The campus teems with excitement as the first Monarch chrysalises are discovered outside the Art Building. Vibrant green and bejeweled with flecks of gold, the beauty of the chrysalises is rivaled by the beauty of the adult Monarch butterfly and the majestic black, yellow and white striped caterpillars munching on the milkweed in the gardens. [...]
As they gear up for the new school year, twenty-two Hill School teachers traveled to The Langley School in McLean, along with 180 other educators, for a four-day Responsive Classroom workshop. This approach to teaching and learning blends a set of management strategies designed to foster engaging academics and a positive community. Each day brimmed [...]
Summer at Hill School brought Susan McCaskey’s Nature Camp filled with eleven adventurous young children. Each day began with a story that inspired a theme for the day. Monday began with Henry Cole’s (local artist, author, and visitor to Hill) book I Took a Walk. Hill’s 137-acre campus offered the perfect environment to walk around, [...]
Hill School’s 5th grade class spends several months studying over 100 paintings from the Medieval and Renaissance periods. “The goal”, according to John Daum, Hill’s 5th grade teacher, “with this study is to help students learn to really see paintings and not just look at them and move on.” He goes on to say “I [...]
Teacher Appreciation is a special day at Hill School. Parents and students celebrate our faculty and staff with wonderful traditions that demonstrate how much we value their commitment and dedication to Hill’s philosophy and mission. It’s a really fun day on campus! Students arrive early with a wonderful variety of flowers – some plucked from [...]
Hill School’s Junior Kindergarten class invited Middleburg Academy’s Environmental Science Class and its instructor, Ms. Ellen Hughes, to spend a part of Earth Day, April 22, with us. The visit began with Hill’s annual Trashy Fashion Show, where students design and create clothing and accessories using recycled materials. Afterwards, the Junior Kindergarteners and high school [...]
We were delighted to host Dr. Michelle Parker, an expert in digital technology and children’s healthy development, for her presentations on “Parenting in the Digital Age.” Dr. Parker is a renowned child psychologist who maintains a private practice and also works as a counselor and consultant at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. Dr. Parker [...]
On Saturday, February 8, eight Hill School students gathered at Foxcroft School for an all-girls competition of launching marbles, building ramps, deciphering puzzles, and solving math problems. For the third year, Hill students participated at the Expedition STEM Summit, an event sponsored by the Leesburg medical engineering firm K2M Inc., which provides middle and high [...]
Sixth graders at Hill have the opportunity this year to connect with pen pals in South Africa. Porcha Dodson (Hill ‘93) founded non-profit organization Project Knapsack, which matches students in the U.S. with African peers for aid and cultural exchange. Dodson and associate Jeannie VanMetre (also Hill ‘93) have visited Hill to introduce the pen [...]
Hill School’s fourth grade students study ancient civilizations beginning with Mesopotamia. Imagine discovering the tablet in 1849 in Ashurbanipal Nineveh that gave us the account of Gilgamesh. This finding led to the discovery of cuneiform writing and the early evolution of written language. Cuneiform tablets were originally baked clay lids to keep track of the [...]
