Seven Hills Buzz

The Seven Hills Buzz The Seven Hills School Bulletin

A Brief Word from Chris Garten I hardly know where to begin—a host of memories from the week just past crowd my mind. I see waves of spirited students, their faces painted yellow and blue, come pouring out of the stands after the boys’ last second victory over College Hill. I hear the clarion cries of excitement from our girls after their own hard-earned victory against CHCA. I bask in the good humor and camaraderie of the contestants at the Pinewood Derby, fathers—and even a few brave mothers—with their sons, working together to squeeze out the last millisecond of speed from their model cars.

But perhaps the most memorable image of this past week is the compassionate interest our Lower School students have taken in the challenges faced by the disabled. They have truly begun to understand that Every Body Counts.

All this fall, I’ve been eager to discover how so many of our students become so deeply engaged in the struggles and the successes of others.

This past week I’ve seen some of how this happens.

Chris Garten Head of School

Vol. 1 No. 10 January 27, 2010

It was a spirited Doherty/Lotspeich Spirit Night!

The Athletic Boosters’ Doherty and Lotspeich Spirit Night and Parent Mixer on Friday, January 22, was a great success, with recognition of all Doherty and Lotspeich basketball players and coaches, spirit face painting and hair spraying by the varsity cheerleaders, a win over North College Hill for the Stingers, and great food at the Boosters’ concession (special thanks to Penn Station East Coast Subs for the subs)!

Middle School Spirit Night is this Friday, January 29. Be there to show your Stinger Spirit for our Middle School and varsity athletes!

E-Sale Shop Open House!

Thursday, Jan. 28 2:00-4:00 pm 2753 Johnstone Place Doherty Campus For more information, see promo on page 5.

Doherty fifth graders presented a moving and powerful convocation for students and parents on January 10, honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and noting the justice still to be won for all Americans. The annual program is organized and written by teacher Regina Daily.

A Look at What’s Happening at Doherty, Lotspeich, Middle & Upper . . .

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A Look at What’s Happening at . . .

DOHERTY

Blake Goodrich and Nurse Betts

Safety Week First Aid instruction paid off for one Doherty family over winter break. Every year during Safety Week in October, Doherty nurse Terry Betts teaches Unit II and Unit III students how to help someone who is choking. Third grader Blake Goodrich used the techniques he was taught to save his own father’s life. After giving the necessary back blows and abdominal thrusts as taught, his father was able to breathe again. Way to go, Blake!

Many Unit II students have enjoyed seeing their scripts come to life in drama class. A few Unit III students have written very extensive plays that will be performed in the drama classroom.

One group got to complete a project by performing “The Wooden Hourse,” a fantastical Chinese folk tale.

Fourth grade students who read the five original Spiderwick books in addition to their regularly assigned classroom reading were invited to a special Spiderwick Party in the Doherty Library on Jan. 25. Librarian Mrs. Wolfe said, “There were lots of spidery decorations, spider ring cupcakes and spider blood punch in addition to a game based on the Spiderwick series and Spiderball. Everyone had an exceptionally creepy time!” Photos on page 4.

Students are studying the Arctic in Extended Day. Teacher Ms. Doran said, “The students have been diligently collecting gallon milk jug containers to help create the lifesize igloo in the class-

LOTSPEICH

MIDDLE SCHOOL

Congratulations to fifth grader Jack Lane, winner of the fourth and fifth grade spelling bee, and to runner-up fifth grader Brianna Ko. Jack Lane was also the winner of the Geography Bee, and fifth grader Samantha Eng was runner-up. Photos page 4.

Congratulations to seventh grader Ben Chung, champion of the Middle School Geography Bee finals on Jan. 14, and to runner-up sixth grader Skylar Bruggeman. Ben has taken a written test to compete with all the school winners in the state.

The preliminary round of the National Geographic Society competition in December included all sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. Photo page 5.

“The first graders enjoyed a wonderful trip to the Cincinnati Museum Center,” said Miss Braun. “The focus of our trip was to attend the Learning Lab program ‘Welcome to My World.’

This interactive exhibit explored the lives of children from all over the world. We prepared for our trip by reading the book Children Just Like Me and focused on children from Mexico, Canada, Tanzania, and Viet Nam. We learned more about the lives of these children during our Learning Lab at the museum. We also had a chance to play five games from these countries. We were able to see many similarities as well as differences between these children and ourselves. We had a great time exploring the Children’s Museum!” More photos page 4.

Third graders just finished their second Imagination Express.

Students were divided into small groups, and each group spent the week studying a work of literature. At the end of the study the children produced a culminating creative project. Mrs. Niehaus’ group stepped back in time and read an adapted version of the classic Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, ending the week with a beautiful creation of a character quilt.

Mrs. Beckwith’s group read The Year of the Panda by Miriam Schlein, created black and white

Theater 8 and Theater 7 students performed improvised scenes based on characters from Romeo and Juliet for eighth graders and seventh graders respectively. Photo page 7.

