Vol. 2, No. 1 - February 2012

Key Admission Dates

Feb.17 Decision letters are sent to Stepping Stones candidates.

Feb. 24 Decision Letters are sent to Primary 1 through Middle School candidates

Email sent to accepted candidates inviting families to enroll online

All enrollment contracts and deposits due

Mar. 7

It has been wonderful to !nally meet some of your children! We have had several successful and productive candidate assessment days throughout this admission season and have been continuously impressed by the calibre of these candidates who have visited our campus. "We trust that they walked away with an appreciation of what makes it so special to be a Whitby student.

Over the next few weeks, we will be holding our Admission Committee decision meetings and are excited about the prospect of welcoming many new families who will enrich the Whitby community.

We hope that you enjoy reading our February eNewsletter, highlighting the magic of our classroom happenings. "If you have any questions about its content or our integrated Montessori/IB curriculum, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Nadia MeierDirector of Admission and Enrollmentnmeier@whitbyschool.org (203) 302 3900

From Our Director of Admission

!"#$

Whitby School

Mission

Building upon the principles of the

Montessori philosophy and the International

Baccalaureate Programs, Whitby

School inspires academic excellence,

independence and a passion for learning

while motivating our students to confidently

take action as contributing members

of a diverse global community.

As the second term gets underway at Whitby School, the eighth graders eagerly await decision noti!cation from the schools to which they submitted applications. With their diversity of interests and as a result of a thorough search process, this year’s class investigated a wide range of public and independent schools in Connecticut, New York, and beyond. "The class of 2012 submitted applications to Hopkins School, Greens Farms Academy, Laurelton Hall, Brunswick School, Masters School, Iona Preparatory School, Peddie School, "Fair!eld Preparatory School, Lawrenceville, George School, Rye Country Day School, Hackley School, Riverdale Country School, Horace Mann, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Fordham Preparatory School, Andover, United Nations International School, Archbishop Stepinac, Convent of the Sacred Heart, St. Luke’s, and King Low Heywood Thomas.

As the secondary school counselor speaks to admissions representatives throughout the process, our students are consistently praised for their open and honest conversation during interviews and the thoughtful and informative application materials they submit. "Consistent with our mission, our students are recognized for being passionate, thoughtful, and inquisitive learners and are seen as assets to many of the peer schools they are considering. "Secondary schools are eager and happy to meet our students, and we look forward to good news as the Fairchester schools acceptance noti!cation date of February 17th draws near.

Secondary School News

Did you know?Whitby is the only PreK-8 grade school in America accredited by both the American Montessori Society and the International Baccalaureate.

I N T H E W H I T B Y C O M M U N I T Y

The Whitby community is looking forward to a casual breakfast this month with incoming Head of School Bryan Nixon, who is joining Whitby in July. To learn more about Bryan, please read click on the following links. Greenwich Time Article, Press Release, Q&A with Bryan.

C L A S S R O O M N E W S - C H I L D R E N ’ S H O U S E

IB Highlights

Research indicates IB students in Grades

3-10 outperformed their non-IB peers in

Math Literacy, Reading, Narrative Writing, and

Expository Writing. " Click here to read more."

Primary 3 Students Learn the Principles of Physical ScienceEvery winter, the Brent Oval comes alive with the world of Physical Science. "Primary 3 children gather at !ve di#erent stations set up in the Primary hallway to explore scienti!c principles. They actively engage in experiments with motion, collision and balance. "As true scientists, the children make predictions and discoveries. They examine the constant, variable and result for each experiment. "As they make their inquiries they record !ndings and document results in their own science logs.During a recent session at the Bouncing Balls station, children were given various types of balls. They then examined how the temperature of the ball a#ected how high the ball would bounce. Ball types included wi$e balls, lacrosse balls, tennis balls and ping pong balls. "Students heated some of the balls and others were frozen. Every ball dropped was an exciting discovery!

In another session, each child dropped a ping pong ball from various pre-determined heights to determine how the starting height affected the height of the bounce. "In order to be scientifically accurate, they did three separate trials. They all plotted their findings on a graph with the assistance of Barbara Brent, Co-Interim Head of School and Head of the Children’s House, learning about x and y axes. "They discovered that the higher the starting point, the higher the ball bounced.

