Season's Greetings!

Yesterday we had our second round of CODE assemblies presented by Officer Brand. Students learned about a variety of topics, ranging from self-esteem, to peer pressure, to internet safety. Please ask your child what they learned in the assembly.

I hope you were able to come out and enjoy East Hill’s 4^th and 5^th grade concert at the high school last night. They did such a nice job! Thank you to Mrs. Mercer and Mrs. Causer for doing such a great job preparing them in such a short time! All of the students in the school were able to watch the performance that they gave at the school during the day. The students are learning to be a good concert audience.

Today the fourth grade classes, with the help of their teachers and Mrs. Causer, presented this month’s character education trait, which is Compassion and Caring. They made up their own lyrics to Alicia Key's song, "We Are Here." It was very moving. 

Speaking of compassion and caring, thank you to everyone who participated in the PTA’s giving tree this year. Because of your generosity, the holidays will be much happier for six of our local families. Yesterday, members of the 174th Fighter Wing came to retrieve the Salvation Army Food Drive barrels that were overflowing. Thank you to everyone who donated to this great cause as well!

This Thursday we will hold holiday parties in the classrooms at 2:15. Please remember that younger siblings should be kept at home, and only those parents who have been contacted previously by the room parent should be in attendance. As a reminder, in classrooms where there are food allergies, all food items must be store-bought and contain a label that can be checked by our school nurse.

On a side note, our students and families seemed to have grown accustomed to the fact that we no longer celebrate birthdays with food. We really appreciate your cooperation with this. Students love getting books and wishes made by their classmates, and they also love the surprises that the birthday child sometimes brings in, whether it be pencils, tattoos, stickers, or even, as shown in the picture below, moustaches for the entire class!

Enjoy the time off with your family and friends, and I’ll be back in touch next year!

- Lisa

Fit Friday Returns!

Fit Friday has returned to East Hill thanks to our fifth grade student council. Two student council representatives take turns coming up with a fitness routine each week that they share with the rest of the student council representatives. Then, on Friday morning immediately following the announcements, one representative leads each of the classes in a quick routine. As you can see from the pictures below, it's a lot of fun for both the student council representatives as well as the rest of the students.

It’s been another busy week at East Hill. The kindergarteners loved going to see the Nutcracker last Friday. They were fortunate to have one of the teachers from the production come talk about it and read the book to the whole kindergarten class before they went so they had a better sense of what was happening. The first grade classes are enjoying their trips to Hospital Land. Mrs. Deegan's class will be rescheduling their field trip to Hospital Land. 

The Merry-Go-Round Youth Theatre was here last Friday presenting, “There Once Was a Longhouse” to our fourth graders. We have been so impressed by this theatrical group this year. This presentation was interactive as it allowed the students to actively participate in a simulation of life in an Iroquois village.

This Thursday we will have another round of CODE assemblies presented by Officer Brand. Please ask your child what they learn that day.

As a reminder, yearbooks are now on sale. You can order online at ybpay.lifetouch.com (ID Code: 10705615) or get another order form from the school. The deadline is Friday, December 19^th.

Don’t forget to come out for our 4^th & 5^th grade concert next Monday night at the High School. The concert starts at 7:00 p.m.

Enjoy the rest of the week!

-          Lisa

'Tis the Season!

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving with their family and friends. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, hosting 16 people and 6 dogs! It was a lot of fun. Shown below is a picture and explanation of how one of our kindergarteners would cook a Thanksgiving turkey.

The text reads: First, go hunting and get a turkey. Then, cut up the turkey and put barbecue sauce on it. Then, put it in the oven on high speed for a couple of minutes. Finally, take out and put on a dish, put pepper on the turkey. Eat with a fork, knife, and spoon. Happy Thanksgiving!

One of East Hill’s 1^st grade Girl Scout Troops donated a whole Thanksgiving meal to one of our families. This was a great project for them, and very much appreciated by the family. They each brought in an item or two to donate and helped to decorate the box in which all of the supplies were delivered.

