"I Want to Walk a Mile in Your Shoes"

Chances are that your child came home singing this catchy tune yesterday afternoon. Thanks to our wonderful PTA, we were able to bring Vitamin L here once again to perform. The Vitamin L Project is dedicated to encouraging positive character development in young people through uplifting, inspiring music. Mrs. Causer has spent the past few weeks teaching the students several of the songs. It was great to hear them sing along.

Today Mr. Kesel, our Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, taught our third graders about Newton's Laws of Motion. They love to see how he demonstrates these!

Upcoming Events: Next Monday, May 4th, Dr. Brown will present the budget at the WGHS LGI room. Our May PTA meeting will be held prior to the meeting at 6:15.

On Friday, May 8th the High School R2 Committee will be sponsoring another Community Movie Night. Click here for more details.

May 15th will be a half day for students, with dismissal at 11:30.

Have a good rest of the week!

- Lisa

Welcome Back!

I hope everyone had a nice spring break. It's hard to believe we are in the homestretch now. Our fifth graders will be graduating before we know it!

We've had some exciting happenings at East Hill recently. Our fifth grade student council concluded their Pennies for Patients campaign. They raised $3000.00 to be donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Channel 9 News came out to East Hill to do a story on the project. You can watch the news segment here. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this very worthwhile endeavor!

Several third and fourth grade students were chosen to be members of our design team that is helping to make decisions about our new playground. They met with representatives from the playground company that has been selected, Parkitect, to look over the initial designs and give their feedback. Click here to see Parkitect's rendering of the playground. The whole student body will also have a say in their new playground. They will be able to vote on the color scheme as well as choose a couple of pieces of equipment.

Our third graders have been busy over the past few weeks. In addition to helping out with the playground design, they held their spring concert for the school and their families, and were in charge of the April character education assembly which was on Citizenship.

On Tuesday through Thursday of this week our third through fifth graders will take the NYS English Language Arts Assessment. They will take the NYS Math Assessment next Wednesday through Friday. The students are well-prepared for these assessments. Please make sure your child is well-rested and well-fed. Please let me know if you have any questions about these assessments.

We could use a few more volunteers to staff the polls for the District Budget Vote on Tuesday, May 19th from 1:00 to 3:00 at the high school. Please let me know as soon as possible if you are interested. I've done it before and it's actually a lot of fun! Our April PTA meeting will be held tomorrow night (Tuesday) at 6:30 in the library. Hope you can make it!

Have a great rest of the week!

- Lisa

Education Fair a Huge Success!

Education Fair

Thank you so much to all of the families who were able to come out to our Education Fair last night. We had such a great turnout! I was so impressed with the reading and science projects that students completed. We certainly have a lot of young talent in this building! Students were also able to play math games in the classrooms with their families. Hopefully everyone learned something!

Physical Education

Physical education class has certainly changed from when I took it a few (well, maybe more than a few) years ago. Our physical education teachers, Ms. O’Keefe and Ms. Volz, have to be very flexible as we are always borrowing the gym and having them re-locate. During the Education Fair physical education was held in the art room where students played nutrition BINGO.  In the first picture below you will see students learning how to cast outdoors (ice fishing?) The last picture shows a student who has caught a fish in the gymnasium. We are fortunate to have such flexible and creative staff members!

Pennies for Patients
This Friday concludes Student Council’s three week-long project where they are raising funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. As of last Friday our school has collected over $1500.00! There is, of course, a prize for the class that collects the most money. Currently, Mrs. Deegan’s class is in first place. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this worthwhile cause.

Spirit Week

We have two days left to show our spirit this week. Tomorrow (Thursday), is crazy/bad hair day, and Friday is orange and denim day, as orange is the color that represents leukemia.

Spring Break

Spring break begins on Friday, April 3^rd. Students return to school on Monday, April 13^th.

Have a great rest of the week. Thanks for all that you do to support our efforts here at East Hill.

-          Lisa

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This morning we were treated to an Irish Dancing Assembly performed by the Johnston School of Irish Dance. Our students are captivated by this amazing group year after year. A leprechaun also surprised us during the assembly. Thank you to Mrs. Augello and our PTA for bringing them here once again!

Thank you to the PTA for a great BINGO night on March 6^th. This annual event is a favorite for our East Hill families and students. Quinn Harte was the lucky winner of the BINGO calling raffle this year – she sounded like a professional!

