Each year, a highlight of the grade 4 curriculum is the annual spring sojourn to the Coloma Outdoor Discovery School (CODS) to learn about the California Gold Rush. This year, the fourth graders spent several adventurous days experiencing what it was like to be a gold miner.
Located on the northern fork of the American River, Coloma is where gold was first discovered in 1848, leading to the California Gold Rush. Today, Coloma is a designated national historic landmark district and tourist attraction best known for its ghost town and Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park.
“Harker has been sending fourth graders to CODS for over 20 years,” said Kristin Giammona, elementary school head.
Highlights of the trip included an opportunity to view the site where James Marshall first discovered gold at Sutter’s Mill. “The students were in groups of 15 and had a naturalist assigned to each group. The naturalist taught them about the Gold Rush and its environmental impact,” recalled Giammona.
While on the trip, students took a 3-mile round-trip hike up to Monroe Ridge; along the walk, students studied native animals and plants, and sang songs. The students ate their meals outdoors and took turns doing kitchen cleanup. They slept in cabins and enjoyed evening entertainment, including a lively hoedown (a campfire with songs and skits).
One evening, a Native American guest speaker educated students about Native American culture. Among the many things they learned is that the name Coloma comes from the natives’ name for the surrounding valley, Cullumah, meaning “beautiful.”
Kindergartners had a blast showing off their homemade hats during the annual Spring Hat Parade, held on the afternoon of April 16.
“It’s that time of year again!” enthused kindergarten teacher Katie Florio, who reported that the youngsters paraded around campus visiting classrooms and displaying their fabulous creations. Students wound their way through the lower school campus, stopping in various classrooms to model their unique and colorful headwear to the delight of onlookers.
After the parade there was an egg hunt (with eggs hidden on the kindergarten playground), followed by festive homeroom parties.
Registration is off to a great start for Harker’s Summer Camp+, an annual program for students in grades K-5 held on the lower school campus. Camp+ offers a well-rounded summer experience by providing morning learning sessions followed by a wide variety of afternoon activities.
This year the theme of Camp+ is “Camp on the 7 Seas.” Campers will be jumping on board an on-site sailing ship with the camp mascot “Ray” for a summer full of exciting seafaring adventures and special events. Last summer, the increasingly popular program filled up at record speed, attracting some 774 campers.
Camp+ students in grades 1-5 have traditionally had the option of enrolling in one of two academic morning programs: Core Focus or Learning Opportunities in Literature (LOL). Core Focus is a more traditional learning environment with language arts, math and academic electives for each grade level. LOL features academic courses designed around literary subject matter. Both Core Focus and LOL feature the same afternoon options, including arts and crafts, dance, water play, wall climbing, archery and array of field sports.
New this year, campers in grades 2-5 may choose an art and music program for the morning session, which will include an artist’s studio and an orchestra, a rock band and songwriting workshops. These programs provide additional options for students who have an interest in or talent for art and/or music. See below for further details about this exciting new offering.
Artist Studio
During the four-week session, campers will have the option to choose Artist Studio instead of the morning Core Focus program. Artists will spend their camp mornings involved in activities and lessons designed to stimulate and enhance their creativity and knowledge of art. Campers will learn about art history and famous artists, in addition to practicing and exploring a variety of art mediums and techniques in depth. Art exploration also strengthens skills that are important to academic achievement and success: confidence, problem solving, perseverance, focus, collaboration and accountability. The class also will take field trips to galleries and museums. Artist Studio may be chosen as a morning-only class or combined with the Camp+ activity program to create a partial or full-day schedule.
Summer Music
During two-week sessions, campers have the option to choose a music class instead of the morning LOL program or the Camp+ activity program. Musically inclined students may create their own combinations for maximum learning and musical fun.
Orchestra Workshop
These two-week workshops offer instrumental students entering grades 2-5 the opportunity to explore music, through exposure to music theory and composition, improvisation, ear training and singing, ensembles and full orchestral playing. Participants must have at least six months of experience playing the violin, viola, cello, double bass, flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, French horn and trombone. A performance, recording and printed score will be given to each student at the conclusion of each session.
