News from the Hill
June 16, 2017
Principal's Message
It is hard to believe how quickly the year has flown by. As our students move up to the next grade, we can reflect on the wonderful memories that we have created together this year.
Our Hillside family is so special and I want to express my sincere appreciation to each and every one of you. It was truly a collaborative effort with caring teachers and staff, supportive families and spectacular students. It is because of your suggestions and feedback that we created such things as our HEART program at recess time, our Intervention Cafe, and our Core Values. I look forward to continued collaboration as we work together to do what is best for kids every day.
This week, we hosted a Meet and Greet for our new assistant principal, Mr. John DeKams. We are excited to have him join our team and I am confident he will be a great asset to HIllside. We are also sad to say goodbye to three highly regarded staff members- Dee Ratterree, Ilene Varon and Laura Stafford. We wish them only the best in their retirement! And of course, Hillside will miss Mr. Johnson as he moves onto a principalship of his own at Stony Point Elementary School. We know that he will continue to do great things for kids!
In the 2017-2018, we will begin a Balanced Literacy model in ELA. Students will be immersed in a Readers' Workshop where they will be reading books, books and more books! In an effort to enhance our classroom libraries, please consider donating some of your favorite books from your current grade level to your classroom teacher so that he/she may enhance the book choices for future students. Please only send in favorites, as our classrooms have limited space and we want to entice our new readers with only the most delicious reading morsels possible! I thank you in advance for your generosity and contribution.
Our Lost and Found is full of clothing! Please stop outside the Cafe to see if any of the items might belong to your child. Items not claimed will be donated to charity at the end of the school year.
We continue to ask for your partnership in ensuring a safe arrival and dismissal for our students. Please only allow your child to exit the car from the passenger side during Circle Drop Off and Pick-Up. We have had many concerns from parents in regard to students who are exiting from the driver's side. We appreciate your cooperation.
As you know, our team has been working diligently on class placement for the 2017-2018 school year. After our teachers carefully placed each child, our special area teachers, specialists and administrators reviewed the lists to make additional suggestions to ensure a wonderful new experience for each child. You will receive class placement assignments through the Portal in late August. An email will be sent alerting you to when this information is available. We cannot accommodate requests for changes at that time and we are unable to share any information on class placement before that date. Thank you for your patience and understanding and for trusting our process.
Today was an unbelievable day of magic at Hillside as our students came together for Field Day. I would like to thank our Physical Education teachers, Dennis Kiely, Ericka Melvin and Amanda Bassmann, who did a spectacular job of organizing a day filled with fun, laughter and sportsmanship. Thank you also to our parent volunteers for helping with each event. What a wonderful end to the week!
I wish you a safe summer filled with all of the joys of family. I hope that you will find the time to share many great books, outdoor experiences, ice cream sundaes and moments of love and laughter with your children. I know that we, as parents, will look back on these days fondly so we must treasure every moment.
Please do stay in touch over the summer. We will continue our tradition of creating our "Hillside is Going Places" bulletin board, so I encourage you to send us a postcard from your travels. It is great fun to learn about the world through our Hillside family!
Happy summer!
Amy Cazes
Principal
Student Artist Harris Khan Creates Amazing Putty Designs
Classroom News
Kindergarten
We have embarked on a new unit as the year wraps up...pushes and pulls! The children are exploring terms like gravity, force, incline, resistance etc. We are building ramps and seeing the impact of forces and inclines on speed of the cars.
In math we are further exploring number sense and counting to 100. We have been practicing with teen numbers and have become experts.
During Writer’s Workshop we have been creating expert books where the children have written procedural books explaining something they are experts in. These range from swimming, taking care of a pet, to using monkey bars and riding a bike! We have all been celebrating the huge growth of reading and writing this year and are so proud of our future first graders!
First Grade
As we wrap up the year, first graders are enjoying our new unit on Fairytales. This unit introduces students to stories that have been enjoyed for generations. Students are learning about the characteristics of fairy tales that distinguishes them from other types of fiction. Our focus will include learning about story elements such as character, setting and plot. Children will also compare and contrast these stories.
