Rolling Hills Highlights Volume 2 2019-2020

Rolling Hills primary School

A Special message from Mrs. Santarpia Dear Rolling Hills Families, The first two months of school have flown by! We have enjoyed many special events together already and we thank you for joining us!

We recently highlighted the character traits of Courtesy and Compassion at our STAR Gatherings. Congratulations to our RH Stars and to all of our students. We enjoyed some special songs together under the direction of Ms. Klug.

A special thank you to the PTA for all of our fabulous events that we have been enjoying! The Fall Fair was a great day and families enjoyed games, arts and crafts and treats. Pumpkin picking was another great day at RH! Classes enjoyed picking pumpkins together on the field.

The students enjoyed a visit from the Dix Hills Firehouse and learned how to be safe. They also enjoyed the tour of the fire truck.

Our Halloween Parade was a huge success! We thank you for your support. We hope you also enjoyed the video link we sent to the parade!

As Thanksgiving approaches the students will be creating Thanksgiving Happy Meals for families in need. A special thank you to the classroom teachers, class parents and the SBMT for helping to make this a success. We are also hosting a school-wide food drive. Thank you in advance for your donations! I want to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and a wonderful holiday season filled with many memories with family and friends.

Warmly, Jessica Santarpia Principal

Kindergarten Korner

September is always a busy and exciting month! Learning new routines, making new friends and adjusting to a new school are just a few of the milestones that we have encountered.

Your children are becoming quite independent and responsible citizens. They are unpacking and packing up their backpacks independently, learning patience when raising their hands quietly, participating in class discussions and fun math activities and listening to new and exciting pieces of literature. They love to play outside and enjoy any opportunity to share their work and ideas with their new classmates and teachers.

Throughout October, we explored the signs of fall and prepared for Halloween. All families were invited to the Halloween parade and a great time was had by all. The children are always interested in learning about Christopher Columbus and his voyage, fire safety and prevention. Another great day in October was the Rolling Hills Fall Festival. The children and parents had such a fun time there.

The fun continues through November as we study about the lives of the Native Americans and Pilgrims and different Thanksgiving traditions. We will be thinking about all we are thankful for and talking about the importance of family and friends.

We look forward to many months filled with wonderful opportunities to learn and grow together.

The First Grade Buzz!

Fall is a wonderful season! We love reading and writing about this refreshing time of year!

As the first graders adjusted to the procedures and routines of the classroom, we discussed classroom rules and manners. This relates to our social studies curriculum about Citizenship and Government.

The youngsters learned how they can be good classroom citizens and use those special magic words to be polite.

Our literacy program got underway! We have been practicing C-V-C words during our “Fundations” spelling sessions. Learning the vowel sounds can be tricky, so we use center games, and whole class magnet board lessons to practice, practice, and practice! We’ve been busy during Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop. We “Book Shop” for “Just Right” books, which means the students should be able to read these books independently. We put them in our Book Baggies to enjoy reading at home.

Please remember to return book bags and word rings each day. It’s so important that we practice reading our books and word cards each night. In class, we also have begun our guided reading groups where we focus on various decoding strategies and comprehension strategies. We love learning about, and actually doing, what good readers do!

As writer’s we are trying to remember that every sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a punctuation mark. We also have begun to be authors of Personal Narrative stories. We write about actual events that have taken place in our lives and use a story format with a beginning, middle, and end.

Math, math, math! We are enjoying using cubes and counters, dice and spinners to model numbers to 10. Number bonds also help us figure out that a part, plus a part, makes a whole. Now that we are becoming addition experts, soon we will be practicing subtraction skills. Fluency in math facts will help us later on during more difficult concepts. We can’t wait to get to the bigger numbers!

The Second Grade Scoop!

Rolling Hills’ second graders have been working very hard and enjoying their time together. In ELA the children have been reading and writing Realistic Fiction stories. We read many different stories and discussed whether they had the components necessary to be categorized as Realistic Fiction. The children will then use this knowledge to create their own characters, problem, solution and setting to write their own stories. Many of the children are discovering that this is their favorite genre to read and write.

In science we have been exploring the life cycle of the apple tree and plants in general. The students began the unit with a nature walk around Rolling Hills. We explored all of the trees, leaves and plants and took notes, using our 5 senses, about everything we encountered. We then examined the inside of an apple and discovered where apple seeds are hidden inside. The children are now growing and learning from their own snap pea plants, recording data on how, where and under what conditions they grow best. Our second grade scientists are truly enjoying this unit!

Our second grade mathematicians have been studying place value and mental math. They have learned how to solve math problems without a pencil and paper, which made them very proud!

Communities and how they grow and change has been our social studies focus. We had the fantastic opportunity to travel back in time to visit 19th century Long Island, where the children participated in a hands on experience at Blydenburgh Park. We visited the Blydenburgh homestead, kitchen, shed and blacksmith’s shop. The children were able to cook, use farming tools and create S hooks, just like children did long ago. It was a fun and eye opening experience for us, and we all became more grateful for the comforts of 2019.

We wish all of our Rolling Hills families a happy, healthy, peaceful New Year!

ENL-HOME SCHOOL CONNECTIONS Language Boosts Brainpower

By Dr. Nancy Lopes, Mrs. Jennifer Barricelle and Ms. Stephanie Buckley In today’s busy and highly technological world, it is easy to forget the simple things. As parents, we work, we drive, we schedule, we organize, we provide, we manage, we care, we tutor, we encourage and sometimes we play. But one of the best things we can offer our children is our rarest and most valuable commodity…our uninterrupted attention.

