Tag: Lower School

Lower School Families Unite at Back-to-School Barbecues

Shortly after the school year began, parents, students, faculty and staff filled Harker’s lower school campus for two separate events intended to welcome families back to school.

At the first happening, the campus’ newest students – the kindergarteners – took to the playground for their own mouth-watering and fun-filled barbeque. That event was followed by a larger, combined barbeque for grades 1-5, held on Bucknall’s Rincon Field.  

Attendees of both events enjoyed the warm summer air, casual atmosphere and opportunity to connect and reconnect with both new and returning students and families.

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Grade 5 Student Wins Award for Designing Anti-Bully App

Grade 5 student Yash Narayan recently received the “Best Educational App” award from iOSDevCamp, where he created an innovative app called BullyWatch.

In an event dominated by adult, veteran developers, Narayan was one of only two youth to participate among 500 talented industry insiders from companies including Facebook, Twitter and Apple. The camp (http://www.iosdevcamp.org/) is an annual nonprofit gathering where participants develop applications for iOS (an operating system used for mobile devices manufactured by Apple Inc.) products.

This year’s camp was held at PayPal’s San Jose headquarters over a weekend in late August.

The unique BullyWatch app, which takes the form of a watch, is designed to help stop bullying at school. Oftentimes students cannot express their emotions to a bully and sometimes bullies themselves are unaware that they are, in fact, bullying. Using BullyWatch, when a student feels bullied, they press a button that turns orange, expressing emotions to the bully of feeling bullied. Usually bullies will then back off, but if not, the student can then press the watch for a few more seconds and it will turn red, sending a text message to school staff with the victimized student’s name and location, thus alerting teachers.

“Thousands of kids are bullied in school every day and feel like nobody. My mission in life is to eliminate bullying from schools. I want every kid to feel safe and important. I created BullyWatch to help kids express their emotions to bullies with a click of one single button and get help quickly,” said Narayan.

According to his mother, Ritu Narayan, the iOSDevCamp is the second largest hackathon (an event where programmers meet to do collaborative computer programming) for iPhone- and iPad-based applications. She said Yash had just finished a summer camp at Stanford for developing iPhone applications, and out of curiosity accompanied his father to the hackathon. While there, he decided to pitch his BullyWatch app and subsequently built a working end-to-end product over the course of two days, never expecting to win the prestigious “Best Education Application” award.

Hackathons like the one the Narayans attended provide a venue for self-expression and creativity through technology. People with technical backgrounds come together, form teams around a problem or idea and collaboratively code a unique solution from scratch;  the solutions generally take shape in the form of websites, mobile apps and robots.

“Everyone at the competition was very impressed by the courage and persistence Yash showed, and were curious about the school that was nurturing him,” said Ritu Narayan.

Narayan’s app is especially relevant for students these days. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ anti-bullying website, Stopbullying.gov, the majority of bullying today takes place at school, with one in three U.S. students reporting that they have been bullied there.

“We are all so proud of Yash’s recent accomplishments and recognition. He is part of a growing tradition here at Harker in which our students and alumni are exploring the intersection between entrepreneurialism and service to the greater community,” said Chris Nikoloff, Harker’s head of school. 

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Winter 2013: Greater Good

This article originally appeared in the winter 2013 Harker Quarterly.

Fundraiser Lets Dancers Shine

Grade 6 students Aarzu Gupta and Radhika Jain took first place for one of their dances in the Bollywood category at a fundraising competition held at Chabot College in Hayward. The competition was sponsored by the Charitable Care Foundation (CCF).

Founded in October 1991, the CCF aims to help needy people become healthy, productive and self-reliant. Their efforts and resources are focused on local and international needs, particularly in the Bay Area and India.

The girls regularly attend a Bollywood dance class together in San Jose.

Canned Food Drive Helps Ease Hunger

The middle school’s annual canned food drive took place in mid- November. The drive was hosted by Harker’s advisories in conjunction with the Second Harvest Food Bank. Many canned and non-perishable food items were collected in containers, which were located in classrooms throughout the campus.

Last year, almost 50 million Americans lived in homes without enough food to eat. Harker is proud to have collected 2,632 pounds of food in this year’s drive.

DECA Chapter and Red Cross Club Sponsor Event

In early November, Harker’s DECA chapter and Red Cross Club hosted a lunchtime community service event in front of Nichols Hall. Students placed granola bars, batteries, Band-Aids, hand sanitizers and toothbrushes into kits that may be sent to disaster victims overseas. They also made cards for Veterans Day.

