HILLTOP HAPPENINGS!
May 2018
PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
I am happy to report that we had several successful events at Hilltop last month. First was Encore’s Arts Festival. Encore is a group of teachers and parents who work to encourage the arts in Reading schools. The Arts Festival, which consisted of a visual arts show and a talent show, was a hit with our parents and community. The halls at Hilltop were filled with families that evening, all enjoying the wonderful art on display. Jeremy Easter was the winner of the all-district talent show and received a $50 cash award. Encore was able to raise over $1,000 during the festival, which will help sponsor future arts events. Thanks to all who supported Encore’s Arts Festival.
A second event that drew a lot of parents and students was the PTO Spring Carnival. The PTO was trying something new this year with outdoor games and additional fun things for students to do. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon, filled with cotton candy, face painting, and lots of prizes. Many thanks to our PTO who worked diligently to provide boys and girls with an exciting carnival. Now that the bar has been set, we look forward to an even better carnival next year. We appreciate all who supported our PTO carnival. The money that our PTO raises helps purchase supplies and materials for teachers, along with Chrome Book computers for students.
As always, the month of May is super busy at Hilltop. As we finish up state testing, we have numerous exciting field trips planned, along with concerts, field day, and our 5th grade musical. Please see the list of all events taking place in May included in this newsletter.
May Events
May 10 Field Day
6:30 5th Grade Spring Instrumental concert, Princeton HS
May 14, 6:00 5th Grade Parent Night at Middle school
May 16, 6:30 4th Grade Instrument Try Out night
May 17, 6-7:00 KDG Orientation at Hilltop
May 24 5th Grade Musical
May 25 5th Grade Grade Grill Out (Hilltop/Central) Sandy Park
May 28 No School, Memorial Day
May 29, 8:30 Awards, Grades 1 & 2
9:30 Awards, Grades 3 & 4
May 30, 10 am 5th Grade Recognition
May 31 Last Day of School for Students, Early Release 12:45
COUNSELOR NEWS
The 5th grade students will be performing, “School House Rock Jr.!” The Emmy Award-winning 1970s Saturday morning cartoon series that taught history, grammar, math, science and politics through clever, tuneful songs will take place at Hilltop on May 24th. Be on the lookout for more information regarding times.
Testing is almost over and our students have once again persevere. Thanks to our teachers who have allowed them to have a few minutes of extra recess!
Educator of the Month- Mr. Hayes
It’s with great pleasure to announce Mr. RJ Hayes as the Educator of the Month for May. Mr. Hayes has been a fixture at Hilltop for seventeen years, and he continues to have as much energy and enthusiasm for teaching today as he did when he was a first-year teacher back in 2001. Mr. Hayes is well respected among students and parents alike. He makes learning science, and this year, math, interesting and fun for his students. He is also always willing to help out to ensure students have a successful experience at Hilltop.
Originally, Mr Hayes had his heart set on becoming an architect, but after a visit to a kindergarten class while he was in high school, he knew his true passion was to become to a teacher. In addition to his love of being a teacher, Mr. Hayes enjoys teaching science. He is fascinated how young scientists are curious and think through science concepts and formulate ideas. He admits to learning right along with his students.
Mr. Hayes attended Morehead State University where he earned a Bachelor degree in Elementary Education. Later, he earned his masters degree in Educational Leadership from Wright State University.
Mr. Hayes’s name is synonymous with baseball, a sport he passionate about. He is currently the Head Baseball Coach at Reading High School. In the summertime, he runs a baseball camp for underserved children at the Reds Youth Academy in Roselawn.
When he’s not at school, Mr. Hayes loves spending time with his family and watching his children play sports and participate in ballet. During the summer months, he enjoys doing construction projects such as building decks, fences and installing hardwood floors with his good friend, Mr. Marsh. And of course, he admits, nothing beats s'mores by the fire in the backyard or firing up the grill!
Preschool News
It’s hard to believe it’s already May and we’re nearing the end of the school year! This month’s topics will include frogs, community helpers, farms, bees, and summer. In science we’ll wrap up our study of life cycles and habitats. In math we’ll continue to work on addition and subtraction and identifying 3D shapes. We hope to spend time playing and learning outdoors too! We are busily preparing for our End of the Year Celebration, which will take place on May 30th. What a wonderful fun-filled year it has been!
Picture below: Our Preschoolers are learning about the butterfly life cycle! We’re excited to watch our caterpillars change to butterflies!