Take time each day to stop the distractions from the outside world. Turn off TVs, cell phones, computers and tablets. Talk with your children. Tell them stories about your childhood. Listen to them. Explain situations and help them find solutions. Sometimes the most meaningful conversations can happen while preparing dinner. Let your children help you each night and have discussions while you work together. Talking and sharing meaningful thoughts with each other will help keep you bonded and will have an added academic bonus as well.

Research has shown that children whose parents talk and read to them from birth are more successful in school.

Talking with young children helps them to grasp the rules and rhythms of language and provides a foundation of how the world works. Language helps the mind grow.

When talking to young preschool-age children, it is important to use a rich, complex language with adjectives and clauses. Build on what the child says, rather than simplifying your own language to match that of the child’s. For example, as you drive, your young child says “See dog?” You might respond, “Yes, I see that big brown dog. Maybe he is barking because he wants to play. Why do you think he is barking?”

For older school aged children, you might say “I wonder why that big brown dog is barking. Maybe he hears a noise or sees something he isn’t familiar with. Dogs bark for different reasons. Sometimes they just want your attention, but sometimes they could be trying to protect their territory. Do you know what territory means?”

Our community is very diverse and many of our children live in bilingual households. Regardless of the language spoken at home, the same holds true for all children: talking to our children helps their brain to develop connections to the world around us. In bilingual families, it is important that parents speak to their children in the language they are the most comfortable with. Children make connections to the world around us through any language. Children, who begin their schooling with a rich and complex language other than English, have the same cognitive development as their English speaking counterparts. When they come to school with strongly developed concepts, we need only to switch the labels from the home language to English and build from there. However, when a child who speaks a language other than English enters school without a strong language base in any language, learning becomes even more difficult.

Parents want the best for our children. Sometimes the best things don’t cost any money at all. Sometimes giving our children the best opportunities in the world, just means taking the time to have a chat.

Events and News for Rolling Hills Character Education Our STAR Gatherings have been a huge success!

Here are some of the character traits and books: September - Courtesy - What If Everybody Did That October - Compassion - The Invisible Boy November - Responsibility - The Good Egg December - Respect - Do Unto Others

Assemblies and Special Rolling Hills

Events The Kindergarten students enjoyed the Singing Bus Driver assembly at the end of September.

We all enjoyed Halloween Safety presented by AAA. The second grade is looking forward to going to Blydenburgh Park on their first Field Trip on November 4th and November 12th!

Thank you to the RH PTA for the Field Trip Donations!.

****** Stay Update on all events and happenings at RH….Be sure signup for email alerts, text notifications and download the Commack App! Also, all information is posted to Backpack News on the Commack Schools Website!******

We Are Loving Our Days in the Rolling Hills Library!

Fall is a wonderful time of year in the Rolling Hills library! It is my goal to encourage a love of reading for all students. They are becoming critical thinkers who are effective and responsible users of information. I will be promoting the very best of children’s literature to your child with activities to help engage students in different genres preparing them to be lifelong readers. At each grade level, students will learn basic research skills and we will use our Databases to “find out.”

In kindergarten, we are becoming familiar with library routines, the habits of a good library patron and borrower. Students have learned how to take care of their books and know that they need to return them on library class day. It is an exciting time in a kindergartener’s life to be able to choose, check out their own book and be responsible for taking care of it. Please be excited for these little treasures and be sure to read along with your child.

First graders and second graders are becoming expert library learners. All grades are actively participating in seasonal Halloween Stories and Thanksgiving Tales. Kindergarten and first grade students are focusing on sequencing, story mapping and the parts of a book. Second graders are studying the Genre Folktales and are learning about the different attributes. I am excited to share the joy of reading with your family!

Mark Your Calendar!

11/4—PTA Council Executive Meeting—HUBBS 11/4—Food Drive Begins 11/5—School Closed—Election Day 11/7—Homework Practices—Parent Workshop—MSIS 11/8—Arts in Education Mtg.—9:30AM 11/11—School Closed—Veteran’s Day 11/12—District Wide Blood Drive at MSIS—1-7PM 11/14—Board of Education Mtg.—HUBBS—8:00PM 11/19—RH PTA Meeting—7:00PM 11/22—RHINGO—7:00PM 11/23—Special Olympics Fundraiser 11/26—SEPTA Meeting—North Ridge—7:00PM 11/27—Early Dismissal Drill - 15 Minutes Early RH is FIT to READ 11/28—School Closed—Thanksgiving Day 11/29—School Closed—Thanksgiving Recess 12/3—Picture Retake Day 12/5—1/2 Day Parent Conferences 12/6—School Closed—Parent Conferences 12/9—Visitation to MSIS—Grade 2 12/10—Holiday Boutique Preview—6:00PM 12/11—Holiday Boutique 12/12—Board of Education Mtg.—HUBBS—8:00PM 12/23-1/1—School Closed 1/2—School Reopens

A heartfelt thank you to: Our Birthday Bulletin Board Committee for posting our birthday information in such an amazing way! You are truly talented.

Our Picture Day Committee for planning a day filled with smiles.

Our School Spirit Wear Committee for distributing a Rolling Hills shirt to all our kindergarten and new students and for ordering a wonderful selection of spirit wear.

Our Fall Festival Committee for organizing the walk to benefit the Nassau/Suffolk Autism Society and for planning a wonderful Saturday of fun for our families.

Our Book Fair Committee for planning an awesome Book Fair! The selections were spectacular!

Our Pumpkin Picking Committee for planning a special day!

School Phone #: 631-858-3570 Nurse’s Office # 631-858-3573