June Newsletter 2022

CEDAR HILL PREPARATORY SCHOOL

June Newsletter Congratulations Graduates!

Kindergarten

Grade 4

Grade 8 Class of 2022

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Congratulations Kindergarten!

On Graduation Day, June 14th, Cedar Hill Prep Kindergarten students donned their caps and gowns and excitedly marched down the aisle to the melody of Pomp and Circumstance. The Kindergartner’s performances consisted of songs and poetry all of which displayed an enormous growth of confidence and achievement within themselves. The children earned awards that reflected their individual accomplishments. A heartwarming video was played with each student giving a tribute and a thank you to their teachers. It brought tears to our eyes!

These amazing Cedar Hill Prep Kindergarten students have grown and learned so much over this past school year. It truly has been a thrilling adventure! This exciting occasion was celebrated with very proud teachers, administrators, family, and friends.

Congratulations to our new first graders!

Click Here to Watch Ceremony

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PRESCHOOL - KINDERGARTEN NEWS

End of Year Theme Week The last full week of Preschool was so much fun for the students because each day was a different themed event! On Monday, it was Talent Day. Individually, each child performed in front of the class by singing, dancing, or creating an art piece. Tuesday was Career Day where the children dressed up as their future career choice.

There was a teacher, multiple fire fighters and doctors, a paleontologist, a construction worker, and a rock star.

On Wednesday, the children dressed in their pajamas for a movie day. We ate popcorn and watched Encanto.

Thursday, the children brought in a special toy from home to present to the class and on Friday, the children participated in the schools’ annual Jr. Olympic/Water Play Day. They had a blast participating in the games and splashing with their friends afterwards. Finally, we celebrated the end of the year with ice cream and pretended we were at the beach. Wishing everyone a fun-filled summer!

Last Week in Pre-Kindergarten The Pre-Kindergarten class ended the year in a very fun way! For our last full week of school, the children had a different theme for each day of the week. The themes were a talent show, career day, pajama day, toy day, and a beach party. While the students enjoyed every theme, they especially enjoyed the talent show! Some of the talents were jump roping, dancing, magic tricks, and singing. This was a great way to end the school year!

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ELEMENTARY SCHOOL NEWS Poetry Day First Grade Poetry Café First Grade put on a Poetry Café as part of CHP’s Poetry celebration. The students chose a poem from a variety of subjects, memorized, and recited them at the event. They also included a presentation of a diorama, poster, visual aids, movements, and props from their home. We opened up the celebration with a choral recitation of “A Poem in your Pocket” and closed with “Good-bye Parents and Friends.” It was such a grand performance by our smiling and proud CHP First Graders!

Poetry Day in Second Grade Second Grade Poetry Day was held on June 9th. The children were immersed in poetry throughout the year and wrote different types of poems including acrostic, cinquain, and haiku poems. This year, the children selected and recited wonderful poems by various poets centered around nature and the seasons. They created posters to give a visual representation of the poem as well. The excitement and self-expression that the children have really make Poetry Day a special event at CHP!

Poetry Day in Third Grade

On Thursday June 9, Third Graders participated in Poetry Day. Each student recited a poem by Jack Prelutsky, a very comical poet who made us all laugh. Students also authored their own poetry books which included a cinquain, a haiku, and an autobiographical poem. Parents were able to come on campus for this event for the first time in 2 years which was a very special moment! This was a lovely way to culminate our language arts studies for the year. Great job, Third Graders!

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ELEMENTARY SCHOOL NEWS Poetry Day in Grade 4 Grade 4 students recited poems that described the American landscape – from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the skyscrapers of our cities, from poets speaking out for civil rights to others contemplating the paths their lives have taken. Grade 4 students researched their respective poets and wrote the introductions for their poems. These narrations provided the audience with some insight into the lives and motivations of these poets which were then highlighted by the students’ original artwork reflecting the messages within the poems. Congratulations, 4th Graders, for your wonderful performances! And a warm thank you to all of the Grade 4 family members for their assistance behind the scenes.