The event was run in accordance with the community-oriented pillar of the national DECA organization. Creating disaster kits for those who can’t afford them illustrated “the type of community involvement crucial to building a foundation for community-oriented entrepreneurs,” according to California DECA’s press release.

Hot Chocolate Sale to Aid Typhoon Haiyan Victims

The week after Thanksgiving break, the lower school’s student council sponsored a hot chocolate sale to raise money for relief efforts in the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan.

The funds raised by the hot chocolate sale were then combined with funds collected by the middle school for donation to Habitat for Humanity, which will help typhoon victims rebuild their homes. Faculty and staff also pitched in by donating money to offset the cost of supplies. The hot chocolate was sold for $1 a cup.

Colorful Painted Pumpkins Delivered to Neighbors

In a show of neighborly good will, this past fall grade 2 students painted and hand delivered pumpkins to residents living near the lower school campus.

The annual outreach and community service project took place in late October, just in time for Halloween.

After decorating the pumpkins and allowing them to dry, the students walked around the neighborhood leaving them on porches, along with cards.

“This was their annual service project to say ‘thank you’ to the local residents for being such good neighbors,” reported art teacher Gerry-louise Robinson, who facilitated the painting portion of the activity. Students painted in her room during their health education classes (one class at a time) with members of the BEST staff on hand to assist in the effort.

For student Kabir Ramzan, the biggest challenge was to “make the pumpkins really colorful.” Working in small groups, he and his classmates succeeded by painting in various hues of blue, green, yellow and red. They also gave each pumpkin its own special smile.

“It was action-packed and nonstop. … Utilizing the art room helped to make the event more meaningful and fun!” said Robinson, adding that the students really embraced drawing faces on the pumpkins; the facial expressions and details made each one a unique gift.

“It was marvelous how the children carefully chose colors and applied them,” she added. “The pumpkins all lined up ready to be delivered looked very charming indeed.”

“This is a really good project. I think it’s something the neighbors will like!” enthused student Aeliya Grover.

Club Plans Coastal Cleanup

In the fall, grades 4 and 5 held their first Spirit/Service Club meeting of the year, playing fun activities in advance of the Harker Harvest Festival.

“Our first club meeting was great. We had over a dozen fourth and fifth graders sign up. Fun was had by all!” reported Mel Robinson, a grade 5 P.E. teacher who helps coordinate the club.

In addition to playing spirited games, the Spirit/Service Club implements important outreach activities. For example, the club aids California coastal cleanup efforts and has a Green Committee charged with decreasing food waste in the lunchroom.

Students Donate to Emergency Shelter

Prior to her retirement, former middle school history teacher Pat White passed along her advisory project, which involves collecting toiletries for women and children at a local emergency shelter. Middle school math instructor Leah Moll took over the project, which benefits the Georgia Travis Center in San Jose.

“This year my seventh grade advisory, along with Kathy Pazirandeh’s advisory, have made and donated 85 personal kits to the center,” reported Moll.

The shelter is sponsored by the Inn-Vision Shelter Network, one of the leading shelter/housing and supportive service providers in Northern California. It aids more than 20,000 homeless men, women and children each year.

Middle School Holiday Drive Helps Fulfill Wish Lists

In an effort to serve people in need during the holiday season, Harker’s middle school community took on a project to help fulfill the “wish lists” of people living in low-income neighborhoods. After obtaining the names and wishes of individuals from an organization called Family Giving Tree, middle school families, faculty and staff set to work on fulfilling as many wishes as possible. Nearly 500 holiday wishes were granted to children, the elderly and physically disabled individuals in need, with gifts averaging about $20-$30.

Gift of Song, Carriage Rides and Wreath to Local Communities When the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce put out a call for wreaths to help decorate Blaney Plaza for the holiday season, the Awasthi family (Shivani, grade 9; Mohan, grade 6; and parents Anupam and Aarti) generously offered to create and donate one on behalf of Harker. The beautiful wreath, illuminated by LED lights, was clearly a labor of love.

And in a show of support for the Los Gatos community, Harker also helped sponsor carriage rides in the downtown area. For more than 30 years, the stately horse-drawn carriages, which meander through downtown, have attracted thousands of residents and visitors during the holiday season.

The upper school’s show choir, Downbeat, added to the cheer by caroling one night in downtown Los Gatos.

Upper School Holiday Volunteering at Harvest Food Bank

Kerry Enzensperger, the upper school’s director of community service and activities, reported that her advisory volunteered at the Second Harvest Food Bank the first night of Thanksgiving break. “We did a food sort at the Cypress Center in San Jose. Along with other volunteers we sorted carrots into boxes that weighed 25 pounds. By the end of our shift we had sorted 770 boxes of carrots equaling nine tons! We had a great time working together,” she said.