Lower Elementary Students Learn the Four Steps of Problem SolvingProblem solving is a critical skill for success in school and in life. Our LE (1st and 2nd grade) students explored problem solving in mathematics. The !rst Common Core State Standard for Mathematical Practice states: Students make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. To address this Standard, LE students worked with “The Problem Solver,” a "4 step mathematical program designed to help students become competent and con!dent problem solvers:

1) "FIND OUT. "The !rst step is to determine what the problem means and what questions a student must answer to solve it. "They must understand the terminology of the problems, separate useful from extraneous information and determine if any necessary information is missing. "In some cases, the problem may need to be broken up into smaller problems before the larger problem can be solved. The student should understand the problem well enough to say it in his/her own words. Finally, the student must be able to state the question he/she has to answer to solve the problem.

2) "CHOOSE A STRATEGY. "Sometimes there is more than one strategy to solve a problem. "(See sidebar). The student needs to determine the strategy most suitable for the particular problem.

3) "SOLVE IT. "The student then works through the problem, employing the selected strategy. "It is important for the student to record their work so they can see the progression of the solution to the problem. "In the course of solving the problem, the student may realize that the chosen strategy does not work. "If this is the case, they will then switch strategies.

4) "LOOK BACK/CHECK YOUR WORK. The student then rereads the problem and checks the solution to see if it meets the conditions stated in the problem and that it answered the question. To review the solution, the student needs to ask him/herself if the answer is logical and reasonable.

As our students progress through their years of education, the methodology of problem solving will be an invaluable tool.

C L A S S R O O M N E W S - L O W E R S C H O O L

What Are the 10 Solution Strategies?The following Solution Strategies help students organize their thinking, identify missing data and keep track of information, as well as make sense of computations and review or solutions.

1. Act out or use objects2. Make a picture or diagram3. Use or make a table4. Make an organized list5. Guess and check6. Use of look for a pattern7. Work backwards8, Use logical reasoning9. Make it simpler10. Brainstorm

ME Students Discover the World of Entrepreneurship

C L A S S R O O M N E W S - L O W E R S C H O O L

Homework – Too Much, Too Little or Not Enough?

During a recent Parents Association Meeting, Nely Miguel, Interim Co-Head and Dean of Curriculum and Instruction presented the latest research on homework. "As we learned, the subject of homework has been debated for many years in the educational !eld. "Whitby's level of homework is generally inline with best practices based on the latest educational research. Last spring's Benchmark survey also indicated that the vast majority of parents rated the quantity and quality of homework within the "just right" range.

As part of their Unit of Inquiry on Economics, ME (3rd and 4th grade) students raised money to invest in KIVA as a micro-loan. "KIVA is a non-pro!t organization whose mission is to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. "The ME students became involved in the entire process of running a small business venture. "They !rst collected items, priced them, and organized them for a Gently Used Book and Toy Sale. "The next step was to advertise the event around school as well as to the Whitby community at large. "Groups of children took turns to work at the “store” to sell items, collect money and make change. They even needed to restock! By the end of the sale they had raised $600 to invest in KIVA.

The ME students also had a real life lesson in entrepreneurship from Greg Skidmore, husband of ME

teacher Liz Skidmore. On Thursday, January 26th, Greg spoke to all the ME students about his Greenwich, CT business, Belpointe. "He explained that he owns a service business which invests money for his clients. "Prior to Greg’s visit, students had submitted questions about why and how he started his business. "Greg told them to start a business one needs capital derived from either a loan (debt) or having others invest money and become partners in your company (equity). "Once he had the funding, he then needed to !nd a roster of clients who trusted him to invest their money. "At the end of the presentation, students were “Skyped” into Greg’s o%ce to listen to his colleague, David Nelson, a portfolio manager, discuss how one makes money investing in the stock market. "He used the timely example of purchasing Apple stock!

” Is math class tiring? Forget all those concepts? Can’t !gure out problems? “Scratch” is your answer. ” according to Brandon B, a UE 6th grade student.

Scratch is a programming language developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten research group at the MIT Media Lab. "UE 6th grade students recently immersed themselves in a two-week Scratch programming adventure. They applied logical sequencing, iteration, conditional statements and variables to command motion and obtain desired effects while navigating the coordinate plane. In the process of creating interactive stories, games and animations they honed their math concepts and learned important computational skills.

Why devote math instruction time to learning Scratch? "Students learn best when actively engaged, and programming teaches fundamental logic. Scratch "grammar" is based on a collection of graphical programming blocks that students

snap together to create programs. Scratch blocks are shaped to !t together only in ways that make syntactic sense. Students learn to reason systematically and approach problem-solving logically and creatively. At Whitby, this process is enhanced through student collaborative.

