January Newsletter - January 23, 2020

Hillcrest Newsletter

January 2020

From the Principal

Dear Hillcrest Families,

We are looking forward to seeing many of you at Hillcrest Family Math Night tonight at 5:30. As you know, our district is currently implementing a new math program called Bridges in Mathematics (published by Math Learning Center).  Tonight, we’re inviting you and your children back to school to engage in some of the math learning that’s happening in our classrooms each day. Bridges in Mathematics focuses on

• Children talking about math with their classmates and teachers to explain their thinking and ask questions.

• Hands-on math activities such as adding physical movements to the calendar pattern, walking the number line or building combinations of ten with unifix cubes.

• Using math tools and visual models to promote understanding of mathematical concepts.  These include finger models, ten frames and the rekenrek.

• Playing math games in small groups.

Some of the essential daily math routines in Bridges include Number Corner, Problems & Investigations and Work Places. Tonight, you’ll have a chance to play the following games with your children:

• Preschool Games: Number Flash and Mitten Match

• Kindergarten: Grab Bag More or Less and Spill the Beans

• First Grade: Cat & Mouse and Double It Challenge

Families will also be able to learn more about the mathematical models we use each day and your children will be able to collect a Take Home Bag with a Bridges math game to play at home.  Please be sure to join us for Family Math Night!

Wishing you a wonderful weekend –-

Sarah Burstein, Principal

Important dates:

• NO SCHOOL for students Friday, Jan. 24, Turn Around Day 

• Our Family Read Aloud events will be held on Friday, January 31st at 9:30, immediately following All School Meeting.  You can visit Mrs. Prevett’s classroom for a read-aloud of A Family is a Family by Sara O’Leary. Or you can visit Miss Matrishon’s classroom for a read-aloud of Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts. All families are welcome to attend these events.

• January All School Meeting will feature presentations from Mrs. Prevett’s preschoolers, Mrs. Fox’s kindergarten students, and Miss Matrishon’s first graders. All School Meeting begins at 9:00 on Friday, January 31st.

• Cocoa, Cookies and Crafts sponsored by Friends of Hillcrest on Friday, January 31st at 5:30.

• Early Release/In -Service on Wednesday, February 5th

• School Vacation Week -- Monday, February 17th through Friday, February 21st. 

Preschool

Preschool students made an easy adjustment getting back into the school routine, ready to learn! This month we continued with our grocery store theme. Each classroom had their own grocery store centers such as check-out, bakery, delivery dock, and pizza shop.  In these centers, students were able to act out various roles such as customer, baker, truck driver or clerk.  

Our Bridges math theme for this month was mittens and scarves.  We continue to practice counting to 10 through a variety math lessons as well as learning how to make a variety of patterns using math materials.  Our science learning has been focused around winter weather and hibernation. Students learned about animals who take a nap during the cold winter months.

Thank you for continuing to support our classrooms with requested materials, especially tissues!

Ms. Chanda, Ms. Sarah and Ms. Teresa

Kindergarten

In kindergarten we have been learning about pirates.  The enthusiasm for this topic has carried over into recess. The firetruck structure has been used as a pirate ship and the students are on the lookout for treasure! It is wonderful to see how they are using the facts they learned through non-fiction texts in their play.  The fun continues as we read the next Magic Tree House story: Pirates Past Noon. We are practicing reading comprehension strategies such as predicting and inferencing while we read each chapter.  

Students are also working on recognizing sight words, recognizing the names and sounds of letters, writing letters, saying all of the sounds they hear in a spoken word, and using strategies they are taught to solve unknown words during their reading groups. 

During the math block students are developing a deep number sense.  There have been many opportunities to count objects and now we are manipulating quantities in multiple ways.  This is being done when we decompose numbers, add and subtract. We are also learning to write teen numbers, recognize teen numbers, and to understand them as a group of ten and some ones. Lastly, we are counting to 100 in a variety of ways. This is great to practice at home!  You can start counting from other numbers than one, count forward, count backwards, and count by 10s!

Mrs. Fox, Ms. Hirst, Mrs. Lesenski

Grade 1

Happy New Year! Everyone is very happy to be back at school. We are looking forward to a new year filled with learning. 

    Our new year will begin with a new focus in reading. We will be learning about the “glued sounds” for –ang, -ing, -ong, -ung, -ank, -ink, -onk, and –unk. “Glued sounds” happen when you have the sounds for m or n after a vowel and the sounds are not easily separated or heard like in the words “ham” or “sing”. These can be tricky for kids to learn. You can help your children learn them by pointing these words out and reading them when you see them in the real world (bank) or in a book.

      In writing we are finishing our non-fiction books. We have been working on doing research about animals using a variety of resources. We are using the information that we have learned to create a non-fiction book about that animal. We have learned about non-fiction writing features such as zoom-ins, diagrams, labels, text boxes and a table of contents to give information about a topic. We will be finishing our books up by the end of January.  

     Our math focus is on learning about adding and subtracting to 10 with missing numbers. In Number Corner our new pattern has been equations and number stories that have missing numbers in a variety of places such as the beginning of a subtraction problem, in the middle of an addition problem or at the beginning of an addition problem. When we have solved the equation, we have to create a number story to go along with the equation. We have number stories to read and then the students have to both solve the number story and create an equation to go with it. We are even adding and subtracting into the teens.

     We hope everyone has a great beginning to our new year.   

Ms. Matrishon, Mrs. Saylor, Ms. Smith        

English Learner News from Ms. Wulfkuhle

Kindergarten English Learners have been exploring a variety of purposes for reading, such as enjoyment, making connections, and learning. We have been reviewing story elements, sequencing stories, comparing and contrasting different books, and exploring morals imbedded in many stories and folk tales. 

First grade students have been learning about the language of math. Some of the questions we've been answering are: What is math? How do we use math every day? What are traits of mathematicians? How can math help us solve problems? 

Lea Wulfkhule

PE

In PE class, we have been doing quite a bit with eye/hand coordination. To do this we have working with tag games and targeting games in class. I am asking for some help. Please review with your kids what day they have PE. Many kids are not prepared with sneakers. It is safer for them to play games if they have sneakers on their feet. Thanks,

 Mr. Wood

A Note from School Nurse Melissa:

February is National Dental Health Month!

Lifelong habits begin at home.  Make dental health part of your daily routine and share these reminders with your whole family:

• Brush your teeth at least twice a day with fluoride toothpaste, especially in the morning and before bedtime.  Drinking water after eating also helps to clear your teeth of food particles.

• Floss every day. An adult should help children under the age of eight to floss.  Older children should be ready to floss on their own.

• Limit the number of times you eat snacks, especially the sticky ones and long-lasting ones.

• Visit a dentist regularly for a routine check-up and a cleaning.

• Protect your teeth by wearing a mouth guard when playing sports.

• Don’t forget to change your toothbrush regularly, and after an illness.

Sweet snack facts:

Eating a lot of snacks with sugar may cause cavities.

Every time you eat sugar, plaque in your mouth mixes with the sugar to make acid.  The acid hurts the teeth and causes decay over times. This can be painful!

This spring, the dental hygienist from Community Health Center of Franklin County will once again come to Hillcrest Elementary to give dental care to students. A sign-up form will be sent home with students as the date approaches.    

As always, the nurse’s office is looking for donations of gently used clothing; pants, shirts, socks, sneakers and outerwear are always welcome.  

Thank you,    

Melissa Bednarski, School Nurse ☺ 413-863-2638