Rock Band Workshop
Who doesn’t want to join a band? This two-week workshop offers instrumental students with at least six months of experience playing guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and voice a cool opportunity to explore music, through exposure to music theory, composition, improvisation, ear training and singing while creating their own band! A performance, recording and printed score will be given to each student at the conclusion of each session.
Songwriters Studio
A songwriter is someone who writes the lyrics to songs, the musical composition (chords) or melody to songs or both. Students in this class will learn melody writing, lyric writing, popular song forms, basic music production and more. There’s no need to know music theory or notation or even to play a musical instrument … just sign up and start writing!
For more information about Camp+, including schedules and pricing, visit http://summer.harker.org. The Harker School has offered extensive summer programs for more than 50 years. The Summer Camp+ program is accredited nationally by the American Camping Association.
On Friday, March 6, students and staff at the lower school had a blast jumping rope and shooting hoops during Jump Rope for Heart, an annual effort to raise money for the American Heart Association.
The event, which raised $6,300, took place throughout the day in the Bucknall gym, as well as on the grades 4-5 blacktop for those who wished to participate in Hoops for Heart instead of – or in addition to – jumping. Staff and students of all grades got in on the action, showing of their double dutch rope moves or hoop skills in support of a worthy cause.
“Holding this event not only engages students in physical activity while empowering them to improve their own health and help others with heart-health issues, but it also raises awareness of heart disease and stroke,” said Jim McGovern, who works in the lower school’s PE department and helped organize the event.
Among the day’s fun happenings were all kinds of jumping rope (short ropes, long roping, Chinese jump ropes), shooting baskets, and playing lightning and other basketball games. At the conclusion of each period, T-shirts, jump ropes and other gifts were raffled off to about a half dozen students. Participants also signed their names on a special heart table to show their support for those afflicted with heart disease.
The much-anticipated Jan. 16 arrival of grade 10 students to the lower school campus signaled the start of two beloved annual Harker happenings: the schoolwide Pajama Day Assembly and grade 3 Eagle Buddies get-together.
The sophomore students participated in the assembly as part of the Eagle Buddies program. Held in the gym, the event celebrated a grade 3 service project in which students collected items to donate to the Pajama Program (www.pajamaprogram.org), a national nonprofit organization dedicated to providing new sleepwear and books to kids waiting to be adopted.
For the past eight years, to make life a bit better for children living in local shelters, the lower school has donated countless pairs of pajamas and boxes of books to the program. While the final numbers for this year’s drive are still being tallied, last year’s drive collected 2,000 pairs of pajamas and 2,400 books, according to representatives of the Pajama Program’s local chapter.
Although the drive was primarily a grade 3 effort, all elementary school families were invited to participate by dropping off items in the gym’s lobby. Prior to the assembly, Ken Allen, lower school dean of students, urged parents to encourage their children to bring a pair of never worn pajamas or a new book to donate to the program, noting that each “small donation will go a long way for someone that is less fortunate.”
The assembly occurred on a special dress pajama day, when all the students and faculty were encouraged to wear their favorite jammies to school. The program got underway with Butch Keller, upper school head, reading from the book “The Most Magnificent Thing” by award-winning author and illustrator Ashley Spires. Students enjoyed hearing to story, and seemed equally enthralled with seeing Keller donned in a comfy robe and slippers, seated in a rocking chair on the stage.
“Raise your hand if you brought a book for your Eagle Buddy to read,” said Keller, after he finished the story. A bunch of eager hands went up. Shortly after, the third grade students had the opportunity to read with their upper school Eagle Buddies, who had also been encouraged to bring items to donate to the Pajama Program.
Wearing a colorful assortment of robes, pajamas, slippers and snuggly knit hats, the grade 3 students and their big buddies then headed outdoors for a pizza lunch, socializing and field games.
“I have a little sister at home, so I am used to being around younger kids. However, it is always the same group of younger kids – her friends – so I really liked getting to know a totally new group of lower school students through this program,” said grade 10 Eagle Buddy Kshithija Mulam.
Her grade 3 pal, Alisha Jain, said “I like hanging out with my buddies. I really liked doing the relay races together. That was a lot of fun.”
Jain’s other buddy, sophomore Vienna Wang, observed that “being an Eagle Buddy is a great stress reliever. You get to act like a kid again!”
