Hear About Hillwood's Annual Snack and Bake Sale

Listen to Anya interview Asiana about her story explaining Hillwood's annual snack and bake sale. Learn what organization will receive all the money raised this year. 

Click here for Asiana's full story.

Watch the Fun at the Talent Show!

For more holiday videos and news click to The Herald's Holiday coverage. 

Hillwood's Christmas Party

Every Christmas, Hillwood School has a party, where all of the students and the students' parentsget together and celebrate another year. There's lots of food, and the students of Hillwood have a talent show that they put on for their parents.

The upper graders are going to sing, "A Happy Christmas" by John Lennon and "Silver Bells." The upper graders are also going to pretend they are famous artists, and talk to the audience about themselves in Spanish. The little kids   are going to sing a song in Spanish.

In addition, many of the students are going to do their own thing in the talent show, from playing a musical instrument to acting out a skit.

Also every year, Hillwood has its Secret Santa tradition. During this event, one of santa's deputies comes down and uses reindeer antlers to see if all the students have been naughty or nice. If they are nice, they get a present. Then, they have to guess who gave them the present. Miss Schmitt, shown in this picture in Muir Woods at the Hillwood cabin, will be leading much of the musical festivities.

Back to School at Hillwood

I used these words because they describe the Hillwood Academic Day School. I made the image on Wordle.net, a website for making pictures with words. The school we are in is in a house, and this is the first week back to school. You get to learn how to blog every Friday.

Every Friday, the upper students of the blog, called The Hillwood Herald, will report on local stories and the school. You can put story ideas for us in the suggestion box at the front of the school. Let us know what articles that you would like to read.

By Erion

The Hillwood Uniform

Still making your back-to-school purchases? Don't forget the uniform!

Dennis Uniform — both online and at located in San Francisco — sells all the essentials of the Hillwood uniform. You can download a handy check list from the Dennis website.

Although the girls have an option of either a plaid "skort" or a skirt, they may also where navy capri pants. The latter may be — on occasion — found at regular department stores.

Summer's Almost Here, Everyone!

June at Hillwood is very eventful: International Day, the Graduation/June Party, and the start of Hillwood's Summer Session.

International Day:
International/Heritage Day at Hillwood is always the first Friday of June every year. Students are allowed to come to school in their own cultural clothing, Hawaiian clothing, or uniforms and are encouraged to bring in any kind of dish that relates to their country. The food brought in is served for lunch which is around 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM. Parents were invited too for lunch and were welcome to stay for the June Talent Show which started at 1:30 PM to 2:45 PM.

During the talent show, everyone performed at least twice. Ms. Schmitt, as mentioned before, is the main person in charge of all talent shows. She always has each class sing at least two songs for the talent show. She also holds auditions for students who want to do additional performances. The Spanish teacher, Senorita Lydia, also has students perform brief plays in Spanish to show off our language skills.

Graduation/June Party:
The Graduation/June Party is also known as the last day of school. The party is held for graduating 8th graders and Kindergarteners. Every year, Hillwood's 8th graders get into excellent high schools around the Bay Area.

This fall: Julian will attend Tamalpais High School in Marin, Julien will attend SHCP or Galileo High in San Francisco, Irene will attend Oceana High School in Pacifica, and Brigette will attend School Of The Arts in San Francisco.

The Kindergarten students are also graduating to go to 1st grade - at Hillwood again! The Graduation Party includes the whole school singing 'The Star Spangled Banner', 'Amazing Grace', and the Hillwood Song, the valedictorian (Brigette) giving her speech, and all the graduates receive their diplomas. After the elaborate ritual, all the graduates go to the family room to celebrate with teachers, families, and friends.

Hillwood's Summer Program:
The last two weeks of June is the start of Hillwood's Summer Program. During June and July, going to Hillwood like a summer day camp. Students and other children are allowed to enroll for the summer program and everyday is full of fun activities.

Mrs. Grantz and Ms. Tom lead the children daily: they go to Altal Plaza Park, the library, Moscone Park, Marina Greens, and had picnics. We also went on weekly field trips to the Exploratorium and other museums.

