Cedar Hill Prep Middle School

Middle School Building a Culture of Curiosity Grades 5 - 8

CEDAR HILL PREPARATORY SCHOOL www.cedarhillprep.com

About Us Our School

Faculty

Cedar Hill Prep provides an excellent foundation for every piece of our students’ cumulative academic experience, from our lower school classes up through our Eighth Grade class. The lessons imparted to CHP’s students encourage the students to become and remain active participants in their own development. Student needs are identified and addressed on an individual basis to further support all of our burgeoning global citizens. Class sizes remain small up to and including the middle school in order to accommodate personal research-based instruction within a hands-on framework.

Cedar Hill Prep prides itself on the experience, training, compassion, and diversity of its entire faculty. Our educators form a unique team that provides a crucial part of the academic experience at CHP. Their years of combined time spent teaching create a tapestry of voices and perspectives in every classroom on our campus.

Our teachers make the time and effort to ensure that every day is a fresh educational opportunity for the students, full of new social experiences and exposure to unfamiliar academic concepts. CHP’s faculty regularly attend workshops and seminars in order to stay current with the ever-evolving trends of education and the most relevant breakthroughs in youth learning.

Curriculum Cedar Hill Prep offers a S.T.E.A.M. based curriculum with a focus on the whole child. No one class takes precedence over another as our teachers work together to provide a multifaceted educational infrastructure. Our students are immersed within our multimedia lesson plans which prepare them to be tomorrow’s global citizens. We pride ourselves on the well-rounded alumni that CHP has produced in our two decades as a school.

Using the Singapore Math program, our students develop a strong foundation in Math.

Our Science program is a fully integrated curriculum including online and print text sources, interactive notebooks, and journals.

The Social Studies program enhances the NCSS C3 framework curriculum, which includes multicultural studies. The program is a fully integrated curriculum including online and print text sources.

Students connect Social Studies to debate issues, current events, and literature.

Students are introduced to World Languages including French and Spanish. Every student participates in Physical Education. Tutoring is available for students each week.

Beyond our core curriculum, there are a large number of specialized classes and extracurricular options available to students throughout their time at CHP, with certain after school clubs designed directly for our youngest students.

Specials Art

Physical Education

Drama

World Language (Spanish & French)

Music

Technology

In Middle School students enjoy art classes once a week taught by a certified art teacher. Creative units taught to our older students include graphic design, model huts and houses, and holiday ornaments. Art education is presented thematically and incorporates the holidays and celebrations of all cultures into the classroom lessons. Students are encouraged to express their individual creativity while building up a portfolio of projects as a class throughout the year.

In CHP’s drama program, students are introduced to scripted adaptations of classic literature, as well as theatrical interpretations of historical events. Students are taught the inner workings of a script, given the chance to work on improvisation and non-verbal communication through drama games, and afforded regular opportunities to engage in dramatic readings of plays and monologues.

At the Middle School level these performative verbal skills are directly applied to public speaking based activities like Debate Club or campaigning for an elected position within the school’s House System.

Music is taught to the Middle Schoolers at a more advanced level than the younger students, with a sharper focus on harmony and ensemble singing, in addition to music composition. Many of CHP’s students have identified a strong aptitude for piano. Twice a year, the students have the opportunity to perform for their families and school during the spring and winter concerts.

We promote the importance of fitness to attain a healthy mind and body. Our classes help children of all ages enhance their strength, flexibility, and aerobic capacity, while also building self-confidence, and enhancing communication skills by reinforcing habits of teamwork and competitive etiquette. Coaching, drills, and skills development are all incorporated both in and out of the gymnasium.

The objective of the foreign language program is to learn a second language and appreciate the richness of its culture. In Middle School, students practice conversing in another language and growing their vocabulary and the ease with which they switch back and forth between languages, both in their mind and when speaking.

They also explore and celebrate the various customs of the country of origin for the language they choose to learn, including putting on an original production in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month and National French Week.

As the global citizens of tomorrow, students at CHP are able to engage with the latest technology in order to make them fluent in computer literacy and keep them aware of the latest cutting edge developments.

As they reach Middle School, CHP students learn coding as another form of language with which to communicate with the world that the future holds.

Clubs/Electives • Art

• Drama Society

• Chess

• Environmental Club

• DnD Dècor Woodworking • Science Fair • Kids Kitchen

• Hispanic Heritage Initiative

• Theatre Club

• History Bee

• Art Free Exploration

• National Academic Quiz Tournaments

• Chess

• Painting

• Cursive Your Brain!