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Students for Charitable Causes Spread Service Across Campuses

This article originally appeared in the winter 2013 Harker Quarterly.

In 2008, grade 5 students Glenn Reddy, Jeremy Binkley and Nicholas Sancen were in search of a way to serve their community. “We didn’t want to just do a bake sale, because everyone does a bake sale,” said Reddy, who is now a junior. Instead, the lower school students collected various household items donated by the Harker community to sell at a garage sale.

The resulting club, PEACE2PEACE, held its first garage sale that year, raising $1,500 for AIDS Orphan Education Trust (AOET), which provides child welfare, medical care and other services to African children orphaned by the HIV/ AIDS crisis. It was a big enough feat to catch the attention of Google, which donated 100 laptops to AOET.

Since then, the club, now known as Students for Charitable Causes (SFCC), has held garage sales every year, benefiting a different cause each time. Members have continued to work together even as they moved from middle school to upper school, which is rare among student clubs.

“Normally what happens is when you go to the school, whatever campus you’re at, the program is already established and you’re a part of that program, and then when you go to the next campus, there’s the equivalent but for older kids,” said Reddy. “For us, the program didn’t exist. So we started the program in fifth grade and went to sixth grade and said, ‘We’re on a different campus now, why should we stop? We still want to help people; we still have the same goals.’”

Because its membership has been relatively consistent over the years, Reddy noted, the club has been able to operate more independently each subsequent year, “because we knew more about it than our club advisors did.”

“It really helped that by now everyone knows what the process is. We’re able to set a date, set a location, get everything working very early on,” said club vice president Sophia Shatas, grade 11, who joined as a middle school student.

The consistency also has enabled the club to learn from its past missteps, such as the 2010 garage sale, which raised about $800, far below expectations. “We didn’t think it through that much,” Reddy acknowledged.

Each sale since then, however, has raised more than the previous year’s sale. Earlier this year, Reddy and Shatas delivered a check for $3,200 – the highest amount yet raised – to Alejandra Villalobos, director of development for Embrace Global, which produces low-cost warmers for infants in developing countries.

“I think the club definitely matured with the leaders, so we’re a lot more organized now than in middle school,” said Shatas.

Reddy said that adding more organizational structure and delegation of responsibilities has been a big reason for the club’s success in recent years. “Having people directly responsible for these different components and actually breaking it down and having more or less an organization chart that says who’s responsible for what and who really gets the veto here or there, it helps a lot,” he said.

The club also shifted its focus to benefiting organizations based in the Bay Area, which allowed members to have more direct interaction and gain a better idea of how the money they raised was being used.

When the members of PEACE2PEACE entered the upper school, they changed the organization’s name to Students for Charitable Causes, which more closely matches the efforts they have taken on in addition to the annual garage sale. Since the 2011-12 school year, for example, the club has managed the annual upper school food drive, which delivers goods to the Second Harvest Food Bank. Members also participate in community service days, volunteering at places such as senior living homes and Resource Area for Teaching (RAFT), a nonprofit organization dedicated to hands-on learning.

In addition to giving the students more service opportunities, these outings also help complete the community service hours required by SFCC’s grade 9 members, who were recruited this year as its leaders approach graduation. “I feel that we didn’t leave enough of a legacy behind, setting the groundwork for the club to continue after we leave campus, which is something that we’re working really hard to do now,” Reddy said. To bolster the number of younger students in the organization, SFCC made sure to have a much larger presence at this year’s club fair and is looking to increase its presence on Harker’s other campuses. Already the club has engaged the middle school’s service club to assist with the drive to collect goods for the garage sale. “My dream, especially by senior year, would be to actually collect on the lower school campus as well and then work through the campuses’ respective service clubs,” Reddy said.

The club’s younger members are already starting to have a significant impact. When the club met to decide the beneficiary of the spring garage sale, freshman Arjun Subramaniam’s suggestion of Free the Children, which works to improve the lives of children in developing countries through a variety of means, was chosen. “I think that Free the Children is a wonderful organization working to combat child labor and abuse around the world, and I hope to continue supporting it and getting involved through my high school years,” Subramaniam said. Upon seeing SFCC’s display at the club fair, Subramaniam was “immediately captivated. It’s a great initiative and I definitely want to get involved and make a difference through social service.”

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Sew For Love Gets a Helping Hand

This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.

Five fifth grade girls shared the joy of volunteering during a fun community service project called Sew For Love, in which they sewed needed items for local charities.

