HILL HAPPENINGS
#HillHasHeart Edition - October 2021
A Note from the Principal
Hello Hill Families,
It is hard to believe that we are nearing the end of the first marking period. October is a very busy month with parent/teacher conferences, Halloween & Harvest Day and intersession break too!
Parent-Teacher Conferences are this Wednesday and Thursday, with no school for students on Thursday and Friday. This year we are offering face-to-face or virtual conferences to accommodate our families. Please know that if you choose a face-to-face conference, you will need to wear a mask in the building regardless of vaccination status. If this does not work for you, please contact your child's teacher to schedule a virtual conference. Mrs. Fulcher's conferences will be rescheduled once she returns and she will communicate that with her families. We look forward to meeting with our Hill School families to discuss your child's progress and celebrate their success!
We are looking forward to celebrating Harvest Day and Halloween with our students on Thursday, October 21st. Weather pending, we will have our annual Harvest Day and Halloween Parade on Thursday, October 21st outside. Students are welcome to dress in their Halloween costumes for school. Please remember that Halloween costumes should be school appropriate, no blood, guts, or gore and no weapons! We appreciate you keeping this in mind before sending your child to school in their costumes. According to Board policy, volunteers must be approved. Please be sure to turn in your volunteer application as soon as possible so that we have ample time to have these processed.
The Harvest Day will be outside and the schedule will be as follows:
8:45-9:30: 2nd Grade
9:35-10:25: Kindergarten
10:30-11:20: 3rd Grade
12:45-1:35: 1st Grade
1:40-2:30: 4th Grade
A Halloween parade will be outside around our back track at 2:45. Families are welcome to line the track and enjoy our parade. Please join us for a spooktacular time!
Lastly, our first intersession break of the year will begin on Friday, October 22nd. There will be no school for students on that Friday as staff engage in professional development and records day for the end of the first marking period. The students and staff will then be off October 25th - 29th, returning to school on Monday, November 1st.
Thank you for sharing your children with us! We have had a wonderful start of the year together!
Respectfully,
Mrs. Burke
Proud Hill Principal
Parent Teacher Conferences
Conference times are by appointment only (Face-to-face or virtual)
Wednesday, October 13: 4:30-7:30
Thursday, October 14: 10:00-2:00 & 3:30-7:30
No School for students on Thursday, October 14th or Friday, October 14th!
Davison Community Schools - Cardinal Notes
First Marking Period Safety Patrol
Congratulations to our students who were selected as first marking period safety patrol members: Caleb Bean, Abigail Luna, Kaylen Tallmadge, Rocco Henry, Lydia Smith, Eloise Bird, Mason Welch, Skylar Polovina, Emmerson Riley, and Jackson Wright! Thank you for being leaders at Hill School!
September Table of Honor
Congratulations to our September Table of honor students! These students were recognized by their classroom teachers for being leaders of Cardinal Code in their classrooms and throughout the building. They sit at a special table during lunch and I'm the lucky one who gets to eat lunch with them! Congratulations to the following students: Mason Henning, Lilly Bontrager, William DuPrey, Priya Hall, Mia Gokey, Porter Schaepkens, Kiera Lopez, Jameson Dresbach, Wren Miller, Amelia Maples, Ella DuPrey, Adalynne Newton, Blaise Carey, Charlie Thompson, Sawyer Travis, Oliver Gokey, Ella Christian, Dylan Woods, Aryelle Morales, and Paxton Murawski! If any student is absent during their special day, they will be able to join the next month's students. Our October Table of Honor is on Wednesday, October 20th!
Picture Retakes
Attendance Line - Available 24/7
Cell Phones, fidgets, and toys!
As we return to school, cell phones, fidgets and toys have been front and center in classrooms, on the playground and on the bus. Please talk to your children about the expectations of these items at school! We appreciate your support!
Cell Phones— at the elementary level, cell phones may only be used for emergency
purposes outside of the school day. Cell phones are to remain in backpacks at all
times and are not to be taken out to the playground for any reason. This also includes apple watches. If your child wears an Apple watch, it is not to be used during the school day for communication.
• First Offense is a warning
• Second Offense is a warning and call to the parent.
• Third Offense the phone is confiscated and the parent is required to come up to the school to collect the phone.
• Beyond 3 offenses the student may no longer be permitted to possess the device on school
grounds. Additional suspension up to 3 days may result from repeated violations.
Toys— all toys must stay at home. If a student does bring something from home, it must remain in their backpack while at school. Teacher will contact parent if student brings a toy to school.
Fidgets—we saw the beginning of the Pop It! craze last school year and it continues into this year. Please have students refrain from using these in class or out to recess. Any student who needs a fidget to use as an educational tool will be provided one by the counselor, in consultation with the teacher, or by the teacher.
Counselor's Corner
Slow down and enjoy the moment.
Here are some words of wisdom from E’Layne Kelly, an artist, author and spiritual coach:
“When we force things to happen, we can struggle and get frustrated. Take a peaceful walk in nature. Be in the present moment and allow your surroundings to stir you. Life goes by quickly and many days are a blur, but when we bring our entire selves into the present, hear the sound of the leaves crunching beneath our feet, and feel the sunlight’s warmth on our skin, we remember that moment.”
