Happy February!

Enrichment Day was another huge success thanks to the efforts of our PTA and the many volunteers that came out on Saturday morning to work with our students. Thank you to Bernadette Irving and Carrie Grooms, co-coordinators of the event, for making sure everything ran smoothly. Pictured below are just some of the activities that took place on Saturday.

Have Fun with Painting 

Kids in the Kitchen

Karate

Scrapbooking

Lego Robotics

Exploring our Underwater World

Small Project Woodworking

Cake Decorating

Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

Stained Glass

As I mentioned in last week's blog, our Shared Decision Making Committee designed a multiple choice survey for parents. Thank you to those of you who have already taken this survey. For those of you who have not, we value your input. Please click on this link to access the survey.

This Tuesday students will come home with information about our 2nd annual Education Fair which will be held on March 15, 2016. Students can complete a reading project or a science experiment. They can work solo, with their siblings, or with a friend or two. Please save the date!

We are really looking forward to East Hill's Vocabulary Parade this Wednesday at 10:00. If your child is participating in the parade, please feel free to join us! It should be fun to learn more about words, such as despicable, discombobulated, flabbergasted, hypochondriac, portcullis, and many, many more!

This week's words of the day are equivalent (M), ancient (T), adverb (W), offense (Th), and honest (F).

Upcoming Dates:

• The next PTA meeting will be held February 9th.
• Winter break runs from Monday, February 15th through Friday, February 19th.
• The NYS English/Language Arts assessments for grades 3-5 will be April 5th - 7th and the Mathematics assessments, also for grades 3-5, will be held April 13th - 15th. Please try to avoid scheduling appointments on these days if at all possible. There have been some changes to the testing, including a different vendor, greater involvement of teachers in the test development process, fewer numbers of passages and test questions, and a shift to untimed testing.

If you are on twitter, you can follow me @lisadcraig. Have a great week!

- Lisa

Continuous (as in ongoing) Improvement (as in refinement)

At East Hill, continuous improvement is our goal. To that end, our Shared Decision Making Committee has designed a multiple choice survey for parents. We would appreciate your input. To access this survey, simply click on this link. Thank you in advance for your time and feedback. The results will be used to guide our future planning.

Our Vocabulary Parade is shaping up to be a big success! We have 40 words that will be showcased on February 3, 2016 at 10:00. If your child is in the parade, please feel free to join us! We will be practicing this Wednesday afternoon. Costumes do not need to be ready by Wednesday, but students should be prepared to read their word descriptions.

Students in Mrs. Tynan's room explore vocabulary words.

"Dialogue with the Superintendent" has been moved to tomorrow night, Tuesday, January 26, 2016, at 7:00 p.m. in the WGHS LGI. This is a great opportunity to ask questions of Dr. Brown and hear about the state of the District. I am looking forward to Enrichment Day which will be held this Saturday from 9:00 - 11:30. Thank you to the volunteers who make this day possible.

Last Friday our January character education assembly was held. Mrs. McConnell's flute players and Mrs. Mercer's violin players taught the school about perseverance, which is January's trait.

This week's words of the day are: denominator (M), compromise (T), advantage (W), melody (Th) and afraid (F).

Please remember that Friday is a half day. Students who are being picked up will be dismissed at 11:20. Buses will be dismissed at 11:30.

One last reminder: If you drop your child off in the morning, please remember that they cannot enter the building prior to 9:00 unless they are having breakfast. This is in the interests of safety as there is no supervision for students until 9:00, and it is too cold for them to have to stand outside. I appreciation your cooperation in this matter.

Have a great rest of the week!

- Lisa

Construction Begins!

Exciting changes are happening at East Hill! As many of you have seen, the playground was taken down in December. The new one will be up in the spring. The gazebo has also been removed as well as a couple of large trees.The gazebo and trees were removed to make room for the new library and new classroom. A storage trailer has been placed at the rear of the faculty parking lot to store items during the capital project renovation. If things go as planned, and they have thus far, we should have a new library by the time school starts next fall and should be able to use the new cafeteria by November!

Changes are happening inside the building as well, most of which we can't see. Workers are completing electrical, heating, air conditioning and plumbing work in the basement during the day. Because work will soon begin on the new classroom and new library, Mrs. Wangsness' classroom will move to the computer lab this week. All of the computers were moved to the library over the holiday break where Mrs. Holzwarth is putting them to good use. It's hard to believe it's finally happening!

