December Newsletter 2022

Garden State Debate League

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!

PRESCHOOL - KINDERGARTEN NEWS

Hanukkah

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!!

Fizzy Candy Canes

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!

Christmas

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.

Kwanzaa

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!

Pre-Kindergarten Learns about Animals

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.

Pre-Kindergarten Holiday Celebrations

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!

Pre-Kindergarten Pajama Day

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!

Kindergarten Celebrates St. Nicholas Day

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!

PRESCHOOL - KINDERGARTEN NEWS

Kindergarten St. Lucia

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.

Kindergarten Christmas

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.

Hanukkah Celebration

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!

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL NEWS

Grade 1 Gingerbread Cookies

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.

Grade 2 Spelling Bee

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.

December Super Students

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.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL NEWS

Grade 3 Mystery Readers

3rd graders welcomed Mridula, Arnav’s mom, as their mystery reader! She read an amazing book called ‘ The Lion Inside’ by Rachel Bright and Jim Field. It is a story about one little mouse trying to make himself heard and discovering along the way that even the smallest of us has the heart of a lion. It shows how a little mouse gains confidence and self-esteem, setting out on a journey to find his roar. The 3rd graders rejoiced with Mridula’s animated reading. Thank you for reading to us! We look forward to welcoming more mystery readers in our classroom.

3rd graders also welcomed Sadia, Eesa’s mom, as a mystery reader. She read ‘ The Legend of Rock, Paper and Scissors’ by Drew Daywalt. The fun yet dramatic story kept the kids engaged. The clever wordplay also kept them thinking and aught them two important lessons - that each character can rise to the challenge and that winning isn’t always everything. Different people have different skills where they excel (Rock wins on pure strength, Paper by cleverness, Scissors with her unexpected snipping action). The students loved the animated way Sadia read the book. Thank you for reading to us! We look forward to more mystery readers in our classroom.

Grade 3 Decorating Ornaments

3rd graders took great pride in coloring their Christmas ornaments. After coloring them, the ornaments were laminated and hung on the tree in the hallway. From the classic to the truly unique, the Christmas ornaments made the tree the star of the show this holiday season! This project allowed our 3rd graders to display their creativity. Great job, 3rd grade!

Ugly Christmas Sweater

Our 3rd grade students had a ‘Decorate your Ugly Christmas Sweater’ contest. The students chose from one of multiple patterns and worked like fashion designers to come up with their own version of an ugly Christmas sweater! They enjoyed working on this activity A LOT! A team of judges voted on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place winners. The winners earned points for their houses. Congratulations to all the participants for enthusiastically decorating the sweaters!

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL NEWS

Grade 3 Party Before Break

We had a little fun in 3rd grade the last day before winter break! Students enjoyed popcorn, hot chocolate, grapes, cookies, and a wonderful movie. They worked on a few crafts that they took home at the end of the day. We look forward to welcoming the year 2023!

Grade 4 Ushers in the Holiday Season and Winter!

After Trimester Exam week, Grade 4 students ushered in winter and the holiday season as they created holiday gifts for their families. Another 4th grader joined the ‘Double Digit’ Club - Happy Birthday wishes to Aydin Alam who turned 10 on December 12th!

Our Grade 4 Holiday Party/Pajama Day was especially cozy as we enjoyed hot chocolate and cookiedecorating in snuggly pjs. Another highlight of the day occurred when Grade 4 students visited the Kindergarten to read “Twas the Night Before Christmas” to their younger friends. By evening, everyone’s wardrobe changed as the children dressed in their finest for the Holiday Winter Concert. This busy day was a wonderful way to round out the end to our classes in 2022!

THANK YOU to all of our families who contributed goodies for our Grade 4 Holiday Party! Best wishes for a safe, healthy, and happy New Year!

MIDDLE SCHOOL NEWS

Grade 6 Students Cheerleader Team Wins the

National Championship!

This year, 6th grade CHP student, Demi, along with her cheerleading team, pulled off back-to-back National Championship Titles! Their team, The Hillsborough Dukes, are officially Pop Warner 2022 National Champions!!

In addition to the National Title, the Dukes also earned the honor of achieving the highest score in their session. And, as if that weren’t enough, Pop Warner awarded the Hillsborough Dukes the Overall High Score of the Pop Warner Level 2 Division – out of 136 teams! This makes them the first team to earn a Pop Warner National Ring (think Super Bowl Ring)!‬ Thank you all at CHP again and again for your support and allowing Demi to reach for the stars and accomplish such memorable goals!‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

Kindness Project in Grade 6

Grade 6 students made jars that say, ‘Shake some confidence into your day.’ Then, each student wrote a positive comment for each of their classmates and put them in the jars.