Currently, our math work includes a deeper study of place value, comparative word problems using double tape diagrams and extending the counting sequence beyond 100.
As writers, our students are working hard on an informational piece, as it relates to some of the endangered animals we studied in our habitat unit. Children have chosen an endangered animal to research and are using resources to gather information about their animal’s characteristics, habitat, adaptations, food, interesting facts and why the animal is endangered. Lastly, how to help this world problem will wrap up their pieces. We are so very proud of the writers our students’ have become!
It has been a wonderful year for all of us! We’d like to wish you all a fun-filled summer! Enjoy the time spent with your families and remember to KEEP READING!!
K-2 Communications
Our class has been very busy!!! We completed our poetry study and have just put the finishing touches on our published books. We studied elements of poetry and incorporated the elements into our poems. The students wrote poems about themselves, colors, animals, foods and so much more!! The students' poems are amazing-- I cannot wait to share them with you!!
We had two amazing grade level celebrations!! The first graders enjoyed a wonderful family picnic-- it was great to see students and families together. The kindergarten students also had an amazing end of year celebration. They all looked so grown up in their t-shirts. They really enjoyed decorating the shirts and illustrating their favorite kindergarten memory. Their hard work and practice in preparing for singing paid off-- They will Never Stop Learning because they are the champions of the school!
The biggest hit of the year is always Field Day! Students had an exciting day of fun activities and relays with their color teams! Our class was on the white and orange teams! We all had a blast!
Second Grade
We recently began our final math unit which primarily covers geometry and fractions. The students will have the opportunity to learn new attributes of geometric figures and apply them to various shapes.
The mealworm unit will wind down during the coming week. Over the course of approximately a month the students have had the opportunity to watch the various stages of an insect’s life cycle, including the larva, pupa and adult stages, as well as molting. Students have had the opportunity to observe certain behaviors such as the desire to dig into the bran flakes in which the insects live whether as a larva or an adult. This has prompted discussion of reasons for such behaviors.
As part of the wider mealworm and insect units, the students have had the opportunity to independently research an insect. The students are currently putting the fruits of their research in final forms. The students’ efforts were shown at each classroom’s end-of-year celebration.
Integrated Learning Classroom
During these last few weeks of the school year, the ILC has been busily creating expressions of knowledge and learning: from Perimeter Robots to Cardboard Bowling Lanes to Research on countries and cities of the world to Stories with unique Main Characters. All of this occurred while studying insects and decimals and fractions and geometric shapes. Colonial heads and mealworms came into being. Colonial biographies and Chapter Books were read and discussed individually and with 4th graders reading to younger partners.
The end of the year brings celebrations, in Mainstream classrooms and in the ILC. 4th Grade Moves Up to 5th, down the hill to the pool after the Moving Up ceremony and then in September to FMS. And all of the students and parents leave on June 22 with congratulations for success and progress and thanks for the help and support throughout this busy and productive year!
3-5 Communications
In ELA, we have started a writing unit on writing how-to-essays. We started by sequencing how to bake a cake and our morning routines. The unit will culminate with the students writing a how-to-essay of their choice. In math, we are continuing our unit on time and money. We have learned about telling time to the hour and half hour. We are currently working on telling time to the ¼ hour. We also started counting coins and dollar amounts. In science, we are wrapping up our unit on force and motion. We began with simple machines, continued with magnets and are ending with sinking and floating objects. In social studies, we are wrapping up our then and now unit, comparing how kids lived in colonial times and how they live in the present. The students went to Philipsburg Manor to see some the items they learned about first hand.
Third Grade
Third grade held a writing celebration this week to share our writing with each other. Mrs. Cazes, Mr. Johnson and Mrs. Davis (our writing consultant) stopped by and were able to hear many stories that the children had written. They will be sharing these projects with parents also.
