News from the Hill
March 1, 2019
Principal's Message
Dear Families,
It's hard to believe it is March with all of this snow! Hopefully, spring will soon be in the air and the daylight will allow our kids to get outside and play a little bit longer each day! In the meantime, we have been busy at Hillside learning and growing, planning and innovating!
Our Emergency Response Team met this week with our teachers to share out our new Emergency Dismissal Protocol. This protocol includes clear, specific communication with families. In order to be most efficient, it is extremely important that we have updated emergency contact information, as in Emergency Dismissal, there will be no busing. As such, we will be sending your current emergency contact information home this week so that you can review and update as necessary. Please look out for it in your child's backpack.
Our Outdoor Classroom Instructional Process committee has created a recommendation that will be presented to our Design Committee on Monday. We are looking at creating two outdoor learning spaces, one that has more of a stadium seating feel and another with more of a collaborative feel, to provide our learners with greater opportunity to be outside. More details to come as our designers begin making the dream a reality! We thank the PTSA for their generosity in this endeavor!
Our Building Leadership Team will also meet again on Monday to review the survey results (thanks to all who participated!) and make a recommendation about homework at Hillside. We are confident that with teacher, parent and student input, we will create a policy that makes sense for all.
We would like to remind you of our District policy regarding outdoor play. Students go outside for morning recess, mid-day recess and after-school recess when the real-feel temperature is 27 degrees or higher and it is not precipitating. Students can be outside for periods of up to 40 minutes. Please be sure to dress your child appropriately for the weather each day.
Also, we have noticed that during Circle Drop Off and Pick-Up, some students are exiting the car on the driver's side. Please remind your child to enter/exit on the passenger side for increased safety.
Thank you to all of our families who voted on Thursday in our Capital Bond vote. We are excited to begin collaborating with our Hillside community as we plan for the new spaces at Hillside.
Warm regards,
Amy Cazes
The Be YourSelf Club Beautifies Hillside With Positive Message Project
The Be YourSelf Club is proud to announce our positive message project from Session One.
The club's mission statement:
A club created by kids for kids to freely express themselves in their community through creative collaboration, building something bigger than themselves, fostering leadership and confidence.
The kids themselves wanted to do something proactive and positive in their school. The bathrooms were decided upon as a place where everyone goes and there is a moment of reflection while washing hands. Here is the process of how the kids made this happen.
In a large group of 20 kids, we began by asking all of the kids to say out loud positive sayings or affirmations that they thought were impactful. We wrote down 20. We discussed fonts, design and color and the kids practiced on posters, working with their selected 3 favorites from the 20.
The final 4 choices for 4 bathrooms:
Be YourSelf always + forever.
Be Kind, it shapes the world.
Remember, you have the power to change the world.
Stand up for what you believe in.
These were put together in a mix of fonts based on what the kids liked and designed so the words hung together beautifully. Stencils were professionally created to adhere to the bathroom walls. They were installed early in the morning before school on the walls and ready for the club to paint the cutouts that afternoon. The kids broke into their groups, came into the bathrooms, choosing paint colors and creating patterns and a style of their own choosing. Once finished, we removed the stencil overlay for the big reveal in each bathroom.
The kids wrote thank you notes to Amy Cazes for giving them permission on the final four, the wall space and trusting their project.
They all learned the process of design, production, making, approvals and follow up while instilling positive messages on the bathroom walls for the entire school to appreciate – a legacy we hope will continue.
Stay tuned as we hope to take our project and group into the middle and high schools to make an impact there as well.
Enjoy the pictures of the kids hard at work, producing something they are really proud of.
Thea & Nicole and The Be YourSelf Club
Classroom News
Kindergarten
1st Grade
First graders are growing leaps and bounds! As readers, our students continue to learn about non-fiction. Children have sorted books into topics, noticed the differences between fiction and non-fiction, and are learning to use all parts of the book to help read information. Children are learning about features such as, the table of contents, headings, captions, and the index as ways to navigate their way through a non-fiction book. Our children LOVE learning facts!
As our current math unit on measurement wraps up, students have learned to compare the measurement of one object to the length of two other objects, order objects from shortest to longest, measure objects with similar units and to represent and interpret data.
During content, our students have begun a study of Astronomy. Children are excited to learn about the sun, moon, stars and the planets. This unit is enhanced with our work in the STEAM class.