Nilisha Baid had heard about the opportunity through her Girl Scouts troop. She had met the Sew For Love organizer at Girl Scouts events and had been wanting to volunteer. So she decided to ask some of her classmates to join her at this year’s 12th annual Sew For Love, which was held on a weekend during the Presidents’ Week break.

She and classmates Ankita Kundu, Advika Phadnis, Pramiti Sankar and Arushi Saxena joined other volunteers who were working in teams on various projects.

Whether busy at the sewing machine, scissors-cutting, hand-sewing or threading, Sew For Love volunteers combined their efforts to produce 871 items in just two days. Completed items included child and adult quilts, pet beds, tote and drawstring bags, fleece hats, bean bag chairs, and small “Pocket Love Bears.”

More details about the Sew For Love project can be found here.

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Art In Full Bloom: Gallery-Style Spring Shows Held on All Four Campuses

This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.

Come spring, the entire Harker community celebrates and admires the artistic talent of our students – from the youngest child at Harker Preschool to the oldest student at the upper school. Various art shows are held each spring highlighting works as unique as their creators. This year, creativity flourished in a range of artistic media on exhibit at all four campuses. Join us in this year-end reflection, as we look back at the very best of art at Harker!

AP Art Studio Classes Exhibit Works

by Zach Jones

Advanced art students showcased their work at the AP Studio Art Exhibit in late February. The show featured both 2-D and 3-D works, with each piece accompanied by a written statement summarizing the theme.

Senior Manon Audebert’s series of sculptures explored the concept of tension and how it interacts with various materials, providing a visual metaphor for the conflicts experienced in everyday life. One such piece had lengths of string and wooden sticks poking through holes of paper, which appeared coiled, as though ready to pounce or strike. Another of Audebert’s works showed strings tugging at pieces of cloth, threatening to tear them at any moment.

Elsewhere, senior Kianna Bisla’s series of photographs underscored the beauty of scenes normally taken for granted, capturing haunting images she discovered while traversing the Bay Area, including alleyways, suburban decay and creative works left on the public landscape by self-styled artists. One of her more evocative photos showed a boarded-up building, tagged by passersby and slowly succumbing to the elements, with cameras drawn in graffiti along with the message “Thank you!” as though anticipating Bisla’s arrival and offering gratitude in advance.

The AP Studio Art Exhibit is held every year to highlight the works of the high-level AP Studio Art classes taught by 3-D art teacher Jaap Bongers and 2-D art teacher Pilar Agüero- Esparza. The event was held in the spacious Nichols Hall atrium, where attendees enjoyed snacks and refreshments while viewing the artwork, enjoying an atmosphere much like a professional gallery show. Bongers’ birthday fell on the day of the exhibition, so students sang “Happy Birthday” and brought out a cake to commemorate the occasion.

Eclectic Middle School Art Show Opens at Upper School, Moves to Blackford Campus

by Debbie Cohen

Harker’s middle school spring art exhibit went on display in the upper school’s main lobby gallery after an opening reception on April 3. The show, which ran until April 23, also spilled over to the Nichols Hall atrium.

Sponsored by Harker’s middle school visual arts program, the exhibit featured select works from the school year, including colorful paintings, sketches, ceramics and wire sculptures.

Students in grades 7-8 showcased clay and glass works called “African Granary Doors.” Whimsical wire sculpture figures with accessories such as umbrellas, golf sticks and building blocks also filled the shelves. Grade 6 ceramics students displayed work done during the fall semester titled “Art Shoes,” which took the form of dinosaurs, rabbits, dragons and more. And drawings of bikes, colorful landscapes, and assorted fruits and vegetables adorned the walls.

Encased in a glass display were several sculptures that had won regional Scholastic Art Awards earlier this year. Eight Harker middle school students won the prestigious awards for their outstanding artwork. Two received the coveted gold and silver key awards, while six others were lauded with honorable mentions. All of the winners’ work was featured in the exhibit.

Meanwhile, a series of drawings called “Renaissance Self-Portraits” was on display in Nichols Hall. For this project, second-year middle school art students were asked to do a self-portrait of what they will look like at age 50, and at the same time put themselves in the time of the Renaissance.

To accomplish this feat, they studied Rembrandt’s self-portraits and followed that period and style as closely as possible.

“Scrolling through photos of Renaissance poses and portraits, I found a picture of a man with flowing, curly hair very interesting. Incorporating my cheerful countenance into the body of a royal ancient figure was extremely difficult, but weeks of sketching self-portraits eventually paid off to help accomplish this piece,” recalled art student Darren Gu, grade 8.

