HAGERSTOWN CHILDREN`S SCHOOL

HAGERSTOWN CHILDREN’S SCHOOL
Education for Life
April 2015
“The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, The children are now working as if I did not exist.”
~Maria Montessori
Director’s Letter
The end of the year is fast approaching. All the classrooms are busy practicing for the end of
the year program and exploring our monthly topics. Our dedicated staff packs each day with
many fun learning activities. We strive to create an engaging and fun environment for your children. We hope you continue to share your positive experiences here at HCS with your friends
and neighbors. You are our best source of advertising. We will continue to enroll for the 20152016 school year through the summer. Morning spaces are limited but we have all options open
in our afternoon program.
I am excited to announce that we received the Non-public Text Book Grant from the Maryland
State Department of Education again this year. The funds will be used to purchase books and
technology. These grants along with your participation in our fundraising programs help to limit
tuition increases.
HCS Summer Camp is a great way to keep your children engaged over the summer. We are
hosting 4 one week camps again this year. The staff expand upon the educational topics and
create wonderful learning activities, crafts, and lessons to enhance your child’s natural curiosity.
Camps 2 and 4 will be open for past HCS students enrolled in Kindergarten through third
grade. Each week will end with a sprinkler fun day on our playground. All camps currently have
openings. We look forward to seeing all of your children over the summer. Contact the office
for more information and registration.
~Heather Tosten
In This Issue
Kenya and Conservation go hand-in-hand as two of our curriculum
topics this month. Kenya is home to 22 National Parks, 28 Reserves, and 5 Sanctuaries.

Letter from Director

Events Calendar

Classroom Letters

Things to Remember

Montessori Terms

Tax EIN
Tuesday, April 21, 2015 @ 6:30 pm
Spring Art Show, Raffle, & Silent Auction
The Spring Parent Association Meeting will be held prior to
the raffle drawing and announcement of silent auction winners. Don’t miss the chance to participate in the Balloon
Pop (cash only). Silent Auction items will be posted the week
of April 13th.
Raffle Tickets are due on April 14, 2015. Thank you for making this our most successful fundraising event of the year!
April 2015
Sunday
5
12
Monday
6
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
1
2
3
4
Spring Break
Spring Break
Spring Break
School Closed
School Closed
School Closed
8
9
10
11
14
15
16
17
18
Raffle Tickets
and money due
Tuition Due
Spring Break
Professional Day
School Closed
School Closed
13
BOD Meeting
6;30 m
20
Music Program
26
Wednesday
7
Music Program
19
Tuesday
27
Show and Tell
21
22
23
29
30
24
25
Spring Art Show,
Raffle, & Silent
Auction
28
Show and Tell
Hagerstown Children’s School
Grandparents
Luncheon
Education for life
Don’t miss the
School Picnic on
May 8, 2015
April 2015 Issue
A Letter from Ms. Megan in Primary I
Happy Spring Everyone! We welcomed this
month by talking about the common simile: “in
like a lion out like a lamb.” The children needed
more clarification on the meaning of this phrase
as several of our students started looking around
our classroom for lions and lambs.
We danced to beautiful music with scarves and
flower petals to celebrate the festival of Holi. This
holiday is a celebration of color to welcome in all
the colors of spring. Our students appreciated the
music provided to us by a parent. We celebrated
Ms. Keri leads the children in song in Primary I
