February 2020 Newsletter
Hillcrest Newsletter
February 2020
From the Principal
Dear Hillcrest Families,
We always talk about February being the shortest month, but this year, we have a bonus day -- February 29th! I hope you have a chance to enjoy this extra day by spending some fun family time together! We really enjoyed gathering together this morning at our February All School Meeting where our students shared their learning with the whole school community. Ms. Chanda’s preschoolers highlighted their early literacy learning by sharing their favorite nursery rhyme, Humpty Dumpty. Ms. Hirst’s kindergarten class presented a poem reflecting their science learning about the States of Matter. And Mrs. Saylor’s first graders shared their research about Activists and Leaders and the power of standing up and bringing about change. I am always so impressed by the confidence and presence that our young students bring to All School Meeting each month. Thank you for joining us to support their learning!
Next week, I hope to see many of you at our annual Read Across Hillcrest event. This super-fun family literacy event honors Read Across America Day and we will celebrate the joy of reading together. The evening includes a pizza dinner, Read Alouds & Craft Projects led by local community leaders, and an opportunity to “shop” for FREE children’s books. Our students always leave this event with some wonderful books to enjoy at home. In addition to dinner, read-alouds and free books, we will also reveal the winners of the Friends of Hillcrest Read-a-thon Raffle! This promises to be a fabulous family event -- please join us!
Looking ahead to additional March events, please don’t forget about Parent Conferences on March 19th and 20th. You have probably already received a note from your child’s teacher about signing up for your conference. Parent conferences are a valuable opportunity to connect with your children’s teachers to learn about their progress and to recognize their achievements. Our teachers really look forward to meeting with you!
Wishing you a wonderful weekend ---
Sarah Burstein, Principal
Important Dates:
- Friday, March 6 - Read Across Hillcrest, 5 to 6:30 p.m.
- Wednesday, March 11 - Half Day In-Service
- Thursday and Friday, March 19 & 20 - Half Days, Parent Teacher Conferences
- Thursday, March 26, Kindergarten Open House, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
- Monday, March 30 – Kindergarten Registration, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Reminder
Please continue sending boots, snow pants and other winter gear with your child. The snow has disappeared but there can be puddles and mud on the playground!
Preschool
Before February break all our preschool classes finished up our “Grocery Store” theme, and we have been playing in our regular play centers. The children really enjoy the breaks between themes, and these more “classic” play centers bring out very rich social interaction and play. Next up, we will be turning our classroom centers into various restaurants for our “Restaurant” theme. The children will have the opportunity to take on the roles of server, hosts/hostess, cook, customers and more.
In March in the area of science, we will begin to explore how the seasons changing effect people and animals locally. This will include a really fun unit on maple sugaring that we created as a preschool team last year. Ask your child what we are up to as we start our next month!
Finally, please be sure to send your children with proper gear for the playground daily if they stay for recess. This time of year when we are back and forth between weather and temperatures, our playground can have snow, ice, puddles, mud, or all of these on it at the same time. Children really need to have boots to play on the playground, and we strongly recommend snow pants as well. Children should also have jackets, hats, and mittens/gloves on hand. Thank you for your attention to this so your children can have a good time at recess with their friends.
Ms. Chase, Mrs. Prevett, Ms. Waryas Welles
Kindergarten
Kindergarten families,
We are cruising through our kindergarten year and have celebrated the 100-day milestone! We are continuing to enjoy the adventures of Jack and Annie in the Magic Tree House books. Before our school vacation we finished the 5th book “Night of the Ninjas.” We are now getting ready for the 6th book by learning about the rain forest! We are practicing many comprehension skills through our literacy centers.
In math we are focusing on shapes. Your child should be “experts” on and be able to identify squares, circles, rectangles, triangles, rhombuses, and hexagons. We continue to have exposure to addition and subtraction skills through many games and work center activities, as well.
Bring on March and bring on spring! Please remember to continue to send in snow gear.
The Kindergarten Team,
Ms. Fox, Ms. Hirst, Mrs. Lesenski
First Grade
February was a very short but busy month for the first grade learners! We had a blast celebrating our 100th day of school. The classes participated in various games and activities that gave needed exposure and practice with numbers and combinations up to 100.
Reading and writing continue to drive our learning. We have been working on reading and writing words with the glued sounds ing, ang, ong, ung and ink, ank, onk, unk. The “n” in the glued sound moves through your nose and makes it hard to separate the vowel and ending sound so that the sounds are “glued” together. Try holding your nose and saying each of these sounds and you will see how hard it is to make that sound. We are also working in our reading groups on learning how to identify and read long vowel, silent e words. The “magic” e helps a vowel to “say its name”. We will begin to work on learning about “vowel teams.” These are words that have two vowels together in a word and the first vowel “does the talking” – “says its name” (ex. Team, road, etc.).
In math, we are practicing addition and subtraction to 10. By this time in the year, your child should know the six partners of ten, as we have practiced them in many ways. (0+10, 1+9, 2+8, 3+7, 4+6, and 5+5). We have worked on finding “friendly tens” when adding 3 numbers together to add into the teens. Daily practice at home will keep these facts fresh in their minds. We are building on this knowledge and extending it to partners of 100 as well! (10+90, 20+80, etc.)
We completed our non-fiction writing unit. The first graders loved learning about a variety of non-fiction subjects and writing about them. We learned how to use features of non-fiction such as labels, diagrams, text boxes, tables of contents, etc. They worked very hard on their writing and were very excited to share their books with their grown-ups during our writing celebration before vacation. They enjoyed reading to all the adults that came to our classrooms! Thank you to those of you who were able to attend for listening to all of our students!
