Check out what’s at Rolling Hills 2019-2020
Mrs. Santarpia took the time to visit and read the special story Red, A Crayon’s Story, written by Michael Hall, to each class. She presented each class a copy of the book for their classroom library. Students were encouraged to create their own unique crayon.
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One of the first units in Social Studies for First Graders is Citizenship. Students discussed what it means to be a good citizen and why they have rules and laws. Mrs. Carillo’s class created patriotic hearts. Mrs. Carillo and Ms. Tice’s classes signed their own “Classroom Constitution”. Mrs. Gallagher’s second grade class celebrated by reading, We the Kids to better understand the preamble in our Constitution. Then they each had an opportunity to hold and try to read a replica of the Constitution.
Our special area classes participated in Dot week this year. In the Music room, students sang "Make a Mark: The Dot Day Song". I then taught the children how to turn a dot into a quarter note, and how to turn two dots into eighth notes! Each child had an opportunity to make their own "mark" and turn it into a musical note!
In the Library, students talked about the book, The Dot and what the moral of the story was. They made text to selfconnections. Then first and second graders were given dots (coffee filters) to design their own marks.
In the art room, the artwork is based off of the novel, The Dot by Peter Reynolds. Students listened to a reading of the book and had a class discussion about how anyone can make art if they just try. The kindergarten students made their own paper with tissue paper as a group project which was then cut into circles for their dots. The first graders and second graders drew their circles on square tiles of paper. Each class learned about patterns, what we can make patterns out of, how to make radial symmetry patterns, and how to fill up a space with patterns.
The First Grade celebrated Dot Day. Once teachers read The Dot, students made Dot Day crowns and dabbed their markers to create their own works of art. First graders also reviewed color words and put the correct colored “dots� next to each word.
Fall Festivities are themed throughout Rolling Hills curriculum. Mrs. Roman’s kindergarten students learned about the life cycle of a pumpkin. They finger-painted pumpkins and then colored the parts of the life cycle to attach to their pumpkin vines.
After reading Ed Emberley’s book, Go Away Big Green Monster, Mrs. McIlvaine’s class created their own monsters. Pretty scary, right?!
Mrs. Gandolfi’s class played Halloween BINGO to practice holiday vocabulary.
First Grade is "Spooktacular" at Rolling Hills! Students in Ms. Neri's Class used their "wicked witchy" fingers to point to the words as they read books during class.
Math can be monstrous! The students in Ms. Tice's and Mrs. Carillo's Classes created "bootiful" number bonds. After learning about the part-part-whole concepts, the children created pumpkin and bat projects using the number bond format. Who knew math could be so much fun?
Second Graders have also been busy. After pumpkin picking, Mrs. Gallagher’s class observed their pumpkins. The weighed them, found the circumference and even checked to see if pumpkins floated or not.
In Math, Mrs. Ryan’s class created glyphs. Students used a list of questions to describe how they like to celebrate Halloween. Each answer correlated with a specific feature of a jack-o-lantern to created unique Halloween art work.
Using their five senses, Ms. Rosen’s class created Fall Poetry.
Mrs. Krompier’s class has been focusing on the central message and supporting details of texts during reader’s workshop. They read Spookly the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano and learned that everyone is special and unique in their own way.
Are you excited about winter? Mrs. Krompier's second grade class sure is! They wrote about all of their favorite things to do during this special time of year!
Mrs. Ryan’s class wrote how to make a gingerbread person. Then they made gingerbread glyphs.
It was getting cold in Mrs. Gallagher’s class. Students used socks and rice to create their own snow-people. They also made doily snowman to explain how “It’s Cool to Be Kind”.
Home for the Holidays. Student’s in Mrs. Rosen’s class wrote about how they celebrate the holidays at their houses.
Mrs. Gandolfi’s kindergarteners have been busy creating “Snow People” and writing descriptions of how they were made.
Mrs. Roman read the book, The Littlest Elf by Brandi Dougherty to her class. Then the children each created an elf using a photograph of themselves as the face. The class discussed how helpful elves were during the year and made a list of ways they would be helpful to their family and friends.
Mrs. McIlvaine’s class made gingerbread people and they all ran away before they could be put on the bulletin board! Students were seen looking all over the school to find their gingerbread people. Those sneaky gingerbread people left notes where they might be found. They checked in the science room, the computer lab, and even the office. Thank goodness they found the gingerbread people on the rug in their classroom after lunch! You better watch them when they come home so they don’t have a chance to run away.
How do you celebrate? First graders are learning that our families can be different in our family social studies unit. We have been discussing that we all celebrate holidays but may have different customs and traditions. Winter is the perfect time to learn about family traditions.
All the second graders wrote Winter or Snow Acrostic Poems. They were typed in the computer lab where Mrs. Condello showed them how to add page borders and pictures.
The holidays flourish in Ms. Reed’s MITA classes. Student move from station to station getting in the spirit of the season while getting some exercise. Don’t forget to feed the reindeer. Get a basketball in the hoop to feed the reindeer.
Join the Menorah Marathon. Light a candle after each running lap.
Enjoy making holiday cookies using playdough and cookie cutters. Exercise Dreidel has students spinning the dreidel to find out what exercise they have to complete. “Deco'ring” the Tree gave student a chance to toss the rings onto the Christmas tree.
Students knocked down the pins in Candy Cane Lane Bowling Have no time for a snowball fight? Students worked on their aim, throwing snowballs through a snowman cut out.
Students crawled into the Icy Igloo to play a fun game of "Dreidel tic tac toe".
Students jumped as high as they could and tried to reach all the reindeer bells in Jingle Bell Jump.
Winter is “Snow� Much Fun!