Caterpillars Into Butterflies Second Graders raised caterpillars in May and June.

We released them by the garden that the Middle School students have planted behind the Admin Building. They seemed to like it there. We watched as the caterpillars first ate the food, then attached themselves to the top of their jar to spin their chrysalises. It was really special to be able to witness them shedding their chrysalises and becoming beautiful Painted Lady Butterflies.

Grades 1 – 3 Awards Ceremony The students at CHP had their award ceremony on a beautiful June morning. Students, teachers, and parents gathered together to close out the year by celebrating student accomplishments. The students at Cedar Hill Prep are involved in a wide variety of activities both in and out of the classroom. They participate in spelling bees, athletics, world languages, music, drama, art, and science fairs – to name just a few! All of the students at Cedar Hill Prep have unique abilities and interests, and it is important that their individual qualities are recognized with these awards which summarize an entire year of hard work and effort. We love that each student gets to be honored for their positive contribution and academic achievement as well as their individual accomplishments. We are all extremely proud of our students who have learned and created so much this year!

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ELEMENTARY SCHOOL NEWS

Grade 4 Junior Olympics and Water Play Day The long-awaited day finally arrived on June 10th – water play day! CHP 4th Graders had a great time participating in the Junior Olympics, eating the delicious BBQ lunch, swimming and splashing in the water park, and slip sliding down the water slide. What a fabulous day in the sun!!

Grade 4 Spring Concert On the evening of June 3, Grade 4 dressed up to join the Middle School students for an outdoor performance of their Spring Concert. The students’ performances rang beautifully through the warm night air. What an enjoyable evening for our CHP Community!

Summer Birthdays!

Sending Happy Birthday wishes to our Summer Birthday Celebrants: Aariana Shah, Jonathan Jian, and Lily Trotta.

We hope your birthdays are full of fun and laughter!

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Congratulations Grade 4

Congratulations Grade 4 Graduates!

On June 14th, our Grade 4 students and their families gathered to celebrate an important milestone – their graduation from CHP’s Elementary School and transition into Middle School!

For these curious, industrious, and creative students, the Grade 4 Graduation Ceremony is a symbolic representation of their motivation and accomplishments throughout their educational experiences. After receiving their Graduation Diplomas, each 4th Grader also received an award that showcased their personal achievements throughout the year.

We are honored to bestow the title of Elementary School Graduates upon our 4th Graders and wish them well as they advance to Middle School. They’ve certainly brought much pride to their CHP community and families! Congratulations Grade 4!

Click Here to Watch Ceremony

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Congratulations Grade 8

Graduation Class Of 2022

On June 15th, the Class of 2022 celebrated the culmination of their efforts at Cedar Hill Prep’s 8th Grade Graduation. It was a bittersweet moment for our graduates, parents, teachers, and all who attended to see the class bid farewell to their ‘home away from home.’

The ceremony was a moving, uplifting celebration of lifelong friendships, hard work, and achievements for the 21 young men and women who will continue onto the private and public high schools of their choice. The keynote speakers, Halle Neill and Krishna Lekhi, alumni from the Classes of 2014 and 2018, delivered inspirational speeches for our graduates.

Our most sincere congratulations and best wishes for future success go to the following graduates as they embark on their new journeys in high school: Taylor, Sriram, Nina, Suhani, Azaan, Tea, Riya, Aarushi, Jayden, Joanna, Sarah, Margaret, Avi, Lielle, Neal, Ayden, Aarna, Sidharth, Kailee, Hunter, and Daniel. We are so proud of you!

Click Here to Watch Ceremony 8 | June Newsletter

MIDDLE SCHOOL NEWS

Middle School Poetry Day Middle school students in Grades 5 - 8 performed poems in honor of Poetry Day on Wednesday, June 8. The students worked hard to research, memorize, and recite their poems.

