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

Another Great Week at East Hill!

What a week it was at East Hill! First of all, I am thrilled to report that the changes to our parking lot are complete! I will be sending home a letter, complete with a drawing, to explain the changes that have been made. As I mentioned in a previous blog, we have entered into an agreement with the Town of Camillus to let us use the ski hill parking lot for drop-off and pick-up. You can now pull right into the ski hill parking lot, alleviating the need to drive around the circle. The area between the ski hill and the entrance on Blackmore will be two-way. Because it will be two-way, there will be no parking on the circle opposite the school as we will need to be sure that vehicles can easily fit past each other in that area. Additional parking spaces have also been created for the staff in the back of the building. I appreciate your taking note of the new traffic pattern and obeying the posted signs. This new system is sure to make things safer for our children while at the same time making it easier for parents to get in and out of the school. Please let me know if you have any questions about the new traffic pattern.

Our PARP (Parents as Reading Partners) Reading Celebration concluded on Friday with a visit from Jan Reynolds. Several families attended the family night presentation on Thursday night and she entertained and educated our students with two assemblies on Friday. What an amazing person she is! She is also quite the adventurer and photographer. An order form was sent home on Friday in case you are interested in purchasing any of her books. Several students were randomly selected to have lunch with her on Friday. She really enjoyed sitting with the students and answering their questions. Thank you to our PTA for making her visit possible, and also for providing our students with bookmarks, “parp”sicles, and an abundance of guest readers over the past two weeks. Thank you also to our new librarian, Maureen Gridley, who did a super job preparing our students for her visit.

Another exciting thing that happened last week was the publishing of our first ever fifth grade newspaper, The Junior Wildcat Times. The idea for the newspaper came from Clara Soltys and Kaylei Walker (see picture below.) Students did a great job writing articles and meeting the deadlines. They can’t wait to start work on the December edition!

Parent conferences are next Monday and Tuesday, November 25^th and 26^th. Dismissal will be at 11:30 on these two days. There will not be any school Wednesday – Friday, November 27^th to 29^th.

The math words of the week are equation (M), expression (T), division (W), quotient (Th), dividend (F), divisor (next Monday), and inverse operation (next Tuesday.)

I will most likely not be sending out a blog next week as it is only a two day week. If I don’t see you between now and then, have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with your family and friends!

-          Lisa

Reading Around the World at East Hill

Our PARP (Parents as Reading Partners) Reading Celebration kicked off last Monday with an assembly that taught the school audience about several of the places that Jan Reynolds, our visiting author, has visited and explored (see pictures below.) The theme this year is Reading Around the World. We are anxious to meet Jan in person this week. She will be here Thursday night for a family night presentation at 7:00 p.m., and will meet with all of the students on Friday. Please join us on Thursday night!

Anthony, Christian, and Mrs. Tuttle showcased Africa.

Mr. Meaney and Emma highlighted South America.

Mrs. Deegan, Cameron, and Rebecca focused on Northern Europe. 

Thank you to all of the guest readers who have volunteered their time to come in to the classrooms and read. They students love having their moms, dads, big brothers, big sisters, grandmas and grandpas coming to read.

Don’t forget to get out and vote today on the capital project. The vote is held at the High School from 6:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m.

Report cards will be sent home this Friday. Please make sure you have a scheduled conference time with your child’s teacher. If you have forgotten when that time is, please contact the teacher.

The math words of the week are product (T), multiple (W), array (Th), and number sentence (F). Please make sure you have Thursday, December 5^th on your calendar for the East Hill parent math night.

Have a great week. I hope to see you either at the polls today (I’ll be working from 1:00 – 3:00) or on Thursday night at 7:00 as we welcome Jan Reynolds to East Hill!

-          Lisa

Happy November!

It was nice to have that extra hour of sleep this weekend to recover from last week’s Halloween festivities. Although the weather didn’t cooperate, we didn’t let it rain on our parade. Our students paraded throughout the classrooms in the school, down the hallways, and around the perimeter of the gym giving everyone the opportunity to see the wonderful costumes. Thank you to all of the parents who volunteered in the classrooms helping to put on costumes and providing fun parties for the students.

Our PARP (Parents as Reading Partners) two-week celebration begins today. We will have a kick-off ceremony this morning that has been planned by our Reading Celebration committee. Your child will be bringing home some information today regarding these two weeks which will feature guest readers, DEAR, an author visit, teacher switch and read day, television blackout, and more!

Work is being done in our parking lot to make arrival and dismissal safer for all of us at East Hill. We are adding roughy 10 more parking spots in the back for our staff. In addition, we have entered into an agreement with the town that will let parents park in the ski hill parking lot when they are dropping off students, picking up students, or visiting during the day. Once the paving at the ski hill is complete, there won’t be any parking on the circle opposite the school, and the area between the ski hill and the entrance on Blackmore will be two-way. I’m excited about these improvements and very thankful to the town as well as our buildings and grounds crew and district administrators for making this possible.

