News from the Hill
December 1st, 2017
PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
It's hard to believe that winter is right around the corner! Our children have been busy learning, exploring, and creating. From developing skills as readers and writers to analyzing math word problems to building empathy and compassion, our classrooms are engaging, collaborative spaces where students are encouraged to take risks as learners to deepen their understanding. Additionally, this month we look forward to many grade level special events to close out the calendar year!
As the weather gets colder, please ensure that your children come to school dressed for the daily weather conditions, as they are often outside for morning bus time, lunch/recess and afternoon bus time. We encourage you to send your child with a coat, hat, and gloves each day so that they can more comfortably enjoy this outdoor play time.
We thank you for your efforts in following our school procedures for Circle Drop Off/Pick Up. Pulling to the first cone allows us to get more cars in the circle and move students along efficiently. Again, we request your partnership in signaling to us if your child needs assistance opening a car door by rolling down your passenger side window. We know that this time may require patience, but it goes smoothly when everyone cooperates and is respectful.
Our student report cards will be available on our Parent Portal on December 18th. If you have not yet signed up for our Portal, please follow the directions at the following link: https://www.hohschools.org/domain/968 .
Please note that Monday, December 4th is a district-wide Superintendent's Conference Day. Consequently, there will be no school for students. Tuesday, December 5th will be an F day.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend with your families,
Amy Cazes
Principal
Nature Walk Highlights
We are pleased to announce that this year, under the direction of our STEAM teacher, Robin Farrell, all Hillside students had the opportunity to enjoy a fall nature walk. We thank our parent volunteers for their time, dedication and support in making this happen. We are also incredibly grateful for our school support staff who joins our walks to ensure the safety of our students. We require groups to stay together at all times and follow the predetermined trail. This not only helps with safety issues but also limits forest erosion.
As we are a learning institution, we have reflected on our first cycle of walks and made notes of how to make these experiences even better! Below are a few of our additions:
-We will provide teachers with a checklist for each student so time is not lost to forgotten items (coats, appropriate shoes). In order to preserve our students’ instructional day, we ask that parent volunteers continue to meet students in the main lobby.
-Guides will be provided with a safety checklist to review with students prior to entering the Hillside Woods.
-Guides will be provided with a clearly labeled map trail.
We thank you for your partnership in continuing the long-held tradition of nature walks in the HIllside Woods and look forward to our upcoming winter walks!
Classroom News
Kindergarten
Kindergarteners worked hard this month to create a beautiful Thanksgiving experience for themselves as well as their families. We are proud of all the effort our children put into baking breads, making pudding as well gorgeous accessories for the Thanksgiving Celebration tables. The children made stunning lanterns with Native American symbols as well as personalized mats with very heartwarming messages of giving thanks to loved ones!
As mathematicians, we continue to build a strong foundation for numbers by composing and decomposing numbers up to 10. We are also strengthening our number formations.
We have continued to enjoy heart books. In addition to sequencing stories by looking at images (beginning, middle and end), we have practiced changing our voices to sound like the characters in the books we have read. As readers, we have also been learning how to look at the characters and state what they might be thinking as we keep the stories in our minds. We are building powerful comprehension tools as readers!
1st Grade
First graders are fantastic facilitators! As a culminating project to our study of the human body, our first graders organized and facilitated a “health fair” for our kindergarten students. Here, our students taught our kindergarten friends about some important concepts for staying healthy. In preparation for this, each class organized “stations” for our friends to visit. These included: hand-washing, exercising, resting, stretching and nutrition. First graders decided what would be discussed in their group and planned an activity that would help the kindergartners understand the importance of keeping their bodies healthy. A great time was had by all and the kindergarteners learned so much!
In writing, our students are currently working on drafting “How-To” books. In keeping with a healthy theme, some topics include, proper hand washing, brushing teeth, exercising, and making a healthy lunch, just to name a few. The boys and girls are learning to use temporal words (first, then, next, after that, finally) to write each step. Soon, we will move to revising/editing and finally publishing these wonderful masterpieces!
This week, we have started our new math unit. Module 2 introduces students to place value through addition and subtraction within 20. Students will be introduced to more efficient counting on strategies and will learn to solve problems with three addends.
2nd Grade
Second graders are grateful for another learning-filled month. November included lots of time to read, to write narratives, to model multi-digit numbers with place value disks, and to practice reading and spelling multisyllabic words (and use suffixes).
