Garden Elementary

Arbor Day is being celebrated today at Spring Garden Elementary School.Students will assemble at 9 a.m. to hear guest speaker Walter S. Orlinsky of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. The town of Hampstead will plant a Kings Elm, which has been selected as the Hampstead town tree. Parents and friends are invited to the activity.Spring Garden Elementary is at 900 Boxwood Drive. To reach the school from Hanover Pike, turn left to Northwoods Trail at a McDonald's restaurant and turn right at the stop sign to Boxwood.

Spring Garden Elementary salutes spring with its annual Spring Garden Party from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 11 at the school, 700 Boxwood Drive, Hampstead.The family event features games and activities for preschoolers to fifth grade. Children must be accompanied by an adult.For families in the Spring Garden school district, it's a chance to see teachers, staff, students and parents.In addition to last year's carnival-style children's games, in which everyone received a prize, new activities will include a beanbag toss created by Boy Scouts, a basketball toss, a prize wheel and a candy wheel.

Christmas trees sold by Cub Scout Pack 790 of Hampstead are going, going, gone.The last of 150 trees was sold Sunday, ending the tree sale by the Cubs and parents after only three weeks.Pack 790 appreciated support of local businesses, including JCK Tree Farm of Taneytown, which provided trees at a discount and donated a few extras.Maryland Septic delivered them to Robert's Field, Straight Line Fence of Manchester donated an outdoor shed and Schaeffer Mulch provided wood for the fire barrel.

Strike the nakers. Pluck the psaltery. Strum the chordaldulcimer. The Middle Ages are alive and well at Spring Garden Elementary School in Hampstead.The fourth grade will present "This Merry Company," a musical Middle Ages celebration. True to the medieval celebration of the end of shortened days in the year, the festival will take place Monday at 10 a.m. and Dec. 14 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the school on Boxwood Drive.You won't want to miss this Middle Ages variety show, a collection of Moorish dances, juggling, poetry reading, singing authentic wassails and playing melodies on replicas of period instruments, knights in armor, a mummers (masked)

North Carroll needs another elementary school, and now is the time to get the project moving, Hampstead Mayor C. Clinton Becker told county commissioners yesterday.If the school isn't built soon, county officials should impose a building moratorium in the area, he said. Development inside town limits does not account for most of the growth in the area, he said."There is a problem, and we need to deal with it," Mr. Becker said.Crowded schools are a problem for the county, not just towns, he said during the commissioners' quarterly meeting with town mayors at the County Office Building.

Student instrumentalists from North Carroll elementary, middle and high schools will perform together in The North Carroll Area Band Concert at 7 p.m. tomorrow at North Carroll High School.Manchester, Hampstead and Spring Garden Elementary schools have sent their fifth-grade woodwind musicians, about 100 all together, to joint rehearsals during March. At the concert, the school's band directors, Mark Harrison from Manchester, Mike Hersch from Hampstead and Karen Rogers from Spring Garden, will each conduct the combined band for one of three selections.

Springtime has come to Spring Garden Elementary in Hampstead. On April 3, the first Spring Garden Garden Party will be sponsored by the PTA. Any child from any school can come for games, food and fun.Under chairwomen Carole Riddle and Carolyn Smedick, a committee of eight people will coordinate the days' activities, assisted by "lots and lots of moms and dads who've volunteered to work," said Mrs. Smedick.From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the school cafeteria-gym, children can choose from 10 games set for varying skill levels.

Are you a quilter? Or wish you were? Quilt needles are flashing through a queen-sized quilt at Spring Garden Elementary School, but they could use a few more nimble fingers.The fourth-grade art students are sewing a white-on-white quilt. It's a style that depends upon stitchery to reveal the designs. These ambitious students designed the quilt with 42 different drawings they've made of Maryland symbols.They are welcoming help from the community. Volunteer mothers with no previous experience dove in to get the project started.

The melodies of Mozart can no longer be contained within the music room at Spring Garden Elementary. Since early November, they've grabbed the attention of the whole school.In the cafeteria, "A Little Night Music" dances among students on break for lunch. In art class, it might be "The Marriage of Figaro" that accompanies creative work time.Mozart is taken home, too, on cassette tapes with study copies of the words to his operas. Tapes of Mozart are going like hot cakes from a special lending library in the school media center.