Cougar Coffee Talk

As I walked around Haycock last week, I was struck by the excitement of learning and I remembered two fond memories from my own elementary school days in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  First, the parachute. I remember very clearly the fun I had playing with the parachute in gym class. I remember making waves, huddling under the parachute like a tent with my classmates, and bouncing bean bags, much like our Kindergarten classes were doing last week.

My second memory was sparked when I saw the chicks in first grade. Just like our first graders, we kept chick eggs in an incubator and anxiously waited for them to hatch. I clearly remember my classmates and I running into the classroom every morning to see if the chicks had hatched. Our first grade classes were buzzing with joy last week as their chicks hatched and the first graders got to meet their new friends! 

Education has changed a lot since I was in elementary school, but it is fun to see some things are still the same!  And the most important one is the joy of learning!
-KS

 We believe a sense of community is just as important to the success of our school as our academic achievements. A sense of community brings a sense of identity and pride, a love of learning, and a sense of hope to our school. School-wide activities, such as our school-wide field trip, foster a sense of community that we work hard to achieve. We enjoyed learning and building community together again this year, this time at the Washington monuments!

You can see us signing together at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7RYZXQPToU

Thanks to all who helped make the day a success!
-KS

Retired Washington Capitals Rod Langway and Paul Mulvey visited our sixth grade students last week!
Students were able to ask the players questions and were then taught basic hockey skills. The most exciting part of the visit was playing a hockey game with the students, teachers and retired hockey players!

-KS

This year’s Read-in day featured presentations by author Candace Fleming. Students loved hearing how she has evolved as a writer and what strategies she uses to organize her writing. Read-in day highlights the importance of developing reading stamina. Students not only read by themselves, they read with their student buddies, classmates and guest mystery readers. It was a great day to end on before Spring Break! -KS

Thanks to the efforts of our SCA, SCA sponsors Kara Beckman and Meg Monfett, students and families, we raised $8,273.30 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Mr. Bloch’s and Ms. Fields’ class raised the most money and celebrated with a pasta lunch from Olive Garden. I’m so proud of our students!

-KS

Our students, along with their parents, participated in Haycock’s Math Night on March 14, Pi Day. The evening was designed to provide an environment for students and their parents or guardians to participate in exciting math activities and games. Math Night was a wonderful opportunity for parents and their children to work together on mathematics activities and games and have fun doing it.

The event included many different games that incorporated fun, learning and even necessary life skills, such as understanding money. Students and parents played games on the school]s SmartBoards, played math games in the computer lab and had an opportunity to play many of our classroom and Strategy Lab math games. Students participated in problem solving, estimation and graphing activities as well. Students even wrote Pi Day Haikus! It was clear that students and parents had a fun time learning together!

Second grade students and families enjoyed an evening celebrating community and participated in a book swap. The students engaged in a variety of games, read alouds, and of course swapping books. Fun was had by all!
-KS

Our first grade students and family met last week to “Give Back to Our Troops.” They collected and assembled care packages for our service members stationed in Afghanistan. Additionally, students spent time writing thank you letters to our service members.

It was a fun evening for first grade students and families to come together as a community and to give back to our troops.

-KS

Fairfax County’s Student Achievement Goal III, Responsibility to the Community, includes a service learning component that allows students to earn hours for participation in service learning projects.

Our sixth grade students are quite excited for the opportunity to give back and many are in the process of raising money for their selected charity. Some students are collecting goods such as used books while others are selling items such as baked goods. It’s quite exciting to see such leadership among our sixth graders and I look forward to hearing about their successes later in the year.

-KS

Thanks to our wonderful science teacher, Mrs. Rosenbaum, students in Kindergarten have a new animal to observe and study. Her name is Chrissy and she is a Rex rabbit. Rex is Latin for ‘King.’ Rex rabbits are the largest breed of rabbits and Chrissy makes 6 pounds look good! 
Students are learning how rabbits live in burrows underground, what rabbits eat and are making lots of great observations of their new friend.  
We are all enjoying our new addition to Haycock!
-KS