This past week HCS students started their Gymnastics unit in Physical Education. The Gymnastics unit is a perennial favorite and a fun, healthy way to "tumble" into the new year!
HCS celebrated a festive Spirit Week this past week culminating in a fun-filled Jingle Jangle assembly featuring musical, dance, and singing performances by each grade as well as a surprise dance performance from some great 4th grade dancers Natalie B., Tess M., Nora B., Shea S., Penelope W., and Micaela S.
At HCS, Kindergarten through fourth grade students participated in a circus unit in Physical Education. Students learned and practiced many different motor skills and worked on balancing, eye -hand coordination, and teamwork. The circus unit culminated in a class circus of skill performances. Bravo HCS students!
This week, some of our Kindergarten students participated in Gingerbread man STEM projects including building bridges, boats, and hideouts. Our Kindergarten engineers did a nice job with their designs and creativity. Well done!
This past week our 3rd graders culminated their study of the Native Americans of the Northeast, Southwest, Southeast, Northwest, and the Plains. In doing so they constructed villages showcasing what they learned about Native American architecture, culture, lifestyle, food, beliefs, and community structure representative of each geographic region. Nice work third graders!
To celebrate Coding Month in December, our 3rd and 4th graders had an assembly with local software engineer and entrepreneur, Nick Maiello. Nick spoke with our students about software and coding and showed our students some of his past projects, and his current company/app, Chargely. Our students were able to connect what they have been learning in technology class using our robotics program, CoderZ, to what Nick does in a real-world way. All students were engaged and loved being able to ask Nick questions and answer his in return! It was a great afternoon learning all about coding and software! Thank you Mrs. McLaughlin for bringing Nick in to talk with our students!
Recently, our preschoolers conducted some investigatory "Pumpkin Science" work on the pumpkins that they learned about this past fall. They set up a pumpkin research area in the corner of the playground to monitor what happens to pumpkins as they break down. Many different sizes, varieties, and shapes of pumpkins were used for this experiment. Way to go Preschool Pumpkin scientists!
In second grade we celebrated the Hour of Code in December by learning about binary code. Students discovered that individual letters were represented by an 8 digit combination of zeroes and ones. They created a bead candy cane with the binary code of their name with red and white beads. One color represented the zeroes, and the other represented the ones!
The fourth grade chorus held their annual Holiday Concert. It was an evening of festive songs and good cheer, delighting a full house of family members and friends. The concert backdrop featured student artwork and a beautiful gallery of self portraits. Bravo! to the fourth graders and to Mrs. Starck and Mr. Terrille for a great holiday performance!
This past week our third graders took a swimming field trip to the Workout Club in Londonderry. A fun time was had by all! Thank you to the Workout Club for hosting us and to Mrs. Ingraham and Mrs. Arroyo for organizing this aquatic event!
Get your festive spirit ready for HCS Spirit Week! Every day will feature a different festive theme. Join the fun!
Our Wee Deliver postal service is underway! This past week our students were busy writing letters and our fourth grader postal workers were hard at working making sure that the letters were delivered on time and to the correct addresses. So far nearly a hundred letters have been written and delivered. Way to go! Thank you to Mrs. Freilich who is severing as our Wee Deliver Coordinator this year!
We did it! A new world record was set for Cup Stacking! 746,698 stackers and 2,242 schools / organizations took part in the WSSA Cup Stacking event. This event set a new WSSA World Record for the "Most People Sport Stacking at Multiple Locations". Our third and fourth grade students' participation in this event helped surpass the previous record of 737,863 stackers.
In PE class, students participated in a cup stacking ladder tournament. In the tournament if you won the round you moved up in the ladder. At the end of the tournament a winner was determined from grades 3 and 4. Congratulations to Gr. 3 winners Ben Fowler and Harper Malcom and to Gr. 4 winner, Sam Peterson. Way to go Gr. 3 &4 students and thank you to Mrs. Arroyo and Mrs. Ingraham for organizing this event!
This past week our Wee Deliver program was opened for business. This in-school postal service offers students the opportunity to write letters to friends and staff through out the school. Wee deliver was opened this year with an all-school assembly featuring a special visit from the postmaster from the East Hampstead Post Office, an explanation on how to use Wee Deliver, a presentation by some of our fourth graders on how to practice kindness and gratitude in writing letters, and the swearing in of the entire fourth grade as official HCS Wee Deliver postal carriers. We are excited to bring back this popular, fun program. Thank you to Mrs. Freilich, our Wee Deliver Coordinator and thank you to the East Hampstead Post Office for visiting us!
Yesterday HCS celebrated Thanksgiving with a "Balloons Over Broadway" Parade and Kindergarten Turkey Trot. First grade students worked this week designing and decorating their balloons and then proudly paraded them through the hallways like the Macy's parade in New York. All the students and teachers came out to enjoy the parade. Later in the afternoon, our Kindergarteners took to the hallways with their "Turkey Trot." They showcased the turkeys they made for the whole school to see. It was a fun, festive day yesterday at HCS! Happy Thanksgiving to all!!
First graders did a fun Mayflower STEM project this week. Students used their engineering design skills to add counting bears (Pilgrims) to aluminum foil boats (The Mayflower.) The students were able to try multiple times to improve their designs. The boat with the most Pilgrims ended up carrying 200 pilgrim bears! Well done!
For the last several weeks, the third grade students have partnered with GLOBE (Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment) to document the changing colors of the deciduous leaves on our Hampstead Central School campus. Each third grade class chose a different type of deciduous tree to observe and recorded the changing leaf color progression using a color guide tool. This data was collected until the leaves dropped from the trees. In the scientific community, this phenology process is called “Green Down” In addition to this important data collection, third grade students at HCS had the opportunity to share their green-down research with GLOBE students in Ireland. Globe hosted a Zoom meeting for us to share and collaborate with second and third grade students from the Timoleague National School in Timoleague, Co. Cork, Ireland. Students from both schools shared about the trees they were observing and there was time to share some cultural information as well. Although the “green down” for the season has ended, third grade students at HCS are excited to continue this dialogue with their new Irish friends from the Timoleague National School. Thank you to the third grade team and Mrs. Wisecarver for orchestrating this international project!
First Graders had the opportunity to combine technology with the Thanksgiving tradition of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. Students designed their own paper balloons to be carried on a route through the city using programmable Bee Bots. As part of technology class, students learned how to program the Bee Bots to complete the parade route. This was a fun opportunity for students to use technology and creativity with a festive Thanksgiving theme.
HCS Ski Club Info night is next Thursday Nov. 16 from 6:30-7:00. HCS Ski Club is open to 3rd and 4th graders. Representatives from McIntyre Ski Area in Manchester will be in attendance both to answer questions about their program and to size skiers/riders who wish to rent equipment from McIntyre. "Ski" you there for answers to all your HCS Ski Club questions!
MIchael Terrile - Coordinator
Sophia Poulin - Coordinator
Ann Le - Coordinator
Erin O'Neill - Gear Transport Extraordinaire
Students in Mrs. Burkett's and Mrs. Rodrigues's science classes worked on creating interactive bat posters using "Makey-Makey" kits to celebrate International Bat Week. Makey-Makey is a bridge between the digital and physical worlds that allows anyone to become an inventor. The students worked on becoming "myth busters" and recorded facts that would help people understand that even though bats can look scary, they are incredibly helpful to our ecosystems. Once students completed their interactive posters, the classes did a gallery walk and had the opportunity to view each team's work.