KINDERGARTEN NEWS
It looks like spring has finally sprung! We cannot believe that it is already May! What a great year it has been. During this month, we will be going on our last field trip to the Children’s Museum on Friday, May 4. We are practicing for our big Mother’s Day celebration with songs and gifts for Friday, May 11. Also, we have our annual Pancake Breakfast coming up. We are so excited for these upcoming events. In math, we are continuing to become fluent in our subtraction and addition facts. In science, we will be talking about the life cycle of frogs and write informational pieces that we have learned about them. We will also be talking about summer and the types of activities that we will be doing and we will write about them. We are all looking forward to a great month.
FIRST GRADE NEWS
First grade has a lot of fun activities planned in the month of May. We will be learning about ocean life and taking a field trip to the aquarium on Thursday May 17 to see it all in action. We will be reading many fun books, including Pete the Cat: Scuba Cat. We are also busy preparing for our Special Person Tea on Wednesday, May 9 to celebrate Mother’s Day. In writing, we will be spending time creating narratives. Students will try to grab the reader’s attention with interesting details. In Math, we will finish up the year focusing on place value. We will also be working on data. First grade will also get to enjoy their Fiesta they earned from the penny wars. It is going to be a great end to fun filled year!
Second Grade News
We have some fun activities planned to finish off our second grade year! First, we will recognize all our hard work on the culture projects with a writing celebration. Each student will present their writing and a visual or food of their choice. Some are even choosing to dress in their culture’s traditional clothing! In the last few weeks we will wrap the year up with some poetry and fractured fairy tales. In math, we will finish up the year with a unit on fractions. This is always a fun unit to end the year because we do several activities using cookies and candy! In science we will spend some time learning and discussing how some extinct species are similar to living species today. Our latest Social Studies unit on Economics will continue through the end of the year. On our very last day of the game, student’s will be allowed to buy a ticket to our “movie theater” and spend their savings on food at the concession stand set up in each room.
THIRD GRADE NEWS
May is a really fun month for third graders! We will be holding our lemonade businesses after school the week of May 7th. Please be on the lookout for our stands to support the charities the kids have chosen to donate their profits to. This project is 100% student led and is a great opportunity to learn how to be an entrepreneur. We talked about saving, spending and sharing our earned income and how to budget our money. We will have some time at the end of the year to enjoy some great conversation about books and set goals for the summer. Remember, reading over the summer is VERY important. Please help support your child’s growth in reading this year by continuing to emphasize the love of reading at home. Books on Blankets is a great way to stay in tuned with reading over the summer. Our testing is done...woo hoo!!! In math we will do some fun activities to review the content we’ve learned and have some fun to end the year.
FOURTH GRADE NEWS
The last month of school will be a busy one for fourth graders! In Mrs. Bose and Mrs. Riedmiller’s language arts classes students will have a poetry celebration at the beginning of the month. We will then move into community service projects that incorporate all of our subject areas. Students will continue to have time to read and write in class, but we will be adding in our inquiry and research skills to help us establish a problem in the community. We will work together to propose a solution and be active community members. This work will help tie in with our last social studies unit on government and civic engagement. We will finish up the year in math exploring problem solving and puzzles that require logical reasoning, organization, and perseverance. In science we will be finishing up our physical science unit with some hands on work around simple machines and electrical circuits.
Fifth Grade News
May is full of fun in 5th grade! Time to get out your calendar...We begin with science field trips to Greenacres on May 1-2. We finish up AIR testing in science May 7-8. Field Day is May 10th in the afternoon, along with Fastballs & Fitness at UC on May 15 (we hope for better weather than last year!). The 5th grade musical will be performed May 24, so lots of practice will go into that. We will grill out with the Central 5th graders on May 25th, and celebrate all of the students’ accomplishments at our 5th grade Recognition Ceremony on May 30th at 10:00. We look forward to seeing you at some of these events!
MISS GILBY'S ROOM
This past month has been a very busy month for our room! We had our first class field trip to the movies! This field trip was special because each student was allowed to invite a peer from their grade to attend the trip with us. We used this as a thank you to all of the amazing support we have had in this new school. So thank you! We attended Kenwood theatre and the ate lunch at Dewey's. Huge shoutout to this businesses for being awesome hosts to us and all of our special accommodations.
Also a huge thank you to 2nd grade for allowing us to tag along on their zoo field trip. Our kids had a blast there too! We were able to feed giraffes, watch elephants get and bath and even brush some goats!
We would like to throw out special thank you’s to our reading family who have let us borrow strollers, donated a used stroller and donated a brand new stroller. THANK YOU! This is great for our future field trips for some of our students:)
Reading Hilltop Elementary
Cincinnati, Ohio 45215
513-733-4322 Office
513-483-6771 Attendance Line