April '17

Music:

Kindergarteners have been learning about pitch: high, middle, low, going higher, and going lower. They have added glockenspiels and xylophones to their instrument repertoire.

1st Graders have learned how to read traditional rhythmic notation and can read, write, and identify quarter notes, eighth notes, and quarter rests.

2nd Graders have learned how to read, write, and perform 3-pitch songs using solfege (do re mi, etc.) from traditional melodic notation on the treble clef staff.

3rd Graders have been learning recorder basics and reading and performing B A G songs from notation on the treble clef staff.

4th Graders earned green belts in Recorder Karate for reading and performing songs in treble clef notation with low and high D, G A B, and C. Sign-ups for the 4th Grade Talent Show are due Monday, April 24, 2017. For more talent show information, visit this link: 4th Grade Talent Show Information 2017.

Physical Education:

April, what a fun month, especially for those 3rd graders.  It is DISCO bowling time The children will be keeping score and bowling in the gym with the lights down low and many disco balls spinning with color. The 4th graders will be doing a bowling tournament.  The younger grades will learn that it is not always the biggest ball that knocks down the most pins.  It could be rolling a football that does it W H A T????  Ask your first or second grader to tell you what Mrs. Morales Means. They have enjoyed this month’s unit on Bowling. As the warmer weather approaches so does the next unit: Look here for May's Physical Education Blog.

Connecting LITERACY and STEM @ the LIBRARY!

Kindergarteners participated in Story Time From Space,

a program made possible by The Global Space Education Foundation. Students heard astronaut Kate Rubins read Rosie Revere, Engineer while she was in space!  We discussed STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, as well as the power of perseverance and resilience. Check out more stories from space with your children at http://storytimefromspace.com/library/. For additional titles in Andrea Beaty’s wonderful STEM related series, check out these books from the Hilltop Library!

Hilltop Library Media Center Celebrates National Poetry Month!

Students in grades K-4 have been reading, writing, sharing and celebrating poetry @ the Hilltop Library. In addition to hand written poetry and digitally publishing poetry using presentation software, we have modified the publication process by  publishing, sharing and collaborating using PADLET. Padlet is a virtual wall that allows learners to share and express themselves on a common topic easily. Check out The Hilltop Library Cinquain and Haiku Padlet by clicking here, or click on the Padlet link at the upper right corner of the Hilltop Library Website. We have also explored figurative language through poetry and music!  Students used figurative language and tagged (identified) it appropriately with #simile, #metaphor, #alliteration and #onomatopoeia!  Lastly, please continue to add to our DIGITAL POETRY PARTY on Flipgrid this month! Details and instructions were sent via email at the beginning of April. Questions...email lemay@mendhamboroschools.org

Some dates to remember….

May 19th - last day to check out books (exceptions will be made for research, classroom projects, etc.)

May 26th - All library books due back to the Hilltop Library Media Center

June 12, 13, 14 - Annual School Wide Summertime Book Swap.  Details regarding participation coming soon!

March '17

Hilltop Library Collaborative ART PROJECT

Students are working together to construct a collaborative art project. ALL students are working toward ONE  beautiful reward. Students earn stickers at various times throughout the week.  They then collaborate, pay close attention to details by following the color code, and apply their stickers.  Students have been making predictions, community-building, and earning lots of stickers. The end result...a school-wide collaborative ART project. What do you think it will become?

Hilltop Library Celebrates National Women’s History Month!

We have been reading and researching amazing women @ the Hilltop Library! Students in 3rd and 4th grades conducted mini-research using various print and digital sources. In grades K-4 we have been exploring nonfiction, biography, and of course referring to www.loc.gov for some wonderful primary sources!!

We will be kicking off the READING WITHOUT WALLS program challenge @ the Hilltop Library after spring break. Stay on the lookout for more information about this wonderful reading challenge brought to us by the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Gene Luen Yang. All students will have an opportunity to participate in this challenge in various forms.

Questions?? email: lemay@mendhamboroschools.org

Art:  March is National Youth Art month! We are celebrating it with the annual exhibition of students’ artworks at the Mendham Public Library.  Please come and enjoy the artworks made by many Mendham students from Hilltop and Mountainview.  The exhibition will be held until the end of March.  Thank you for your support!

