Mrs. Ping Wen and Mrs. Yun Wang, mothers of Joy Tao ’06 and Tony Li ’08, respectively, decorated the Upper School dining room and invited the entire Upper School student body to a reception celebrating Chinese New Year. They prepared and served traditional foods, dumplings, pancakes, cakes, candies, and spring rolls. The Chinese calendar is based on a combination of lunar and solar movements. Chinese New Year starts with the New Moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. The tremendous amount of food prepared at this time symbolizes abundance and wealth for the household. For those disinclined to experiment, there were pretzels, salsa and chips, and cookies.

Fred Speers continues to tally miles completed in the Lower School’s walking program. As of March 11th, Oregon Trail walkers have completed a combined total of 1,523 miles/2,450 Kilometers. Fourth grade, with a total of 1,204 miles/1,937 Kilometers, is out-walking the fifth grade, with a total of 319 miles/513 Kilometers. The Walk Across Pennsylvania group has totaled 1,410 Miles/2,269 Kilometers, with fourth grade completing 1,105 Miles/1,778 Kilometers and fifth grade completing 305 miles/491 Kilometers at the most recent updating,

In recognition of the 100th day of school, first grade students made posters consisting of 100 things. Their finished posters were on display Wednesday, February 23rd, in the first floor Common Room, where a “100th Day Museum” was set up. Their creative and colorful displays included posters with 100 gators, 100 gummy fish in a fish bowl, 100 hockey sports cards, and 100 cotton balls used to spell out Shipley.

First graders performed The Quiltmaker’s Gift, by Jeff Brumbeau, a charming fable for our times that celebrates the joy of giving. A generous quiltmaker, with magic in her fingers, sews the most beautiful quilts in the world, then gives them away. A greedy king, his storehouse stuffed with treasures, yearns for something that will make him happy. The Quiltmaker only gives her quilts to the poor and needy, so she tells the king that she will give him one, only after he has given away all of his treasures. He travels the world, doing so, giving to those who need. The Quiltmaker, in the end when the king has nothing left, gives him a beautiful quilt. He then decides that he is rich beyond measure. Music teacher Jane Wilson composed the music and wrote the lyrics for two of three songs including, "You can't buy friends, you can't buy love."

Third graders were privileged to have many famous individuals visit their classes for Bagels and Biographies. Jackie Robinson, Albert Einstein, Rachel Carson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Michael Jordan, Daniel Boone, Walt Disney, and Anne Frank were some of the famous people who told their life stories to the class and visiting parents.