Sincerely,
Mrs. Thompson
Hill/Hahn Counselor
Music Notes from Mrs. DuPrey
In music class this month we are continuing to build musical skills in all grade levels. The Kindergarten students earned the right to play the xylophones for the first time! Students have been working hard to follow the Cardinal Code, and their fabulous behavior helped them earn their way to the instruments! In first and second grade we are focusing on singing in different tonalities, and identifying the resting tone of a song. The resting tone is the home tone of a song. In most cases a song ends on the resting tone. If you are listening to the radio, ask your child if they can identify the resting tone of the song! In third grade we are getting into some in depth music theory! We have been talking about what characteristics make up major and minor tonality as well as identifying different functions within those tonalities. Major tonality tends to sound happy while minor sounds a bit sad. One of our favorite games is to take a song and change that same song back and forth between major and minor and the students have to identify which tonality we are singing.
In fourth grade we are starting our very first composition! Our first composition uses different combinations of Major tonic and dominant patterns. Students will write the patterns on staff paper, memorize the melody and add a harmony part to the song. I am so excited to work through this process with the kids. Every year the compositions get better and better, and I’m always amazed with how musical the students are!
****Lastly, please take note of the concert dates below. *****
3rd and 4th grade - Tuesday, March 8th
1st and 2nd grade - Monday, May 9th
All concerts are held at Davison High School in the auditorium. Please save the date in your calendar, as this is an important event for all students to attend.
Mrs. DuPrey
Fitness Fun with Mr. Whitman
I hope everyone had a wonderful homecoming week. This month, I wanted to touch base on some of the daily routines that we have in PE class. Since I have a daughter in the school I’ve gotten to know more and more parents. One of the first things I hear way too often is “Johnny comes home and says all you do in gym class is make them run.” That, obviously, couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes, we do run but we typically only run for 3-5 minutes each class as a part of our warmups. During those warmups we also practice locomotor skills like skipping, hopping, and galloping that are important to develop at the elementary level. After we finish warmups, we spend 15-20 minutes working on whatever unit we’re on. Currently we just switched from soccer to football. The next few weeks we will work on overhand throwing skills, catching, and punting. If your child ever comes home and says “all we do is run,” I invite you to flip the narrative around. Running is just one small thing we do out of numerous things we do in class. Exercise in general is very important to your overall health and fitness. The CDC recommends that children get at least 60 minutes of active play time a day in order to maintain a healthy body. I encourage everyone to take your kids for a walk, play outside, and be active. It’s a great way for families to spend time together.
Go Cards!
Mr. Whitmanjdwhitman@davisonschools.org
Library News
It is hard to believe October is already here! It has been wonderful seeing all our kids settle into the library and check out books. September was filled with learning about book care, parts of a book, alphabetizing books, and the cardinal code. Kindergarten through fourth grade celebrated International Dot Day on September 15th with our reading of The Dot by Peter H. Jennings and a fun coffee filter coloring activity with markers and water, it was a big hit!
During October, our kids will continue to learn how to alphabetize books by 1st, 2nd, and 3rd letter; story elements, and digital citizenship. We will also celebrate autumn with books about pumpkins, apples, season colors, and friendship.
The Hill Elementary Fall Book Fair is almost here! We will host the book fair in the Hill Library and also online. There will be a great selection of books to purchase for our K-4th grade students. All purchases made at the book fair will help support our library book collection.
Monday, October 11th - Thursday, October 14th
9:00 am - 3:00 pm
(during students scheduled library times)
Open during teacher/parent conferences
Wednesday, October 13th
4:00 - 7:00 pm
and
Thursday, October 14th
10:00-4:00 pm
Shop online, anytime! October 8-21st
PTO NEWS
We had a wonderful turnout for our Hill Hiker's Walk-A-Thon! Families were grateful to be able to be a part of the event and the weather was perfect! Our PTO officers worked on counting the donations and we exceeded our goal of $12000.00! We collected just over $17,000! WOW!!!
Congratulations to the following winners of our walk-a-thon!
Declan & Lochlyn Swenor forfeited their 1st and 2nd place prizes to be given to other students.
1st Place: Loclynn Lawson - Urban Air gift package
2nd Place: Henry Francis- Crossroads package & Pizza Company Gift Card
3rd Place: Deacon Richardson- Rollhaven Party Package
4th Place: Grayson Margitan (Lake Callis Halloween & John's Pizza Gift Card)
Top Classroom: Mrs. Wright - Ice Cream social & $50.00 Amazon Gift Card
Mrs. White & Ms. Turkovics- Pizza Party
Our next PTO Meeting is on Monday, November 1st @ 5:30 pm.
21/22 PTO Officers
Jill Lobban
Drianna Keltner
Lindsay Brandon
Danielle Wenzel
PTO email: Hillptogroup@gmail.com
Mark your calendar:
Wednesday, October 13 Parent/Teacher Conferences
Thursday, October 14 No School for Students, Parent/Teacher Conferences
Friday, October 15: No School for students or staff
Tuesday, October 19: Picture Retakes
Wednesday, October 20 Table of Honor
Thursday, October 21 End of first marking period, Halloween parade
Friday, Ocotber 22 No School for Students
Monday, October 25 - Friday, October 29 Intersession Break: No School
Monday, November 1- School resumes, PTO Meeting
Friday, November 19 Popcorn Friday
Thursday, November 25 Thanksgiving, No School for students or staff
Friday, November 26 No school for students or staff
Fundraiser Prize Winners!
Walk-A-Thon
Homecoming Parade!
Positive Parent Phone Call!
Connect with Hill Elementary
Email: jburke@davisonschools.org
Website: https://www.davisonschools.org/
Location: 404 Aloha Street, Davison, MI, USA
Phone: 910-591-0839
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DavisonCardinals/
Twitter: @proud_principal