News from the Hill
April 27th, 2018
Principal's Message
Though it is hard to believe that spring is really here, we look forward to next week where the temperatures will match the season! Between class trips, nature walks and our Hillside Art show, May is sure to be an exciting month at Hillside.
The NYS Math assessments will be administered to students in Grades 3 and 4 on Tuesday, May 1st and Wednesday, May 2nd. All assessments will begin at approximately 9 AM and are untimed. The NYS Science Performance test will be administered to students during the testing window of May 23-June 1. Teachers will communicate a schedule to families of the day that their child will be assessed. The written portion will be administered on June 4th. As you know, our teachers and students have been preparing for these tests through a rigorous, engaging curriculum. The best preparation is a good night's sleep and a nutritious breakfast in the morning. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
I invite you to join us for our final PTSA meeting of this school year on Tuesday, May 1st at 6:30 PM in our Hillside library. We will be sharing updates on balanced literacy, math instruction and PBIS. Also, just a reminder that we will be having our final Late Start on May 25th with school beginning at 9:30 AM.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend with your families,
Amy Cazes
Classroom News
Kindergarten
Our chicks arrived on Wednesday! In the upcoming week, we will closely examine the eggs in our incubators. Kindergarteners are reading lots of books on chicks. We will start learning about the growth of chicks in a very hands on way. In honor of Earth Day this Sunday, Kindergarteners read a number of wonderful books and poems on taking care of the earth. These books and poems generated some great discussions on ways each of us can contribute to make earth a beautiful place to live. We also wrote about ways to take care care of the earth and build more awareness of respecting our amazing earth.
We started a new unit on farms. We are learning about all the animals that live on a farm as well as the crops that people grow on farms. In this unit, students will understand the importance of farms as a source of food and other products people use.
1st Grade
First graders have started a study of Animals and Habitats. During the next couple of weeks, they will take a closer look at the animals and plants of the arctic, desert, rainforest, temperate deciduous forest, ocean and freshwater habitats. Here, students will learn how all living things depend on each other, and will recognize different plants and animals as being indigenous to specific habitats.
As writers, our students are learning how to write persuasive pieces. During this study, students are learning the difference between fact and opinion and have been exposed to wonderful mentor texts such as, Red is Best, I Wanna Iguana, and I Wanna New Room to help us learn the structure of this writing. Students are using their understanding to draft and publish their own pieces.
Our new math unit focuses on identifying, composing and partitioning shapes. Students will have lots of hands-on learning to help them understand the part-whole relationship within composite shapes, learn about halves and quarters of rectangles and circles and tell time.
2nd Grade
Second graders have read information from multiple sources (books, magazines, and websites) to learn about an insect of choice.
They have taken notes and then organized them, by subtopics, to include: life cycle stages, habitats, diet, whether friend or foe, interesting behaviors, and predators.
In order to share the information learned from the readings, we enjoyed the Diary of a Worm and the Diary of a Fly, by Doreen Cronin. We noticed how the author used the facts she’d learned about these animals to cleverly write nonfiction narratives (specifically, diaries) to share that knowledge with her readers. The students are now writing diary entries, imaginatively “assuming the lives of their insects.”
These research projects will be shared with families on May 10, Insect Day!
The mathematicians have learned to collect data, using tallies and numbers. They have learned to organize the data in charts, picture graphs, and bar graphs. They know how to read and analyze the data presented. Second graders are now counting coins and bills and solving money word problems.
The entomologists sent the mealworms back to the laboratory, so that other students can raise the new generation. We all enjoyed watching the larvae eat, grow, and molt, then pupate, then emerge from their cases to become adults. We’ll miss them! (Many of the children have even asked parents for pet mealworms at home!)
The teachers are hoping that the botanists will equally enjoy raising Brassica Rapa (Wisconsin Fast Plants) from seeds to flowers! (Our field trip to the New York Botanical Gardens was a great way to spark our plant life cycle investigations!
3rd Grade
In math we have begun our 6th module of Mathematics: Collecting and Displaying Data. By the end of the module, students will be able to work with a mixture of scaled picture graphs, bar graphs, and line plots to problem solve measurement problems using data.Students are learning how to read and create graphs as they discuss them in class. They are also learning how to interpret measurement using line plots. They continue to practice their math facts, especially multiplication and division.