2nd Grade
Our mathematicians are now very practiced (and might well be deemed experts) at solving three-digit addition and subtraction algorithms, drawing place value models, and checking subtraction examples with addition! We are more than anxious to explore multiplication in the next module!
As we begin our fourth literacy unit this week, readers will delight in reading nonfiction again. Students will collect and read several resources on topics of interest to learn lots of information and to compare what authors include in their books.
Writers completed opinion pieces on their plans for the development of the Hastings waterfront. The Hastings planning board and the landowner/developer might be interested in our diverse ideas on what should be built (and with our impressive rationales).
Our scientists will now be studying landforms and bodies of water, and fast and slow changes on our Earth.
Donny Waterous has completed his final week with our students, delivering instruction with our Second Step curriculum. The children have rehearsed techniques to manage their strong emotions. The song and dance routine, “Calm it Down” is a favorite! Donny is a hit with the children, too! (Donny - The team is appreciative of your time and dedication to our school community. Thank you.)
3rd Grade
In math, third graders are continuing with an in-depth study of fractions. This includes using number lines to add fractions and compare fractions. They are also working on multi-step word problems related to fractions. Multiplication and division fact quizzes continue. Any help you give your child to memorize these facts is appreciated.
Third grade’s study of Russia continues. We are learning about art in Russia, including Faberge Eggs - their historical significance and how they were created. We will also be studying Russian artist, Wassily Kandinsky. Once we learn about his use of foreground, midground and background, students will create a landscape drawing. This will then be recreated in an abstract fashion, following the techniques Kandinsky used.
Students have been learning about how authors use theme in their writing. This include themes such as cooperation, kindness, loyalty and honesty. Teachers are reading stories to their classes, as students note the theme, and what evidence from the story that supports their thinking. They are also using this technique in books they are reading independently. We are beginning a new research unit that starts with a study of life cycles. There will be a connection with our work in the STEAM class.
We continue working on our Second Step lessons. We are focusing on managing our emotions, and learning how to read the emotions of others. Ms. Snyder reinforces these concepts in her monthly classroom lessons.
4th Grade
In math, 4th graders are continuing to work on fractions. We have been adding, and subtracting fractions with whole numbers, and we are converting fractions greater than the whole into mixed numbers. When we have completed this unit, we will move into our study of geometry.
In ELA, we will soon be wrapping up our study of non-fiction, and beginning a new unit on theme. Theme is the universal message or lesson that authors wish for their readers to take away. If you are reading with your child, ask him or her what he or she thinks the theme or themes of the book may be and why. It leads to great discussions!
In Social Studies, we are putting the finishing touches on our Dutch letters and beginning our study of the Revolutionary War and its effect on New York. Please feel free to talk a walk through our hallways and see the wonderful work of our 4th graders.
In Science, students are now learning about properties, matter, and mass. They are learning how to use their senses and observational skills to describe what they see around them in a scientific way. Encourage your children in this effort by asking them to describe the items they see in their everyday life. Have them think of color, size, and texture when observing.
Please remember to send in your permission slip for Annie, the musical. It’s also not too late to send in yearbook money! 4th graders will all want a book to remember their years at Hillside. Additional order forms can be found in the office.
Learning Lab 1-2
Learning Lab mathematicians are studying the concept of place value as well as basic facts and relationships (i.e. making a ten to add, using ten to subtract, using drawings/base ten blocks to represent problems). Friends continue to practice their maintenance skills of addition and subtraction fluency daily. Students work in groups of three/four as they rotate to three different stations during math block. They learn a new skill or review with Ms. I, practice this skill in a guided group with Mrs. Fell, and work independently/in partnerships on a center/game for their third rotation. This model gives students the opportunity to work in small groups as they receive direct instruction, guided instruction, and well as independent practice time.
Readers are expanding their minds as they read and discuss books that contain words with short vowels (consonant-vowel-consonant words), long vowels (consonant-vowel-consonant-e words), digraphs, bonus letters, and consonant blends. Friends first engage in direct instruction around sight words, keywords in isolation, and the daily skill before they are introduced to the skills in context. Students become so excited when they can spot the keywords in their texts! In addition to phonics study, we support comprehension of the stories by engaging in authentic discussions before, during, and after reading. Friends are learning how to expand their ideas when responding to inferential questions and make meaningful connections from events in their books.
