News from the Hill
October 28, 2016
Principal's Message
Dear Parents/Guardians,
It is hard to believe that our first trimester has come to a close! We have opened the Hillside Parent/Student Portal for ease in communication. Please register to receive access to your child's report cards, class placement, attendance and schedule from any location. Directions can be found on our website at http://www.hohschools.org/domain/968
Your child's report card will be accessible on November 3rd through the Portal. Additionally, your child's teacher will provide you with a paper copy at your scheduled Parent-Teacher conference. Please note that the kindergarten report card for Trimester 1 is not online. Instead, you will receive a checklist from your child's kindergarten teacher with developmental goals. Trimester 2 and 3 for kindergarten can be accessed through the Portal. It is our hope that the use of this Portal will improve communication between the home and school.
The PTSA New Book Fair has been a great success! Once you walk in, you don't want to leave! Students have enjoyed browsing through new titles. Last night, I had the privilege of reading to many of our youngsters at the K-2 Reading Night. I even gave the children a sneak peek into the book on which my Halloween costume will be based! The New Book Fair will be open on both Saturday and Monday for those who have not yet had a chance to visit. Please stop by and pick up a good book!
Reminders:
November 3rd and November 7th
HALF DAYS FOR STUDENTS- Dismissal at 11:55 AM
November 8th
NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS- Superintendent’s Conference Day
I look forward to seeing you on Monday, October 31st for our Halloween Parade at 9:30 AM. Enjoy the weekend with your families!
Warm regards,
Amy Cazes
Principal
Classroom News
Kindergarten
Kindergartners were enthralled with learning all about Fire Safety last week in a very hands-on way! The children had such a great experience sitting inside a fire truck, looking at fire gear and riding on a gurney (in the ambulance). What fun!
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 on Native American studies.
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.).
First Grade
First graders are deeply involved in learning about our human bodies. We have completed our study of various systems and now our focus shifts to learning about the keys to good health and wellness (eat well, exercise, sleep, keep clean and have regular checkups). Students will learn about the food pyramid and the importance of a well- balanced diet.
As writers, our students are just beginning to explore “How-To” books and will begin to draft some ideas of their own.
In math, students are working with subtraction as it relates to addition. Students are solving word problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together and comparing unknowns in all positions.
Second Grade
During the past couple of weeks in mathematics we have been working with place value. The students have physically made groupings of tens and hundreds and have used representations to identify when a group of ten ones is bundled to make a ten and a group of ten tens is bundled to make a hundred. Currently, the students are using these concepts to determine the place value information in two and three-digit numbers and different ways of expressing a number, including number form, word form, unit form and expanded notation.
In reading, we have begun our guided reading groups. The groups are developed based upon the students’ F&P scores. Each group receives instruction based upon the needs of the students from decoding strategies to phonetic instruction to fluency. All groups also concentrate on comprehension and elements of literature, including character, setting and plot.
Our first social studies unit, Community and Citizenship, will begin to wind down in the next couple of weeks. Recently we studied the idea of the rights and responsibilities of citizens of a community using Hillside and the town as models. We are currently exploring the various communities to which the students belong and how they fit together.
Communications Class K-2
In Kindergarten, we are continuing to work 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. Next, we will be embarking on our new unit on Native American studies.
First graders are deeply involved in learning about our human bodies. We have completed our study of various systems and now our focus shifts to learning about the keys to good health and wellness (eat well, exercise, sleep, keep clean and have regular checkups). Students will learn about the food pyramid and the importance of a well- balanced diet.
We all had the opportunity to learn about Fire Safety last week in a very hands-on way! The children had such a great experience sitting inside a fire truck, looking at fire gear and riding on a gurney (in the ambulance). What fun!
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.).
Communications Class 3-5
The students continue to work hard and are excited about Halloween next week! We began reading some Halloween books which included I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll and The Lima Bean Monster by Dan Yaccarino. We are continuing to sequence important events in a story and focusing on the characters and setting in our books. In Math, we finished our unit on word problems and began a unit on multiplication. We are studying different ways to find the answer to a multiplication problem. These strategies include drawing arrays and using repeated addition. In science, we are learning about animal habitats. In social studies, we are continuing to study land forms and their characteristics.
Integrated Learning Class Grades 2-4
We have been finishing up units of study in all grade levels. 2nd grade is continuing to follow up on addition, subtraction, and measurement skills in addition to reading and comprehension across genres and strategies. 2nd grade Social Studies is beginning to look into government. 3rd grade is refining skills in multiplication and division and continuing geography along with language arts with a focus on reading for understanding of details and big picture and writing of sentences and short paragraphs. 4th grade is especially busy with studying Native American history, paragraph writing, comprehension skills with story elements and character study and writing narratives. The entire class is beginning a project which will focus on an interesting piece of Native American heritage through visual, textual and hands on production. Watch for information on our bulletin board!
Third Grade
In Math we are beginning a new unit of study: “Place Value and Problem Solving with Units of Measure”. The unit will begin with a study of telling time. Students will practice measuring time with stopwatches and the clock. They will practice time-telling skills through the use of word problems. They will also study the concept of elapsed time. From there they will move onto rounding skills, and how estimation can help them round accurately.
Students are continuing their geography work by creating travel brochures about a country they have been studying in-depth. Groups of children chose a country to study in-depth. This included researching geographical features, cultural information, symbols such as flags, and climate conditions. Brochures are being created online. There is also the opportunity for students to create individual brochures using a flip book format.Once completed, the brochures will be presented to other groups, so that children can build their knowledge about countries around the world, as well as practice their public speaking skills.