The 7th and 8th Grade poems reflected topics of identity, perseverance, and resilience. The inspiration came from class novels we read this year. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, characters faced insurmountable odds and persevered in the face of prejudice and racism. In the memoir, I Am Malala

by Malala Yousafzai, students learned that fear and oppression could not stand in the way of one girl’s mission to advocate for educational rights for all girls.

The 5th Grade poems depicted how poets use nature to describe life. For example, a flower was used as a metaphor to describe a man’s work, and a tiger and a lamb represented God’s creations. The students chose poems by noted poets such as Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Frost, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Shakespeare.

The Revolutionary and Civil Wars were the topics of the 6th Grade poems. The students researched information on the battles of Lexington, Concord, and Trenton as well as the significance of each to the outcome of the war. They also discovered how women and non-military men were important to the cause. The life and death of Abraham Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address, and how the country mourned for all who lost their lives were the main topics for the Civil War poems. The students all did an amazing job with their recitations. We are so proud of their efforts!

Middle School Awards Ceremony June 13th is a night to remember for all CHP Middle School students. We enjoyed the awards ceremony outside on a lovely summer night where family, staff, and students cheered on all award recipients. The awards were given for outstanding work in a wide range of achievements such as academics, sports, and citizenship. This year’s ceremony was heightened by the works of art created by CHP students that were exhibited around the campus. Thank you to all who attended and a huge thank you to all of our bright, accomplished students in the CHP family!

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CHP at IAC National Championships Six of CHP’s Middle School students joined over 1,200 U.S. Elementary and Middle School students in Orlando, from June 17 – 21, as they had qualified to participate in the 2022 National Championships of the National History Bee, International Geography Bee, National Science Bee, and US Academic Bee. Airline delays and cancellations did not prevent these students and their families from attending this event!

Congratulations to 6th Graders (Shray Chandwani, Revant Jear, Ayan Joshi, and Sahith Mangu) and 7th Graders (Narayan Lekhi and Mahadev Menon) for their amazing participation in these buzzer-based 5-day competitions where most of them competed in more than one Bee!!! These six competitors supported one another throughout and were thrilled to rally as Sahith became a Quarterfinalist in the 6th Grade Division of the National Science Bee and Narayan entered a tie-breaker and almost made the Semifinals in the 7th grade US Academic Bee!

Accompanied by younger siblings, Ayan, Shray, Sahith, Mahadev, Revant, & Narayan enjoy the IAC Night at Universal Studios!

On June 11th, before taking off for Orlando, Revant won Second Place in the online IAC National Sports and Entertainment Competition!

CHP is so proud of the motivation, effort, and sportsmanship that these 6 students put forth!

We wish 4th grade graduate, Vishnu Badhan, the best of luck as he will travel to Burlington, VT to compete in the 2022 IAC International Geography Championship in July!

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MIDDLE SCHOOL NEWS Science Fair Winners

The Middle School Science Fair spanned a total of four months during the school year. In December, students proposed their project ideas to develop into an experiment. Once the topics were approved, the budding young scientists started their research phase.

In the early stages of experimentation, the students did a lot of troubleshooting to ensure minimal errors.

All their hard work culminated in the Science Fair where the students presented their projects to judges during the day and to the CHP community at night.

The winners of the 2021-2022 CHP Science Fair are as follows: 5th Grade 1st place: 2nd place: 3rd place: 6th Grade 1st place: 2nd place: 3rd place:

Demitria R. Anya Patel Madeline Ngo Jwala Rajinikanth Valentina Garcia Sahith Mangu

7th Grade 1st place: 2nd place: 3rd place: 8th Grade 1st place: 2nd place: 3rd place:

Motunrayo Odukoya Ananya Mehta Anaya Raju Aarna Rao Avi Nath Sriram Banigallapati

Cedar Hill Prep School Debate Team Wins Again!