Science teacher Mrs. Glum invites us to watch this clip on YouTube, which includes shots of our students at the Earth Expeditions World Community Conference at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, where sixth graders Emma Perentesis, Jake Lautman, Lela Robinson, and Elliot Glum and Mrs. Glum made a presentation about the sixth grade bird studies program. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A596pD46p0 The eighth grade Honors Geometry class recently worked in pairs on a “taxicab geometry” project. Teacher Mrs. Ramsay said, “Taxicab geometry was invented by the mathematician Hermann Minkowski, a teacher of Albert Einstein. Studying taxicab geometry helps students to think in a way different from the typical Euclidean geometry taught in geometry classes. In taxicab geometry, the minimum straight-line distance between two points is not ‘as the crow flies’ as in Euclidean geometry. Instead, the minimum distance is determined by considering the path covered by a taxi along vertical or horizontal gridlines. Questions such as ‘What would a circle look like in taxicab geometry?’ cause the students to think carefully about Euclidean definitions and how those definitions can be adjusted to fit a non-Euclidean geometry.”

UPPER SCHOOL

Senior Sheva Serota has had a poem accepted for publication.

She entered it into a Creative Communication writing contest, and it will be published in the national publication, A Celebration of Poets.

Junior Justine Cefalu is a finalist in the Creative Writing section of the 2010 Overture Awards.

Latin teacher Mr. Sebastian reported these honors: “At the Certamen at Summit Country Day on Jan. 9, the Upper Level team (a.k.a. sophomore Alex Baggott, who played by himself) made the finals and finished third. One of our Level II teams (John Rowe, Lawrence Vignola, Cullen Deimer, and Nicholas Au-Yeung) finished fourth. The other Level II team (Chris Baggott, Anne-Stuart Bell, Katie Shen, and Claire Romaine) finished first for their second straight Certamen victory (they also won at Indian Hill in December)! All members of the Level II teams are freshmen.”

In the boys’ AP state basketball polls announced Jan. 19, the Stingers were ranked #13 in the state in Division IV. They were the only area Div. IV team with a top state ranking.

Earlier this year, students in English 10 Honors concluded their study of Beowulf by collaboratively designing multimedia web pages to illustrate aspects of the archetypal hero’s journey in literature and film. Teacher Mr. Gleiner said,

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A Look at What’s Happening at . . .

DOHERTY LOTSPEICH room. It has taken around 500 milk jugs to complete the igloo.

You could say, we are not only studying the Arctic but also promoting a healthy lifestyle.”

Photos page 6.

Second graders are currently studying clothing vocabulary in Spanish class. Mr. Krauss said, “Our favorite activity of the unit so far was the fashion show.

As we discussed clothing using Spanish, our ‘models’ were asked to put on all the clothing pieces that we had learned that week. Models were wearing an additional eight items over their uniforms!”

Unit I students made math card games to send to the children in Haiti.

The Doherty Student Council met on Jan. 20 to learn about Kiva, a microloan organization that helps individuals and groups from all over the world loan money to unique entrepreneurs. Unit III Coordinator Mrs. Burton said, “Using a portion of the profit from last year’s juice and bagel sale, Student Council made its first loans to entrepreneurs in Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, Peru, Lebanon, and Nicaragua.

Visit http://www.kiva.org/ lender/dohertystudentcouncil to learn more about our efforts and to join our lending team.”

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pointillist paintings of pandas, and consumed delicious panda cupcakes (photo page 7). Mrs. Leonard’s new group traveled on the Imagination Express where creative and “out of the box” thinking is required.

Each year third graders travel to Cincinnati City Hall to learn firsthand about our city government. Mrs. Niehaus said, “In anticipation of this year’s Cincinnati History Project, we visited Cincinnati’s headquarters of government and once again walked Samuel Hannaford’s halls lined with historic stained glass windows.”

First graders have been studying about the Food Pyramid in Spanish class. They have learned the names of all of the food groups in Spanish and are now working on learning the names of individual foods in Spanish. This coincides with the students’ study of the Food Pyramid in their homerooms. Photo page 4.

Third graders are working on their musical, “Go West.” Performances are Thursday, Mar. 4, and Friday, Mar. 5, at 9:30 and 1:00. Photo page 7.

In science class first graders are studying different phases of matter and are trying to solve the mystery of oobleck. Is it a solid or liquid? The young scientists are doing multiple tests to discover the answer. Photos page 5. (Oobleck is a fictional green precipitation invented by Dr. Seuss in the book Bartholomew and the Oobleck. It is used to demonstrate the dilatant property of non-Newtonian fluids.)

More photos and news on pages 4-8 . . .

MIDDLE SCHOOL

UPPER SCHOOL

Middle Schoolers had a chance to connect with Upper School members of the African American Awareness and Roots Clubs at a fun luncheon on Jan. 22.

The students played a game to get to know each other, and they formed a foundation for communication and support regarding discussions, etc. on diversity. Photo page 8.

