November

Fourth graders have continued their recorder playing from the Spring and reviewed G A B and E finger positions.  They are able to read and play songs with the pitches in treble clef notation.  They have earned two recorder karate belts this Fall - white and yellow - for reading and playing: Gently Sleep (white) and French Song and Tommy Tiddlemouse (yellow).  Soon, they will play Doggie, Doggie or Star Light to earn their orange belts.  Our rhythm focus since September has been time signatures and note values.  Students recognize, read, describe, and perform music with time signatures of 4/4, 2 /4, and 3/ 4.  They can also write measures of rhythms with the correct number of beats when given one of the previously mentioned time signatures.  

All students in K-4 have begun preparing songs for our annual holiday concerts at Hilltop.  The theme this year is Holiday Time...the Most Wonderful Time.  Visit Hilltop Holiday Concerts 2015 for more information.

In the month of November, the children will be working on all different things.  My fourth graders will be working together with their class to come up with an exercise “brain break” that the children in the school can do in their classroom.  They will also be learning how to do the Virginia Reel. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades will be learning many different dances like the Cotton Eye Joe, the Macarena and the Y M C A .

Ask your child if they have had an opportunity to do some JUST DANCE in their gym class, and then have them show you some moves. Children love to move their bodies to music. Enjoy your Turkey Day, don’t forget to take a nice walk after you eat.  It’s healthy for the whole family.  

  

Library & Technology:

In kindergarten and first grade we have been exploring literature and songs about gratitude. Students shared and wrote about the many things they are grateful for.  These young readers have also been listening for and identifying the problem, soltion, setting, and genre. They are becoming reading detective experts as they explain problems and solutions using text evidence. Our first graders extended their writing into the technology lab and created TERRIFIC THANKFUL SENTENCES.  Students have become quite efficient at using Microsoft Word, changing letter color, font and size, as well as inserting and resizing images. Second graders remain quite busy with our graphing unit.  They have collected bat and candy data, and have constructed both bar graphs and pie charts.  We will be embarking on our STATE RESEARCH UNIT at the end of the month, and will certainly incorporate some POPULATION graphing into our projects! In Fourth Grade we completed our review of the Dewey Decimal system, identifying genres, and locating books to meet our literary interests. Students used web 2.0 applications to create "Dewey Word Clouds" reflecting the subject matter that they found in their assigned Dewey section.

 

 

Spanish: Kindergarten students are learning all about colors and shapes! Can your child tell you what el circulo rojo (the red circle) means? First grade students are working on a “Yo Soy Especial/I am Special” rainbow activity using colors to show they are unique. Second graders are learning all about “Mi Familia/My Family” and talking about the size of their family, names of family members and more! Third and fourth grade students are having fun learning to describe themselves and others using adjectives and verbs… and physical descriptions too, such as hair and eye color. Please be sure to check the Spanish website for extra practice at home!

October, 2015

Kindergarteners have learned some “magical” skills through art.  They have learned to overlap things to create an illusion of space.  They have learned to cut on a fold to make a whole shape while drawing only a half the shape.  They have learned to mix colors to highlight and shade in painting.  Really, what they are exercising is the fine motor skills and getting accustomed to the procedures in the art room.  We are having a blast!

First graders have explored, experienced, and identified a variety of musical elements in the first marking period. They understand when music has a steady beat or does not have a steady beat.  They have identified tempo (speed of music) in Italian terms: adagio, moderato, allegro and dynamics (volume of music) in Italian terms: piano, mezzoforte, and forte.  They should understand the difference between pitch (highness/lowness of a tone) and dynamics/volume (how loud or quiet sound is).  They will continue to explore and understand pitch vocally and on pitched percussion instruments (xylophones).  First graders have also played plenty of non-pitched percussion instruments: triangles, sandblocks, drums, tambourines, maracas, woodblocks, cymbals, clatterpillars, whistle tubes, and thundertubes.  They are developing the ability to hold various mallets correctly in order to play xylophones and glockenspiels.  We’ve used our instruments to highlight text in songs/poems and to learn how to follow the conductor’s cues.  In case you don’t know what a clatterpillar or thundertube look like, here are pictures:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ThunderTub

  http://toysdiscovery.com/Products?category=49

For a free on-line game high/low pitch:

https://www.musick8kids.com/html/musicgame.php

For a game about steady beat sound/no steady beat sounds:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/schools/4_11/music/mm/sound01.shtml

It’s October,time to see what kind of shape we are all in.  The children in grades 1st thru 4th will be evaluated in the following area’s: 1 mile run (24 laps in the gym) for 4th and 3rd graders, ½ mile 3 laps around the big field outside,for 2 graders, and for 1st grade, two laps on the big field.  The children are timed and the time is recorded.   

All grades do a shuttle run, sit-ups for 1 minute, and a sit and reach to test their flexibility.  These area’s will be revisited in May at this time their should be some improvement. We will also be enjoying some Happy Halloween activities.      

Fourth Graders have been exploring and learning about important reference books, including the thesaurus and the dictionary. We learned about Noah Webster and the first American dictionary, and Peter Roget and his thesaurus. Students practiced using these resources both online and in print.