The Walkathon

At Hillwood, for our first walkathon, we walked down to Crissy Field to raise money for the playground in the back of the school.

After the first 2010 walkathon to Crissie Field, we came back to the school and had a BBQ. We all surprised ourselves by raising about three thousand dollars for the school playground. We are all excited to know that we will have new play equipment in the near future.

This article will be part of Hillwood's yearbook.

Art at Hillwood, with My Mom

Art is a subject at Hillwood School. Our art teacher is Anna Sargysan. She is also my mom. She does art every Friday. The upper graders have art after the park, the 2nd through 4rth go before the park, and the little kids do art right before lunch. Anna does still life, abstract, and origami with us. At home, she paints all sorts of paintings.

If you go to www.annaseven.com, you can look at a lot of art work that she has. She has a lot of ink on paper, oil on canvas, acrylics on canvas, and pencil on canvas. The image shown here is from her website.

This article will be part of Hillwood's yearbook.

2nd to 4th Grade

What is it like to be in 2nd to 4th grade here at Hillwood? Well I'll tell you. 2nd to 4th grade are in a combined classroom so when the younger grades need help the older children can help. Ms Tom became the 2nd to 4th grade teacher in 2008. Ms. Tom was my teacher for almost all of the time I've been here. Ms. Tom has been working here for 8 years starting in 2010. She was born in San Francisco.

I was in 2nd to 4th grade from 2007-2009. I first met Rubina in 2nd grade, my best friend, Reid, moved to Idaho in 2nd grade, and Mr. Grantz was my teacher.

In 2010 the 2nd to 4th graders favorite book was The Witches. They saw the play Nate the Great, they said it wasn't so good. Their favorite subjects are math and reading.

This article will be part of Hillwood's yearbook.

Life at Hillwood

With its small number of students, Hillwood Academic Day School's atmosphere produces a family like feel. Because of the size of the school and its pupils, teachers are able to direct more attention toward each student, children feel more encouraged to learn and don't feel held back. Everything about this school, the teachers, the classrooms, even the backyard, feels comfortable with its intimate essence.

When I was four and a half, newly enrolled in Hillwood, I was so excited to be learning how to read. Though "See Spot Run" doesn't seem like much, it was a big deal for me, a kid who was tired of knowing only the alphabet song and how to count to 100 in pre-school. Here, I felt the supportive and familiar character of the school from the beginning. Now in the eighth grade, working on algebra and excerpts from The Odyssey, I still feel inspired by the great teachers here.

It's also very nice to be in a place where you know everyone's name and where everyone knows yours. Being in such a small group makes me feel not so inclined to just follow the crowd. I think that such a relaxed environment can bring out a person's individuality because you don't feel the peer pressure as much as you would in a class of 30.

Classes that are offered include: math, English, science, history, art, Spanish, and chorus. In addition, we also have a period on Friday morning where the uppergraders work on the school's blog, The Hillwood Herald, directed by parent volunteer Ms. Moorhead. The academics, are taught by the teacher of the class, art, by parent volunteer , Ms. Anna H., Spanish, by Senorita Lidia, and chorus, by Ms. Schmitt. Our K-1st grade teacher is Ms. Dawson, our 2nd-4th grade teacher is Ms. Tom, and our 5th-8th grade teacher is Mrs. Woods. In the kindergarten and first grade classroom, beginner's books like Fun with Dick and Jane and those by Dr. Seuss line bookshelves. Starting from the second grade, students work on their multiplication and division. In the uppergrades, we work on pre-algebra and algebra as well as Shakespearean writing and Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

(Is this long enough? Should I add more?)
by Brigette W.