Keller created the Eagle Buddies program to help bridge the upper and lower school campus divide. The buddies stay together for three years, until the sophomores graduate and the third graders matriculate into middle school.
Another Eagle Buddies activity is slated for Jan. 29, when the juniors will host their fourth grade friends for “clown day” at the upper school. After eating lunch in the gym together, the students will watch a performance by professional clowns and even get to try a few clown tricks themselves.
In November, students in Elise Robichaud’s grade 3 morning and afternoon language arts classes collected candy and created cards for Operation Gratitude, a nonprofit, volunteer-based organization that annually sends more than 150,000 care packages to U.S. service members, new recruits, veterans, first responders, wounded warriors and care givers.
The students also sent cards to local veterans, including Harker alumni who have served in the military. Then, in December, the students were treated to a surprise visit by one of the vets they had written to, who came to their classroom to personally thank them for their efforts.
“My little ones made 163 cards that were mailed out on Nov. 10, and they collected 72 pounds of candy! I’m very proud of them!” enthused Robichaud. The surprise visit from Captain Michael Gerold (a friend of fellow grade 3 language arts teacher Heather Russell), who was injured during his service, really brought the Veteran’s Day project full circle, she added.
“It is a rare opportunity when the students can see a recipient of their service projects, and it was a great experience for them,” Russell recalled.
The students collected 6.5 bags of non-chocolate candies, 17 bags of chocolate candies, and a bag containing toothbrushes, dental floss and toothpaste for Operation Gratitude.
Going the extra mile, Robichaud designed a PowerPoint presentation for her students, featuring veterans who are Harker teachers and friends of faculty members, saluting them for their service. Among them was upper school math teacher Anthony Silk, who several years back spoke to lower school students about his experiences in the U.S. Navy flying the electronic warfare plane the EA-6B Prowler. (https://staging.news.harker.org/math-teacher-and-veteran-speaks-to-grades-4-and-5-on-veterans-day/)
“I wanted my third graders to see some of the faces of the people who have served or who are currently serving our country, so I made this PowerPoint to share with them,” explained Robichaud, who had previously put out a request to staff to provide names of any military members they knew personally, so that the students could write to them.
“It means so much to the third graders to actually know some of the people who are getting the cards,” she noted.
For many years, grade 5 math teacher Pat Walsh has spearheaded the annual fifth-grade food drive. This year, the effort took place in November and culminated with a delivery to St. Justin’s Church in Santa Clara, where several hundred bags of canned goods and other non-perishable items were used to make meals and food bags for those in need. Monetary donations, totaling $6,700, also were collected.
Walsh explained that that the holiday season is a good time for students to reflect on the good fortune they have been blessed with, while also making a concerted effort to improve the lives of others who are less fortunate.
Grade 1 students in teacher Rita Stone’s class had a great time celebrating Diwali, an important Hindu holiday. After enjoying their Diwali Party, the children had a better understanding of the annual Hindu festival. For example, they discovered that the word Diwali means “rows of lighted lamps.” Diwali is known as the Festival of Lights because houses, shops and public places are decorated with small earthenware oil lamps called diyas.
Master storyteller Jim Cogan has been a beloved guest speaker at the lower school for many years. He returned in early October to entertain students at the Bucknall campus with his heartwarming tales of quiet courage and compassion.
Cogan enthralled the audience of students and faculty with two stories. The first, a Nez Perce (Native American) fable called “One Day, One Night” offered a lesson in dealing with a bully by standing up for yourself, cooperating with friends and learning that inclusiveness gets everyone working together. The second fable, “Anansi and His Children,” about the well-known storybook character “Anansi the Spider,” focused on cooperation. Anansi is among the most important characters in West African and Caribbean folklore.
A former actor, teacher/administrator, journalist and author, Cogan used material from his new assembly programming, which encourages youngsters to stop bullying by uniting against it.
Excitement was in the air on Sept. 30 as kindergarten parents – representing Harker’s biggest community of new families – gathered for their first Back-to-School Night. The well-attended event got underway with teachers of special subjects and various support services hosting tables on the kindergarten patio. Parents enjoyed visiting the tables and mingling on the patio before moving to their child’s homeroom. Presentations from the language arts and math teachers rounded out the evening. Parents left the event armed with useful information about the exciting year ahead!