We are excited to announce the beginning of our annual reading initiative                 “Snuggle Up with a Good Book.” The program will begin on Tuesday, January 22nd and will end on Friday, March 1st, Read Across America Day.  The purpose of this program is to promote and nurture the love of reading in our H. Olive Day students. Motivating children to read contributes not only to student achievement, but also to creating...

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I have begun all of our music classes congratulating our students on their outstanding voices they used in our sing a long before the holidays. I would also like to thank Mr. Robert Goldman for helping out us with his skills as an accompanist. The new year promises to bring lots of movement into our lives here at the H. Olive Day School. Our January lessons are filled with creative movement as well as songs about Martin Luther King. We will continue experiencing these through not only movement...

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Well, it's that time of year when the bears are not the only ones who tend to hibernate. If you find yourself looking for an art activity that will both entertain and educate your child when the weather turns foul, look no further than the home computer. Together with your child, simply go to www.google.com to begin. Rather than type in your search words, this time look below the search field and run your cursor over the 'I'm Feeling Lucky' button. This will spin in a slot machine style, stopping...

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In January, the weather is anything but predictable! Here are a few fun activities to connect with your children and create wonderful memories on snowy winter days. Make a snow sculpture in the shape of your favorite book character! Pick a recipe with your child.  Have them read the recipe and allow them to do the measuring.  Yum!                                                                                                                        ...

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We continue to jog each week for 5 minutes and most students will sign the 60-minute HHC wall this month. We’ve now accumulated a total of 9,900 minutes!The cold and snowy months have arrived. It’s very important to encourage indoor and outdoor activities that stimulate the brain and body. Games, crafts, reading, schoolwork, playing, exercise, and family outings are great ways to stay active during the winter months. Here are some suggestions for outdoor activities during the...

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I run many groups throughout the year but a common thread in all of them is exploring self-esteem and embracing what makes us special.  We want our children to value themselves and understand that they make a difference.  Self-esteem is not about being happy all the time, bragging or being perfect, it is about viewing oneself in a realistic, positive way.  To foster self-esteem, we need to give our children encouragement to try new things, be proud of their achievements and understand...

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HOD – it’s a great place to be! That’s because we have so many wonderful people doing so many                wonderful things. Here are just a few of the people who deserve a HOD High 5! All of our students who earned money to donate to our Holiday Caring and Sharing Project! One student, Madigan Wirkus from Mrs. Niedzwecki’s class completed 100 chores to earn $100 to donate to the project! Now,...

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December has arrived and that means that the holiday season has officially begun! If we haven’t done so already, we begin to plan for that perfect holiday season – the perfect family activities, the perfect decorations, the perfect photos, the perfect meals and, most of all, the perfect gifts. All of these things are meant to make us perfectly happy during the holidays. We do all of this, of course, for our children – to make them happy. But are these the things that they really...

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Happy Holidays from the Reading Center! The topic for this month’s newsletter is fluency. The following article from readingrockets.org provides great information about fluency and also offers tips for parents interested in helping their children become more fluent readers. Fluency is defined as the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. In order to understand what they read, children must be able to read fluently whether they are reading aloud or silently. When reading...

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We are continuing our great enjoyment of our musical experiences in the music room. November has begun our great holiday season and our school focus of sharing and caring. We are exploring this not only through our music but our team concepts of cooperation while dancing and singing. The general music classes have been utilizing our barred Orff instruments (xylophones and glockenspiels) as well as a variety of other percussion instruments. We hope to utilize some of these in our performances in...

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I recall a couple of years ago during the very first week of school, a first grade class was busy working on an art assignment when one student leaned over and asked a friend what they were planning on being for Halloween! So much of what excites children at this age is centered around holidays. While Halloween, Christmas and Valentine's Day could keep an art teacher busy until mid February, I like to sprinkle a few of the other holidays into our art curriculum as well. Some examples of recent...

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With the approaching holidays, the steadfast routine of reading with your child sometimes falls by the wayside. You want to read with your child, but there is so much to do! Audio books are a great way of fitting in the books you want to read. During the holidays there are many opportunities for adults and children to listen to audio books. You can listen to a great story while cleaning a room, riding around in the family car to complete the holiday shopping, baking dozens and dozens of cookies...

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John Holmes wrote, “There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.” Not sure how many people our own Norfolk Food Pantry lifts up on a weekly basis, but we are very lucky we have them to help assist our families in need. Every fall the Norfolk Teachers Association, Norfolk Together and the Norfolk Teacher-Parent Association proudly sponsor a Food Pantry Drive to help restock the shelves of the Norfolk Food Pantry.This year through the generosity...

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‘Tis the season’ and we all get excited about holiday festivities and receiving gifts! But this is also a wonderful time of year to instill the importance of giving in your children and to show them that even small contributions can make a difference.At the HOD, we have worked this fall to foster respect and the children have learned that smile and thank you are indeed simple acts of giving that can make a difference. The next step may be to encourage them to help around the house...

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H.O.D. students have been on the move with Speed Stacks! Sport stacking is an active, fun, creative, and challenging activity. What is sport stacking? If you go to SpeedStacks.com, you can read about cup stacking and see many wonderful videos.H.O.D. students have mastered the 3, 3-3, 3-3-3 stacks and are learning the 6 stack. Cup stacking encourages students to use both hands, focus, and gives them a sense of accomplishment. Learning the correct form and technique for a specific activity is a...

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As I look through my growing list of information and tips I’d like to share, I am reminded about timing.  Children, like the rest of us, are more open to learning new things or persevering with difficult tasks when they are in an open or relaxed state.As our children and family’s task list grows, keep in mind the following advice I gleaned from reading Mel Levine’s, The Source for Learning and Memory Strategies.  Mel speaks about so many strategies.  For December,...

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HOD – it’s a great place to be! That’s because we have so many wonderful people doing so many wonderful things. Here are just a few of the people who deserve a HOD High 5! Mrs. Klobucher for using her technology skills to update and upgrade our school map! Officer Glen Eykel for his assistance with and supervision of our In School Safety Drill!  All of our students and staff who did a wonderful job during our first drill! The Norfolk Community League (NCL) for their...

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November at HOD...We Have a Lot to be Thankful For!!   It’s November… the month of Thanksgiving and giving thanks! We all put aside time this month to think about all that we have to be thankful for. Here at HOD, we do a lot of thinking, because we have a lotto be thankful for! Every day, we have “an attitude of gratitude” and do our best to foster it in our young students. During November, our gratitude is displayed in several different initiatives. One of...

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Greetings from the Reading Center! This month, I would like to explain the Reader’s Workshop model used in the first and second grade classrooms here at HOD. Reader’s Workshop begins with a whole-class focus lesson. Depending on the unit being taught, the topics of these lessons could include decoding strategies, comprehension strategies, fluency tips, new vocabulary work, or information on various genres or authors.  Students then read independently or in small groups with the...

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The children in grades K-2 have been working on RESPECT in music through our school wide learning of both our RESPECT rap as well as Red Grammar's Saying Hi. We have also been working on playing rhythmic ostinatos (repeated rhythmic patterns) on our glockenspiels and expanding our music repertoire in our choral rehearsals. We are looking forward to continuing our further exploration of the elements of music as we build on steady beat and add melody and form lessons. We are enjoying dramatic movement...

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