As a reminder, the PTA meeting has been moved to tomorrow night, Wednesday, January 13, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. in the WGHS LGI. Immediately following the meeting, Dr. Brown will have his annual, "Dialogue with the Superintendent" at 7:00. This is a great opportunity to hear from Dr. Brown and ask him questions about the state of the district.

As I mentioned in my blog last week, students in grades 2-5 are invited to take part in the vocabulary parade that will take place the first week in February. Students were given information about the parade to take home. They were asked to pick a partner, choose three possible words, and hand in their application by tomorrow. Please encourage your child to do this, it should be a lot of fun!

Olivia "parades" metacognition. 

This week's words of the day are numerator (M), voice (T), fiction (W), revolution (Th), and surprised (F).

Have a great rest of the week!

- Lisa

Happy New Year!

I hope you were all able to enjoy some quality time with family and friends over the holiday break and are ready to face the new year!

While the last week in December was only three days long, we certainly kept busy at East Hill. In the pictures below, you will see parent Jon Glass teaching our fourth graders coding using Scratch. They loved it!

In the library, students were challenged to build straw towers working in groups. Each grade level had a different challenge. In the picture below, third graders had to build a free-standing tower that would hold a lacrosse ball for five seconds. Some groups did it!

Parents also challenged students during the classroom parties. In the picture below, third graders are shown trying to see who could come up with the best toilet paper snowman!

The weather was so nice that our physical education teacher, Molly O'Keefe, and our music teacher, Leah Causer, paired up to take students carolling around the neighborhood and around the school.

Also in December second graders in Mrs. Thome's class worked on research projects with Mrs. Menges who volunteered her time to work with the students. They not only learned how to do research, they also learned how to present their research to their class.

On the last day before the holiday break, our Student Council put on a "Vocabulary Parade" for the rest of the school. They worked in pairs to highlight a vocabulary word of their choosing. While one student "paraded" the word, the other student talked about the word - the word's meaning, part of speech, synonyms, antonyms, etc. In the picture below Ella showcases brainstorming while Kevin highlights onomatopoeia. Many East Hill students will be given the opportunity to participate in a similar parade at the beginning of February. Stay tuned for more information!

Speaking of vocabulary words, the words for this week are fraction (M), research (T), community (W), rotation (Th), and perseverance (F.)

Our next PTA meeting will be held Wednesday, January 13, 2016 in the WGHS LGI at 6:00 p.m. We will meet prior to Dr. Brown's "Talk with the Superintendent." I hope to see you there!

Have a great rest of the week!

- Lisa

Happy Holidays!

Oh the weather outside is, well, unbelievable! It’s hard to believe it’s the middle of December.

Yesterday our second and fourth graders were treated to a planetarium show from the OCM BOCES Science Center. Our second graders saw the “Day and Night” program while our fourth graders learned more about moon phases. If you have a second or fourth grader, make sure you ask them what they learned!

This is an exciting time of year for many families, and a stressful time of year for others. Thank you again to everyone who helped out many of our local families these past few weeks. Thank you also for your contributions to the Salvation Army Food Drive. We continue to accept donations of canned goods until next Tuesday. 

Two years ago I came across this column in the On Board journal put out by NYSSBA, the New York State School Boards Association. I meant to include it in my blog last year but forgot. It was written by Thomas Perillo, superintendent of the Greater Amsterdam School District. He begins the article by explaining that some of the gifts we can give the children in our lives will last longer than trendy boot's or this year's latest toy; they don't have to cost a penny. Here is an abbreviated version of the column:

10 Gifts to Give a Child This Holiday Season

1.       Gift #1 – A love of reading. Reading is one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to spend time with your children that will promote literacy and help them do better in school.

2.       Gift #2 – A desire to learn. Being excited about learning is different from studying to earn a grade or please teachers and parents. Passion for learning begins at home.

3.       Gift #3 – A chance to learn something new. Kids need opportunities to experience new things so they can find out what they enjoy, what they are good at and what inspires them.

4.       Gift #4 – A challenge to do well in school. Children who do well in school have more opportunities available to them – whether it’s a better paying job, a chance to continue their education or simply enhanced self-esteem that helps them believe they can achieve any goal they set.

5.       Gift #5 – Acknowledgement of their individuality. Children have different personalities, possess different strengths, develop differently and require different kinds of support to meet their individual needs.

6.       Gift #6 – Involvement in their education. Research shows that when families are involved in their children’s education, children earn higher grades and receive higher scores on tests, attend school more regularly, complete more homework, demonstrate attitudes and behaviors that are more positive, graduate from high school at higher rates, and are more likely to enroll in higher education than students with less involved families.