The students had the chance, with our families, to disguise turkeys, weeks ahead of Thanksgiving, so as to save some of the poor fowl from becoming entrees on many a holiday menu.. The “costumes” were just as wide (and as clever) as those in the Hillside Halloween parade!
Nonfiction text features and structures are the topics of our mini-lessons in reading workshop. As the children read informational texts at home, you can ask them to point out the contents page, note a heading, find a bold or italicized word, look up a new vocabulary word in the glossary, or imagine a caption for a photograph without one. You’ll be impressed that they not only can identify these, but should be able to share the author’s purpose for them. These skills are essential for readers to use as they read nonfiction materials.
The narratives unit, in our writing workshop, is completed. The children delighted in publishing their stories and then sharing them with their classmates. Bravo, young authors! This month, the students will research a topic and complete a short, informational booklet on that topic; these nonfiction pieces will be ready to share on Dec. 19th (our grade level, holiday celebration).
The mathematicians are place value pros! The students can represent three digit numbers with disks or Dienes blocks or shorthand symbols; they can read them, e x p a n d them, identify units and unit values, and write them in word form. On to ALGORITHMS! (Please continue to help your children to memorize the basic facts, at home!)
In STEAM, the scientists have learned about the changes that can (and/or cannot) be made to solids. The students have cut up index cards, built and rebuilt (to perfect) Lego crayon boxes, and created melted crayon canvases.
The social studies unit on Community has linked to Second Step in such a positive way. Recognition of the many communities within Hillside has afforded the children so many wonderful opportunities to rehearse their skills for learning and to practice empathy. The second graders appreciate (and respect) the myriad of diverse citizens in our school and can see the ways in which we work and play together. They can identify the rights and the responsibilities of the school community, of each mini-community and of each member. They can better understand the school’s “rules” and name consequences.
December - we are ready! Bring on the learning!
3rd Grade
In Math, we are finishing our second unit of study: Measurement. Students will be assessed this week on their ability to add and subtract weights, using tape diagrams and number lines to help get their answers. They will tell time to the minute, and figure out elapsed time. They will also round numbers to the tens and hundreds, using number lines. We continue weekly quizzes on the multiplication facts – you should be getting a set of flashcards to let you know what table is being studied each week.
In Language Arts, we are getting ready to start our biography unit. We will be reading various biographies – including picture book format and chapter format. We will learn about what makes a biography subject worthy of a biography, and what lessons we can learn from the person overcoming obstacles and hurdles to make positive change in our world. We will even take time to read some animal biographies!
In Social Studies, we continue our unit on China. We have created kites, with a special word written in Chinese. Students worked with our artist-in-residence, Alison Marra, this week to paint their Chinese lantern. We are also busy preparing with our music, physical education and classroom teachers to put on our “Hillside Chinese Opera”. Information went home telling whether your child’s class is performing on December 5th or 6th in the All Purpose Room. We hope you can join us. We have our Chinese tea celebration later this month in each of our classrooms. We hope you will be able to join us for this special event, too, and see what your child has been learning and creating.
In Science, we have been creating books showing magnetic force, that we will be sharing with the kindergarteners.
4th Grade
In math, 4th graders have been working diligently on multiplication. Students have learned various ways to multiply including partial product, area model and standard algorithm. They have also learned to read, interpret and solve multi-step word problems. As we move ahead to the end of December, students will learn long division to complete our second unit.
In ELA, students are continued to build their reading skills. They are strengthening their ability to read independently and with partners as well. 4th graders are learning to select texts, plan reading schedules with partners, write their thoughts in reading notebooks, and then use these ideas as springboards for conversations. It has been amazing to see our students discover and express the “big ideas” in each book they read.
In social studies, 4th grade teachers were truly impressed by the incredible longhouses our students created. Although every longhouse was constructed with similar materials, each student crafted his or her own unique structure. It was a pleasure to see so many examples in our hallway. As we wrap up our study of the Iroquois, we will begin to learn about the European explorers who made their way to our North American continent and changed the course of history forever.
In science, we are continuing to study living things. We are discovering that there is much to learn about the traits of living things. Whether traits are inherited, acquired or learned, they combine to make each living thing a special and truly different being.
Communications Class K-2
We all attended a Veteran’s Day assembly where we led the whole school in the Pledge of Allegiance. We were so proud to represent our school in such a wonderful way! We have also been preparing for Thanksgiving. We have been thinking about what we are thankful for and exploring Native American culture and traditions. The Kindergarten students had a wonderful Thanksgiving Feast. They worked hard to learn the Thanksgiving songs and create beautiful keepsake decorations.