Speaking of drop-off and dismissal, we are noticing that more and more students are being dropped off too early to school. Please know that our school does not open until 9:00 and therefore there is no supervision for the students until 9:00. If they eat breakfast at school they are allowed to enter the building at 8:50, otherwise they need to wait outside, unsupervised. We do, however, have a YMCA before and after school program if you are interested. To get more information about the program, please call Liz Horne at 474-6851, ext. 315.

Congratulations to Andrew Bush, Ella Watts, Arianna Nguyen, Anton Kudrytski, and Abigial Ray who will be representing East Hill this Thursday in the District Spelling Bee which will be held at Camillus Middle School Thursday morning. These students received the top scores on the written test which made them eligible to participate in the bee. Good luck spellers!

This week’s math words of the day are: addend (M), sum (T), difference (W), multiplication (Th), and factor (F).

I hope you are able to join us tonight for our PTA meeting where Dr. Brown will discuss the upcoming capital project. The meeting begins at 6:30 in the library. Have a great first week of November!

Wellness Week a Hit at East Hill!

Wellness Week was a big hit at East Hill last week. The majority of the students dressed in the selected color of the day to represent different healthy fruits and vegetables. Most of our students earned a plastic toe token for walking five miles during recess over the course of the week. Several students also brought in pictures of colored fruits and vegetables that Miss O’Keefe displayed on a rainbow collage (see below.)

Students participated in DRAE every day – Drop Everything And Exercise! Students took this very seriously as you can see by the pictures of Mrs. Augello's and Mrs. Devereaux’s kindergarten students. They had such a great time!

Mrs. Augello's Class Dropping Everything and Exercising

Mrs. Devereaux's Class

You should have received a letter from me about our upcoming Halloween Parade and parties. Our parade will begin at 2:00 Thursday. If the weather allows, we will parade around the front circle a couple of times. Please do not park on the front circle on Thursday. Please remember to send your child’s costume (elementary-appropriate costume of course) in a bag, versus having them wear it to school. Only those parents who are designated as room helpers will be permitted in the classrooms during the parties. Helpers should sign in at the main office. All treats should contain a label so that they can be checked as we have many students with food allergies. Following these guidelines will help us to make the day a safe and enjoyable one for all of the students.

I’m happy to report that the momentum is still strong for our math words of the day. Students can’t wait to tell me the word when I walk in their classroom or see them in the hallways. The words for this week are fact family (M), standard form (T), expanded form (W), word form (Th), and estimate (F). Please encourage your child to talk to you about these words and tell you what they mean.

We have decided to move our math night that was tentatively scheduled for November 5^th to Thursday, December 5^th. More information will be sent out to you about this night. We will be asking you to RSVP so that we can get an idea of roughly how many people will be coming. This night will be for parents only. K-2 parents will come from 6:00 – 7:00 and 3-5 parents will come from 6:30 – 7:30. Again, more information will be sent out soon.

Please remember to mark your calendars for the November 4^th PTA meeting. Dr. Brown will be here to discuss the upcoming capital project which means a lot of important and needed changes for East Hill as well as for the rest of the district. The meeting begins at 6:30 in the East Hill library.

In my next blog I will inform you about the exciting changes that are happening to our parking lot that are sure to make arrival and dismissal much more safe for all of us.

Have a great week and a safe and enjoyable Halloween!

- Lisa

Healthy Minds and Healthy Bodies Continue at East Hill!

Last Thursday the first of our four CODE presentations were held at East Hill for every grade level. Each presentation was given by Officer Diane Brand of the Camillus Police Department. The focus of the kindergarten presentation was on Police Officers and Physical Safety. The first grade presentation was presented in conjunction with the McMahon/Ryan Advocacy Center. Being safe and growing up healthy was discussed. Second and third graders talked about bullying and bystanders. Fourth graders learned about risky behaviors and consequences, and fifth graders had an introduction to drug and alcohol addiction. Each presentation was well received. Officer Brand did a great job holding her audience captive.

This week is Wellness Week at East Hill. You should have received a packet that was sent home with your child this past Friday. The purpose of the week, organized by our physical education teacher Molly O’Keefe, is to promote healthy eating habits and exercise. Because different healthy foods are different colors, we are asking students to wear a different color each day. Monday is red day, Tuesday is orange day, Wednesday is yellow and green day, Thursday is blue and purple day, and Friday is brown, black, and white day. During recess, students will have the opportunity to walk up to five miles over the course of the week. We will have DRAE time each day for roughly three minutes – Drop Everything And Exercise! These are just some of the great activities Miss O’Keefe has planned for the students. 

A kick-off assembly was held this past Friday morning to promote the event and build up student excitement and enthusiasm for the week. A “Fear Factor” food tasting was held where student volunteers were blindfolded and tried out different fruits and vegetables, including cauliflower, dragon fruit, cactus mangoes, blackberries, pomegranates, and more. Please refer to the packet that was sent home for more information.  It should be a great week.

The Math Words of the Day for this week are as follows: minus (M), equals or equal to (T), compare (W), greater than (Th), and less than (F).  Please remember that there is an 11:30 dismissal on Friday, October 25^th, and please make sure to mark your calendar for our November PTA meeting. Dr. Brown will be here to discuss the upcoming capital project. It will be held in the East Hill library November 4^th at 6:30.

Have a great week! 

- Lisa