Ready, Set, Code in Lower School!

For the first time this year, Lower School participated in a competitive Blue and White Hour of Code! The girls had a a chance to code within different coding games and win points for each level passed for each respective Blue and White team. After the hour of code, each girl received an hour of code certificate for the inaugural event.

Stephanie Hong '19 Makes Lacrosse Impact

Freshmen Stephanie Hong '19 is attracting location attention for her impact on the lacrosse field. An article published by The Washington Post notes, "Hong is part of a talented five-member freshman class that is already pushing Holton-Arms (9-4) toward the top of the Independent School League standings again. The Panthers began the year with eight wins in their first nine games, and Hong is second on the team with 34 goals, 12 assists and 20 groundballs behind junior Annelise Kotz (41 goals). They also feature sophomore midfielder Taylor Lawrence, a Stanford commit….“Everybody was really accepting and it’s been a really great experience so far,” Hong said. “My personal goal is to win the ISL one of the years while I’m at Holton, so I’m really looking forward to the rest of the season.”

Click here to read to read the full article and be sure to check out the varsity lacrosse schedule to cheer on Stephanie and the Panthers!

Middle School Enjoys Science and Engineering Festival in DC!

On April 15, the Middle School traveled down to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center for the national Science and Engineering Festival. Students explored what seemed like acres of floor space covered in over 3,000 hands-on exhibits. Thankfully, the Festival’s layout was organized into different sections, each featuring a specific category – e.g., Energy, Sustainability, Space Exploration, National Security, Health & Medicine, Math & Computer Science, Engineering, Earth Sciences, etc. It was great to see our students in small groups with Festival map in hand, as they canvased the landscape and tested, designed, created, observed, tinkered, and experienced the incredible array of activities. 

Enjoy all of the pictures below!

Exploring the Living Traditions of Two of the World's Major Religions

The Upper School students taking the "What is Religion?" semester-long course enjoyed an eye-opening field trip! During this semester, the girls have been studying the five major religions of the world: Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The course addresses these religions as living traditions observed by a majority of the world’s population, with consideration given both to the enduring appeal of religious devotion in modern contexts and to recent and contemporary issues of religious conflict affecting our global society.

Although the course is primarily discussion-based with an emphasis on class participation, student presentations, and personal-response writing assignments, the girls also watch films, listen to podcasts, and venture on field trips to local museums and places of worship as supplements to the course reading materials.

On last week's field trip, the girls visited the Washington National Cathedral and The Islamic Center of Washington.

Regarding the field trip, one Upper School student wrote:

I really enjoyed getting the opportunity to compare the National Cathedral and the Islamic Mosque. The architectural grandeur of the National Cathedral is unparalleled. The high ceilings, monumental towers, and sheer area of the National Cathedral works to make visitors feel in awe of almighty God. It seems like a less personal/less intimate relationship compared to the Mosque. This type of relationship is also illustrated by the fact that the Cathedral was made for group worship rather than individual worship. Rows and rows of pews face toward the east end of the Cathedral, the focal point. The seating at the focal point is both segregated and slightly elevated from the rest of the seats and also looks more grand. I thought that this was an interesting manifestation of the church hierarchy. Visual depictions of the Bible fill the entire Cathedral: on tapestries, in sculptures, and in the stained glass windows. All of these visuals are indicative of the history of Christianity.

The Great Outdoors with LS Grade 6 Field Trip!

The Sixth Graders participated in Outdoor Ed day at Northbay Adventure Camp in North East, Maryland. Below are some snippets of activities that the girls were involved in from Language Arts to Science.

Ms. Fields (Language Arts): During their outdoor adventures, I asked the girls to jot down observations about the natural world around them in preparation for our first poetry unit, the study of Emily Dickinson and her writing style. Dickinson is best known for her light and witty verses about ordinary subjects from nature. For their first poems, students are creating their own Emily Dickinson stule poems to illustrate and present to the class. Our poetry unit will continue through April, and students will learn to identify and apply poetic sound devices and develop their creative writing skills.

Ms. Eby (Science): What a terrific trip we had to Northbay Adventure Camp! Although the weather was a little cold and rainy, it did not dampen the girls high spirits. Between hiking to a spectacular scenic overlook, navigating high and low ropes courses and swinging on the giant swing, we were so busy the time just flew by. While at Northbay, the girls practiced taking data and interpreting it just as a field biologist would, We learned how to test water quality, evaluating the overall health of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem by measuring the water's temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, phosphate, and nitrate levels. We also cataloged the variety of plant and animal species found in both a man-made and a natural wetland area. 

Sixth Grade Chinese Class Gets a Tea Lesson!

Here is a description from Chinese Teacher Amy Liao:

On Tuesday, April 5, the sixth grade Chinese class visited Ten Ren Tea in Rockville, Maryland. TenRen's Tea is the largest, best known tea manufacturer in the Far East with over five tea factories and more than 2000 stores in Asia and North America. During the field trip, our sixth grade Chinese class observed the Chinese Tea ceremony demonstration, sampled Chinese tea, and learned Chinese tea drinking customs. 

Lacrosse Welcomes Walthamstow Hall

During spring break, the varsity lacrosse team welcomed visitors from across the pond. After returning from their spring break trip to Richmond, members of the varsity lacrosse team opened their homes to host girls from Walthamstow Hall, an all-girls school from Kent, England. 

After some friendly, yet rather competitive games of dodgeball, the girls got to know each other over dinner at Uncle Julio’s in Bethesda. Dinner was followed by exploring the area and the girls making sure they shared their cultural favorites such as Sweet Frog and Georgetown Cupcakes. When everyone had more than enough to eat, it was off to the host families to get settled in.

The next day was packed with lacrosse as Walthamstow Hall played back-to-back games against the varsity and jv teams, before heading off to spend the afternoon at the Sandy Spring Adventure Park. 

Before heading off to their next destination, Walthamstow Hall joined the team for class meeting and a brief tour of the School. Captain Annelise Kotz ’17 commented, “I had a lot of fun hosting the girls. They were all so friendly and it was fun playing dodgeball with them. It was also fun to show them American foods and show them around Holton (they thought our school was so similar to high school musical which was funny!). I hope we can do this again!”

The girls exchanged numbers, usernames, and hugs before heading back to class. Click here to read more about Walthamstow Hall's USA tour.