In ELA, we are working on nonfiction research. We are learning how to take notes in various formats to answer questions we have about topics of interest. This includes searching for main ideas and details that support these ideas. Students are using various texts to support this work, and they are learning how to compare and contrast information presented in different books. During both library time and class time, students are learning about the data bases that are available to supplement information that is learned from reading books. It is expected that students will become expert at the topic they are researching, and they will create a presentation to share this information with their classmates. Students continue writing in their Writer’s Notebooks. After they write, they often share their writing with a reading partner.
In Social Studies we are wrapping up our Russia unit. The next country we will visit will be Brazil. We will begin by studying Brazil’s map and flag. As we learn about the culture, art and economic systems in Brazil, we will be comparing and contrasting them with our previous studies of the United States, China and Russia. We also continue our current events monthly meetings with Claudia Heitler.
In Science we have begun studying animal food chains. This is tying in well with our research of animals in ELA. Activities include students reading about this topic in class and in STEAM, as well as creating a “3-D” art project in STEAM to support this learning.
4th Grade
In Math, fourth graders are completing their unit on geometry. Students had a great deal of fun using protractors to make acute, obtuse and right angles. Students also learned the terms, polygon and quadrilateral and what these shapes looked like. They also learned the three different kinds of triangles. Now onto our last unit, decimals!
In ELA, fourth graders are preparing for our last unit which will focus on fiction, and more specifically, theme. Students will return to what they have already learned about characters, and will now use this knowledge to help them understand the message the author is trying to relate. Students are continuing their non fiction research project with Miss Nedwick in library. They are thoroughly enjoying the topics they have chosen.
In Social Studies we have completed our study of the American Revolution and will begin our new unit on immigration in the coming weeks. We are excited to work with the Arch for Kids residency to study immigration in the lower west side of Manhattan and build structures representing the various neighborhoods during the late 1800s to the early 1900s.
In Science, students have been learning about the properties of matter and will be introduced to terms such as mass, volume and displacement. Students will be participating in a number of hands-on activities which will help to bring these concepts to life.
To help you plan the remainder of the year, please note that our Moving Up ceremony will be on Monday, June 18th at 9:30 am in the All Purpose Room. Our Pool Party will follow immediately afterward from 11-2: 45 pm. More information will come home soon.
Communications K-2
Our class is always busy with learning!
Our chicks arrived on Wednesday! In the upcoming week, we will closely examine the eggs in our incubators. We will start learning about the growth of chicks in a very hands on way.
In honor of Earth Day this Sunday, We read a number of wonderful books and poems on taking care of the earth. These books and poems generated some great discussions on ways each of us can contribute to make earth a beautiful place to live. We also wrote about ways to take care care of the earth and build more awareness of respecting our amazing earth. We all made a promise to earth!
The kindergarten students started a new unit on farms. We are learning about all the animals that live on a farm as well as the crops that people grow on farms. In this unit, students will understand the importance of farms as a source of food and other products people use.
First graders have started a study of Animals and Habitats. During the next couple of weeks, they will take a closer look at the animals and plants of the arctic, desert, rainforest, temperate deciduous forest, ocean and freshwater habitats.
Second graders have read information from multiple sources (books, magazines, and websites) to learn about an insect of choice. Using a modified format, they have taken notes and created a tri-fold brochure to note interesting facts, habitat, predators, diet, and more! The students are now using the information they learned from their research, to create diary entries following the format of the book series, Diary of a Worm and the Diary of a Fly, by Doreen Cronin. The students are now writing diary entries, imaginatively “assuming the lives of their insects.”
We completed our study and observations of mealworms. We all enjoyed watching the larvae eat, grow, and molt, then pupate, then emerge from their cases to become adults.
The students enjoyed the field trip to the New York Botanical Gardens! What a great way to spark our plant life cycle investigations!
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
In the Learning Lab, we are continuing to build skills that will make us life ready. We are learning a variety of reading strategies and exploring different modalities for responding to our writing. Our fourth graders have been utilizing Google Classroom to rate and respond to their reading. Look for information coming home soon so that you can access this at home also! Our third graders have been learning to stretch their thinking by engaging in long writing after reading. We have been working collaboratively with our grade level classes on research projects and nonfiction informative reading experiences.
In math, our fourth graders have enjoyed learning about lines, line segments, rays, and angles. The real world application of this has been exciting and motivating. We couldn’t believe how many right angles we would find in our classroom. We began using a protractor to measure angles and classify them as acute, right, or obtuse. Our third graders have been learning about collecting and analyzing data in the form of tally charts, frequency charts, and bar graphs. We love collecting data from our peers and writing/verbalizing statements about the data. Our second graders are completing our unit on the foundations for multiplication and we are moving on to learning about data collection as well.