the life, works, and characters of Dr. Seuss. We
each took a turn being the Cat in the Hat and
tried our hand at walking on a balance beam and holding many objects. At the end of this activity we all agreed that the Cat in the Hat was very talented indeed.
We also spent time learning about four different types of habitats: forests, oceans, grasslands
and deserts. Our students really enjoyed a lesson given by Miss Susan as she had wonderful
stories about her explorations of the ocean and coral reefs. Miss Gina helped open our eyes to
the interesting jobs a dung beetle and a buzzard have within a grassland ecosystem. I do not
think that any of us will forget watching Miss Gina pretend to be a dung beetle! We also practiced being a thorny devil lizard, a fennec fox, and a cape ground squirrel, all of which have developed amazing adaptations to allow them to thrive in desert regions. Since we are talking
about regions, I think it is important to mention such locations such as Angel Falls, Mount Roraima, Los Medanos de Coro and Pico Bolivar. Our students learned the names and locations of
these landforms in Venezuela. We also took a closer look into Venezuelan culture, music, history, animals, and their flag.
The middle of the month was peppered with activities related to St. Patrick's Day, baby animals
and the coming of spring. Sadly, our scheduled nature walk had to be postponed because of
snowy weather and cold temperatures. Which makes me wonder if I should revisit the popular
March simile and change it to: in like a lion out like a lion.
In the coming weeks we will study Kenya, animals of the big five, conservation, Rembrandt and
musical artists Greg and Steve. If any of you have knowledge or experiences in these areas of
study please let us know! I am personally looking forward to teaching a lesson on the art of telling African folktales.
And now for very important news: your children have been an absolute joy to teach this past
month! We are seeing so much growth and excitement to learn. In all my years of teaching I
have never witnessed so many students right smack dab in the middle of an educational transformation. Our students are engaged in their work and enthusiastic about their learning. I cannot wait to see what surprises the spring brings us!
~Ms Megan
Hagerstown Children’s School
Education for life
April 2015 Issue
Welcome Spring! A Letter from Ms. Penny in Pre Primary
Welcome Spring! The calendar says it's spring and we sure hope it feels like it soon. The Pre
Primary class has been very busy this month learning about the food chain, and how the sun is
the energy source we all need. We also visited Venezuela and the language that the children
speak there. We have learned our colors and numbers in Spanish along with a song about our
dedos (fingers). We enjoyed fishing in our aquarium and finding all the exotic fish that live in
the waters of Venezuela.
Chagall was a big hit with the children. We created a version of his stain glass window. Make
sure to come to the art show to see all our creative art work from this year on Tuesday, April
21, 2015.
April will be just as exciting as we take a trip to Kenya and go on safari. As part of our lessons
on conservation, the children will learn what we can recycle from home. Music is a big part of
our curriculum and Ms. Keri will continue to join our classroom on Mondays with her last day
being April 20. Our musical artists for April are Greg & Steve.
Have a great spring break and see you all back April 8th!
~Ms Penny
Pre Primary Teachers: Ms. Penny and Ms. Caitlin. Ms. Susan assists in all of our classrooms.
Things to Remember

