News from the Hill
November 3, 2017
We may all be different fish, but at Hillside School, we swim together!
Principal's Message
It's hard to believe that November is here! We have much to be thankful for at Hillside and anticipate a wonderful month of learning! We have budding writers, confident readers, strategic mathematicians, innovative scientists and most importantly, kind friends.
Today, we had our first fire drill during recess time. This gave us the chance to see new challenges. Thank you to our second graders, aides and monitors who were outside on the playground! Of course, this informs our protocols to be sure that we have the best safety plans possible.
We are pleased to announce our Tribute to Our Veterans assembly will be held on Thursday, November 9th. The event, sponsored by our PTSA, is a collaborative effort and will include our students in honoring our veterans. Please have your child dress in red, white and/or blue for this special day!
We would like to invite you to Hillside on November 14th at 6:30 PM for an informational meeting around our balanced literacy model. Our consultant team, Gravity Goldberg and Patty McGee will be joining us in presenting the exciting work happening this year.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend,
Amy Cazes
Principal
Classroom News
Kindergarten
We have finished our Nursery rhymes unit. In this unit, the children gained a good understanding of the meaning of the nursery rhymes, were exposed to new vocabulary words, and learned all about rhyming words.
We are now embarking on our new unit about plants where we will be discussing the criteria for living things and their requirements to survive. We will be writing like scientists and creating hypotheses for some science experiments. We will also be collaborating with STEAM to grow our own pinto bean plants!
In math, we continue to work on building our number sense by composing and decomposing numbers (for example, 3+1=4, 2+2=4, etc.).
1st Grade
First graders love to learn! This past month, our first graders have been deeply involved in learning about our human bodies and various systems, (the skeletal, muscular, digestive, circulatory and nervous systems.) Children are making huge discoveries as they learn that our bodies have 206 bones, that our 650 muscles help our bodies move, that the heart pumps blood every minute, and so much more. In the upcoming weeks, our students will focus on the keys to good health and the importance of a well-balanced diet.
Our new unit in reading workshop, “Tackling the Tricky Parts” is just underway. During this unit, our students will learn strategies to solve words, focus on fluent reading and retelling. As writers, our students are just beginning to explore “How-To” books and will begin to draft some ideas for their own books.
In math, students are working with subtraction as it relates to addition. They continue to solve word problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together and comparing unknowns in all positions.
2nd Grade
As we wrap up the first unit of reading, our reading habits and stamina do impress! We are truly “into” our books. We’ve rehearsed our smooth readings we pay attention to the mood and can change our voices to match. We have learned to more closely notice characters’ behaviors (and their changes). We have noticed how settings impact stories. We continue to share our reading thoughts and our enthusiasm for books with our peers. Our discussions are quite insightful.
We’ll be exploring informational texts, as we launch our new reading unit next week. Our interest in topics will be diverse, so our book choices will be wide. It will be exciting to share what we learn with one another.
We’ve been busy writing narrative pieces, working to revise and edit them. We appreciate the efforts that authors make to ensure that their stories are clear and interesting to read. We love to celebrate one another’s stories as we “share out” to our classmates. Supportive peer comments abound!
We are tackling place value concepts as we are working with numbers to 1,000. We are learning the many ways to “name” and “represent” numbers. We have modeled large numbers with popsicle sticks, Dienes blocks, dollar bills, coins, and place value disks.
We have played numerous rounds of the “trading game.” Algorithms will soon be taught!
Math facts races continue. Please continue to rehearse the basic facts with your children.
Fluency is important. As we add and subtract two and three digit numbers, knowing the facts will make each step of the algorithm easier.
We are still learning about matter and physical changes to solids, and from solids to liquids, and liquids to solids.
We continue to discuss communities and how they “work.” In each that we belong to, we can identify our rights and responsibilities, as citizens, within them. We are looking forward to honoring our veterans on Nov. 9; we thank them for defending our freedoms.
Unit one of Second Step is complete. Our SEL lessons have emphasized the skills that all learners need to know and practice, to be successful at school. We are working to focus attention, to listen, to use self-talk, and to be assertive. We can often be heard, humming, “Be a Learner, Yeah, Yeah.” Ms. Snyder’s monthly lesson was about the importance of being kind. We made intricate yarn-webs with our compliments for one another. Unit Two will teach us about empathy.
3rd Grade
In Math we have begun our second unit of study: Measurement. We began with measuring time to the 5 minutes, 1 minute, and elapsed time backwards and forwards. We are now working with grams and kilograms to measure weight or mass. We have been studying our multiplication facts in class. Shortly, children will be bringing home study cards for the multiplication facts. We will begin weekly quizzes on the facts - a note will go home to families when we begin.
In Language Arts, we are immersed in a non-fiction study. We are reading various non-fiction texts and noticing that they are written in a different way than fiction text. We are studying non-fiction features, such as headings, charts, and text boxes. We are learning how to take notes using the box and dots method, of listing several facts and then determining the main idea of the selection.
