School Notes by Susan Braun Johnson

SCHOOL NOTES

by Susan Braun Johnson

Northeast Stars

NES students are learning and building their skills each day with initial sound object matching, a tactile learning activity that reinforces learning the sounds associated with each letter, the Moveable Alphabet, which is a Montessori tool used to teach reading, spelling, and writing. Students have also been using phonetic reading blocks to practice spelling and sounding out three letter words. This activity helps to develop pre-reading skills, gain experience with words that rhyme, and reinforces blending sounds into words. Northeast Stars Montessori Preschool, 1325 Maryland Ave NE; nestars.net

Payne Elementary

This winter, Payne Wildcats have been busy with field trips, Food Prints, Math Night sports, clubs, and Saturday Academy activities. In addition to girls and boys basketball, Wildcats are preparing for a season of Girls on the Run, and enjoying newspaper, book club, robotics, taekwondo, and culinary arts. Students have enjoyed field trips to Udvar Hazy Air and Space Muse-

Van Ness Otters Visit the Recycling Center

The Van Ness Elementary kindergarten class took a field trip to the Montgomery County Recycling Center, capping off their unit of study on conservation. The students peppered the tour guide with dozens of questions about recycling, then explored the sorting facility—fascinated by the many machines, conveyor belts, and bulldozers moving around recyclables.

Van Ness Elementary, 1150 5th St SE; vannesselementary.org;

Capitol Hill Day School

While learning about industrialization in Humanities class, Capitol Hill Day School eighth-graders worked together in groups using K’Nex to build original machines with interchangeable parts. Students mapped out their designs, built machines, and participated in different simulations. Capitol Hill Day School’s middle school location in Farren’s Stable allows lots of space for flexible working and learning.

Capitol Hill Day School, 210 South Carolina Ave, SE; chds.org

um, the American History Museum, and are looking forward to environmental education field trips for all grades and a BayScaping service project on 14th St. SE in the spring funded by the Chesapeake Bay Trust.

Payne, 1445 C St SE; paynedc.org

Waterfront Academy

Waterfront Academy has been keeping busy this spring. Students eagerly anticipated a visit from the National Cherry Blossom Festival Goodwill Ambassadors on March 21. They were especially excited about the Haikus they wrote in honor of the cherry blossoms. The school was recently awarded GoDCGo Platinum Level Ambassador status too—Kids Ride Free (with the DCDOT) appeared at the school March 24 to promote the program. Current students welcomed back alumna Kai, who came back to give a talk to middle school students about what high school is like.

Waterfront academy, 222 M St. SW; waterfrontacademy.org

Maury

At Maury Elementary, 4th and 5th graders have been learning improvisation and rhythm skills through bucket drumming, under the direction of their new music teacher, Kaylee Mina. Using buckets emphasizes a consistent theme in her classroom: everything is an instrument and music is everywhere. When the weather is fine, the public is treated to impromptu street performances near the school’s main entrance.

Maury ES, 1250 Constitution Ave. NE; mauryelementary.com.

Eastern HS

Eastern Student’s Full Ride Scholarship to GW! Eastern senior Damiyah Brown earned the Trachtenberg, a scholarship that will cover her tuition, room, board, books, and fees all four years at George Washington University. Damiyah is an excellent student in Eastern’s Health and Medical Sciences NAF Academy and IB classes. She said of her future plans, “I want to study Public Policy and become a politician. My ultimate goal in life is to travel and explore new opportunities but eventually come back to the city that has my heart; the one I was born and raised in, so I’m able to help the people here. DC isn’t about the gun violence or drug abuse; DC is community and I want to show the nation the potential DC natives have. I want people to know how much I love my city and how passionate I am about improving it.”

Eastern Senior HS, 1700 East Capitol St, NE; easternhighschooldc.org.

Templeton Academy

Templeton Academy’s STEM Teacher and Coordinator, Rachel Stagner, has won two STEM grants for the school. Rachel has been selected to participate in Project Kindle—a six-day fellowship expedition where she will engage in climate change research at Acadia National park in Maine and learn how to plan a future expedition for students that will take place next year. Rachel also won a STEM Research Grant from the Society for Science that will provide approximately $1500 worth of STEM equipment to the school.

Templeton Academy, 406 7th St. NW; templetonacademy.org/dc

Amidon-Bowen PTA Virtual Fundraiser

Bidding is open to the public April 27-29. Items for sale will include sports tickets, gift cards for local businesses, and travel/adventure items. All proceeds will support students at Amidon-Bowen, including through technology purchases and expanded after school activities.

To donate items to the auction or for questions, contact www.biddingowl.com/AmidonBowenPTA u

Come learn Chinese with us!

YU YING IS OPEN TO ALL!

• We’re one of 11 DC public charter schools with equitable access preference. • Parents and guardians – you don’t need to speak

Chinese for your child to attend.

Learn more and register for an upcoming virtual open house at washingtonyuying.org/enroll