Rolling Hills primary School
A Special Message from Mrs. Santarpia Dear Rolling Hills Families, The winter months at RH were filled with so many wonderful events. We recently enjoyed Partners in Reading, Warm Up to Reading and Nutrition Week. I want to take a moment to thank our PTA for our Sweetheart Dance. Our families enjoyed an evening together to celebrate one another. As we welcome Spring, we are looking forward to Family Fitness Night, Jump Rope for Heart and all of the Spring Showcases. These are just a few of the upcoming events here at Rolling Hills. Our Hills Helpers Club continues to be an amazing addition to RH! The students are helping out in the classrooms, the office, the library, at special events and patrolling the hallways. On March 18th and March 20th, our teachers at Rolling Hills are available for Parent Teacher Conferences. They are looking forward to sharing all about the successes of your children with you. Please remember that March 18th is a half day of school with a 12:00PM dismissal and March 20th there is no school for students. We thank you for all of your support and guidance and look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events and at Parent Conferences. Warmly, Jessica Santarpia Principal
Kindergarten Korner
During the month of March, our kindergarteners will learn about the importance of good nutrition and dental hygiene. They will learn how important it is to choose healthy foods and the benefits of exercise for your body. Many of our kindergarten students will also be participating in Jump Rope for Heart, a fund raising initiative benefitting the American Heart Association. This fun event promotes an awareness of how to keep our hearts healthy. During the month of April, we will celebrate Earth day. We will learn about many ways to help keep our planet green and clean. Reusing, reducing and recycling will be the focus of our lessons and activities. The children are working hard on learning the songs for the Spring Showcase. We look forward to seeing all of you on April 29th. We are patiently waiting for warmer weather and wish everyone a wonderful spring!
The First Grade Buzz! The first graders will be continuing to work hard in March and April. In March, our reading and writing focuses on nonfiction books. We have discussed the purposes for reading non-fiction as well as the elements of a non-fiction book. We are excited about all of the wonderful facts that we have learned and shared with our classmates. We have also been writing “How To” and “All About” books, which we have enjoyed writing, editing, and sharing. April will bring us into our Realistic Fiction unit, when we will read and write realistic fiction stories. In math, we have continued to improve our computation skills, number sense and problem solving abilities. Place value, calendar skills, graphing skills, and math vocabulary are also part of our mathematical explorations. In Science, we have been exploring heredity by discussing genetics and traits. We started by examining the inherited traits in the cat, Creamsicle, and they expanded our understanding to include human genetics. Economics and geography are just two of the areas that we are learning about as part of our Social Studies curriculum.
Music At Rolling Hills Music at Rolling Hills is better than ever. The children are learning several different musical elements such as rhythm, melody, harmony and form. The music teachers approach these elements of music through a variety of experiences. The students do a lot of movement, listening, playing, notating and even play musical games!! Each lesson is taught through different stages of learning. These stages are imitation, exploration, improvisation, and visualization. Our music room is complete with a variety of percussion instruments as well as a smart board. With the smart board, the teachers are able to introduce, reinforce and assess the children’s musical knowledge. Beginning in January, the children started a unit on Sergei Prokoviev’s “Peter and the Wolf”. This is a much loved unit, as the children learn all about the different instruments of the orchestra, and then they get to act out the play! This year we received new costumes for Peter, the bird, duck, cat, wolf, hunters and even grandfather! My favorite part of this unit is when the children hear a bassoon they will say, “that is the instrument for Grandfather!” The children of Rolling Hills also enjoy singing songs that encourage patriotism, friendship, and respect. By working together, they use the instruments to create a holistic musical experience that is as fun as it is educational! March is “Music in our Schools” month. During this month each grade level is preparing for a Spring Showcase, which will take place in April. Please mark April 29th on your calendars for our Spring Art and Music Showcases. The students are very excited to perform for you, and are currently preparing amazing programs. The concerts promise to be fun, so be sure to bring your cameras! Ms. Alonso and myself thank you all for your amazing children, and continued support!
The Second Grade Scoop! Second graders have been hard at work. We’ve grown so much since the beginning of school and we’re looking forward to the upcoming months. We finished our non-fiction reading and writing unit. We are experts at gathering information and writing research papers. We have moved on to our next unit; Fairy Tales, Folktales, and Fables and are excited to discover the humor, magic, and adventure found in this genre. In Social Studies we have been studying geography and learning about the continents, oceans, maps, and landforms. It’s so interesting to compare and contrast where we live with other places around the world! We loved our unit in science on matter. It was so “cool” to turn a liquid (cream) into a solid (ice cream). We have now been learning about the living environment. By studying their characteristics and features, we have learned why many animals live in places where they are able to grow and survive, and how some animals have adapted to their environments. We are looking forward to learning about plant life next. As you can see, we’ve been quite busy and our love of learning grows each day!