The Salvation Army barrels are near capacity. They will still be out in our lobby for another week or so. Thank you to everyone who has donated to this cause so far. Items on the food drive wish list include canned beans, canned fruit, canned meat, canned vegetables, canned soup, jelly, milk (dry or canned), and tuna fish.

The PTA put up their annual Giving Tree in the lobby. Information was sent home yesterday with your child. The tree is decorated with gift tags for the families that the PTA is adopting this year. I am always amazed at the generosity shown by our East Hill community to those that may be more in need at this time of the year.

Please mark your calendars: Our kindergarteners are headed to see the Nutcracker this Friday. Next week our first graders will be visiting Hospital Land. Our 4^th and 5^th grade concert will be held on Monday, December 15^th at 7:00 at the high school. Holiday parties will be held on Thursday, December 18^th at 2:15. There is no PTA meeting this month. The two-week holiday break begins on Monday, December 22^nd.  Let the festivities begin!

Enjoy the week!

- Lisa

Thankfulness

At East Hill it’s easy to be reminded of all of the things for which we have to be thankful. Last week Mrs. Causer, along with the third grade chorus, presented this month’s character education trait which is thankfulness. The students talked about what they were thankful for, and sang a song about thankfulness. Every student in the building is contributing to a mural that shows what they are thankful for.

I am thankful that I get to work with such great students and families. I’m also thankful that I get to work with such a wonderful staff each and every day, many of whom gave up their time to present at last night’s Parent Math Night. Thank you to everyone who attended. We hope you found the night to be informative and worthwhile. For those of you that were unable to attend, there are many resources available on our website for parents.

Our first ever 5^th grade Student Council is up and running. Students will begin by leading “Fit Fridays” in each of the classrooms starting in December. They have met and brainstormed a lot of ideas for making our school and community a better place this year.

Please remember that next Monday and Tuesday are half-days for parent conferences. Students will be dismissed at 11:30. Enjoy your Thanksgiving!

- Lisa

Happy November!

October certainly ended on a high note for all of us here at East Hill. We were so happy that the weather held out for our annual Halloween parade. We had a great turnout! Thank you to everyone who was able to come out and view the parade, and thank you to the room parents for putting on such great parties in the classrooms.

Mrs. Tynan had another guest in her classroom to teach her students about bones last week. Thank you to Mrs. Walsh for coming in to share her expertise. Mrs. Tynan’s students are going to be experts on the skeletal system!

The deadline for ordering Spirit Wear is this Friday (November 7th.) If you want to see how the sizes run, we have plenty of samples in the main office for you to check out.

Congratulations to the following students who will be representing East Hill in today's District Spelling Bee at Camillus Middle School: Nicolo Benenati, Anita Edgar, Canaan Edwards, Eva Murphy, and Jack Parrott. Good luck!

Pictured: Nicolo Benenati, Jack Parrott, Eva Murphy, and Anita Edgar. Missing: Canaan Edwards.

The PTA needs your help! Do you have a hobby or interest that you would love to share with our students? If so, East Hill's annual Enrichment Day is for you! This is a fun morning sponsored by the PTA. It is designed and taught by volunteers who give their time to help our kids to explore a wide variety of interests and hobbies. Past classes have included classes such as No Sew blankets, arts and crafts, jewelry making, karate, gardening, science fun and scrapbooking. This year they are looking to add even more awesome classes, so if you can contribute 3 hours on Saturday, January 31st to share a talent or hobby, it would be greatly appreciated!  They also need volunteers to assist in each class, so if that works for you that is helpful as well. This is open to junior volunteers as well (great opportunity to earn community service hours for teens!) If you are interested or just need more information, contact Bernadette Irving at birv89@yahoo.com or 263-8149.