Our class will also be working on proficiency with skip counting, counting on, and general number sense as a precursor to our work with money and coins.
Art
Students have been working very hard to complete the art work for their upcoming Art exhibits. Every family is invited to attend your child’s Grade Level Art Show during the month of May. Feel free to bring family and friends! Each grade level will have an exhibit of an art project in the Hillside All Purpose Room from 6-8pm. Every child will have a work of Art in their grade level show. Below is the schedule of events. We hope to see all of you at the shows!
Monday, May 7 – Kindergarten (Gardens) 6-8pm
Wednesday, May 9 – First Grade (Monsters), 6 – 8pm
Monday May 14 – Second Grade (Collages) 6 - 8pm
Wednesday, May 16 – Third Grade (Random) 6 – 8pm
Wednesday May 23 – Fourth Grade (Still-Life), 6 – 8pm
Check out the Hillside Art Blog for regular updates. There is lots happening in the Art studio - https://www.hohschools.org/Page/1225
Music
Kindergarteners have been practicing keeping a steady beat while singing, moving and playing instruments. They are beginning to work on simple circle and line dances. 1st graders have been working on their aural skills identifying beat patterns and various instruments (including instruments found in Latin music) and deciding when instruments are necessary in a piece of music. 2nd graders have started our unit on stories and music from around the world. They will explore music, instruments, and customs from different cultures. 3rd graders are working on rondo form. They are composing their own four bar phrases to perform. They also learned the syncopated rhythm “ti-tah-ti tah tah” in preparation to learn a body percussion rondo. 4th graders are wrapping up our sea shanty unit in which they learned the history of sea shanties, several tradition shanties, and practiced playing bass lines and improvising on classroom instruments. Moving forward, 4th graders will begin studying Aaron Copland’s “Billy the Kid”.
Physical Education
We would first like to take the time to thank everyone who attended our “Obstacle Course Night” to help benefit and raise awareness for the Hastings Education Foundation. It was a huge success. We are continuing the Obstacle Course through this week and will wrap it up on Friday. Next week we will be starting our kickball unit. We will be teaching the full game to our 2nd 3rd and 4th graders and modifying the game for our 1st and Kindergarteners to ensure a better understanding and higher success rate. We will do this by teaching the Kindergarteners and 1st graders multiple lead up and introductory games to help begin the learning of base running. We are all very excited and looking forward to finishing out the year with excitement!
Side Note: Please look out for an e-mail blast about Field Day volunteers. Believe it or not it is right around the corner!! :)
STEAM
We had a wonderfully successful Earth Celebration week throughout Hillside! All of our students had an opportunity each day to think more closely about the ways in which we can care for our planet’s health. Some easy ways we reviewed were to turn off the lights when we leave a room, turn the water off while we brush our teeth, and try to reuse the same cup throughout the day. Long-range undertakings include less-waste snacks and lunches, composting (right here at Hillside!) and revitalizing Hillside’s Charlie’s Garden. Please also save the date: Hillside’s STEAM Fair will be Thursday, June 7th. Additional information will be coming shortly.
FLES
We’ve been as busy as ever in Spanish class this past month! Kindergarteners have been learning about the family and are beginning a short unit about the pets, while still reviewing important information about their daily lives through song, games, and total physical response activities. I continue to be amazed by how quickly my kindergarteners grasp new concepts!! First graders have been busy learning about fruit in Spanish and are in the midst of performing La Oruga Muy Hambrienta (The Very Hungry Caterpillar) during one of our Spanish classes. Another focus of the fruit and vegetable unit is for students to be able to express whether they like or don’t like a fruit/vegetable correctly in Spanish.
Second graders have wrapped up a unit about Puerto Rico and have documented some of this new information with their creation of Puerto Rico books. One highlight of the unit was learning basic salsa steps through a video tutorial, which can be found on the FLES website under “Online Resources.” Third graders also wrapped up their unit about Argentina and also enjoyed learning some basic tango steps. This tango tutorial can also be found on the FLES website under “Online Resources.” Fourth grade is busy learning about Mexico, and will be especially focusing on Mexican food and how to express likes/dislikes and how to ask for a specific item on a menu in Spanish.