Third and Fourth graders have begun keyboarding practice, and will spend 2-3 classes practicing the correct technique.  Students will then be encouraged to apply this technique to all computer activities and homework that is completed in school and at home, and are strongly encouraged to complete 30 minutes of weekly home keyboard practice.

Students in grades K-1 are having fun learning and talking about “Colores!” or Colors. First graders even completed a fun survey with their classmates to find out if they liked certain colors or not. Can your child tell you some colors they like (Me gusta!) or don’t like (No me gusta!)? Second graders have also been surveying their “amigos” to find out their Spanish name, age and birthday month! Can your child do the monthly macarena for you or tell you how old they are? Third and fourth graders are learning adjectives to describe themselves… and fourth graders are learning how to describe their friends as well! We are doing a lot of acting out and moving around to learn the new vocabulary. Can your child tell you about themselves using adjectives (Yo soy…/No soy...)? Please be sure to check the Spanish website for ways you can practice together at home! Gracias :)

September, 2015

Second graders have gotten right back into the groove in Spanish class! We started off the year with fun chants and songs to practice greetings and introductions, as well as activities that help students get to know one another better… while speaking in Spanish! In class, students have an “exercise spot” where we sing songs such as the “Macarena” while singing the months in Spanish, stretch different body parts and exercise while we count from 1-20. A class favorite is also “Simon Dice!” or Simon Says! in Spanish. Please encourage your child to share what they are learning in class and practice with you at home! Can they introduce themselves to you and ask you how you are feeling? Can they tell you something they like or dislike? If they need extra practice, they can visit the Hilltop Spanish website and go onto Quizlet, where they can listen to the vocabulary and practice through games and type as they listen to the words. Thank you for your support!

Art:  Our Hilltop artists are blasting off the year with their first art projects!   Kindergarteners are work on Picasso’s Posies; first graders are making is a summer scene;  second graders are zooming in their flower pictures to make it Georgia O’Keeffe-esque; third graders are working on a picture using emphasis; and fourth graders are creating their own scrumptious dessert pictures, inspired by Wayne Thiebaud.  This first project is actually for Display My Art, an HSA fundraiser.  So look out for the upcoming brochure that explains how you can order your child’s artwork to be printed!  

It has been fun getting to know our new Kindergartners! We’ve been busy singing, playing instruments, and moving to music.  Ask them about our puppet mouse “Ralph” who likes to sing and our puppet monkey “Bananas” who likes to move.  We begin each class with a vocal warm-up with fun props (like a slide whistle).  We use props to get the students discovering/exploring all their vocal pitches from high to low and to develop their singing voices.  Students participate in a “Secret Song Bag” activity (thanks to a colleague of mine - who is a fantastic music teacher in Kinnelon - for this) where students take turns picking objects from a bag and guess what well-known song goes with each object.  They love to see what comes out of the bag and sing the songs that they guess.  In the instrument arena,  we’ve played drums, maracas, jingle bells, and woodblocks.  More to play yet!   We break up the singing and instrument playing with lots of movement experiences like Shake Your Sillies Out and even some fun music movement videos from Go Noodle.  Lastly, when we have time, we share a “singable” story book at the end of class.  So far, we’ve read/sung There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly, If You’re Happy and You Know It, and Over in the Meadow.  Books are available on Amazon and also can be requested through public libraries.  Photos below from www.amazon.com.

                                     

Kindergarten “singable” story books.

WOW!!, September is moving right along.  Your children have been moving right with it.   They are learning new exercises to do in the class.  Throughout the year each child will have the opportunity to be the “ Gym Helper”. The gym helper will lead the class in exercises, and be able to help Mrs. Morales Model certain skills and movement that may need to be shown in class.  

We are going to be sharpening up our Soccer skills, which really means they will be focusing on Eye-foot coordination.

In Kindergarten, we are focusing on Space awareness, body control and what the words STOP and FREEZE  look like.

If you haven’t seen or heard about the take your parent for a walk program, ask your son or daughter, it could win them a fun token that they can hook onto their shoe lace or backpack.   

     

From the Hilltop Library Media Center...
Welcome Back!  3rd graders have been learning about their new Google Drive, how it can enhance their learning experiences, and what it looks like to respect their drive as well as their classmates’ drives. Each student was given a Google License, and now have full permission to use their drive at home and in school.  Both 3rd and 4th graders have been working on a collaborative Google Drive project, sharing safe and productive ways we can use our Google Drive.  Our K-4th grade students have begun checking out books.  In Kindergarten we are reading and singing along with Pete the Cat. First Graders are exploring the Clyde the Bunny books, and reflecting on the beginning, middle, and end of a story, as well as character, setting, genre, problem and solution.  Our Second Graders are learning about Tall Tales, the 398.2 Dewey section and of course, the use of exaggeration in Tall Tales. Third and Fourth Graders have learned all about Melvil Dewey, the Dewey Decimal System, and using OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog) to locate the books they are searching for. We are looking forward to exploring and experiencing wonderful literature throughout the 2015-2016 year!