The Salvation Army has begun their food drive at East Hill. Items on their wish list include: tuna fish, canned beans, canned fruit, canned meat, canned vegetables, canned soup, dry or canned soup, and jelly. No glass containers, please. There will be large bins out in the lobby where students can deposit their donations. The food drive will end on Thursday, December 4th, 

Please mark your calendars:  Picture retakes and group photos are this Friday. I will be holding a parent volunteer orientation session on Monday, November 10^th at 9:30 in the library. This session is for all parents who volunteer in our school on a regular basis. School is closed on Tuesday, November 11^th in observance of Veterans Day. On Monday, November 17^th we will be hosting a Parent Math Night from 6:30 - 7:30. Monday and Tuesday, November 24^th and 25^th are half days for the purposes of parent conferences. Dismissal will be at 11:30. If you have forgotten the time/day of your conference, please contact your child’s teacher.

Sounds like November will be just as busy as October, but it’s all good! Have a great rest of the week!

- Lisa

Do You Believe in Magic?

The magic continued this past week at East Hill with our two-week Parents as Reading Partners Reading Celebration. We were fortunate to welcome so many guest readers into our classroom thanks to our wonderful PTA who coordinated it all.

Dr. Brown reads "Scaredy Squirrel" to Mrs. Butkowski's Class

Students continued to Drop Everything and Read every day and were able to visit the Scholastic Book Fair last week.

Our reading celebration concluded on Friday with a visit from Jeff the Magic Man. Thanks again to the PTA for the funding, and thank you to Janet McDonald for finding him. Kids loved him!

Jeff the Magic Man with Kash Preble assisting.

In addition to guest readers, Mrs. Tynan’s class had a guest visitor in their classroom last week to talk about the skeletal system, which they had been studying in class. Thank you to Mr. Rufa for coming to visit and for bringing in the skeleton and all of those cool bones for the students to explore!

Speaking of skeletons, our Halloween parade and parties will take place this Friday. Please send your child’s costume to school in a bag. Students may not come to school in costume or wearing make-up. All scary, violent, bloody masks, weapons, spears or other dangerous accessories are not appropriate for school and must remain at home. Our youngest students can be frightened easily, and we want them to have a positive experience.

Weather permitting, the parade will be held in front of the school so we will not be allowing cars to park on the bus loop. If we need to hold the parade inside, we will have parents line the hallway by the library and/or view the parade from inside the gym. The parade will begin at 2:00.

Halloween parties will be held in the classrooms after the parade. Only adults who are already designated helpers will be permitted into the classrooms during the parties, and those helpers must sign in at the main office and wear a visible visitor’s badge. Helpers are asked not to bring younger children. We ask that all helpers (and all adults coming to view the parade) not wear masks so that you can be easily identified. Thank you for your cooperation in all things Halloween!

Lastly, as mentioned last week, the High School’s R² Committee is holding a Halloween Carnival on Thursday night. Click on this link to access the flyer about the event: http://www.westgenesee.org/PDFs/WGHS/R2%20Halloween%20Carnival.pdf

Although our two-week reading celebration has come to an end, please continue to read to, read with, and encourage your children to read, as reading truly is magic!

- Lisa

Reading is Magic!

It’s been a magical week at East Hill. Students are really enjoying our two-week PARP/Reading Celebration. Each classroom has been treated to a variety of guest readers. Thank you to all of the readers who have come in thus far and to the PTA for coordinating it!

Mrs. Benenati reads to students in Mrs. Wangsness' room.

Last Wednesday was Pajama Day which was a big hit for the students, no matter their age! This coming Friday is School Spirit Day so students should wear their blue and gold. Also this week is the Scholastic Book Fair which takes place Tuesday through Thursday, with a Family Night scheduled for Wednesday from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.

Ella and Elle showing off their PJs!

5th Graders from Mr. Meaney's class happy to show off their pajamas as well!

Also during the two-week celebration we have DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) time daily. No matter where the students are in the building, when they hear “Oh, Oh, Oh it’s Magic” over the PA (the Selena Gomez version, not the ELO version that most of us are more familiar with), they drop what they are doing and read. 