Volunteer registration forms are available in the office

Final Tuition Due on April 15, 2015

Extended Care fees are due April 1 and
May 1

Return borrowed clothing to the classroom

Label all sweaters, jackets, hats, and
gloves

Playing in the flower beds or along retaining walls is not permitted by St.
John’s Lutheran Church
Hagerstown Children’s School
Education for life
Ongoing Fundraising Efforts
Amazon Smile will give a percentage of your purchase to HCS
when you shop from the link below
http://smile.amazon.com/ch/52-1869677
Box Tops & Labels for Education are collected in the Office
Printer cartridge and cell phone recycling are collected in the
Office
Martin’s Bonus Cards
Target Credit Card Purchases: Designate our school to earn
money while you shop
April 2015 Issue
A Letter from Ms. Gina in Primary 2
A Celebration of Holi, The Color Festival
Spring is finally here, and we are all happy to be
enjoying the warm sunshine again. We learned
that the Spring equinox occurs because our
northern hemisphere is neither leaning toward or
away from the sun. We are looking forward to the
longer days that are just around the corner!
li, the Indian Festival of Colors.
Speaking of hemispheres, we “traveled” to the South
American country of Venezuela, which sits just above
the Equator. We learned that this is a country of varied terrains; from the Andes mountains in the west,
the Atlantic ocean in the east, and the Amazon Basin
rainforest in the south. Venezuela is also home to Angel falls. At over 3,100 feet tall, it is the highest waterfall in the world. During the warmer months the water
can evaporate before it hits the bottom!
We have been enjoying the fun and educational music
of Hap Palmer. Our music teacher, Miss Keri has introduced us to a variety of great Springtime songs that
let us sing and move. By drawing and painting our
dreams, we created our own version of our artist Marc
Chagall's work. Thanks again to biologist Sara
McCarthy, who showed us some of those nasty viruses that can make us sick. Keep those sneezes covered!
During the month of March, we learned what a food
chain is, and how each member plays an important
role in sustaining a habitat. From a lion or eagle at the
top of a chain, to fungus and the lowly dung beetle,
every living thing provides regeneration and life.
During April, we will travel to the beautiful wild country
of Kenya. We will celebrate Earth Day and learn about
conserving our planet's resources. We will learn about
painting and printmaking by studying the work of
Rembrandt van Rijn. Greg and Steve will provide our
musical selections. Show and tell days will be Friday,
We also celebrated traditional Spring holidays. On St.
April 17th and Tuesday, April 28th.
Patrick's Day, we had a visit from those clever leprechauns, who made a green mess, but left us a nice Enjoy the Spring Break!
surprise as well. We learned about the new animal
babies of the Easter season and experimented by coloring eggs with natural dyes. We had a great time
dancing and tossing a rainbow of flower petals for Ho-
~Ms Gina
Lunch Bunch & Drop In Care
We are pleased to offer Drop In Lunch Bunch to our families for $10.
Lunch bunch begins at
11:30 am and ends at 12:30 pm and is available to our morning and afternoon Friends.
Drop-In care is available mornings and Thursday and Friday afternoons for $10 an hour.
Hagerstown Children’s School
Education for life
April 2015 Issue
Adventures in Extended Care
Everyday is an adventure in Extended Care! From the silly Children are natural scientists, which makes our science
playful moments to cooperating with friends, your children topics each month an adventure in exploration, and the
grow and delight us daily.
Food Chain was no exception. The children learned that
the owl eats the snake, the snake eats the mouse, the
The Extended Care classroom enjoys a wide array of arts mouse eats the grasshopper, and the grasshopper eats
and crafts with our topics each month. In a celebration of the grass. Within the circle of life, the children learned that
the beloved Dr. Suess, our morning friends made “Green each animal and plant contributes to the survival of anothEggs and Ham,” while our afternoon friends made Cat-in- er. Ask your child if she can recall what herbivores, omnithe-Hat hats. Marc Chagall’s work with stained glass al- vores, and carnivores consume.
lowed us to make our version of stained glass. We also
made spring flowers, colored marshmallows, and painted We will miss their smiles and laughter over the Spring
with plastic eggs to usher in the warmth of spring. We look Break, but we know that we will all come back refreshed
forward to displaying some of your child’s artwork at the and renewed with warmer weather. When we return to
upcoming Art Show.
school on April 8, we will begin our study of Kenya, Conservation, Rembrandt, and Greg & Steve.
As we said goodbye to the cold winter of February, we
welcomed our lessons on Venezuela in March. The chil- Have a wonderful Spring Break!
dren learned about Venezuelan animals in the rain forest,
plants, and sports. Baseball is one of the favorite Vene- Extended Care Teachers: Ms. Sam and Ms. Kaelin
zuelan pastimes because of the number of American exLunch Bunch Teachers: Ms. Sam, Ms. Angela, Ms. Susan,
pats living there, with futbol coming in a close second.
and Ms. Caitlin
Tax information
Register Now for HCS 2015 Summer
Camps
We have four, one week sessions for current students
ages 2 (independent in the bathroom) through Kindergarten. We will also have two, one week elementary
camps for alumni students first through third grade
(Egypt and Dinosaur themed camps). Registrations
are available in the office.
Life Cycle ~ June 8-12
Egypt ~ June 15-19
Community Helpers ~ July 6-10
Hagerstown Children’s School’s
EIN # is 52-1869677
Please contact Vanessa for your child care statement
Now Enrolling for the 2015-2016 School Year
Hagerstown Children’s School
141 S Potomac Street
Hagerstown, MD 21740
(301) 739-6886
[email protected]
Visit us on the web at
www.hagerstownchildrensschool.org
Dinosaurs ~ July 13-17
Hagerstown Children’s School
Education for life
April 2015 Issue