Hilltop artists will be showing their artworks on paper this month at the Mendham Public Library.  Due to the lack of space, we can only afford to exhibit only a sampling of the artworks by the lower grades.  However, the prints made by entire fourth graders will be displayed. There will be portraits, landscapes, still lifes as well as a sprinkle of folk art and pictures using different styles.   

Congratulations to the following Hilltop students for their artworks exhibited:

The entire fourth grade class

Lucas A

Zoya A

Fiona C

Jake C

Max C

Tyler D

Matthew D

Mallory F

Sarah F

Beckett G

Cassidy G

Ella O

Nikola H

Colin J

Avril K

Olivia K

Mackenzie K

Lila K

Tess K

Jack M

Stella M

Will M

Annabel N

Matthew P

Sophie P

Catherine R

Josh S

Amanda S

Jessica

Jedd V

Dasha Z

In the art room, our fourth graders have begun the weaving lesson and are thoroughly enjoying the therapeutic activity.  Third graders are working on creating artwork applying different principles of design. They are also practicing using mixed media to create artworks.  Second graders are working on the next element of art -- form.  Using soft pastels, they are learning to highlight and shade to transform a flat shape into a three-dimensional form.  Their Birds on a Tree pictures exhibiting this concept may be seen at the art show.  First graders have finished their folk art unit, and have started to learn about different famous artists and their styles.  We are starting out with Joan Miro and his abstract art and continuing to Vincent Van Gogh.  Kindergarteners are introduced to famous artists as well.  This month, they are creating delightful stabiles in the style of Alexander Calder who is most famous for his mobiles.  

February '17

First Graders are Flipping over FLIP GRID!

First graders researched an animal using print and online sources. After researching and note-taking, students constructed a book about their animal including: table of contents, four sections (body, food, habitat, fun facts), all about the author, and lastly they cited their source(s). Students used nonfiction books and/or PebbleGo database. Finally, students presented their research to their classmates and recorded their presentation in Flip Grid for easy access from home and across their grade. Flip Grid is a safe way to share information, practice fluency, create short presentations for an authentic audience, and encourage learning, conversation, collaboration and feedback. Stay on the lookout for our next Flip Grid….4th Grade Book Review Vodcasts!

Keyboarding …3rd and 4th graders participated in a mini keyboard unit over the past few weeks during their technology class.  Students are now ready to continue their keyboarding practice at home, in school, and whenever they are using a keyboard. Keyboarding is a skill that will improve greatly with consistent practice when using the CORRECT TECHNIQUE. If possible, try to keep an eye on your child's keyboard experiences at home.  Encourage your child to type with ALL fingers and ALWAYS use the technique we learned in class. Students began their practice in school using www.Typing.com  and www.dancemattyping.com. These websites can be found on the keyboarding section of the Hilltop Library Media Center website, along with more free sites. Your child has worked very hard to develop the correct technique in the classroom, now it is time for them to continue using the correct keyboarding technique at home and in their daily school/home computer activities.

Virtual Valentines Project

During the month of February some classes participated in a Virtual Valentine Project during their library and technology classes. Students created digital valentines for a 5th grade class in Andover, Kansas and a Kindergarten class in Durham, CT.. We shared our creations and then participated in a virtual meeting with our partners.  Students introduced themselves, read poems, shared digital valentines, and then listened to our new friends share. This project was made possible by the Global Virtual Valentines Project

3rd and 4th graders got CREATIVE with CANVA - one of Mrs. LeMay’s favorite design tools! Students designed some fun valentine documents and discovered a new, dynamic platform they can use to present or share information. Students would need to create their own free account in order to use this free website from home.

February is Heart Month The Third Graders will be jumping on February 14th.  It will be done in school at the end of the day.   Lets Get ready to work our bodies out.  Our Hilltopers will be using their own bodies to build strength by doing Animal walks in the gym.  I will be focusing on Body Awareness:

• Keeping your body in control
• Body Balance
• Body Control
• Using your own weight to get Strong   Upper and Lower body

Its time to get your parents Walking.   Take your parents for a Walk is back and the Tokens will begin.   How this works is your son or daughter will bring home a form (Mrs. Morales has them in her gym) and when your child takes you for a walk, you sign the paper, bring it to the folder in the gym and your name is put in a bucket where if it gets pulled out you will receive a Token. ( the token can be worn on your sneaker or backpack.   The winner is announced in the Morning with the Morning announcements.  