Student Council has kicked off their Pennies for Patients fundraiser. They are collecting coins for three weeks. Last week, which was the first week of the project, they raised over $800.00! They will be accepting donations until Friday, March 27^th. A reporter from Channel 9 News will be here that morning to talk with some of the students about the project.  Student Council decided to conclude their project with a Spirit Week next week. Monday has been designated as 80s day, Tuesday is pajama day, Wednesday is beach day, Thursday is crazy/bad hair day, and Friday is orange and denim day (orange is the official color for leukemia.) 

Zachary explains to the 1st graders about the coin collection.

Upcoming Events: This Friday is a half-day for students with dismissal at 11:30. The Education Fair will be held next Tuesday, March 24^th, from 6:30 – 7:45. Projects can be dropped off from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. on March 23rd, or on March 24th from 7:00 - 8:00 a.m. Students will be able to play math games with their families in the classrooms from 6:30 – 7:00 p.m. Projects will then be on display from 7:00 – 7:45. Projects should be taken home at the conclusion of the event. We are very excited about this event and hope you will be able to make it. Another fair, the Resource and Information Fair, will be held on March 25^th. This is sponsored by the West Genesee SEPTSA. You can click here for more information.

Have a great rest of the week!

- Lisa

It has been a busy week at East Hill! Last week we celebrated the 100^th day of school. As you can see in the first picture below, Mrs. Augello and Mrs. Kielecki dressed up as 100 year old women for the day and the students participated in several activities related to the number 100.

Yesterday was Dr. Seuss’ birthday. Dr. Seuss books were read in many classrooms and teachers and students alike dressed up as Cat in the Hat.

Our character education assembly was held this morning. Ms. O’Keefe and members of the student council taught the school about patience and acceptance. They also used this opportunity to kick off our student council’s service project, Pennies for Patients. This project will raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The campaign will run from Monday, March 9^th through Friday, March 27^th. Each student will bring home their own coin container to take home that they can bring in on Fridays to add to their class’ coin container. A letter will be going home about this fundraiser on Friday. We are not promoting the online fundraising that is mentioned in the letter, only the coin collection. Thank you for your help with this project!

Student Council members gave up recess to get supplies ready.

Ms. O'Keefe and Student Council Representatives demonstrate how the classroom thermometers work.

Upcoming Dates: This Friday the PTA will host their annual BINGO night at CMS. Doors open at 6:00 and games start at 6:30. The March PTA meeting will be held on Monday, March 9^th at 6:30. March 20^th is a half-day for students; dismissal is at 11:30.

Enjoy the rest of the week – spring is on the horizon!

- Lisa

Kindergarten Registration is This Week

If you have, or know of, a child who will be starting kindergarten this fall, please be sure they register this week from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the East Hill office. For more information regarding immunizations and other requirements, please click here.

February’s character education trait is honesty and trust. We were finally able to hold the assembly after it having been postponed twice due to snow days. The second graders taught us that it was important to always be honest in order to gain someone’s trust. They also sang a song for us.

The character education trait for March is Patience and Acceptance. I think we’re going to need to be patient and accept the fact that this winter just might not end! In all seriousness though, there’s a much stronger message about patience and acceptance and Ms. O’Keefe and our student council will be presenting that to us next week.

Enjoy the rest of the week. Try to stay warm!

- Lisa

Reminder: Winter break is coming!

Unfortunately, this reminder doesn’t mean we are going to get a break from winter. It’s just a reminder that students will not have school next week. It seems as though winter is here to stay!

Students love going sledding during P.E.!

Winter break is a great time to get started on the projects for our Education Fair which will be here before we know it. It is not too late to submit an application. Students can get a display board from the office, courtesy of the PTA, once they can show that they are planning on following through on their project. Currently half of our school population is signed up to complete a project which is just awesome!

Another thing students can do over break is participate in a fun event that our bus drivers are sponsoring. They are planning on taking students to the movies next Thursday, and then returning to West Genesee Middle School where they will provide lunch for them and play all sorts of games. Look for an informational flyer to come home today or tomorrow.

Our Fifth Grade Student Council Newspaper Committee has put together the first edition of the Junior Wildcat Times.  Click here to read it. Several fifth grade students contributed articles, comics, jokes, and photographs.

Valentine’s parties will be held on Friday at 2:15. Please remember that food in the nut-free classrooms needs to come with a label so that it can be checked by the nurse and/or classroom teacher. Valentines in those classrooms should also not come with any food attached to them. You’d be surprised at the items that contain or were made in a facility that processes nuts. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

Lastly, our new dismissal procedures seem to be going great. Thank you to everyone for being on time to pick up your children. Have a great winter break!

- Lisa