• TEDx

• Debate

• VexIQ

Experiential Learning A nine-acre school campus makes learning dynamic and continuous for our children. The natural surroundings, playgrounds and free space make spontaneous learning part of their daily experience as they stroll around our campus. The children interact with nature all around them in the context of a variety of classes, from science to art, turning the grounds of the campus itself into a schoolwide classroom.

Picture: Grade 6 Visited Buehler Space and Science Center

Celebrating Multicultural and Ethnic Identity Cedar Hill Prep recognizes the importance of including cultural differences in all aspects of learning. Diversity means much more than racial and ethnic differences. We explore the benefits of diversity and work together to build an ethnically inclusive community in celebration of those differences.

Celebrations on campus include National Hispanic Heritage Month, Black History Month, National French Week, Christmas, Chanukah, and Diwali.

Competitions Among the notable achievements and awards that CHP has been recognized for are: • 2017 National Blue Ribbon Award for Exemplary High Performing School • 2021 Middle States Accreditation • Future City Competition 2017 Most Sustainable City Award • International Academic Competitions National Finals • Junior Solar Sprints - 3rd Place Regional Meet • Math League - Top Three Schools in the Country • Middle School Basketball League • Middle School Debate League (ESUS) 3rd Place in the Nationals • Middle School Soccer League • National French Competition - Le Grand Concours • National History Bee National Finalists for 4 Consecutive Years • National History Bee 2nd Place 2018 Elementary Division • National Science Bowl • National Science League National Champion Grade 6 • National Spanish Examinations Gold, Silver and Bronze Winners • National Squash Champion 2016 • RoboCup Junior - US Champions 2016, 2017, 2018 • STEAM Program: Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics

CHP’s sports teams, the Wildcats, make sure their roar is heard by other competing teams in the area. Recent victories have included wins by both the Girls and Boys Basketball Teams, in addition to the Boys Soccer Team and Girls Tennis Team. The whole school takes part in cheering on the various sports teams during our pep rally, featuring an appearance by the school’s mascot Chip the Wildcat.

House Systems CHP’s House System allows our students to form their own government at the middle school level, based on a structure of four different houses, each with its own assigned students and teachers. The four houses are the Cherokee Bears, the Lenape Owls, the Ramapo Falcons, and the Shawnee Beavers. The elected positions within each house include Leader and Assistant Leader, with Arbitrator, Speaker, Scribe, Steward and Historian roles as well.

Lead4Change Students can also take part in the Lead4Change program, which has awarded CHP $500 for the exemplary student driven leadership demonstrated within the House System. By incorporating the principles of character education taught under Lead4Change, our students are able to practice their leadership skills and further their position as leaders of tomorrow.

Our Graduates Alumni of CHP have gone on to some of the most prestigious high schools in the area and beyond, including: • Delbarton School • The Hun School of Princeton • The Lawrenceville School • Mercersburg Academy • Middlesex County Academy for AH and BS • Middlesex County Academy for SMET • The Peddie School • Phillips Academy Andover • Princeton Day School • Rutgers Preparatory School • St. Paul’s School, NH • Union County Magnet High School • Wilbraham and Monson Academy Colleges which CHP graduates have been accepted to include: • NYU Stern • California Institute of • Williams College Technology • University of Michigan • University of California, • Northeastern University Berkeley • Wellesley College • Georgetown University • University of Pennsylvania

Now Accepting Applicants!

Building a Culture of Curiosity

We provide an essential foundation in academic and social skills in order to guide our students toward strong independent learning.

Hours of Operation Before Care:

7:00am - 8:00am

After Care:

3:00pm - 6:00pm

Preschool:

Choose 3 or 5 Days

Contact Us

Follow Us

8:00am - 1:00pm or 8:00am - 3:00pm Pre-K:

8:00am - 1:00pm or 8:00am - 3:00pm

Kindergarten: 8:00am - 3:00pm Grades 1 - 2:

8:00am - 3:00 pm

Grades 3 - 4:

8:00am - 3:30pm

Grades 5 - 8:

8:00am - 4:00 pm

732-356-5400 admissions@cedarhillprep.com www.cedarhillprep.com 152 Cedar Grove Lane, Somerset, NJ 08873

CEDAR HILL CEDAR HILL PREPARATORY SCHOOL PREPARATORY SCHOOL