“ When using scratch, the maker has a goal,” Brandon concludes. “That goal is to make a product that does and obeys commands of the maker. However, it is necessary to create these commands, and by going through the process of making those commands, we learn how to solve and ways to !gure problems out. And this also helps not just in math, but also it helps in life to solve problems that we have. “

Please visit the Scratch gallery at http://scratch.mit.edu/galleries/view/147462/ to see and interact with our students’ past and present creations.

C L A S S R O O M N E W S - U P P E R S C H O O L

MS Basketball Going to the HoopsThe Wildcats Middle School Basketball team is coming o# an impressive 34-24 victory this week against a competitive group from the French American School of New York. Our team has been alternating wins and losses but hopes to break that pattern during the rest of the season. This group of 7th and 8th graders works hard to improve during every practice while providing leadership for their younger and less experienced teammates.The season will ultimately be celebrated with the annual Student vs. Faculty game in March. The Middle School team will try to successfully take down a talented collection of Whitby faculty for the !rst time in school history!

Scratch in the UE Math Classroom

C A M P U S A C T I V I T I E S

United Nations Mother Languages Assembly –It’s A Small World After AllPrimary 3, Lower and Upper School students assembled recently to celebrate United Nations Mother Languages Day. "The ME Chorus (3rd & 4th grade) began the assembly by singing a New Year’s song from Laos. "Then students from Primary 3 though Middle School were invited to share a Happy New Year greeting in their native language. "After they spoke, the rest of the students repeated it back as a lesson in linguistics. "It was amazing to hear the range of languages: French, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, Hindu, Russian, German, and Hungarian, to name just a few.

It’s Live from WhitbySchool.org Our New Refreshed WebsiteWe are pleased to announce the launch of a refreshed website for Whitby. This new site, like the school’s new modern logo, was designed to better re&ect the school’s forward-thinking, innovative educational program. Now that we have rolled out the MyWhitby parent portal to deliver relevant student and school information to existing parents, the site’s content has been more streamlined and easier to navigate for new people coming to the site. "Additional enhancements will be made in the coming weeks to ensure updated content and increased visual appeal. Our"school’s brochure can be accessed from the lower right side of the website’s home page. It concisely highlights what makes Whitby such a special school for our children.

Our logo was created not only to be bolder and more contemporary; it also graphically represents how the school places the child at the center of learning. Thus the “I” in the center of the “WHITBY” logo is sometimes modi!ed or replaced "– be it by a child, a graphic design or piece of artwork. (On campus, you may have noted the seasonal “I” that was in the large blue logo on the hill or the Whitby banner in the gym where an action shot of the basketball player replaces the “I”). Our new logo is in the process of being e%ciently rolled out so you may still see places where it has not yet been replaced – but it’s coming!

C A M P U S A C T I V I T I E S

Checkmate! !Whitby Students Rise to New Heights in the Chess World

Whitby’s Extra and Co-Curricular Programs (WECCP)

Whitby News is published by the Admission office. We are always happy to speak with you or answer questions via email (admission@whitbyschool.org) if you have questions about Whitby or making choices for your child’s education.

969 Lake Avenue, Greenwich, CT | 203 302 3900 | www.whitbyschool.org

In November, brothers Rohan and Neev participated in the National Chess Championship in Dallas,Texas, representing Whitby School. "This K-12 grade level event attracted 1200 participants from all over the country. "It was a seven round Swiss style tournament with seven games per round. "Each game can last for 3 hours or more. "Flawless execution is very important in order to play in the championship round.

LE student Rohan did not lose a game during the entire tournament and only drew (tied) two games. "Rohan tied the !nal championship game against the top seed from Ohio. It was scored as a draw. Both Rohan and Neev, a UE student, are

coached by Adnan Kobas who will be the chess instructor during the Winter WECCP Friday Program (see below). Whitby is fortunate to be able to o#er this opportunity to learn from an outstanding teacher and we encourage student chess players of all skill levels to enroll.

Closer to home, UE students Simon and Spencer participated in the 6th Annual NECA Middle School Chess Tournament held at King School in December. "They represented Whitby School and brought home the !rst place trophy in their class. "Congratulations to Rohan, Neev, Simon and Spencer - Go Whitby Wildcats!!

When the school day ends, fun and exciting learning continues at Whitby. "WECCP the acronym for Whitby Extra and Co-Curricular Program offers students a myriad of activities from Yoga to Theater to Agility for Sports to Chinese to Band and Choir Programs. "Additionally on Fridays, students may participate in our Friday Afternoon Programs such as Fencing, Painting and Poetry, Shakespeare, to name just a few. "The Monday through Thursday After School Programs are open to Primary 2 through Middle School students. "Friday Programs are available for Lower and Upper School Students.