Kaitlin Hsu, also grade 8, said that for her Renaissance portrait, she chose to draw herself as a young maiden who “probably lived the life of a servant.” Drawing this portrait, she noted, was fun and interesting since the clothing, accessories, and style at the time were very unique and distinct. “Using various materials to finish this portrait was fun,” she added.

Also in the atrium were drawings from first-year art students, including illustrations of Audubon birds and sketches of rocking chairs. The drawings were done in the Italian artistic style of chiaroscuro, which utilizes strong contrasts between light and dark (similar effects in cinema and photography also are called chiaroscuro).

The middle school art show was unique in that it hosted its opening reception at the upper school. After a brief run there, the exhibit was relocated to the middle school multipurpose room where it joined the middle school’s end-of-the-year art exhibit. The middle school campus’ exhibit was all-inclusive, ran for about a month, and had its own opening reception.

Lower School Art Show Celebrates Creative Work of Entire Campus

by Debbie Cohen

Hanging paper lanterns blew gently in the breeze as the lower school’s gymnasium doors swung open on April 28, kicking off the campus’ much-anticipated art show. The annual exhibition, which began that afternoon with a well-attended reception in the gym’s foyer, ran until May 21. It featured selected academic and after-school works of K-5 students.

Refreshments were served in the main gallery (the gym lobby) as exhibiting students once again demonstrated an impressive range of artistic abilities. Artwork on display included monochromatic pencil drawings, watercolor paintings, collages and ceramics.

There was an interactive feel to this year’s show, which wound its way from the lobby into the gym, up the stairs and all the way to the top-floor classrooms – even extending into the kitchens and art rooms. Parents, faculty members and students slowly meandered through the event, viewing the wonderfully artistic and often whimsical pieces, which were arranged by theme and grade level.

“The art show was a great success. We had many parents and students come by not only to find their own personal pieces, but to also view the wide selection on show. We even had a family who had gone home to get ‘dressed up’ for the event; it was very sweet,” recalled Gerry-louise Robinson, Harker’s lower school art teacher.

“The highlight for me was the vibrancy and color that was in the displays, with first grade work displayed comfortably next to fifth grade work. We also had a wonderful display highlighting the Japanese wood coasters which were made during a visit from Maruko, the Japanese exchange teacher from Tamagawa this year,” she continued.

Back in the winter, Maruko Ishigami, an art teacher from Tamagawa Academy (K-12) School & University – Harker’s sister school in Tokyo, Japan – helped teach art classes for grades 2-5, showing the second and third graders how to make traditional Japanese wood coasters and instructing the fourth and fifth graders in various painting techniques used in her country.

Grade 2 students Emi Fujimura, Shayla He and Shareen Chahal agreed that the best thing about making the wood coasters was “building it” from scratch, noting that the process reminded them of putting together a jigsaw puzzle. Classmate Vivek Nayyar said he especially enjoyed having a “visiting teacher” come to the classroom.

Another highlight of the art showw was the collection of winter-themed illustrations, with pictures of trees drawn in black against a sky-blue backdrop, amid delicately falling white snowflakes. Among the various drawings were “Winter Trees,” from the after-school art program, using watercolor and white pencil; “Worm View Winter Trees,” made by students in grade 5 using construction paper and tempura paint; and “Camouflage Winter Scene,” by grade 4 students working with colored pencils.

The colors of many other illustrations took on a decidedly playful theme, such as the charming, colorful penguins clad in scarves called “Chilly Penguins” made by kindergartners. These were made of construction paper collage. Brightly drawn fall pumpkin scenes were also a big hit with various grade levels, including kindergartners, and first and third graders.

Particularly unique to the show was an exhibit called “Perched Owls” from the kindergartners, which comprised glazed ceramic owls sitting in rows perched atop the branches of a tree made out of construction paper. Meanwhile, at a display table nearby, grade 4 students showcased pencil drawings titled “Monochromatic Castles” as well as sculpted versions (made out of ceramic, glaze and mixed media) simply called “Castles.”

According to Anoushka Khatri, grade 4, the best thing about the art show was the chance it gives you to not only see your work represented, but all your friends’ work, too.”

Nathan Wang, grade 5, agreed. “Everybody has at least one thing in the art show,” he added.

Wang’s classmate, Alex Baeckler, said she had actually made an art piece that was intended to be a surprise for her dad on Father’s Day, but had to let the cat out of the bag when he happened upon it during the art show. “He was still really surprised and happy to see it … and I’m still going to give it to him after the show!” she said, smiling proudly.

“The students really demonstrated their talents and creativity. What amazing students we have!” enthused Robinson.