“Using the school’s internal wiki server and video capturing software, students first documented and illustrated aspects of the hero’s journey in Beowulf and the 1977 science fiction classic Star Wars. They then extended their understanding by incorporating an additional example from their own experiences, and they used photographs, illustrations, and film clips to reinforce their analysis. It was fascinating to see the range of sources in which students saw reflections of these archetypes, as they included everything from Harry Potter to Hercules to Mary Poppins.”

Middle was able to present a check for $120 to The Caring Place, a local social service agency Middle has been supporting for 20 years. This money was raised at the annual BasketBash, a doubleheader of the boys and girls seventh and eighth grade MVC teams played in the Kalnow Gym. Middle Head Mr. Rockwell said, “The players always like playing a game on the varsity floor. And the crowd is always bigger.” Admission charges were $1 for students/$2 for adults, with proceeds going to The Caring Place.

Eighth grade science teacher Mrs. Wiesemann’s Team Survivor Challenges are a creative, effective, and popular way to engage students in the exploration of different principles of chemistry and physics. A favorite is the Egg Drop Challenge. Teams of students must design and build a device that will hold and protect a raw, large egg enclosed within the device when it is dropped from varying heights, starting at one meter and building to heights at the top of the stairs in the Upper School stairwell. A ratio of drop height survived to mass is calculated for each device.

The winning team creates a device that survives from 9m or the highest height tested and has the largest ratio among the devices surviving this height.

Mrs. Wiesemann said, “Winners were Jess Seibold, Kyle McKibben and Sam Ellis.

We had five devices survive from a height of greater than 9 meters, but theirs had the smallest mass. It had a mass of 15.54 g. Another group was a very close second with a mass of 15.62 g.” Photos page 7.

Congratulations to the Upper School visual artists and their teachers for the awesome art show in the Andress Art Gallery last Friday, Jan. 22. More on our visual arts program in the next issue of Seven Hills magazine.

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Lotspeich first graders are using Spanish to describe parts of the Food Pyramid.

Above at left, fifth graders Jack Lane and Brianna Ko, winner and runner-up of the Lotspeich Spelling Bee. Above at right, Geography Bee runner-up fifth grader Samantha Eng with winner Jack Lane.

Pictured at left and below, the Spiderwick Party in the Doherty Library: (front) George NeCastro, Jonathan Harsh, Pierce Kreider; (back) Nicholas Williams, Georges Mahama, Will Graeter, Zachary Gilbert, Jack Schiff.

At left and above, more photos from the Lotspeich first graders’ visit to the Welcome to My World exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center.

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How do I donate to the E-Sale shop?

Bring donations to: Seven Hills School E-Sale Shop Kemper Building, Doherty Campus 2753 Johnstone Place Cincinnati, Ohio 45206

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12:00 pm-4:00 pm, Mon-Fri Lynne Cowles, E-Sale Shop Manager For more information, please contact: Louise Cottrell, The Resale Shop, 513-271-7977, louise.cottrell@7hills.org or Margo Kirstein, Development Office 513-527-1319, margo.kirstein@7hills.org

Below, Ben Chung and Skylar Bruggeman, winner and runner-up of the Middle School Geography Bee.

On Jan. 15, parent Linda Cyr and junior Peppar Cyr visited Mrs. Daily’s Unit III class to give her students an introduction to the art of crocheting. The students were so excited to learn how to crochet that Mrs. Cyr and Peppar are going to return to provide more lessons. Mrs. Daily’s homeroom plans to crochet lap blankets for those in need as soon as they perfect their skills!

In science class, Lotspeich first graders explore the wonders of oobleck in their study of the liquid and solid forms of matter.

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On Thursdays, 50 Doherty and Lotspeich fifth graders travel to Perfect North and participate in Ski Club. Teacher Mrs. Hickenlooper said, “This is a four-week program in which they take a one-hour lesson with a ski/snowboard instructor from Perfect North. Students participating are at a variety of skill levels. Some are learning to ski or snowboard for the first time. Others have skied a couple of times and are advancing their skills. We also have experienced skiers who are working on specific techniques. There is also a group of students who know how to ski and are using this opportunity to learn to snowboard.

“It has been a wonderful opportunity for the Doherty and Lotspeich fifth graders to mix together, and the students and the teachers who accompany them all have a lot of fun!”

Doherty Extended Day students build an “igloo” as part of their study of the Arctic.

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Lotspeich third graders work on their musical, “Go West.”

As part of Imagination Express, Mrs. Beckwith’s third grade group read The Year of the Panda by Miriam Schlein, created black and white pointillist paintings of pandas, and consumed delicious panda cupcakes.

The eighth grade Team Survivor Egg Drop Challenge: (above) designing and making the egg carrier and (at left) testing the effectiveness of the carrier from the top of Upper’s stairwell.

Middle Theater students did improvs as characters in Romeo and Juliet in various situations.

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The Anatomy and Physiology students have been learning about bones and are shown putting together disarticulated skeletons.

Middle Schoolers had a fun get-together with members of the Upper School’s Roots Club and African American Awareness Club.

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