Creating Screen-free Connections for Communication By: Mrs. Bonasia, Speech-Language Pathologist
In today’s digital age, one would be hard-pressed to find a household without a plethora of mobile devices. Like it or not, our children are digital natives-they were born into a world where information is quite literally at their fingertips. There is evidence of this wherever we go; a viral video of an infant touching pictures in a magazine in intense frustration that no interactive features were activated, a child patiently (or impatiently at times), having to instruct their parents and grandparents on how to use these devices. For all of the remarkable functions mobile devices can accomplish, one thing they cannot replace is the value of human communication. It has been noted in several clinical studies that children accessing screens between birth and two years old are more likely to experience speech/language delays. For older, school-aged children, excessive use of screens has been shown to have negative effects on cognition and sleep duration. Despite these concerns, screen time has become fairly entrenched in our culture which presents a challenge for the modern parent. Digital literacy will be an important skill for the future, but competent communication has always been at the forefront of success. Here are some speech/language boosting suggestions to help our digital natives become competent 21st century communicators: Talk to your children wherever you go. At the grocery store, talk about things that are green, things that are round, or things with seeds. Take children to the park and count puppies and birds. Even with infants parents should speak with them often, using natural adult speech. No screen can replace face to face communication. Children rely on your facial expressions and body language to learn. If they are not looking up, they cannot see these valuable signals. Read with children. Reading and language development go hand in hand. Take advantage of all of the resources public libraries have to offer including language boosting programs. Puzzles and board games offer many opportunities to strengthen language and social language skills like turn-taking, coping skills, and problem solving. Teaching children the appropriate social language for participating in games aids them in having positive peer interactions. Some language rich choices include Guess Who? to develop questioning skills, Apples to Apples Jr for enriching vocabulary development, Headbanz for deductive reasoning skills, Story Cubes to work on story-telling skills, and Bop-It to reinforce a child’s ability to follow directions. A screen-free mealtime is a terrific time to foster connection and communication. Children benefit from learning the value of eye contact and turn-taking during this important time of the day. Digital media is likely to continue to evolve and impact our everyday lives, but parents can play a vital role in ensuring their child will be an effective communicator.
Assemblies & Special Rolling Hills Events We are looking forward to a visit from the Commack High School students. They will be teaching the students about Sign Language. We are excited to welcome our Commack Middle School students for Read Across Day on March 2nd. They will be sharing some of Dr. Seuss’ favorites!
Character Education
The students at Rolling Hills continue to shine with outstanding character! Our STAR Gatherings have been a huge success and a great way to come together as a family! Here are our upcoming character traits and books: March - Endurance - Everyone Can Learn to Ride a Bike April - Accountability - Betty Bunny Didn’t Do It
Mark Your Calendar! 3/2—Read Across America Day PTA Council Meeting—8:00PM—HUBBS 3/4—RH Family Fitness Night—6:30PM 3/6—Arts in Education Meeting—9:30AM—HUBBS 3/8—Daylight Savings Time Begins (Clocks Ahead) 3/9—RH Grade 2 Jump Rope for Heart 3/10—RH Grade 1 Jump Rope for Heart RH PTA Meeting—9:30AM—Cafeteria 3/11—RH Kindergarten Jump Rope for Heart 3/12—Board of Education Meeting—7:00PM—HUBBS 3/18—1/2 Day of School—Parent Conferences 3/19—Board of Education Budget Workshop #2— 8:00PM—HUBBS 3/20—School Closed—Parent Conferences 3/23—3/25—Book Fair 3/27—RH PTA Paint Night 3/30—RH Visits to MSIS and BURR for Grade 2 RH Grade 2 Parent Orientation—7:00PM—MSIS Parent Orientation MSIS/BURR—7:00PM 3/28—Board of Education—Budget Hearing—8:00PM 3/31-4/2—Grade 2 Cognitive Ability Test 4/3—Arts in Education Mtg.—9:30AM—HUBBS 4/6—PTA Council Meeting—8:00PM—HUBBS 4/7—RH PTA Meeting—7:00PM—Cafeteria 4/9—4/17—School Closed 4/20—Primary “Log Off, Turn Off and Go Night” SEPTA Support Group—Panera—7:30PM 4/23—Board of Ed. Mtg.—8:00PM—HUBBS 4/28—SEPTA Mtg.—7:00PM—Wood Park
A heartfelt thank you to: Our Birthday Bulletin Board Committee for the beautiful bulletin board displays each month! Our Yearbook Committee for continuing to work diligently on our RH Yearbook! Our Jump Rope for Heart Committee for all of their help organizing the Jump Rope for Heart! We can not wait for these amazing mornings of fun! Our Fitness Night volunteers, Sportime and RH teachers and staff for helping to put together Family Fitness Night! We can not wait to have fun! Our Book Fair Committee for bringing back the fair this Spring! We look forward to selecting books!
Our Sweetheart Dance Committee for the amazing dance and all the preparations and details! Everyone had a fabulous time!
Lost and Found
Our lost and found items will be displayed in the breezeway during Parent Conferences. Please stop by!
School Phone #: 631-858-3570 Nurse’s Office # 631-858-3573