Some of the concepts we have been focusing on are: phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, reading skills and reading comprehension, and math number sense, and addition. Depending on student grade levels, some of the content topics covered are: Living and Non-living, Human Body, Communities and Property of Matter. In reading, we are continuing to enjoy heart books. As readers, we have also been learning how to look at the characters and state what they might be thinking as we keep the stories in our minds.
Other curriculum is based on student IEP goals, grade level skills, and life skills. Throughout the day we will focus on individual skills in addition to accessing the general curriculum. As a whole class, we are participating in many hands-on activities that are both engaging and educational!
Learning Lab
As readers we have been diving into nonfiction. This has been a huge hit with our class. Some of our favorite topics are basketball, history, weather, and US Presidents. We have also been exploring nonfiction using audio text through Raz-Kids and Epic! We are continuing our work with sight words which is really paying off in our reading. During word work we are learning many skills for phonemic awareness which support our reading of unfamiliar words. We are building our stamina everyday through independent reading and partner reading. As writers we all published our first written piece which was a narrative piece about feeling thankful. We stretched sentences by adding more details and added sentences to tell the whole story!
In math our second graders worked hard on place value and determining the values of the digits in three digit numbers. Our Third Graders completed there was on telling time, exploring elapsed time, and a variety of units of measure. Our Fourth Graders continued to work on the concepts of division with remainders. We use the array model to support our learning of division.
Art
December is here! It is time for the Kindergarten students to create paintings of Winter scenes. After looking at the seasonal work of Grandma Moses, students are using a craypas relief technique to create a Winter Wonderland. Here is an excerpt from Grandma Moses’s winter reflections:
Wintertime!...[When} the sun came out and melted the snow on top, and
then it froze so hard, it would almost hold a horse.
It was so cold, my brothers could not go to school, and we
played on the crust of the snow. We could go up a field
above the orchard, get on our sleighs, and away we would go! Lester
had a sleigh with cast iron runners, Horace had an old wash bench,
upside down, but very safe, Arthur a dust pan, and I an old
scoop shovel. Oh, what fun! We would play out for hours,
and the thermometer at 25 below zero.
Please check out the Hillside Art Blog for regular updates from the Hillside Art Studio: https://www.hohschools.org/Page/1225
Music
Mr. Campbell’s classes have been very busy making music this month. Kindergarten and first grade students began learning what it means to improvise by creating short rhythmic and melodic patterns as part of a musical conversation. Second graders have begun to learn about solfege and how it can be used to distinguish between high and low sounds. Third grade students have been hard at work preparing to perform in their Chinese Opera next month. They have also been learning about Verse/Chorus Form and how to read 16th note rhythms. Mr. Campbell’s Fourth graders have been learning about what it means to get faster or slower in music. They have been performing ritardandos and accelerandos in the music they sing, chant, and perform.
Ms. Concra’s classes have also been busy musicians. Kindergarteners and first graders have been working on improvising creative movements and echoing melodic intervals in solfege. Second graders have been using body movements to identify high and low pitches. Ms. Concra’s third grade students are also rehearsing songs for the Chinese Opera presentation next month as well as continuing to read and aurally identify basic standard notation including 16th notes. Fourth grade students just wrapped up the dynamics unit. Students composed their own dynamics, performed each other’s compositions, and listened and identified dynamics in classical and contemporary repertoire.
Physical Education
FLES
November has been another busy month, as students continue exploring new concepts in Spanish. Kindergarteners are continuing to practice and reinforce basic conversational expressions in Spanish, such as their name, how they’re feeling, and how old they are. We will begin learning colors in the coming month. First graders are learning the weather and seasons primarily through song and through the creation of weather and season books. Second graders are continuing to reinforce how to describe themselves and others in Spanish through the creation of animal books and various Thanksgiving-themed activities. In the coming month, we will also apply their large vocabulary of adjectives in Spanish to describing extended family members. Third graders have begun our unit about Chile, while fourth graders are beginning our unit about Spain.
STEAM
Our kindergarteners are learning about natural resources and the ways in which we can preserve non-renewable resources such as water. First grade students are exploring how scientists create models to help them test out larger hypothesis. After making melted crayon art to demonstrate irreversible changes, our second graders are looking forward to finding water on our planet and the forms it takes. We have been publishing books that use magnetism in third grade, and our third grade authors will be sharing these books with our kindergarten students during the month of December. Lastly, our fourth graders are using what they know about energy transfers to design their own versions of marble runs.