In writing students are working on the various components of a paragraph. These include topic sentences, detail sentences and concluding sentences. They are working hard to create interesting and varied sentences that capture their readers’ attention. This work will continue with both fiction and nonfiction topics.
Fourth Grade
Over the course of the past two weeks, 4th graders have continued to work hard. In math, students have moved into their study of addition and subtraction with multi-digit whole numbers. This also includes some thought provoking multi-step word problems. In ELA, students are beginning their first book clubs in class. They are excited to read and discuss story elements such as plot, characters and setting. As 4th graders however, students will move beyond simple descriptions of these elements and will now observe how settings affect plot, and how characters change over time.
4th graders were thrilled to welcome Mr. Frank Remkiewicz, (otherwise known as Jack Birkedal’s grandfather) to Hillside. Mr. Remkiewicz is the illustrator of such popular series as the Froggy series, and the Horrible Harry series. It was a pleasure to see and hear about all of his wonderful work!
Lastly, in social studies, 4th grade students have begun to learn about the Iroquois people. As we discover how these resourceful people lived in what is now New York State, we hope that many children will accept the challenge of creating an Iroquois longhouse.
We look forward to seeing you on Halloween!
Art
Students are finishing their paintings of gourds, please check out the display in the front lobby of Hillside. Check out the Hillside Art Blog for regular updates - http://www.hohschools.org/Page/1225 .
Music
Ms. Concra’s General Music Classes: We are wrapping up our Halloween activities! It’s been lots of fun getting spooky and ghostly with everyone. We dove into “Rattlebone Rock” by Sylvia Andrews by recreating all the spooky sounds using our voices and instruments. Older students have been learning “This Is Halloween” from A Nightmare Before Christmas and learning call and response songs.
Mr. Campbell’s General Music Classes: We are in full swing with Halloween-themed music making activities! Kindergarten and first grade students are using their singing and speaking voices to create a “witch’s brew” and its magical spell. One of our favorite songs for both grades is Five Little Pumpkins. In second grade, students are using instruments to create piano and forte sounds that correspond to the story The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything. Third grade students are learning the role of an introduction and coda in music. Using the song Ghost of John they have begun to create their own musical arrangements that include an instrumental introduction and coda. In fourth grade, students are studying the difference between major and minor tonality and duple and triple meter. They have most recently begun to compose simple rhythm patterns in both duple and triple.
Physical Education
We are continuing to teach the students different games to play at recess and the correct rules to go along with them. We are going outside as much as possible in order to do so. These games include, box ball, SPUD, and kickball for grade 2,3 and 4. The first grade will be shown the basic rules of these games and then given time to play on the equipment. Kindergarten students are getting time to play freely and enjoy the playground.
As a reminder, FOR 3RD AND 4TH GRADE STUDENTS, if you would like to participate in helping put together our bulletin board, please send in a picture of yourself completing a task by working together as a team with someone. An instruction sheet went home last week with the students further explaining what to do. We want to fill the bulletin with as many students pictures as possible!
FLES
As a reminder, please visit our FLES website, nunez-fles.weebly.com to access a wealth of information which will help sharpen the skills practice in class!
Kindergarten students have done an exceptional job in learning how to introduce themselves to others and explain how they are feeling (muy bien, mal, or cansado). Students are now working on learning how to say and represent the numbers 1-10 in Spanish and answer the question, “How old are you?¿Cuántos años tienes?”
First grade students are continuing to learn how to facilitate a conversation with someone by asking how they are feeling and describing how they themselves are feeling with various responses such as happy, sad, tired, sick, excited, afraid and surprised.
Second grade is busily working on describing activities they would like to do based upon how they are feeling. For example, I am tired and would like to sleep (Yo estoy cansado (a) y quiero dormir).
Third grade has finished their unit on the verb Gustar and is beginning to learn all about cognates and discovering how much Spanish they inherently know!
Our fourth graders have already learned how to describe themselves using the sentence starter, “Yo soy” and are now extending that knowledge in conversation by conducting partner interview where their task is describe themselves to another person and ask that person what he/she is like.
Reviews of the previous topics covered in grades 1-4 are infused in lessons so that by mid-November we may start our country studies!
Library
K and Communications K-2 are learning about nursery rhymes. This week we read Humpty Dumpty,and Humpty’s Little Sister Dimity by Bob Graham and noticed rhyme and rhythm, characters, and setting. Then we brainstormed possible ways to mend Humpty, went to the table and created “Humpty Menders.” Watch the walls outside the library for some of the results. We worked on the difference between fiction and non-fiction,and asked the students to check out one of each. Second grade is looking at story elements so we read and discussed setting in Hansel and Gretel: Ninja Chicks and watched a Brainpop explanation of setting. Third grade is working on finding books in the library using Dewey numbers. Fourth grade took a look at a new database, NBCLearn, watched a short video on homework and created a response in Google classroom.
Maker Space
First grade classes got their first try at Lego WeDo engineering, learning how to use the motor, motion sensor and the program’s drag-and-drop coding capabilities. We looked at the classic book, The Cat and the Hat, and challenged the students to create a “clean-up machine” to fix the mess that the Cat and Thing 1 and Thing 2 created. Other classes that visited had the opportunity to work with the littleBits Gizmos and Gadgets kits - creating a wireless remote control BitBot (aka car)! - , cardboard and recyclable materials to design and build original creations, Lego WeDo, and more! Follow me on Twitter @ hohjned
Hillside Elementary School
Website: www.hohschools.org
Location: 120 Lefurgy Avenue, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, United States
Phone: 914-478-6270