In Social Studies, we just finished our geography unit, and have headed off to China. We are first learning about the flag and map of China. Our geography knowledge is really helping with this study. Next, we will be learning about the Chinese language - in fact, we’ll be writing our names in Chinese, and learning how to write some simple words in Chinese. We’ll be reading various picture books that will help our language studies come alive. In science, we’ll be learning about magnetic forces around us.
4th Grade
Fourth Grade has just completed our first unit in Math and has now begun our new unit on Multiplication and Division. In this unit, students will learn concepts such as area and perimeter, multiplication of single and double digits and long division.
In Language Arts, students continue to immerse themselves in reading. They are learning the value of recording their thinking in Readers’ Notebooks, and sharing those thoughts with peers. They have also enjoyed Kensuke’s Kingdom, our read aloud. Ask them about it! In the upcoming weeks, students will be delving into character study using a variety of fictional books.
In Social Studies, 4th graders are learning about Eastern Woodland Indians, specifically the Iroquois and their contributions to New York State. In Science, students are learning about living and non-living things, or in scientific terms, biotic vs. abiotic.
Communications Class K-2
We are continuing to grow our LOVE of reading and books. We are now starting to read heart books. These are familiar books that we have heard many times and are starting to know by heart. Some of the class favorites are Splat the Cat, Click Clack Moo Cows that Type, and Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus.
We continue to explore grade level curriculum and content. The kindergarten students will be embarking on a new unit about plants and the criteria for living things and their requirements to survive. The first grade students are studying the human body and the major systems. The second grade students are studying communities and properties of matter.
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 a love of reading! We are exploring just right books and we are motivated to each new interesting books. We enjoyed reading “Here’s Hank” together and discussing Hanks strengths and challenges. Some of our other favorite read alouds are, “Lulu Goes to Witch School” and “Frog and Toad Forever”. Our class has been working hard on mastering new sight words every week. We enjoy multi sensory activities to help us read and write sight words. In order to grow as readers, writers, and life long learners, we also learn many new vocabulary words each week. During group, partner and independent reading we have set goals for stamina, fluency, and stopping to check for comprehension.
As writer’s we have worked on adding details to sentences to make our writing more interesting to our readers.
In math, our fourth graders are working on multiplying by tens using a place value chart. We are also working on mastering many multiplication facts. Our third graders are working on telling time to the nearest five minute using digital and analog clocks. We are working on the concept of elapsed time by thinking “how long does it take?” Our second graders are working on counting on and bundling using groups of ones, tens, and hundreds.
Art
Please check out the new Hastings Art Department Instagram feed at @hohschoolsart . This feed is for the K-12 Art Department, so you will be able to see what students are working on in the upper grades as well.
Kindergarten and First Graders will be creating clay pots over the next month. The kinderkids will focus on manipulating clay to create a pinch pot. The first graders will be using building skills to create a coil pot. Each student will glaze paint their project. These should be coming home in the safety of a brown bag towards the end of September.
Third graders are beginning a unit about the circle. They will be studying the artists Wassily Kandinsky and contemporary artist Gary Lang. Over the next month, students will create a painting as well as a painted poem.
Fourth graders are finishing the written component of their Abstract paintings. Students will create a poem or verse about their painting.
Check out the Hillside Art Blog for updates of what is happening in the Art Studio - https://www.hohschools.org/Page/1225
Music
Physical Education
Hello Everyone! We have just wrapped up and finished out Soccer Unit for grades K-4 and it was a great success. We taught the students how to properly pass, dribble, and shoot the ball by playing various games throughout the unit.
Up next is the much anticipated “Stunts and Tumbling” Unit where we bring out the large gymnastic mats and teach the students different balancing techniques, and routines over the course of 5 weeks. This is definitely one of the most popular units that we do during the year and we can see the excitement on the students faces. During this unit, all students must wear socks in order to participate for health and safety reasons.
Just a reminder as we get into the colder and snowy weather, please send your child with sneakers on days that their class has Phys. Ed. so they are able to participate if they wear boots to school. We recommend keeping a pair of sneakers in the child’s backpack during the winter months to make it easy.
FLES
STEAM
Exciting learning is flying through the air during our STEAM time! Kindergarten students are creating their own greenhouses so they can provide water, air and sunlight to their growing plants. First graders are investigating the properties of a variety of materials to see which ones completely block out light in order to create the darkest space possible. Then we will begin to think of ways to communicate in these dark spaces! Second graders are exploring the properties of solids in order to build containers. Our third graders are beginning a unit on magnetism, and our fourth graders are looking for ways that energy is transferred in many situations (marble runs, circuitry and more!).
Hillside Elementary School
Website: www.hohschools.org
Location: 120 Lefurgy Avenue, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, United States
Phone: 914-478-6270