CHP’s debate team won 1st place for both total percentage wins and total wins at the Garden State Debate League competitions on April 9th! We are so proud of our debate team’s research, practice, and hard work! There were 170 participants in the tournament. Debate topics included whether community service should be mandatory in Middle School, if privatization of prisons does more harm than good, and whether Daylight Savings Time should be abolished.

Following are CHP’s team awards and individual student awards: Winning Teams 1st place - CHP - Sarah Karlekar, Suhani Davda, Nina Barnes 2nd place - CHP - Shameek Parab, Mahadev Menon, Motunrayo Odukoya 3rd place - CHP Akash Nath, Daniel Yu, Sriram Banigallapati Top Speaker for Cedar Hill Prep School Motunrayo Odukoya Top Tournament Speakers: First Place (Golden Gavel Award) - Shray Chandwani Fourth Place - Motunrayo Odukoya Fifth Place - Aarushi Gupta Sixth Place - Avi Nath Sixth Place - Sahith Mangu

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SPECIALS

National Spanish Honor Society Induction On June 6, 2022, Cedar Hill Prep inducted 20 students from grades 5 through 8 in La Sociedad Hispánica de Amistad (The Hispanic Society of Friendships). The SHA is the Elementary – Middle School arm of the Hispanic Honor Society. This elite honor society was established by the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, the AATSP. Educators in this U.S. association embrace the mission to promote, develop, and advance the teaching of Spanish and Portuguese worldwide.

The organization has established 5 criteria for induction: GPA in Spanish of 92%, overall GPA of 88%, service to the school, service to the community, and ambassadorship. We are proud to state that each of our members has been involved in an array of service and ambassadorship initiatives around the school and the community. Our inductees have taken part in house leadership, mentorship and tutoring of younger students, and fundraising for charitable causes. Our recent Dress Down Day fundraiser on 6/7 was an initiative of the SHA where CHP students raised approximately $350 to be donated to World Central Kitchen whose founder, Jose Andrés, is a native of Spain. Among a plethora of other programs, WCK supports local chefs in Ukraine who provide hot meals to refugees of the current war.

We are proud of the accomplishments of our students and we will continue to be ambassadors of the Spanish language as we serve our school and our community.

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SPECIALS

ART Art Exhibit The third trimester artwork of Grades 3 & 5 - 7 was displayed during the Lower School and Grade 5 - 7 Awards ceremony.

Work centered on Garden Design where students learned design concepts by working with plants. Garden design teaches students the same art concepts such as composition, painting, sculpting, architecture, and even float design. The students’ art pieces arranged a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors to create trees, flowers, paths, and fountains. They first drew topographical garden plans with a bird’s eye view perspective. Then, they painted original acrylic and tempera paintings inspired by famous gardens. Finally, they observed and sketched the real plants in the CHP Garden with oil pastels. The Art Exhibit also showcased 3D ceramics. Art students observed famous clay sculptures by 16th & 17th century artists such Lorenzo Bernini and Michelangelo. They also studied the famous Chinese Terracotta Soldiers. Students in Grades 3 – 8 utilized this observation to experiment with additive and subtractive clay techniques and to develop their artistic tool skills to form figures and objects.

Geometric City and Plant Drawing (5th Grade Art with Math Department) 5th grade students studied Urban Design and Planning by mapping out shapes of areas and districts needed by an imaginary city. They then constructed 3D shapes for buildings out of cardboard, utilizing their geometry knowledge, and drew the architectural components as well as signage. Other structures were made of mixed media including the city’s greenery and public art pieces.

Click Here for Geometric City Slide Show Click Here to Watch Video

Spring Concert Bring on the Sun! Bring on the Stage! Bring on the Song!

Our annual Spring Concert was loaded with fun as the students of CHP sang their hearts out with smiles from ear to ear. It was a joy to share with the audience the hard work that all the children put into making a great performance for us. Thanks to all the students, parents, and staff for your support!!