Cameron seems right at home with his book.

Samantha and Sean, second graders in Mrs. Thome's class, enjoying their books.

Teachers and students are looking forward to “Teacher Switch and Read” day which takes place tomorrow. Our two-week celebration will conclude this Friday with an assembly led by a special guest. Students will then return to their room for their “PARP”sicles before heading home at 11:30.

Our CODE assemblies began last Thursday at East Hill. CODE stands for Community Oriented Drug Education. Officer Diane Brand presents grade-appropriate topics to each of the different grade levels for about 20-30 minutes. These presentations include topics such as personal safety, bullying prevention, and drug awareness, just to name a few. She helps us reinforce our school rules which are 1) We will not bully others; 2) We will try to help students who are bullied; 3) We will try to include students who are left out; and 4) If we know that somebody is being bullied, we will tell an adult at school and an adult at home.

Officer Brand presenting to our 5th graders.

The high school’s R² committee is putting on a Halloween Carnival on Thursday, October 30th from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. at the high school. It sounds like a lot of fun. A flyer for the event is attached.

Next Friday, October 31st, our Halloween Parade will begin at 2:00 with parties immediately following. In planning ahead for your child’s costume, please make sure they choose something appropriate as we don’t want to scare our younger students. No costumes with any sort of weapons will be allowed. Only those parents who have signed up and have been contacted to help in the rooms during the parties will be allowed down the hallways and in the classrooms. If you will be helping out in the classrooms it will be necessary to leave younger siblings at home and sign in at the office. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

Lastly, our new dismissal procedure seems to be going well. We will probably make a few more changes before we get it to where we want it to be, but we appreciate your help. Please make sure we either have a note on file in the office if you are picking up your child, or send one in on the morning you plan to pick up your child.

Have a good rest of the week!

- Lisa

Another Great Week at East Hill!

As you can see by the pictures below, the past week has been great at East Hill. We had our monthly character education assembly presented by our fifth graders, a visit from the Camillus Fire Department to talk about fire safety with our first graders, another production from the Merry-Go-Round Youth Theatre for our fifth graders, and our two-week Reading Celebration was kicked off today.

The character education trait of the month is Respect. The fifth graders acted out the book Hey, Little Ant by Phillip and Hannah Hoose. They also talked about different ways students can demonstrate respect.

Jordan Davie, a firefighter and EMT from the Camillus Fire Department spent an hour with each of our first grade classrooms discussing fire safety. He reviewed what students should do if there is a fire in their home, and what they shouldn’t do. He reinforced the importance of all families having a safe spot where they should go to in the event of a fire, like the mailbox, and an escape plan. He suited up in full gear so that students would know what a full-dressed fire-fighter would look like if one needed to come into their home. He even put on his oxygen mask so students could hear his Darth Vader talk.

The Merry-Go-Round Youth Theatre presented “Emelia and the Heart of the Amazon” to the fifth graders. The Merry-Go-Round actors spend the first 30 minutes of their time here in the individual classrooms preparing students for the production. The message of this particular play was that everyone has to play a part in protecting the environment.

Today was the kick-off for our two-week reading celebration. Miss Stevens wrote the story, "Timmy Finds the Magic" and Mrs. Wolbert, Mr. Meaney, Mrs. Bush, Mrs. Deegan, Mrs. Procopio and Mrs. Tuttle acted it out. The students loved it. Please encourage your child to read every day for at least fifteen minutes, not just during this two-week reading celebration.

Please remember that our new dismissal procedures start today. The doors will be open at 3:05 and all students being picked up will be called down at 3:15 with a blanket announcement, “All students being picked up are now dismissed.” Please depart the building as soon as you meet up with your child to help clear the lobby. Please be here by 3:15 to pick up your child, and make sure we have a note in advance. As explained before, one note will suffice for the year if the days remain the same, but if you randomly pick up your child, we will need a note that morning. Thank you for your cooperation. The intent is to ensure that we are taking every possible precaution to  keep our students safe. Lastly, please remember that Friday, October 24th is a half-day. Dismissal is at 11:30.