Upper School Artwork Featured, Appraised at Art Show

by Zach Jones

The upper school art show featured student works from all parts of the upper school arts program, many of them winners in this year’s Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. The juror for this year’s show was Stephanie Metz, an accomplished Bay Area-based artist who has held exhibitions at both the San Francisco and New York branches of the Hosfelt Gallery, as well as the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art.

Nephele Troullinos, grade 11, was awarded best in show for her printmaking piece “Tahoe Color,” which Metz said was “balanced and iconic, but also uses the medium and techniques of printmaking to the best advantage.”

First place in painting/printmaking went to Doreene Kang, grade 10, for her painting “Workroom,” which depicts a fashion designer in his studio. Winning second place in this category was Anna Kendall, grade 12, whose striking acrylic painting prompted Metz to describe it as “gestural but controlled – the colors fight and also play well together.”

Archana Podury, grade 11, won first place in drawing/mixed media for her ballpoint pen drawing, a vortex of spring-like objects fittingly titled “Coiled.” Second place went to senior Jerry Shen’s thoughtprovoking “Tree of Knowledge,” which featured a man in a suit with a box on his head upon which a tree has taken root.

In the sculpture category, Manon Audebert, grade 12, was awarded first place for a piece exploring the concept of tension by showing strings suspending a cloth by pulling it in opposite directions. Another Audebert piece, a separate study in tension showing sheets of metal bent to various degrees, took second place in this category.

Junior Madelyn Wang’s moody photograph of trees and buildings taken through a window covered in condensation earned her first place in the photography category, while Melina Nakos, grade 10, took second place for her photograph of a ballerina, which Metz praised for its “lonely composition and sense of motion.”

Eric Wang, grade 11, was a two-time winner in ceramics: “Birdhouse,” in which a scaly green cube clasped by a mouth-like appendage won first place, and “Abstraction Exercise,” an intriguing interaction of sharp edges, colors and black, won second.

Finally, Chloe van den Dries, grade 10, and Megan Prakash, grade 12, won first and second, respectively, in the graphic arts/digital category.

Harker Preschool Holds Inaugural Art Show on Grandparents’ Day

by Debbie Cohen

The students at Harker Preschool used Grandparents’ Day as a special occasion to hold their very first art show. Along with works made in the art studio throughout the school year, grandparents were the first to view a collection of canvas paintings that the preschoolers completed as part of an end-of-the-year art concepts review.

Grandparents’ Day, held each May, is already a long-standing tradition at Harker’s lower school. Now, preschoolers have joined in the tradition, welcoming their grandparents, special adult friends or “adoptive” grandparents-for-the-day to visit the school for a morning of exploration and play, including a captivating stop at the art exhibit.

“Grandparents’ Day was a huge hit! The event served as an opportunity for our fabulous teachers and specialists to showcase their work from this year and the strong bonds that they have developed with the preschoolers,” said Alexandria Kerekez, Harker Preschool’s art specialist.

Kerekez added that near the event’s gallery, which was “filled to the brim with artwork,” there was a table reserved for children to join her in sharing bead-making techniques with their grandparents. Participants also had the opportunity to join the preschool’s music and movement teacher in a song. Meanwhile, the school’s STEM specialist opened up the farm for the children to enjoy delicious edible plants and play with snuggly bunnies.

According to Kerekez, preschoolers of all ages are regularly invited into the art studio to paint, work with clay, hone their pencil skills and learn to observe the world around them while working in a variety of media. The school’s outdoor art area allows for further creative expression, where everyday things such as the sun, water and leaves can become part of a project.

Making ceramics is a favorite art activity for 4-year-old Ameera Ramzan, who, earlier in the year, had worked on making a “pinch pot.” Sounding very much like an art teacher herself, she proudly explained that to create the pot you “first roll the ball … and then you pinch it!”

Back in January and February, Kerekez hung a more informal exhibit in a room just off the preschool lobby called “The Faces of Harker Preschool.” Included in that self-portrait display were works by all of the preschool’s children – from the Pebble, Clover, Acorn and Feather cottages to the transitional kindergarten crew.

That exhibit and the Grandparents’ Day art show were so successful that Kerekez said she hopes to make them annual events.

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Grandparents’ Day Delights at Both Preschool and Lower School

This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.

In early May, Grandparents’ Day events were held at Harker’s lower school and, for the first time, at the new Harker Preschool. On this charming day, grandparents and grandfriends visited the campuses to tour and participate in activities with the special children in their lives.

“Grandparents’ Day is already a wonderful and long-standing tradition at Harker’s lower school. Now, preschoolers on the Union campus have joined in on the fun!” enthused Andrea Hart, director of Harker Preschool.