Music:

Kindergarteners are developing their ability to use and switch fast/slow tempo while singing/playing instruments with visual cues to known poems/songs. They are creating, in an age-appropriate way, new text to short songs. They have played one new instruments: jingle sticks. They continue to develop the proper technique on instruments that they have played so far this year.

First Graders are reading and performing rhythms to known songs and poems with picture notation (not traditional notation yet).

Second Graders have been writing and reading 2-pitch songs on a 3-line/2-space staff to understand pitch in notation. They have used xylophones and metallophones to play 2-pitch songs from their written notation.

Third Graders continue to use Google Classroom to listen to excerpts from “Autumn” and “Winter” from The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi and use music vocabulary (dynamics, melody, rhythm, tempo, and timbre) to describe Vivaldi’s music. The recorders have been ordered.  It takes about 2 weeks for the recorders arrive.

Fourth Graders will earn their orange belts this month when they play either Good King Wenceslas or Seashell from traditional music notation.

January '17

Art: Happy 2017!  As the new year begins and the second marking period comes to an end, many of the art folders will be going home.  Parents -- please sign the folder and keep the artworks at home, but return the folder with the art journals/notebooks.  We need the folder for more artworks to come later in the year.

Fourth graders have finished the unit of art of the face.  They will be bringing home their symbolic portraits and realistic selfies.  We have started our printmaking experiences; this year we will be focusing on just intaglios, a printmaking process where the image is cut out of the printing plate.  They will be experiencing using the reduction method to make prints.

Third graders, with an exception of one class, have  finished up winter birch tree landscapes, a study on rhythm which is one of the principles of art.  Students then will practice using patterns as part of their artworks and create a multimedia dragon pictures.  

Second graders will take home their art folders with holiday street collage(unless they already took it home), pine tree paintings using space and distance, and Chinese dragon puppets practicing folding and cutting skills.  

First graders will also take home their art folders with winter monochromatic landscape and a sampling of some folk art:  koi nobori, embroidery and aboriginal art.    

Kindergarteners have been painting, cutting and gluing to experience different aspects of art.  They are really beginning to understand how to handle certain art materials correctly.  Fun, fun, fun!

Physical Education:  It’s time to hit the Volleyball court.  Our 1st -4th graders are developing and improving on the three basic skills of Volleyball.  Setting, Bumping and Serving.  As we continue through the weeks, all of the skills will be placed together. For 4th grade, they will play a modified game of volleyball called “Nukem” volleyball.  For the younger grades they will be able to work with a Big Beach Ball.  Keeping it up, working together cooperatively to keep the ball in the air.

As February approaches, the Third graders will be getting ready for Jumprope For Heart.   

Music

Kindergarteners are developing their ability to use and switch between high and low voices with visual cues to known poems. They are creating, in an age-appropriate way, new text to short songs. They have played some new instruments in the new year: colored hand bells, chimes, and boomwhackers.  They continue to review instruments that they have played so far this year.

First Graders are reading, performing, and conducting the steady beat in known songs. They can highlight phrases in known songs. They have played quite a few instruments in the new year to demonstrate their ability to perform a steady beat accurately.

Second Graders have been working on rhythms and Meter in 2. They can divide rhythms in known songs into 2-beat measures and add bar lines. They understand also that 2-beat meters are divided into strong and weak beats. The students are beginning to use a 3-line/2-space staff and understand how pitch works in notation.

Third Graders have been using Google Classroom to learn about the composer Antonio Vivaldi, define music vocabulary, and use music vocabulary to describe Vivaldi’s music. The recorder letter for the upcoming third grader recorder unit went home last week.

Fourth Graders have been using Google Classroom assignments to comment and answer questions on video clips from an authentic Native American Powwow where drumming and traditional dances are shown. They are also working on reading and playing the orange belt songs in Recorder Karate.