Hillcrest Happenings

We will have another chance at our attendance challenge this week. Last week our weekly average was 93%, hopefully this week we will reach our goal. If we can have an average of 96% or better Monday - Thursday, we will have "1st Letter of your Name" day on Friday. Students will be able to dress as the first letter of their name. For example, if your name is Carter, you could dress as a cook. Let's be Hillcrest Best: Be here and on time!

A few reminders:

1. Our first PTA Music Performance is Tuesday Sept 27th for 3rd grade. Please mark your calendars and plan for your 3rd grader to attend. They have worked hard on the music and we want to see everyone perform!

2. A+ cards fundraiser is still going! I hope you are selling your discount cards. The money raised will go directly back to the students by funding field trips and special events.

3. Thank you 3rd grade for the amazing lunch provided to our staff. It was delicious!

Thank you for sharing your children with us. It is going to be a great year at Hillcrest PDS!

Haley Dean, Principal

#elevAte

Each month, as a campus, we practice a fire drill and one other type of drill. These drills are important in making sure that our staff and students are ready in case of an emergency. The following are the types of drills we practice:

Hold- Students stay in their rooms and halls are cleared.

Secure- All students get inside the building. Outside doors are locked.

Lockdown- Students in room, lights out, windows covered, doors locked.

Evacuate- Students and staff evacuate the building and go to a specified location.

Shelter- Students practice strategies for tornado/hazmat.

Fire- Students evacuate the building and meet in a specified location.

Please ask a member of the leadership team if you have any questions about these processes. Thanks!

This month’s focus is Respect for our SEL program, Character Strong. One way to think about Respect is “seeing value in all people and things & treating them with care.” Many people feel Respected in different ways and we hope this month inspires discussions with your family about what Respect means to you and how you can practice it together! Respect is one of the many traits we will focus on throughout the year that helps students Be Kind. Throughout the school, students will be developing skills like perspective-taking, conflict resolution, and leadership.

Family Character Dare: Check out this family character dare called A Piece of Me.

Our theme for the next three weeks is My Family and Friends. This week we are focusing on our relatives.

Wonderful Word of the Week: relative

Letters of the Week: Ee, Rr, Ss

Math: Quantity - we will begin to explore how to describe and compare quantities using words such as: few, many, fewer, and more.

Phonological Awareness: Sentence segmentation

This week we will continue our Beginning of the Year assessment. This week we will be assessing math, science, social studies, social-emotional, and physical development.

If you haven’t already, please join your students class on Remind:

Mrs. Martinez: @hpdsmtz

Mrs. Campbell: @4663b9

Please let us know if you have any questions!

Mrs. Martinez - Rachel.Martinez@wacoisd.org

Mrs. Campbell - Rosalie.Campbell@wacoisd.org

This week in Kindergarten:

We continue administering the Kindergarten state assessment Tx-KEA. This assessment is required by the district and is given 3 times a year. The assessment is administered individually and has many components. The assessment window is Sept. 19-Oct. 21

Reading Workshop- We will respond to a story read aloud using words and pictures, use background knowledge to help make meaning, and make personal connections.

Word Study- We will identify and make alliterations within sentences.

Sight Words- and, is, to

Letters of the week- Ii, Tt

Writer’s Workshop- We will plan a writing piece by generating ideas as a class and write a sentence using a sentence stem.

Math- We will read, represent, and compare numbers 6-10.

Science-Students will observe and describe the location of an object in relation to another.

Please check take home folders and return them daily.

Stay connected by adding yourself to our classroom Remind 101.

Rabine (Remind): @rabine22

kendal.rabine@wacoisd.org

Whatley (Remind): @whatley22

mary.whatley@wacoisd.org

Whitley (Remind): @24kh7d

patrecia.whitley@wacoisd.org

Reading and Social Studies:: Monday is Johnny Appleseed’s birthday so we will celebrate by focusing on Apples! We will read fiction and nonfiction books centered around that theme. We will work on determining which books are ‘real learning’ and which ones are ‘imaginary learning.’

Spelling: ran, pet, pig, will, frog, rug, fun (short vowel review)

High frequency words: was, are, want

Bonus word: apple

Math: This week we will begin our focus on subtraction. We will continue to review addition as well. Keep on the lookout for a math homework page.

Science: Scientists observe and record findings using their five senses. We will be observing all the different properties of apples using our sight, smell, touch, taste and even hearing (listening to a story about the apple’s secret). This is always such a fun week!

FIELD TRIP and PICTURE DAY: Both are coming up soon. Info will be in your child’s folder sometime this week.

Look in your child's blue folder daily for notes and info. Please initial each day so we know you’ve seen it. Thank you!

RLA - [Phonics] Spelling words will all be 2nd grade high-frequency words this week as we learn about dictionary skills and review ABC order. [Reading] We will practice making connections this week to books we have read! Self-to-text, text-to-text, and text-to-world. We will also practice retelling a text by using the 5-finger retell. [Writing] This week we will be learning about authors who write about small moments in their lives, and will also practice writing about our own small moments.

Spelling Words:

*Sight Words

1. *able

2. *behind

3. *dad

4. *even

6. *food

7. *goes

8. *hill

9. *live

10. *part

11. *say

12. *today

Bonus Word: money

Math - We will be practicing identifying the name and value of coins and counting collections of coins (pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and half dollars)

Science - This week we will be starting our unit on weather and will be learning about making choices on clothing based on weather, as well as learning how to read a thermometer.

Social Studies - We will be celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month by reading a book about the astronaut Ellen Ochoa and completing a timeline of her life, as well as completing a goal setting activity to make a plan for achieving a goal, just like Ellen did!