The captivating morning of exploration and play for students and their honored guests served as an opportunity for preschool teachers and specialists to provide a glimpse of all the incredible happenings at Harker Preschool, according to Hart.

“On hand was a variety of displays and interactive activities from the preschool’s talented staff, including the art instructor, music and movement teacher and STEM specialist,” she said.

At the lower school, the event was marked by an elaborate circus theme.

During the day, students and their special guests were treated to entertaining demonstrations by an array of circus folks, including hula-hoopers, stilt walkers, jugglers, clowns, balloon artists and face painters. The entertainers walked throughout the lower school campus, interacting with participants.

“Our goal was to entertain and also to create awareness about the abuse of circus animals. We had more than 450 visitors,” reported Teré Aceves, director of preschool-5 volunteer programs.

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Lower School Library Provides Students with State-of-the-Art Learning and Research Space

This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.

Every day is “library day” at Harker’s lower school campus, where daily checkouts have skyrocketed to an all-time high.

From its humble beginnings as a place used primarily for storytelling in Harker’s former K-8 program, the Bucknall library has evolved into a bookworm’s paradise and 21st century research space for K-5 students.

When Harker’s lower school relocated from the upper school campus to the Bucknall campus in 1998, library development had been identified as a top priority during many in-depth long-range planning sessions. Improvements to the newly purchased lower school campus included the conversion of the multipurpose room into a library, which then benefited greatly from the school’s annual giving campaign for the purchase of books.

Today, a wealth of materials are available in the library, from DVDs and videos to books on tape and downloadable titles for e-readers. There are also professional and parenting resources, graphic novels, fiction and non-fiction books – more than 19,000 items in all.

“No student on the Bucknall campus should ever go home to an empty nightstand!” enthused Kathy Clark, lower school librarian, who has been working at Harker for the past 19 years. “There are a total of 1,200 items in circulation as of right now,” she reported, adding that several hundred books could be checked out on any given day.

A past presenter at the Harker Teachers Institute, California Association of Independent Schools and Internet Librarian and International Society for Technology in Education, Clark is also a member of several library associations as well as a former Harker parent.

Her son (Daniel Clark ’10) currently works with Harker’s tech and theater departments. He worked on sound and lighting, as well as acted as a microphone handler, during the recent library-sponsored Ogre Awards, which is a beloved annual production and part of the library’s grade 2 curriculum of comparative folklore.

To help keep up with increased circulation, the lower school library’s staff of three is aided by a dedicated group of 18 parent volunteers, many of whom have stayed on even after their children moved on to middle school.

“Without the volunteers, we couldn’t do it. They are the heart and soul of the library,” said Moureen Lennon, a library assistant who also works as the library’s volunteer coordinator. “It’s a huge commitment and ensures that students can check out in a timely manner. All new volunteers are trained on where library items are located and how to reshelve the books,” she added.

Along with expanding the library’s collection, Clark helps students navigate the use of 21st century technology tools for research. Yet, cautions Clark, even though students can research online nowadays, it’s more important than ever to learn basic information skills. To that end, teaching them how to find, evaluate and use information for research, both online and in print, is a primary focus.

“I can still remember a time when we used to ask the students if they had Internet access at home. Now it’s a given. But the question is what’s the best way to search for information online,” explained Clark, adding, “Google is not always the best choice.”

However, Clark stressed that the lower school library offers information in a variety of formats which provide lots of developmental options for students. In addition to the library’s extensive print collections, all Harker students have 24/7 access to more than 90 outstanding subscription databases and thousands of fiction and non-fiction titles through eBook subscription services managed by the libraries.

No matter how they prefer to read books, all lower school students enjoy weekly visits to the library, either for formal classes or free-reading periods. In the primary grades, classes are taught a story-based curriculum, using teaching techniques such as acting, listening and stimulating the imagination. Noting that books were the precursor to television and the movies, Clark said that many folktales heavily influenced popular children’s movies. “I tell the kids, I don’t do Disney … I have the originals!” she said, referring to the impressive collection of international folk and fairytale books available in the library.

Although grade 5 students do not attend formal weekly classes, Clark sees them regularly as she collaborates with their subject teachers to teach important research skills through engaging projects and assignments. Additionally, grade 5 students are encouraged to simply read for pleasure through a library program called the Fifth Grade Reads Project.

“In grade 5, we noticed a drop off in interest (and time) for reading due to increased homework and extracurricular activities. We launched the program to help fight that reading drop-off,” said Lennon, who came up with the idea for the project, in which students are regularly introduced to various authors and their works, but are then free to choose and check out anything they want. They are also given free-reading time in the library.

