CHP LMR ( Narayan Lekhi, Ananya Mehta, Anaya Raju

After two years of virtual debate due to COVID-19, the Garden State Debate League kicked off its first face-to-face debate at Saddle River Day School on December 3rd, 2022. The topics were: Tiktok is a Bad Influence; Homework Does More Harm Than Good; Raise the Minimum Wage in NJ.

Cedar Hill Prep took 11 teams to the debate - 33 participants and more than 50 percent of the students were novice debaters. We had 2 teams from grade 6, 5 teams from grade 7, and 4 teams from grade 8.

Overall, Cedar Hill Prep School won 2nd place in the tournament for the most wins at 25 wins and 3rd place in the tournament for percentage wins.

Team Ranking (out of 48 teams) Cedar Hill Prep School had the top two teams 1. CHP MOX ( Motunrayo Odukoya and Mahadev Menon) 2. CHP LMR ( Narayan Lekhi, Ananya Mehta, Anaya Raju) 7. CHP DPP (Rishabh Dagli, Tanvi Potluri, Dhruv Param) 9. CHP CJM (Aryan Cherukuri, Revant Jear, Sahith Mangu)

Top Speakers (out of 138 speakers) Number 2 Speaker in the League and Top Speaker for CHP - Motunrayo Odukoya Number 5 Speaker - Rishabh Dagli Number 6 Speaker - Mahadev Menon Number 13 Speaker - Tanvi Potluri Number 15 Speaker - Sophia Lai Number 18 Speaker - Narayan Lekhi Number 19 Speaker - Ayan Joshi Number 20 Speaker - Nitara Baruah

Congratulations to all of the Debaters!

Preschoolers learned about Hanukkah, the festival of lights, over the holiday’s 8-day celebration. During our Hanukkah week, the children learned that the menorah candles are lit for 8 nights. They also had a fun time learning to play a popular Hanukkah children’s game played with a spinning top called a dreidel. For a craft, they colored beautiful paper dreidels. The best part of the week was eating potato latkes and applesauce, a customary food eaten during Hanukkah. Yum!!

In our preschool science lesson, the children had a fun time observing fizzing candy canes. Using vinegar, baking soda, and candy canes, we watched the reaction between the different ingredients. As the vinegar was poured over the baking powder, we heard the fizzing sound of the chemical reaction. When we came back from our playtime outside, we observed that the candy cane, after sitting in the vinegar/baking soda mix, had dissolved on the bottom. A perfect holiday-themed scientific experiment!

During the last week of school before winter break, the Preschool class celebrated Christmas. We painted beautiful green wreaths and decorated them with our own cut-out paper hands and red sparkly pom-poms. We listened to the story about Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and decided that the reindeer needed food for their venture out with Santa on Christmas Eve. The children made their own bags of reindeer food to sprinkle on their lawns at Christmas. On the last day of school, we all wore our pajamas, had a Christmas party, and watched Frozen.

Our Preschool class learned about Kwanzaa by reading stories and coloring a paper candle using the symbolic colors black, red, and green. Kwanzaa is a seven-day festival that celebrates African American culture and history. During this celebration, a special candle holder called a kinara is used. It holds seven candles, three red on the left, and three green on the right with a black candle in the center. Each night during Kwanzaa, a candle is lit. The students enjoyed learning about this celebration!

The Pre-Kindergarten class has been learning about different groups of animals such as mammals and birds. In December, we focused on learning about fish and some of their characteristics. We learned that, unlike mammals, fish are cold blooded. Also, we learned that fish are distinct from other animals because they have gills, fins, and they can only live in water. We ended this lesson with each child bringing in a picture of a type of fish to show their classmates.

The Pre-Kindergarten class has been learning all about the different holidays that are celebrated in December. We read stories about Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa. We noticed these three holidays are similar in the fact that they are all celebrated with beautiful lights as well as with special family gatherings. Also, we discussed how a menorah and a kinara are used. In honor of these holidays, the children made a kinara, dreidels, and a jolly Santa. Lastly, the children enjoyed making edible Christmas trees at our holiday party!

