advice of other Harker parents and enrolled her twins in KinderCamp last year. “The summer is so relaxed and fun that my kids loved school from day one,” she says. “There was really no breaking in period when school started, because they were familiar with the campus and the people.”
In addition to offering an unusually hands-on curriculum, the summer program differs from the school year in that classes are smaller and fewer in number. This provides an opportunity for the children to become familiar with the kindergarten environment when it is less busy.
The schedule is more relaxed as well. During the school year, kindergartners often visit a different teacher for either math or language arts. They have a separate science and social studies curriculum, and they go to P.E., Music, Art, and Library. During the summer, they remain with the same teacher all morning and, while other disciplines are integrated into the curriculum, the focus is on math and language arts.
The students practice more than their letters and numbers, however. “We’re focusing a lot on social skills and listening skills,” says Wallace. “We do it during the school year, too, but summer gives us a chance to really zero in on those. They learn social skills in the morning in the classroom, and they learn them in a different way playing in the afternoon.”
During the optional afternoon program, the youngest campers form their own group, known as the Sparrows, and take full advantage of camp activities, including swimming, archery, crafts, and games. “With the exception of the climbing wall, they get to do everything the big kids do,” says program director Vanessa Bullman.
Of course, some activities look a little different when it’s the Sparrows’ turn. Their swim lessons, for example, are conducted in very small groups, with no more than 3 students per instructor. Also unique to this age group is naptime. Each day, one 45-minute activity period is allocated to nap or rest time. Children are not required to sleep, but it’s a quiet interlude guaranteed to inspire envy among grown-ups.
Perhaps most popular with the kids are the field trips. Twice during each four-week session, the Sparrows don their trademark orange camp T-shirts and head for such destinations as Happy Hollow, the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, indoor playland Jungle Island, and Ardenwood Farm in Fremont.
The Kapadia children liked KinderCamp so much last year, their mother says, that “every day, they woke up and couldn’t wait to go to school. In fact, one Saturday, my daughter asked just to drive by and see the school, even though no one was there.”
The Harker Gr. 6 class entertained an enthusiastic audience during the May Spring Sing concert. The crowd was very impressed with the diversity of the songs, which included “Castle On A Cloud” from the hit musical “Les Misérables,” “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” by Elton John, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin, “Life Is a Highway” by Tom Cochrane, the classic American hymn “When the Saints Go Marching In” and Journey’s famous anthem “Don’t Stop Believing.” The production also featured such famous icons such as Uncle Sam, Betsy Ross and Frank Sinatra.
The 2010 lower school dance concert, titled “When I Grow Up,” took place in May and featured more than 250 dancers Gr. 1-5, in addition to 26 dancers from the Harker faculty and staff. The spectacular show was directed by Gail Palmer, with assistant direction from Amalia Vasconi, Karl Kuehn and Rachelle Ellis. Back in October, dancers had roundtable discussions with the dance instructors and told them what they wanted to be and do when they grow up. The Bucknall faculty and staff were also asked what their wishes were for the students, and the routines reflected these concepts.
Dance routines included our students’ desires to: graduate high school; travel the world; be an athlete, doctor, scientist, firefighter, musician, artist, parent, rock star and teacher. Dance styles included jazz, hip hop, tap, lyrical, ballet, modern and musical theater.
They also included the faculty and staffs’ hopes that the students be happy, have love, be caring and compassionate with each other, work hard and use their talents, be confident with integrity and morals and keep their youthful exuberance. All hoped the students would take care of the world and make it a better place.
The upper school’s performing arts division, the Conservatory, proudly announced its 2010-11 season in May.
The fall play, directed by Jeffrey Draper, will be Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.” This romantic tale takes place in a coastal city when a troupe of military victors comes home from war. Draper will be setting his version in 1945, with the boys coming back from defeating Hitler and Japan in World War II. Auditions will be Sept. 6-9.
The musical theater department was invited, for the second time, to participate in the world’s most prestigious arts festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, sponsored by the American High School Theatre Festival. This year’s musical, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” directed by Laura Lang-Ree with musical direction by Catherine Snider, will travel to the Fringe in August, 2011. Because of the extensive planning involved in taking the show on the road, auditions for the musical will be the week of Sept. 20, not in February as is usual.
Details for both shows will be posted in the daily bulletin and announced on campus when school begins. Students of all grades are encouraged to audition.
Cantilena, the upper school all-female classical vocal group, and Guys’ Gig, the all-boys vocal club, teamed up April 29 for a special concert in the Nichols Hall auditorium, directed by Susan Nace. Cantilena performed beautiful works by Japanese composer Ro Ogura, Thomas Weelkes, J.S. Bach and more. Meanwhile, Guys’ Gig brought a more modern vibe, singing “Take the ‘A’ Train” by jazz great Billy Strayhorn and “Change the World,” made famous by Eric Clapton. Several soloists and small groups were also featured at the show, including Mallika Dhaliwal, Gr. 11, singing “Ici-bas!” by Gabriel Fauré, Curran Kaushik, Gr. 12, performing Vincenzo Bellini’s “Vaga Luna Che Inargenti” and seniors Jackie Ho, Samir Datta and junior Ben Tien singing “Hey, Soul Sister” by the rock group Train.
In May, lower school musicians gave the summer a warm welcome at the End-of-Year Concert. Members of the Bucknall Choir, Jazz Ensemble and Orchestra played a varied selection of songs, including “Ode to Joy” by Beethoven, a medley of famous Bach pieces, the theme from “Jurassic Park” by film composer John Williams and “Smoke on the Water” by English rock band Deep Purple. The entire round-up of performers collaborated on “The Harker School Song,” written by David Len Allen, and the finale “I Am a Gummy Bear” by Christian Schneider.