In reading, we have finished our study of the biography genre. Students are now reading mystery books, and using the clues to try and solve the mysteries. We’re not letting any red herrings get in our way.
We are completing our last math unit for the year - Geometry and Measurement. Students continue to work with perimeter and area as they learn real-life applications for the use of them.
In science, we are immersed in a study of tropical rain forests are part of our Brazil unit. We are learning about the four layers of the rainforest and their conditions, as well as what animals call each layer home. In pairs, students are creating posters of the rainforest to encourage people to help save this important habitat.
As we approach the end of the year, we have been reflecting on how busy we have been and how much we have learned. Our rainforest posters, plus our biography posters, personal dollar bills and masks, as well as our writing folders, will be on display for parents at our end of the year celebration.We can’t wait to show them how much we have learned! And then, we are ready for fourth grade!!
Fourth Grade
Although it may seem cliche, it really is hard to believe that our year is coming to a close. 4th graders have worked very hard this year and have learned so much. The Fourth Grade teachers are so excited to send our students off to the middle school, but we do so knowing that they are well prepared!
Last week, we were thrilled to see you at the unveiling of our Colonial exhibit. Our 4th graders genuinely enjoyed selecting yarn, fabric, buttons and ribbon to create the perfect Revolutionary Heroes. We hope these paper mache friends will find a more permanent display in your home for many years to come! We also hope that you enjoyed seeing our colonial villages. Each one was so unique and really captured the personality of the class that made it.. Just in case you may have missed anything however, or would like a little encore, please join us at the Farmer’s Market this Saturday at the Hastings Library. We will have a smaller exhibit on display from 9:00 to 11:00 am.
In connection to our study of the Revolution, 4th graders visited Philipsburg Manor in Sleepy Hollow on June 12 and June 13. Although the weather was very warm on both days,, the students thoroughly enjoyed seeing such an important historical place, right here in our own “backyard.” Thanks to all who chaperoned!
In addition to our exhibit and trip, we will have the pleasure of seeing parents and family members again for our Moving Up ceremony on June 19th beginning promptly at 9:30 am. At the conclusion of the ceremony, students will exit to the circle for photos, and then a quick change into bathing suits for our much anticipated pool party!!! We are keeping fingers crossed for a warm, sunny day, but should there be rain, please plan for students to head to the pool on Tuesday, June 20th. We thank all class parents, our PTSA liaison, Lauren Berman, Alison Andrus for arranging for an ice cream treat, and ALL 4th grade parents who have helped to make this day possible. Everyone is invited to enjoy the festivities and we hope to see you there.
On behalf of the 4th grade team, we thank you so very much for a year of great support and enthusiasm. We couldn’t do it without you. See you soon!
Art
Thank you to the parent, friends, and students who attended the Third and Fourth Grade Level Art Show on June 13th. As school comes to a close, all students will be bringing home their art work from the school year. Please keep an eye out for it. As always, keep up the Hillside Art Department at the Hillside Art Blog - https://www.hohschools.org/Page/1225 . Have a great summer!
Music
Ms. Concra’s:
We’re zooming into the end of the year! I can’t believe we’re in June already. We’ve had so much fun learning all things music. 4th grade has started learning Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade. They are discussing the different themes for each character and plot points. 3rd graders are dancing up a storm with coordinated circle and line dances. 2nd graders are also learning dances in various formations. They are also learning some fun songs to keep the music going throughout the summer. 1st graders are rounding up the year with focused listening games, animal songs, and various singing games. Kindergarteners are also playing focused listening games and learning fun songs to keep their summers’ musical. I hope everyone has a wonderful summer and I look forward to seeing everyone next year :)
Mr. Campbell’s Class:
It has been an absolute delight to work with your children this year! Fourth grade students are hard at work preparing to sing at their graduation ceremony and are learning more advanced circle dances. Third grade students are reviewing the different ways they’ve learned to play xylophones, metallophones, and glockenspiel this year. They have learned four different steady beat patterns called borduns and are using solfege to play simple tunes. Second graders have learned several new folk songs that will keep them singing for the summer, including Camptown Races, Oh Susanna, and I Love the Mountains. First grade students and Kindergarteners continue to learn focused listening and singing games. They are also acting out musical stories using both their voices and instruments. Have a great summer and see you in the fall!
