Happy Holidays!

It's hard to believe there are just four more days left of school before the holiday break! 

Our 4th and 5th grade concert that was scheduled to be held tonight in the West Genesee High School Auditorium has been moved to this Thursday, 12/19 at 7:00 p.m. I hope you will be able to join us. We had a great preview of the performance today.

Holiday parties are also scheduled for this Thursday at 2:15. Please remember that siblings should be kept at home and that food in the nut-free classrooms comes with a label on it so that it can be checked by our teachers and/or nurse.

Last week the second grade presented the character education traits of compassion and caring for the school. They acted out a story and sent the message that we need to be caring and compassionate to all of the people in our lives. I thought it was a nice message to send, especially at this time of year. Speaking of being compassionate, thank you to everyone who contributed to the PTA's community giving project this year. People were very generous.

Our math words for the week are least (M), commutative property (T), associative property (W), distributive property (Th), partial products (F), compose (Th, 1/2), and decompose (F, 1/3). 

I wish you and your family a wonderful holiday and a Happy New Year!

- Lisa

Two Weeks to Go!

It’s hard to believe that there’s just two short weeks until the holiday recess. We have a lot going on at East Hill during these two weeks. The PTA Holiday Shop for students will run tomorrow and Wednesday (12/10 and 12/11). If you selected a gift tag from the community giving tree, please make sure your gift is brought in by Thursday. There are a few tags left on the tree if you are still interested. The gifts should be gift-wrapped with a tag securely fastened onto the gift. Thank you to everyone who participated in this wonderful project. Thank you also to everyone who contributed non-perishable food items to our Red Cross food drive.

Our next CODE assembly is this Thursday. These assemblies run 20-30 minutes in duration and focus on bullying as well as a variety of developmentally appropriate topics for each grade level. Officer Diane Brand does a wonderful job working with the individual grade levels.

Our 4^th and 5^th grade orchestra and chorus concert is next Monday night at the high school. The concert begins at 7:00 p.m.

Holiday parties will be held in the classrooms on Thursday, December 19^th at 2:15. Only those parents who have been designated as helpers by the room parents should be in the classrooms. It is very important in the peanut-free rooms that all treats are store-bought and contain a label that can be checked by our teachers and/or our school nurse.

Thank you to all of you that came out for our Math Night last Thursday during this busy month. We had a great turnout and received a lot of positive feedback. The draft parent guides that were handed out can be accessed here for grade 3, here for grade 4, and here for grade 5. There are also links to these guides found on the West Genesee homepage in the parent resource section. As soon as I have K-2 completed I will let you know!

Our math words of the day for this week are cubed or cubed number (M), exponent (T), sort (W), classify (Th), and greatest (F).

Have a great week!

- Lisa

Happy December!

I hope you were all able to enjoy a nice Thanksgiving holiday with your family. With the exception of a minor mishap with one of our turkeys, I think it was one of our best family Thanksgivings on record. (I’m sure the smoke smell will dissipate soon and those turkey stains on the ceiling are nothing that a little ceiling paint won’t take care of!)

In case you happened to buy an extra turkey because you just couldn’t resist the 48¢ per pound sale, here are some different ways to cook the turkey, according to kindergarteners in Mrs. Augello’s class:

First you take the turkey out of the fridge and put lots of salt and pepper on it. Then you put the stuffing into the turkey. Turn on the oven to 5 degrees and cook the turkey quickly!

First you run and chase the turkey and when you catch it, you put it on the stove for 5 hours. Next put stuffing in it and serve it to grandma and papa and your family.

First you go to the store like Target and buy a turkey and bring it to Uncle Tim’s house to cook it. Next, put it in the oven for 10 minutes to make it soft. Finally, it’s time for dinner!

According to the kindergarteners, turkeys are to be cooked anywhere between five minutes and twenty hours, and don’t forget to put sprinkles on top!

I hope you are able to join us at our math night this Thursday night. As I indicated previously, the purpose of this night is to give you information, resources, and strategies to better help your child at home with math. It is not a night to discuss the pros and cons of the Common Core. Parents of students in grades K-2 will meet in the library for a presentation by Michele Gipe, our district math coach, and me, from 6:00 – 6:30. Those parents will then go to different classrooms for break-out sessions from 6:30 – 7:00. Then, from 6:30 – 7:00, parents of students in grades 3-5 will meet in the library with me and Michele, and will attend the break-out sessions by grade level from 7:00 – 7:30. This night is for parents only. If you have any questions about this night, please let me know.

I also hope you are able to join us at tonight’s PTA meeting. It starts at 6:30 and is held in the library.

The math words for the week are remainder (M), more (T), fewer (W), mental math (Th), and squared or square number (F). Have a great first week of December!

- Lisa