We hope you enjoyed your well-deserved vacation with your learner! Be proud of their hard work and celebrate their learning with a daily read from a good book together! J
Miss Matrishon, Mrs. Saylor, Ms. Smith
Music
In music, pre-k and kindergarten students have been using rhythm sticks to explore sound. They have been using the rhythm sticks in a variety of ways; tapping, drumming, rubbing, and hammering. They are exploring loud and soft sounds as well as fast and slow tempos while using the rhythm sticks. The first grade has been performing hand clapping activities with partners. They were exploring rhythms and patterns through the hand clapping activities as well as fast and slow tempos. In March students will be exploring sound through movement. We will be using the books and music to explore emotions and music. Two of the books we will use are “My Many Colored Days” and “Get the Wiggles Out”.
Susan King, Music Teacher
Library
During the month of February, Hillcrest students have been learning about various book awards during their library special. We primarily focus on the Caldecott award, while also learning briefly about other book awards such as the Coretta Scott King award and the Pura Belpre award. We have learned that the Caldecott Medal is awarded by the American Library Association to the illustrator of the most distinguished picture book published that year. We spend time reading books that have won the Caldecott Medal and Honor in previous years, such as The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. January is the month when the new Caldecott Medal and Honor awards are announced, and students will be reading these new award winners as well. Undefeated written by Kwame Alexander and illustrated by Kadir Nelson was chosen as the 2020 Caldecott Medal winner. I hope you consider exploring some of the Caldecott picture books with your child at your local library!
Jess Nadeau, Librarian
Counselor’s Corner
Fostering a Growth Mindset
A growth mindset is one in which people believe that they can develop their skills and abilities through effort and dedication. We all have innate strengths or talents, areas in which we seem to naturally excel, but a growth mindset means that we believe we can improve upon any skill – in short, we grow. This belief stands in contrast to a fixed mindset. A person with a fixed mindset believes their intelligence and talents are what they are and they are unable to change or improve. We are more likely to give up quickly or not even try if we have a fixed mindset. We all have areas in our lives where we may demonstrate a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. Fostering a growth mindset in our students is important for developing their love of learning, personal confidence and understanding that the effort they put in is key to their success.
If you have a student who says things like “I’m just no good at math,” or “It doesn’t matter if I try, I can’t play as well as John,” or simply “I can’t,” then your child is operating in a fixed mindset. There are some simple actions that you can take to help foster a growth mindset.
- Praise the effort not talent, and be specific:
“You worked so hard to dribble the ball. I can see you’ve been practicing,” rather than “Great job. You’re a great player.”
“You put a lot of time and effort into your writing and it shows,” rather than “You’re really smart.”
- Change the script (encourage positive self-talk):
If your student says, “I can’t,” help them rephrase it to “I can’t . . . yet.”
“I’ll never be able to this,” help them to say “This is hard but I’m going to keep trying.”
- Help your student focus on the process, not the outcome. Notice when they are being persistent and tell them so.
- Give permission to fail and encourage mistakes. This will help take the anxiety out of learning and foster risk taking in their learning. Failure and challenges are how we learn to improve and to problem solve.
Some of our Hillcrest students have been working on fostering their growth mindsets. A terrific children’s book to check out is Bubblegum Brain by Julia Cook where one child with flexible thinking (stretchy like bubblegum!) helps another with brick brain (a fixed mindset) to embrace a growth mindset instead.
Looking for some adult resources? Check out any writings by Carol Dweck or this video:
Tedtalk with Carol Dweck (10.20 minutes) https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve
Halina Radosz
“The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.” - Stephen McCranie
March is National Nutrition Month
We Can! (Ways to Enhance Children’s Activity & Nutrition) is a national education program designed to give parents and communities a way to help children learn to eat nutritious foods. As parents, you can do a lot to help your children learn healthy eating habits and maintain a healthy weight. Involving them in meal preparation and cooking can motivate them to try new foods – and is a good way to spend time together as a family.
What is a “healthy” diet?
A healthy eating plan is one that :
· Emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat or fat-free milk products.
· Includes lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts.
· Is low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, sodium/salt, and added sugars.
· Stays within your calorie needs.
Focus on Healthy Food Choices - Choose the GO, SLOW, and WHOA foods:
GO FOODS – are the lowest in fats and added sugar. They are nutrient dense with a better source of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients important to health. Examples of GO foods are fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fat-free and low-fat milk products, lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, egg whites, or egg substitute.
SLOW FOODS - are higher in fat, added sugar, and calories. SLOW foods include vegetables with added fat, white refined bread flour, low- fat mayonnaise, 2% low fat milk products, peanut butter, pizza, baked chips, and mac and cheese. Have slow foods sometimes.
WHOA FOODS – are the highest in fat and sugar. They are calorie dense foods and low in vitamins, minerals, and other needed nutrients. Have WHOA foods once in a while, and when you do have them, have small portions. Examples of WHOA foods are whole-milk products, fried foods, bakery sweets, candy, soda, chips, sugary cereals, and creamy salad dressings.
Hungry for more? Visit the WE CAN! Web site at http://wecan.nhlbi.nih.gov
PARENT REMINDER: Please return dental forms to school ASAP! Thank you.
Bon Appetit!
Melissa Bednarski
Hillcrest School Nurse 413 863-2638