Learning Lab 3-4
In Learning Lab the students have been focusing on learning and working with fractions. They are working to add and compare fractions; while others are working to add and subtract fractions with whole numbers and convert fractions to mixed numbers.
In ELA we are engaged in a non-fiction study, focusing on text features of non-fiction books and passages. Students will read several different resources on a variety of topics to learn lots of information and to compare what authors include in their books.
Communications Class 1-3
In ELA, we continue to work on story elements (Character, setting and plot). We are identifying story elements using books by some of our favorite authors. We have read multiple works of fiction by Cynthia Rylant, Ezra Jack Keats and Arnold Lobel to name a few. We especially loved the Henry and Mudge series of books. We are also working on increasing our time independently reading and diversifying the types of books that we read for pleasure. In writing, we are going to create our own picture book.
In Math, we are working on fractions. We have learned about the basic parts of a fraction, concentrating on whole and equal parts. We are learning to identify and use fractions in our everyday lives. The students are having fun finding fractions in measuring cups, different foods and objects in the classroom. We will continue our fraction study with learning about equivalent fractions and improper fractions.
In Social Studies, our first and second graders are learning about different landforms. Our third graders continue to learn about Russia. In Science, we finished up our unit on forces and started a unit on space. We are learning about our solar system, the sun, moon stars and Earth.
Art
If your child is interested in submitting artwork for the Race Matter Committee’s 3rd Annual Art Contest, please have them submit artwork to Mr. Morgan by Wednesday, March 27. Work can be dropped off at the Hillside Art Room. This year’s theme is “Diversity Creates Dimension in Our World.” The winning art will be used on posters to advertise the multicultural book fair.
When you are wandering the Hillside hallways, please take a look at the display of face jugs created by our fourth graders. In response to their study of Dave, students then created their own “face jug”. While face jugs can be attributed to most ancient cultures, it has been most recently attributed to the African/African-American slaves in the North and South Carolina region. “Various slave owner accounts hold that African-American slaves would use their face jugs to carry water into the fields with them. Other scholars believe that face jugs were used as a form of self-identification, or a self-portraits and perhaps were a way for slaves to deal with their physical displacement and loss of visual worth.”
Music
February was an exciting month of music making at Hillside! Kindergarten students students finished listening to Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saens. They enjoyed listening to a short excerpt and identifying which animal it could be. First graders learned how music can be used to tell stories. They used both musical instruments and their voices to act out stories such as The Three Little Pigs, Peter and the Wolf, or other short stories they created themselves. Second graders began to play the xylophone, metallophone, and glockenspiel, also known as the Orff Instruments. They learned how the materials of the bars (wood or metal) make different sounds and the proper way to use mallets. Third grade students learned about the history of jazz and famous jazz musicians. Some favorites were Ella Fitzgerald (who grew up just down the road in Yonkers!) and Louis Armstrong. Fourth graders studied how music was used as part of the Underground Railroad. They learned how the song Follow the Drinking Gourd contained hidden directions to guide people who were enslaved to freedom up north. In a similar fashion the students created their own songs that contained hidden directions on how to travel from the music room to another location in the school.
Physical Education
FLES
February was another busy month in la clase de español! In honor of world read aloud day, students in each grade enjoyed legends or folk tales from Spanish-speaking countries. Kindergarteners are continuing to reinforce their knowledge of colors in Spanish through total physical response activities, songs, and books. Students have been especially enjoying a series of books about different colored animals, reinforcing color vocabulary while also introducing them to new concepts in Spanish. First graders have played games with small groups and as a class to further reinforce how to express the weather in Spanish as well as to continually review concepts learned in previous units.
Second graders did a fabulous job learning about their families in Spanish through songs, partner games, and the creation of family books. A favorite game of many students has been playing “Old Maid” with family members in Spanish (with my ‘Spanish twist’ of changing the unwanted card to “el mono,” the monkey). Third and fourth graders have learned about the location of Argentina and the Dominican Republic, respectively, and have also had their mouths water as we discussed typical foods enjoyed in both countries. Third graders have learned about the gaucho (cowboy) in the Pampas of Argentina, while fourth graders have learned about bachata and merengue from the Dominican Republic.