Physical Education
The end of the school year is near and you all know what that means….. FIELD DAY!!! Field day is this Friday June 16th. Please ask your child what their field day color is, and if they have forgotten they can always come ask any one of the Phys Edu teachers. We ask that your child wear something with their color on it. Regardless of the weather, field day will happen. If it is raining we will be having it indoors. We are really excited for this years field day! If anyone would like to volunteer for field day you can e-mail Dennis Kiely at kielyd@hohschools.org for more information. Have a fantastic super terrific summer everybody!!!
FLES
Kindergarten and 1st grade have just wrapped up their units on La Primavera (Spring time). Ask your children to share the vocabulary they have learned such as Flor (flower), Sol (Sun), Arcoiris (rainbow). 2nd grade has been working on Seasons Unit. They are enjoying learning about appropriate clothing that should be worn for each season! Meanwhile third and fourth graders are deep into their country studies! 3rd graders their brochures All About Peru! 4th graders are enjoying their interactive lessons on Spain as they virtually explore Srta. Nunez’s favorite city Madrid!
If you are looking to practice Spanish at home please visit the FLES website at nunez-fles.weebly.com!
From the Library
In Kindergarten, First, Second, and the Communications Classes, we have been working on two projects. The first is a Read-Aloud of Tom Lichtenheld’s What Are You So Grumpy About -- eating "grown-up" cereal, getting a boring birthday present (underpants!), doing chores, and being touched by your brother or sister? -- and then discussing things that make us grumpy and ways that we make ourselves feel better. Children are discussing, writing and drawing responses to these questions. We are also looking at two books that play with perception. In Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal with its clever illustrations by Tom Lichtenheld, two unseen characters argue about whether the creature they are looking at is a rabbit or a duck. In They All Saw a Cat by Brendan Wenzel, a cat walks through the world, and all the other creatures see and acknowledge the cat in differing ways. We talk about how perception changes with point of view (Are you afraid of the cat? Is it your pet? Are you its prey?) and how that changes the way you see it.
Third and Fourth grades are also looking at perception. We have been reading Stories to Solve and True Lies by George Shannon, collections of brief folktales in which the reader is asked to sole the conundrum of how a character lied and told the truth at the same time. We are also reading Natalie Babbit’s “The Imp in the Basket” from her short story collection, The Devil’s Storybook, and arguing back and forth about the good priest who save the devil’s baby and was untouched when the fearful villagers burned down his house and the imp disappeared. Who save the priest? God? The Devil? His own goodness? The imp? This has led to great discussions. If we can stop discussing long enough to look at books, our fabulous collection of pop-up books is available and always enticing. Be sure and look for our Summer Reading List!
Boring business, but necessary: As we stopped checking out books right before Memorial Day, we are now scrambling to get back the 226 books that are still in circulation. Please make sure that your child has returned all library materials or paid for lost ones so that we can update our records and reorder books that need to be replaced. If you have lost books, please do NOT replace them but send in the fine; we order from a jobber who automates, covers, spine and barcodes all of our books so that they are in the system.
From the MakerSpace
What a fantastic year of making, designing, exploring, and creating we have had this year! Students that have recently come to MakerSpace have had the opportunity to choose what they would like to work on, as they have had the opportunity to explore with all of the materials in the space this year. It is always incredible to watch the discovery that happens when children figure out something new with materials they are familiar with. Our final classes have come to MakerSpace and we are now in the process of getting ready for next year - sorting, replenishing, and organizing. Have a wonderful summer - be sure to encourage your children to keep making and save those cardboard boxes!
Hillside Elementary School
Website: www.hohschools.org
Location: 120 Lefurgy Avenue, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, United States
Phone: 914-478-6270