Before we went on our winter break, we all celebrated Pajama Day by getting cozy and comfortable next to our fireplace. We sang jingle bells using our instruments, decorated our cookies, and had our class party where we enjoyed our snacks and juice as we cuddled our stuffed toy while watching a movie. It was so much fun!

Through imaginations, the Kindergarten children took their first Magic Carpet Ride of the holiday season to Germany to see how children there celebrate St. Nicholas Day. It was exciting to envision! We saw children place their polished shoes outside of their classrooms in hopes that St. Nicholas would visit with gifts of candy and toys. We wrote about this exciting journey in our Kindergarten passports. And just like in our imaginations, the Kindergarten class celebrated St. Nicholas Day by placing their shoes in the hallway in hopes that St. Nicholas would visit them as well. There was so much excitement when the children discovered candy and toys in their shoes and nobody had coal! This was a very happy day for all!

Holidays around the world continued in our CHP Kindergarten classrooms! The Kindergarten children took another magic carpet ride for St. Lucia Day and visited Sweden. Lucia means light and St. Lucia makes the darkness disappear. The St. Lucia Day Festival marks the beginning of the Christmas season. She wears a white dress with a red sash and a crown of candles and wakes the family at dawn to serve them breakfast. Our Kindergarteners colored, cut out candles and leaves, and wore their crowns proudly. They wrote in their passports and colored a picture of St. Lucia too! After this, our students drank chocolate milk and ate coffee cakes.

This time, our imaginary Magic Carpet Ride took us to the North Pole and the U.S.A to see Christmas. In the U.S.A., we saw Christmas carolers singing traditional songs around the neighborhood. We saw bright lights on Christmas Trees and people celebrating with gifts and joy. Families ate pasta, roasts, and sweet bread. At the North Pole, we saw Santa’s elves packing gifts and Santa delivering all the gifts on his sleigh! We wrote about this in our passports.

The Kindergarten children took a Magic Carpet Ride using their imagination to see the celebration of Hanukkah celebrated magnificently in Israel and in the United States of America! We saw beautifully lit menorahs, gifts for every night of Hanukkah, children playing with dreidels, a gathering of families enjoying and eating potato latkes with apple sauce, and so much more! Our Kindergarten students got to enjoy their own delicious meal of potato latkes with applesauce. The children wrote all about their experience in their Passports and then drew their illustrations. Throughout this month, we will continue going on magic carpet rides to see other holiday celebrations around the world!

On December 3rd, 1st grade read The Gingerbread Pirates Christmas Book, decorated their own Gingerbread cookies, and used their imaginations to write a five-sentence story about the class’ Gingerbread Cookie Men creations.

On Tuesday, December 13, all 2nd grade students participated in the Grade 2 Spelling Bee. They all tried their best and we are incredibly proud of their hard work and growth. After 17 exciting rounds, our finalists were Milan Williams and Nikhil Paladugu. Both students will advance to the Spelling Bee to compete against two 1st grade students in the new year.

Every month, 3rd grade students are selected as Super Students. These are students who exhibit the qualities of exceptional behavior both inside and outside of the classroom. They complete a poster that showcases who they are, including their “super student power” and what they would do to make the world a better place. Our Super Students for the month of December are Indigo and Esha.

Indigo describes herself as a mighty mathematician, tremendous team player, and a marvelous musician – as she demonstrates through her piano playing! She wishes pets could be allowed everywhere, even concert halls! She loves to paint and color as well as sing and dance in her free time.

Esha describes herself as an awesome athlete, amazing artist, and harmonious helper which she often demonstrates in and out of the classroom. If she could star in a movie, she would want it to be about delivering a letter to Santa! She is an avid swimmer but also enjoys watching YouTube and relaxing in her free time.