Enjoy the rest of the week!

- Lisa

An Exciting Week Ahead!

The 5^th grade class is in charge of this week’s character education assembly that they will present to us on Wednesday afternoon. We have incorporated a school song into our assemblies this year which students have been learning in music and everyone seems to enjoy. The Merry-Go-Round Youth Theatre will be here again this Thursday, this time to present to our fifth graders. Last week they presented A Happy Circus to our kindergarteners.

Third graders in Mrs. Tuttle's room worked on their pumpkin globes again this year. Thank you to Mrs. Glass for coming in to help.

Izzy and Dublin working together

Liam really enjoys this project!

This week is Fire Prevention Week. We are looking forward to having the Camillus Fire Department visit our first graders on Thursday and Friday to talk about fire safety.

Speaking of safety, it has become important for us to tighten up and review our dismissal procedures. Thank you for your support and for following these procedures to keep our children safe in school. Effective Tuesday, October 14th:

School doors will be locked during the day from 9:10 to 3:05. Parents are asked to arrive at school no earlier than 3:05 (3:10 is preferable) to begin signing students out at the table in the lobby. Once you have signed your child out please wait quietly in the main lobby. Do not wander down the hallways.

Children being picked up will be dismissed from their classrooms at 3:15. We will not call students individually as we have done in the past. We will make one announcement that states, “All students being picked up are now dismissed.” It will therefore be very important that your child knows ahead of time if you are or are not picking him/her up. If you pick your child up every day, please send in a note indicating that you will be doing so. That note will suffice for the year. If you have sent in that note, and will be unable to pick up your child on a certain day, please send in a note to let us know. For those of you that pick up your child once in a while, please send in a note only on those days.

Once dismissed, students will come to the lobby to meet up with the person that has signed them out. Please depart promptly at that time to alleviate congestion in the lobby.  Help us to keep your children safe by clearing the main entrance so that students being dismissed to the buses are not walking through and among the adults in the main doorway.

Please remember that all transportation changes must be made in writing. Last minute phone calls and emails only add confusion to the office and our young students and often result in students getting upset and sometimes missing the bus or their ride.

Finally, all visitors at any other time during the school day must stop at the Main Office and sign in for a Visitor’s Badge.

Once again, thank you for your help while we take all precautions to keep your children safe at school. Please call me if you have any questions. One last note – please remember that Friday, October 24^th is a half-day. Dismissal will be at 11:30.

Enjoy the rest of the week!

- Lisa

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Smile!

We have a lot of reasons to smile at East Hill. First of all, picture day is tomorrow, Wednesday, October 1^st. Picture make-ups, retakes, and group photos will take place on Friday, November 7^th. Speaking of pictures, if you are willing to share any of the pictures that you take of school events throughout the school year with us for the yearbook, please refer to the October edition of the PTA newsletter, which will be out shortly, for more information.

We had a great reason to smile this past Friday. The weather was absolutely beautiful for the PTA’s annual jogathon. The students had a great time, as did the parents and staff. The jogathon is the PTA’s sole fundraiser and as such they are continuing to accept donations in an effort to reach their goal. Thank you for your support!

Also on Friday the Merry-Go-Round Youth Theatre performed “Just So Stories” for our second graders. They acted out three of Rudyard Kipling’s classic tales. They had students make predictions, relate the story to their own personal experiences, and discussed different genres. The students enjoyed the production a great deal. We are fortunate that the Merry-Go-Round Theatre will be able to come out this year to present to each of the different grade levels.

The next PTA meeting will be held on Monday night, October 6^th,  at 6:30 in the East Hill Library. Hope to see you there!

Have a great week!

 Lisa