Upper Grades

In the uppers grades, we read many books and had many field trips. We read books like Freak the Mighty, Flowers for Algernon, Walk Two Moons, Macbeth, The Pigman, Maniac Magee, The Giver, Beowulf, and part of The Odyssey. Field trips we went to are City Hall, San Jose Tech Museum, Beauty and the Beast, a math play, and The San Francisco Symphony. At City Hall, we helped to pass a law to make McDonalds sell healthier Happy Meals. We helped by showing that even students want healthier meals.

Mrs. Woods is the uppers graders teacher. She has been teaching for 26 years. She has been teaching at Hillwood for 2 years.

By Angela and Anya

Hillwood School

Write a Bio About Adam

Use the following information and write a story — a biography — about Adam. Include an image of him from the PBS Kids site. At the end of your article, include five questions that you would like to ask Adam.

Adam is a mechanical engineer in IDEO's Palo Alto office. As a member of the Health, Wellness and Social Impact group in IDEO's design community, Adam brings to bear years of expertise in medical device design and biotechnology, as well as a passion for designing considered products and services that responsibly address pressing human needs. Highlights of his career with IDEO include the design of consumables for a breakthrough genetic sequencing company, design of a suite of groundbreaking spinal surgery instruments for a local medical startup, participating in IDEO's Ripple Effect project to improve access to clean drinking water in the developing world, and a variety of other innovations in personal care and hygiene products. Prior to IDEO, Adam was a principal R&D engineer at the Palo Alto biotech startup Theranos, Inc. Theranos is developing a transformative point-of-care diagnostic device. Adam’s contributions at Theranos included inventions in the areas of whole blood separation and automated sample processing, disposable design, and user-interaction. Adam received his BS in mechanical engineering from Stanford University, and his MS from MIT where he studied microfluidic design of biological sensors for lab-on-a-chip applications. Hailing from Portland, OR, Adam has been fortunate to live, travel, ski, bike, and hike in many beautiful and fantastic places of the world, but he will always have a soft spot for the mountains of the Pacific Northwest.n of a child. As a grad student, one of her designs was accepted for 2006 production by IKEA.

What Will You Do on MLK Day?

Student Assignment: Jennifer

Hillwood, like most schools in the city, has Martin Luther King Day off. Students can pay to join other kids at a day-long camp at the Exploratorium.

Write a news story announcing this camp. Include all of the key details, from times and cost. You may pull from the following, as well as the Exploratorium's website. You will also want to include what activities kids can join in on. Your story should be at least 10 to 15 sentences long.


One-Day Camps for kids ages 5–10
Give your kids the Exploratorium camp experience on school holidays and SFUSD furlough days. On Monday, January 17 (Martin Luther King Day), 5- and 6-year-olds investigate all things dirt, while 7- to 10-year-olds dissect owl pellets and examine microscopic pond organisms to learn about the food chain. To see a full list of camp dates and descriptions and preregister (required) your campers, visit our website.