Stay Connected! Please add yourself to our messaging platforms:

Holt (Remind): @Holt22-23 or email emily.holt@wacoisd.org

Ronnenberg (Remind): @missronne or email alexandra.ronnenberg@wacoisd.org

Whyburn (Class Dojo): link here or email ashley.lenhardt@wacoisd.org

These students have been working SOOOOO HARD on their Music Program! They will be performing right after the PTA Meeting on Tuesday, September 27 at 6 pm. If your student is in the performance, please have them here no later than 5:45. We are excited to see our ants, grasshoppers, tortoises, hares, mice, and lions take us through the tales and teach us lessons through their fables! The school year is going FAST, we are starting the second six weeks continuing addition, subtraction, and author’s purpose. Whenever you can, have your students give you evidence to conclusions they make, and please help them move away from using their fingers to count.

Calendar Events

September 27- PTA Meeting and Music Program 6 pm

September 30- Zoom with the Author Just One Bite

What’s going on in the classroom?

Math: We are on the Addition and Subtraction unit, but don’t be surprised when you hear about number lines, rounding, and some operations when you ask your students what they did at school. If you want to get extra practice in with your students, we would love for you to work on addition and subtraction fluency. This means asking them addition and subtraction problems that are simple one digit by one digit problems (i.e 2-2, 8+6). The faster they can answer you the better. Schools define fluency as answering in less than 5 seconds. We also ask that they move away from using their fingers. Ask them about Touch Math…

Reading: We are continuing our work on Author’s Purpose and craft. If you’re asking your students about what they’re learning or reading please have them give you text evidence. Have them give you specific examples from their day.

Writing: We are continuing our work on the Wax Museums… We are going to be working fast and hard on these for the rest of September through October to have them ready by the 25th instead of January 31! We will let you know what or if we need anything from you all.

Social Studies: This is a science week!

Science: We’re going on a trip in our favorite rocketship, zooming through the sky 3rd grade Einsteins! We’re starting our unit on the Solar System! We’ll stick close to home this week to focus on the Earth, Sun, and Moon.

It is Book Tallk Time! This Thursday students will get together and present their book talks to each other. We can't wait to hear all about the books they have chosen and hopefully add some to out reading list!

Last week we started multiplication. Please review facts with your child! It makes multiplying larger numbers so much easier if they have them down.

Picture day is October 8th! Please send in any order forms.

Its going to be a great week!

Units of Study in 4th grade :

ELAR: Author’s Craft

Math: Multiplication

Science: Investigating Earth’s Changes

Social Studies: Thinking like a Geographer and Historian

Make sure you have signed up for Remind notifications by texting your class code to

Mrs. Braswell @gd7662a

Mrs. Hall @bhall4

Ms. Reeves @he9b73

This week:

Math: We are continuing to do our algebraic reasoning and solving equations with variables.

Science: We are starting our Force and Motion unit.

Reading: We are focusing on text and graphic features.

Social Studies: We are reading about the beginning of the American Revolution.

Please read 20 minutes every night!

Please make sure to send a water bottle. We do not have access to water fountains during the day and students get very thirsty! We do have the ability to fill the bottles.

Feel free to contact us through remind or email us!

~The fabulous fifth grade team~

Mrs. Land holly.land@wacoisd.org

Mr. Dossey lenard.dossey@wacoisd.org

Ms. Hardin tracey.hardin@wacoisd.org

First, I just want to say thank you for sharing your wonderful artists with me! They have been creating up a storm already this semester! We began last month using our 1st Element of Art: LINE- where students created sculptures, paintings and drawings with movement, repetition and rhythm! We can’t wait for you see what they’ve been up to in person! Everything will go home with students in their portfolio at the end of the year, but if you’re in the building, make sure you stop by our gallery wall outside the studio! We even celebrated “National Dot Day” by reading about a young artist named Vashti who “made her mark” by starting with one single “dot.”

This month in the studio, our artists are learning all about our 2nd Element of Art: SHAPE. They are learning the difference between organic shapes and geometric shapes. We are using symmetry, balance & unity to create some very successful pieces! Our students will be learning from some shape-expert artists like Henri Matisse, Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Paul Klee, and Pablo Picasso to name a few. Using these first two Elements of Art, LINE & SHAPE- our entire school family has been a part of creating an underwater world in a larger-than- life aquarium to be hung as an art installation in the hallways.

In addition, please ask your Pre-K and Kinder artists about building a “Shape Robot” with geometric shapes- who are certainly not lacking in personality! Ask your first and second graders how to set a table, as they’ve built their favorite plate of food, collaging shapes of both geometric and organic types. Ask your third grader all about symmetry and positive and negative shape, and they will tell you all about the importance of craftsmanship and composition. Your fourth and fifth graders have mastered the art of perspective- studying one-point perspective techniques while learning about schools of fish and marine life. Next month we will be celebrating Hispanic Heritage month with incredible student-made papel picado, sugar skulls, portraits of famous Hispanic artists, and more! We will also be holding tryouts for Art Smart UIL, so be looking for paperwork to come home with your child. Practices will begin every Tuesday after school until 4:45 if they’re interested in participating.

​"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up."-Pablo Picasso Keep Creating!

–Mrs. Weatherly

Parents:

The PTA has created a Google Form that allows you to sign up for membership from home. Please click on the link below and fill out the membership form if you are interested in joining the HPDS PTA. If you have already filled out a paper form to join this school year, there is no need to complete this online form.

Thanks!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfG9FG-7QV2bY87-SIcMPTsA0JwSjxQjVZ4iUd2R_JvPD4CaQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

Lunches are free to all students, however if you would like for your student to have money on their accounts for ice cream ($1.00) or chips ($0.75) on Friday's or for extra helpings, please see the schoolcafe app information below. From this app, you can manage your student's balance, as well as see menus and nutritional information.