Hillwood Academic Day School Yearbook

Cover: Brigette

Title page

2–3: Life at Hillwood [Brigette] (500 words)

3–4: Life at Hillwood [Irene] (250 words)

5–6: History of Hillwood [Camryn] (250 words)

7–8: Zack, the dog [Anya]

9–10: Muir Woods — the Cabin [Zach]
Hillwood Annual May Overnight [Anya]

11–12: Music at Hillwood [Rubina]
Miss Schmitt bio [Rubina]
First person: How music and art have affected my life [Brigette]

13–14: Art at Hillwood [Rubina]
Your mom's bio [Rubina]

15–16: Field Trips: City Hall (Zach), movie outing (Julian G.), Exploratorium [Brendon], De Young [Brendon]
June Talent Show [Brigette]

17–18: October outing [Lance]

19–20: Holiday Talent Show [Brendan]

21–22: Mrs. TKTK Day [Julian F.]

23–24: Giants Day [Julien G.]
First person: What sports has done for me [Julian G.]
Walk-a-thon [Zach]

25–26: Field Trips: theater show [Camryn], Academy of Science [Brendon],

27–28: Kindergarten/first-grade students [Irene, Camryn]
Miss Dawson bio [Camryn]
Mr. Grantz bio [Zach]
Mrs. Grantz bio [Zach]

29–30: Student Photos

31–32: Lower-grade students [Lance, Anya]
Miss Tom bio [Lance]
Miss Caine bio [Lance]
Miss Marta bio [Anya]

33–34: Student photos

35–36: Upper-grade students [Julian F., Julien G.]
Ms. Woods bio [Julian F.]
Spanish Miss Lidia bio [Brandon]

37–38: Student photos

1. Anya
2. Brendon
3. Brigette
4. Camryn
5. Irene
6. Julian F.
7. Julien G.
8. Lance
9. Rubina
10. Zach

39–40: Index [Zach]

Top stories:
Health care reform
Miep Gies
Obama's state of the Union
Martin Luther King

Yearbooks for Hillwood? Let's decide!

Wow! 2009–2010 was and is an exciting year! More students enrolling in Hillwood, The Hillwood Herald, and reading classic novels in class. Now, we have an idea of making a yearbook for the school.

Yearbooks are annual books that record the school year's highlights, popular past-times, and photos of the students. Most yearbooks have pictures of every class and also the graduating class of that year. There are also pages filled with major trips, projects, and school spirit weeks.

For Hillwood, the yearbook will be slightly different from other usual yearbooks. Of course, there will be the class pictures, but we will also include past blog articles, the history of our school, interviews with students, and teacher comments.

For the lower-graders, we can include popular singers, movie stars, lego updates, and sports news.

Field Trip Highlight: The Zeum

The Zeum is a place where you and your family could go to have fun, and work on fun little creative projects. One project that I worked on with my class on a field trip earlier this week was with clay animation. What you did was, make a couple clay figures, and take many, many pictures of them doing something. When you play them all at once, it looks like they are moving all by themselves. You could also make a music video of yourself and friends singing your favorite song, with a back round of your choice. After, if you want to keep it, they could burn it all into one disc.


The above video clip is an example of the clay animation from the Zeum.

Hillwood's Annual All-Day Christmas Party

Every year during the merry month, Hillwood throws an all-day Christmas party for our students and families. The day starts off as normal. At around 10 AM, the whole school gathers in the middle room downstairs. The appointed Deputy of Santa (Eighth Grader Brigette W.) comes along with her helpers (Irene T., Julian F., and Julien G.) to distribute presents around to everybody (the presents are part of a Secret Santa Draw we do in class. Will get on to that in a minute). The Deputy of Santa will use her special "reindeer ears" to determine if each student has been naughty or nice for the year by asking questions such as, "Did you eat your veggies this year?" or "Have you listened to your mommy a lot?" The child will respond with (of course) yes to every question and he/she will receive a present sent by an anonymous student. The party is followed by a short break and lunch. Afterwards, the students host a Talent Show with various acts from grades Kindergarten to Eighth. Parents are invited as the audience of these special performances.

Secret Santa
In each class, a draw for Secret Santa is used. The teacher writes each students' name on a piece of paper and folds it. She puts it in a small container and asks one student to come up one at a time to pick one. Whichever person this student picks, he/she has to present a gift for the child with a limit of $10 on the gift. It's fun overall as you try to guess who is going to give you a present and what it will be. Also, it doesn't leave out anybody who doesn't get a gift. During the Present Time when the Deputy of Santa distributes the gifts, each student will know the sender on the tag.

