Enrichment Day a Success

Enrichment Day

Our PTA's annual Enrichment Day was another huge success this year! Many thanks go out to co-coordinators Carrie Grooms and Becky Tully for all of their hard work and organization behind the scenes, to all of the volunteers who offered their time and talents to work with our students, and to our community partners, including Home Depot, Dunkin Donuts, and Cam's Pizzeria, who donated supplies and materials. Over 180 students came to take part in the event and they all left with a smile on their face as well as a new skill. Students were able to enjoy two different hour-long classes ranging from cupcake decorating to kickboxing. Shown below are just some of the classes that were offered:

Scrapbooking 

Kickboxing

Ready, Set, Grow

Fleece Tug Dog Toy 

Kids in the Kitchen 

Hip Hop

Karate

Tie-Dye

Everyday Art

Lego Robotics

Wildcat Totes

Coding

Woodworking

Catapulting

Cupcake Decorating

Stained Glass

Basketball

Mark your calendars!
I know it's not quite February but we have a couple of events coming up in the not too distant future that you might want to jot down on your calendar now.

East Hill's annual Education Fair will be held on Tuesday, March 21st from 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. Again this year, students will be able to complete either a reading project or a science experiment. Look for information to be coming home soon about this exciting night!

An Evening with Dr. Aaron Gleason, PhD, will be held on April 11th, 6:30 - 8:00. Do you worry about how much your child worries? Does your child have trouble sleeping? Does your child have stomachaches, headaches, or other unexplained ailments that interfere with his/her daily functioning? If so, then this night is for you! Dr. Gleason is a clinical psychologist and will be at East Hill to talk with parents about why children worry and what can be done about it. If you are interested in attending this presentation, please fill out this short questionnaire. More information will be sent out about this important evening in March.

Words of the Day
This week's words of the day are transparent (T,3), severe (W,K), extinct (Th, 1, and suffrage (F, 2). Next week's words of the day are ferocious (M,3), reluctantly (T, 3 & 5), frigid (W, K), destructive (Th, 1), and boycott (F, 2).

Enjoy the rest of the week!

- Lisa

Happy New Year!

New Year’s Resolutions

I hope that 2017 is off to a good start for you and your family. The students quickly got into the swing of things here at East Hill.  Many of our students and staff have reflected on the first half of the year and have set goals that we all hope to accomplish during the remainder of this school year.

Mrs. Wolbert's class sporting their 2017 glasses

Goals for 2017 written in Mrs. Tuttle's classroom

Faculty and staff resolutions

What is Collective Responsibility?

At East Hill Elementary School, we are committed to high levels of learning for every student. We call this commitment: “collective responsibility.” This means that we will do whatever it takes for all of our learners to be successful. Because every learner is different we respond in different ways for different learners. We know that not all students learn the same way or at the same speed. Our collective responsibility model helps us to ensure that every child receives the additional time and support needed to learn at high levels. Some students require interventions or additional practice to meet essential learning targets. In other cases, students who have already met the essential learning targets need to be challenged with additional opportunities. Whatever the case, we strive to provide students with what they need as soon as they need it. Or, to look at it from the student’s perspective, we strive to provide “What I Need, Now.” 

As part of our collective responsibility, teachers meet weekly during their planning time to analyze student work in order to identify needs. We take an “all hands on deck” approach that involves classroom teachers, instructional specialists, special education teachers, and teaching assistants. Each grade-level has a block of time during the day when the team provides the interventions and opportunities that each student needs – what we now call their “WINN time.” You may have heard from your child or your child’s teacher that your child sometimes receives support from a different teacher during literacy and/or math instruction. It’s part of our collective responsibility to provide “What I Need, Now.” We think it is a winning formula for student learning. 

Upcoming Dates

We have a lot of things to look forward to in January. Please mark your calendars:

1/9         PTA Meeting, 6:30, East Hill Library

1/11       Dialogue with the Superintendent, 7:00, WGHSLGI

1/16       No School, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

1/28       East Hill Enrichment Day

1/30       No School, Teacher Workshop Day

In addition to the above we will have a visit from the Merry-Go-Round Theater for our third through fifth graders tomorrow, a character education assembly on perseverance next Wednesday, CODE assemblies on the 17^th, and the end to the marking period on the 27^th. It will be a busy month!

Words of the Day

Our words of the day for this week are reign (T,K), atmosphere (W, 1), abolitionist (Th, 2), and vibration (F,3). Next week’s words are domestication (M, 4), ingenuity (T, 3 and 5), tattered (W, K), categorize (Th, 1), and economy (F, 2).

Take Care!

- Lisa