7.       Gift #7 – Encouragement. There is a saying that, “A child needs encouragement like a plant needs water.” Encouragement helps a child grow and flourish.

8.       Gift #8 – Affirmation. Children need for us to be supportive, but they also need us to tell them we care about and value them. They need to hear that we love them – no matter what.

9.       Gift #9 – Laughter. Laughter is one way to connect as a family. Share jokes, play games or watch a movie together. Laughter also makes us feel good, and who doesn’t want to feel good?

10.   Gift #10 – One-on-one time. Time is not something you can wrap in a box or put a bow on. It’s not something you can get back or take back. But the value of time spent with a child is immeasurable.

This week’s words of the day are dividend (M), synonym (T), antonym (W), pedestrian (Th), and comfortable (F). Next week’s words are equation (M), infer (T), and predict (W).

Holiday parties will take place next Tuesday at 2:15. There will be a full day of school on Wednesday.

I hope you have a safe and happy holiday and a Happy New Year!

-          Lisa

Compassion and Caring

Compassion and Caring are the character education traits for the month of December. East Hill students and families have shown compassion and caring in many ways these past couple of weeks. Thank you to everyone who took a tag off of the Community Giving Tree and purchased a gift for a family in need. Thank you also to those of you who are helping to fill the Salvation Army barrels.

Earlier this week the Camillus Elk's Lodge brought our third graders dictionaries. This is just one of the ways our local Elks demonstrate compassion and caring for our community.

Mr. & Mrs. Chesneski from the Camillus Elk's Lodge bring
dictionaries to East Hill third graders. 

This morning the fifth grade class taught the school about compassion and caring. They acted out the story, "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein and talked about different ways they show compassion and caring as both safety patrol officers and peer partners.

Natalia and Chris act out "The Giving Tree." 

Students are learning to sign the school song. 

This past Monday our fourth and fifth graders put on a fantastic concert for the school during the day, and for their families at night. I think this winter concert was one of the best I've ever heard.

The fifth grade orchestra performs for East Hill.

The fifth grade band warming up.

Kayla and Emily singing their duet. 

This week's words of the day are divisor (M), summary (T), tradition (W), properties (Th), and considerate (F).

Have a great day!

- Lisa

Happy December!

I hope everyone enjoyed spending time with family over the Thanksgiving break. Thanks to the generosity of the East Hill community, we were able to provide Thanksgiving dinners to eleven very appreciative East Hill families. The fifth grade Student Council enjoyed working on this project in conjunction with our PTA.

We are continuing our canned food drive for the Salvation Army for the next two weeks. There are two big barrels in the lobby in which students can deposit canned goods, such as beans, tuna, evaporated milk, etc. Also in the lobby at this time you will find the PTA’s Community Giving Tree. Information was sent home with your child about Community Giving. If you are interested in helping to make the holiday a little easier for one of our local families, you can take a tag off of the tree and purchase the item listed on the tag. The PTA asks that the gifts are returned, wrapped, by December 8. The tag should be securely fastened to the gift. I am always amazed each year at how quickly the tags disappear as people are always so willing to help others in need.

In addition to the PTA’s Community Giving project this year, the Skaneateles Middle School Student Council is adopting two of our families and purchasing gifts for them. They are doing this courtesy of Todd’s Fund. According to the Todd’s Fund website, Christopher Todd Pitman grew up in Skaneateles. As a child, Todd’s warmth and radiance was coupled with a desire to succeed in every aspect of life. He was an ambitious hockey player, a gifted student, a steadfast friend and a loving brother and son.  On September 11, 2001, at the age of 30, Todd was at his desk in the World Trade Center and was unable to make it out of the building. In 2002, family and friends joined together to create an everlasting memory of Todd’s generosity and love of life.  The mission of Todd’s Fund is to provide hope and relief to children in need. We appreciate them thinking of East Hill at this time of year!

As many of you have seen, a fence has been erected around the old playground. It will be taken down soon. Ms. O’Keefe has taught the students many different group games they can play during recess, has put together a bucket of recess supplies for each wing, and has formed an area where students can walk or run laps. So, even without a playground, students will have plenty of chances to get in their fun and exercise.

Mark your calendar! East Hill’s fourth and fifth grade concert will be held at 7:00 p.m. December 8, 2015 at the High School. There will not be a PTA meeting this month. Holiday parties will be held on Tuesday, 12/21 at 2:15. We will have a full day of school on 12/23.

Fifth Grade Band Rehearsal

This week’s Words of the Day are quotient (M), symbol (T), compare (W), contrast (Th), and compassionate (F).

Have a great rest of the week!

-         -  Lisa