Another important element of the lower school library is its ongoing collaboration with teachers across subjects and grades to enrich lessons with information literacy skills.

For example, a group of grade 5 students – Emma-Leigh Stoll, Nilisha Baid, Ryan Tobin and Srinath Somasundaram – were recently in the library videotaping a scene for their “Famous Americans Project,” a special cross-disciplinary assignment between their computer and social studies classes. The project relies heavily on library research to ultimately create original short historic films depicting the lives of selected high-profile individuals.

With a gray wig and other props, the group was creating a film about Susan B. Anthony, an American social reformer who played a pivotal role in the women’s suffrage movement. The team agreed that the best thing about the project was how much it mirrored the real working world as a truly collaborative experience. The students said they relied heavily on the library’s resources to write their historical script.

Another exciting collaborative effort, new this year, is a grade 4 endeavor utilizing both the library and math lab, which formed from a career project developed as part of the fourth grade curriculum.

“This year we were lucky to embark on collaboration with elementary math teacher Eileen Schick for fourth grade,” reported lower school librarian Katrina Nye. “Students worked on a career project, creating a basic household budget and getting hands-on experience using their online research skills. Every class learned the basics of Web evaluation, gaining an understanding of different sources of information, and using them appropriately in a real-life context.”

Earlier in the school year, fourth graders worked on a country research project in a collaborative effort between the librarian and language arts teacher. Meanwhile, working in small groups, grade 3 students researched the care and habitat of zoo animals. They then created a “virtual zoo” using online project pages for their library class. (To view those results go to: http://library.harker.org/zoo.)

In addition to an array of year-round programs and projects, every spring the lower school library hosts a popular annual book fair, which coincides with Grandparents’ Day. Held in the Bucknall library, the sale includes a wide variety of books. The proceeds support the purchase of additional library materials, but, said Clark, the greatest benefit to the school is the wonderful sense of community the book fairs inspire.

According to Harker’s library director, Sue Smith, information literacy is the cornerstone of the library program schoolwide. “Students enjoy rich collections of print and eBooks selected to support their interests and passions. We promote reading through book clubs, book talks, author visits, special displays and summer reading programs,” she said.

Reflecting back on her own library lessons, grade 4 student Zeel Thakkar said, “I would use library skills in my career … when I read through work-related information and pick out the information I need to solve a problem.”

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Grade 3 Students Put Math Skills to Use with Innovative BizWorld Program

For the past few years, grade 3 students in Stephanie Woolsey’s math classes have ended their school year by forming a simulated startup company. In early June, using an internationally known program called BizWorld (BizWorld.org), the students once again worked together to create a business in a real-world environment.

The BizWorld program is designed specifically for elementary and middle school age children, allowing them to engage in hands-on activities that promote financial responsibility, leadership and teamwork skills.

Students are placed into small groups and choose officers, name their company, and then create a design for friendship bracelets, Woolsey explained. Next they manufacture, market and sell them to parents and other students in the culminating “BizWorld Bazaar.”

Like any Silicon Valley startup, however, the new entrepreneurs require funding to get their businesses up and running. “So parents, teachers, and even Sarah Leonard, primary division head, got in on the act and put the company’s CEO and VP of finance through the paces with questions to prove that their company is a good investment,” recalled Woolsey.

Woolsey began using the BizWorld program to give her students practical math experience. She said she continues to use it because it both builds math skills, and provides a great opportunity for teamwork and interaction with parents and students from other grades.

“It gave me a chance to work with people I’ve never worked with before and helped me improve my math,” said student Rachel Ning.

Classmate Rohan Gorti called the program extremely fun but very hard. “Selling things was hard because people are very picky,” he explained.

“It’s fun making bracelets,” peer Claire Chen added.

BizWorld was originally founded in 1997 by venture capitalist Tim Draper, who saw a need to inspire entrepreneurship in children. Since then, the company has distributed innovative programs to teachers in more than 80 countries and has reached over 450,000 students and 8,000 educators.

 “Bizworld is really fun to do and it teaches you about teamwork and about business,” said student Laurie Jin. 

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Grade 5 Hobbit Battle Comes to Life on Lower School Field

On a sunny spring afternoon in late May, the lower school’s outdoor field was magically transformed into “middle earth,” complete with interactive goblin slayings and wizard encounters. The annual grade 5 Hobbit Battle, in which students played both imaginatively and collaboratively, was the culmination of an exploration of medieval literature.

“It made the literature we had earlier read in language arts come to life out on our field. We invited a renowned LARP (medieval sword) master to lead the games with the students, and many teachers played along as well,” recalled Annamaria Smitherman, grade 5 language arts teacher.

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