Talent Show Acts
Ms. Gayle Schmitt, the school's music/singing teacher, conducts a song for each talent show (two annually) with each class. The upper graders will be singing "Jingle Bell Rock", Fourth Grader Faryn D. and Jennifer L. will be dueting the Spanish song "Feliz Navidad", and Brigette W. will be playing a lovely tune on her violin. There is always a variety. Last year, Samantha played the hula hoop and played the harmonica--at the same time! Julien G. is also very musically talented. He was in a band over the summer as a singer and he plays the piano. Zack taught himself how to play the guitar while Anya can perform amazing backflips! Everyone has a chance to show off some kind of talent.

Parents Corner
Parents can look forward to seeing their kids perform in the Talent Show and the Parents' Party. Our wonderful staff of Hillwood will be there. They include: Mr. and Mrs. Grantz, Ms. Kathy Tom, Ms. Sybil Dawson, Mrs. Eileen Woods, Ms. Samantha Caine, Ms. Lydia Cortias, Ms. Gayle Schmitt, Ms. Anna H., and Ms. Martha Yow.

Party Attire
Kids can come in fancy-casual dress. No jeans, t-shirts, and graphic shirts. Otherwise, uniforms as usual.

Picture Source: Google Images

Video Caption

Here is Irene T., a fellow Hillwood Herald reporter. She is being interviewed by Anya J. about her article on Hillwood's Fall Open House. In the video, Irene talks about the five W's of the event: Who, What, When, Where, and Why. There is also a flier included.

Hillwood's 60th Anniversary in Muir Woods

Last Sunday, Hillwood went to Camp Hillwood in Muir Woods. The occasion was the 60th anniversary for Hillwood Academic Day School.

We first had a BBQ then a long hike. We got many pictures of the woods. There weren't any deer but there were lots of trees. I loved the hammock at the camp. Everyone had a lovely time.



The hike was long and hard but I mainly liked stone stacking. There was a fun Pinata to whack. Don't forget about the candy. There was also a lot of singing with Ms. Gayle Shcmitt. Mr. Eric Grantz, the owner, hosted this wonderful BBQ. There was lots of desserts and lots of dumplings and meat. The camp is were Hillwood's summer program takes place each year.

Trip to Muir Woods!

The Hillwood school went to Muir Woods on Sunday. The school was celebrating Hillwood's 60th anniversary. Hillwood took a trip to hike in Muir Woods on Sunday. We had a great B-B-Q and and our music teacher sang songs with her. (Our teacher, Mrs. Schmitt is in the video shown above.)

Hillwood played volley ball, and ran at the creek.We had lots of fun. There were lots of kids that used to go to Hillwood Academic. There was about 40 to 50 kids at the Hillwood cabin. The Grantz family were the ones who aranged this cabin meating. Our music teacher Mrs. Schmitt was there. She is the one who started the band Toodala Ramblers. You could go to her site www. gaylesongs.com and listen to more of her songs.

Or you can watch this photo essay that I made below. Also, there are photos on the school's website from the picnic.

Hillwood Academic Day School in Photos

Word Collages About Life at Hillwood

I made this post at wordle.net. What I did to make this post is I typed words that describe the benefits of being an upper grader. As you see when you are an upper grader, you get to bake, you get candy, you get to go on lots of field trips, and we get to go to the park everyday.

The second worldle is about lunch. At Hillwood, the lunch is hot and delicious. One of my favorite lunches at Hillwood is creamy chicken. It's so yummy mmm....

Oliver M. made this Harry Poter Wordle after reading Samantha's article.

Samantha and Brandon discuss making Wordles. Filmed by Zack O.

Worldle Word Cloud

I chose this post because this is what I really think about Hillwood. It really is fun to play games like these and run and have a good time. Hillwood also has good games to play.

Watch Brigette and Irene talk with Jacob about his Wordle. Filmed by Zack O.