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WILDCATS SPORTS Sports Awards and Banquet Night

On Monday, June 6th, we held our annual CHP Athletics Banquet. At the banquet, we celebrated all of our student-athletes who participated in one or many sports throughout this past year. We had a wonderful time acknowledging all of the students’ accomplishments on the fields and courts this year.

We handed out trophies, listened to our coaches’ season recaps, and enjoyed a nice dinner together.

We are so proud of our Athletes!

CHP Staff vs. Students Volleyball Game On Friday, June 3rd, we held our annual CHP Staff vs.

Students Volleyball Game. Our 7th and 8th graders came out victorious over the staff after a hard-fought match!

Our staff is looking forward to redeeming themselves in a re-match. Lots of fun was had by all. Go Wildcats!

Junior Olympics On Friday, June 10th, we held our annual Junior Olympics event! It was great to see our athletes compete in the 50M dash, 100M sprint, and 200M spring. We added the shot-put event this year as well. The event finished off with the most exciting race of the Junior Olympics, the 400M relay.

Congratulations to all our participants! We closed out the day with our Water Play Day where the Olympians enjoyed fun in the sun, splashing in the water park, and sliding down the water slide all afternoon. It was a fun filled day for all!

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Thank you to our CHP family and friends for their continued support for the many events during the 2021 - 2022 school year!

Thank you for an outstanding two years of dedication and service: Mrs. Garofalo, Mrs. Rott, Mrs. Simmonds, Mrs. Webley, and Mrs. Lai. We look forward to seeing everyone in the Fall.

Enjoy your summer, stay healthy, and be safe!

7th and 8th Grade Graduation Celebration Thank you to all who helped in making the evening a grand success!

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Alumni Spotlight

Krishna Lekhi, CHP 2018 Alumni

Krishna Lekhi is our featured alumna this month! After attending CHP for one year in 8th grade, Krishna spent the last four years of high school at Rutgers Preparatory School where he was a varsity basketball player, co-president of Model UN and Men’s Choir, the Co-Star of the School Musical, and the founder of the RPS Happiness Club. Krishna graduated this year with Academic Honors with Distinction, a Fine Arts Concentration in Choir, and an Academic Emphasis in Visual & Performing Arts. He also was the recipient of the National School Choral Award. Krishna loves helping others and will do whatever it takes to make a lasting impact on this world!

CHP Community Celebrates Juneteenth in Local Franklin Parade Juneteenth is the longest-running African-American national holiday which marks the day, June 19th, 1865 when slaves in the southwest received news of their emancipation. The day is one of celebration of black freedom and excellence throughout the US. In Franklin, there was a Juneteenth parade and block party organized by the SCDC Black Caucus. Our school community was ecstatic to be able to participate in the festivities by marching in the parade and contributing our own float. Moving speeches were made

by Somerset County Commissioner Director Shanel Robinson and Councilwoman Kimberly Francois among others about the importance of celebrating black ancestry and culture. CHP was proud to be part of such an important commemoration!

Happy Birthday to the Staff Summer Birthdays!

Join the Alumni Instagram and Facebook Page

Stay connected and network with the CHP Community.

You will receive invitations to events as well as the latest CHP and academic news. This will also allow us to share news and acknowledge all your achievements.

Be Part of the Alumni Community Today! Join and share with family and friends to follow and like!

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June Donna Jones, Priya Kheny, and Carl Martin July Mary Duncan, Patricia Talbert, Marali Chari, Rita Christopher, Maria Soto, Lisa Simon, Nandini Kenche, and Emily Selner August Oral McFadden (Mr. Mac), Hemlata Iyengar, and Ellen Kane

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152 Cedar Grove Lane Somerset, NJ 08873 Phone: 732-356-5400 Fax: 732-356-5409 Email: admissions@cedarhillprep.com Web: www.cedarhillprep.com

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