They also made an encouragement jar for each of the four 5th/6th grade teachers as well as Ms. Nan and Mr. Seeley. It reminded us that we all need the support of our friends!

Holiday Sing

On Thursday, December 15th, 2022, CHP hosted its annual Holiday Sing event, featuring the melodious stylings of Ms. Florence Lombardo’s Preschool through 3rd grade singers and Ms. Joyce Alexander’s 4th through 8th grade choral arrangements with Mr. Ryan Bridge on piano.

The Preschool through Grade 3 group’s performance included the songs: SnowFlake, Jingle Bells, Dreidel, Dreidel and We’re In the Spirit. The 4th through 8th graders then took to the stage for a festive run-through of a number of yuletide anthems. Highlights included the songs: We Need a Little Christmas, Hanukkah, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Kwanzaa, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

The Holiday Sing event was a great success and a perfect way to bring our first trimester of the 20222023 school year to a close prior to CHP’s winter break!

ART

Costume Design

Students made sculptures of Unique Costumed Mannequins using the following design process: brainstorming original ideas, sketching out several ideas, drawing a finished image, and planning of materials. The students constructed their mannequin of both found and mixed media materials and wrote their descriptive labels. The complete project will be presented in January.

Please Click Here to See Students Artwork

SPECIALS WILDCATS SPORTS

CHP BOYS BASKETBALl Team CHP GIRLS BASKETBALL Team

Pep Rally

On Wednesday, December 7th, the Cedar Hill Prep community gathered in the gymnasium for a pep rally in support of the school’s Wildcats basketball teams. The rally kicked off with music and cheering as CHP’s mascot, Chip the Wildcat, entered the gym. Chip had the kids cheering and laughing at his dance moves and physical comedy! Coach Yollia and Coach Deisher introduced each team member as the students cheered them on. GO Wildcats!

Boys Basketball

The CHP boys’ basketball team played three games during the month of December. The team played their first game in front of a raucous home crowd against Wilberforce. After a neck and neck battle, Wilberforce pulled away in the second half to secure the victory. Next, the CHP boys’ basketball team played against Metuchen Christian Academy and, unfortunately, lost by a wide margin. Lastly, the team played an away game against Wardlaw Hartridge School where they achieved the first win of the season! The team used an effective man-to-man defense to win the game. The team is led by Cocaptains Narayan Lekhi and Shameek Parab.

Girls Basketball

The girl’s basketball team competed against one of our top rivals, Wilberforce, and after a relentless battle over four quarters, we settled for a 14/14 draw. While tied numerically, the real win was witnessing the fabric, fortitude, and fiber of CHP’s team as they competed against a top rival. In the second game of the season against Stuart Country Day School on December 12th, the girls’ basketball team walked away with a two-part victory: the first victory a 7-point win and the second victory the sportsmanship of our players. After securing a lead, our seasoned players took to the bench allowing our new players to hone their skills. Middle school basketball teams best be on the lookout for the Wildcats Girls’ basketball team! We overcome all obstacles as we reach for the stars.

Basketball Schedule

Our Next PTO meeting will be on January 11th at 7:00pm. The meeting will be via Zoom and we will be discussing upcoming events. Be on the lookout for an email with details regarding the meeting.

Clothing Drive

Holiday Bazaar

The CHP PTO took in more than a few hundred pieces of winter clothing of all sizes, in support of a local coat drive which provides much needed services to those people less privileged within the Somerset area. The generous response and outpouring of support were indicative of the way CHP’s community gives back to the local community.

CHP rang in the holiday festivities with the Holiday Bazaar this month. Filled with yuletide decorations and handmade crafts, the event was a wonderful time of both seasonal and school spirit. Students and their families were delighted with the array of unique creations for sale. This was a wonderful way for our local community to get engaged on CHP’s campus and for CHP to support local artisans during the holiday season.

AROUND THE SCHOOL

Scholastic Book Fair

It’s official – CHP’s Annual Book Fair was a huge success! 749 total items were sold bringing in $5,060.38 in total sales, and $2,380.19 in Scholastic Dollars earned for classroom supplies & books!!

Thank you all for supporting our Book Fair and fostering a climate of reading within our community. A special thank you to all the volunteers who gave their time in setting up, selling, and closing the Book Fair. Our last event, the raffle, took place at our morning meetings where Mr. Seeley then distributed the books and posters to the winners.

Pizza with the Principal

On Friday, December 2nd, our students enjoyed another Pizza with the Principal. This was a particularly special Pizza with the Principal as our students were looking forward to the holidays and excited about the fun school activities this month.

Principal Seeley and the students really enjoyed getting to connect and talk before everyone dispersed for winter break.

Preschool- Pre-Kindergarten