the Forest Hills Flyer

September 2024

A Note from the Principal

Forest Hills Families,

The first month of school was a success! Thank you for a great start back to school. We had a HUGE turnout for our Family Night! If you were unable to attend, please be sure to check your email. The slideshow presentations were emailed out earlier this week and contain some great ways to support your child at home.

If you are the parent of a 3rd, 4th, or 5th grader, please be sure to check your child's folder next week (week of Sept. 9th). Students will bring home their ACAP Individual Student Report. This report will detail how your child performed on the ACAP assessment last spring. If you have questions, please contact your child's teacher.

FHS Homecoming Week is upon us! On Thursday, September 12th, the Varsity Cheerleaders, Football Team, & Big Blue Band will visit our campus to lead our students in a Homecoming Pep Rally! You will find further information on this newsletter regarding Homecoming dress up days. All of our students are invited to participate in the dress up days.

With the addition of 5th grade to our campus this year, PTO has some exciting new events planned. I hope all of our families can join us for a night of fun and fellowship at our first ever Back to School Bash on September 19th! A flyer will be sent home this week containing information about the night.

A HUGE thank you to all the families who helped support our fall fundraiser....we surpassed our goal and raised over $50,000!! We are looking forward to purchasing new furniture and flexible seating for our library!

Be on the lookout for information regarding Goodies with Grands and our Fall Book Fair...these are fun events we look forward to each year!

If I can ever be of assistance to you, please call, email, or stop by! GO FALCONS!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Fowler, Principal

#WeAreFalcons

September-ATTENDANCE AWARENESS MONTH

Each September, schools bring awareness to the importance of school attendance. Our goal is for each student to be present 95% or more of the school year. Unless sick, we need your child at school, on time, everyday. Please be sure to read the Attendance Awareness flyer below...it shows you the impact that missing just a few minutes or hours can have on your child's education.

This year, we will recognize students each nine weeks who have maintained attendance of 95% or better. Students will receive a treat from Texas Roadhouse!

Please note that throughout the year, families will receive written notification if your child is on track to reach chronic absenteeism. Chronic absenteeism is explained below.

EVERY DAY COUNTS!

The Counselors' Corner

Each month Mr. Bradford & Ms. Tittle (better known as "Mr. B & Ms. T") create an awesome newsletter for students and families focusing on our virtue of the month. Families will also hear from students about what's going on at The Hill!

Counselor Information

Please scan the QR code below to learn about all of the support services our counselors offer to students at Forest Hills.

Happenings on The Hill

Kindergarten

Kindergarten will continue working on nursery rhymes in September. When we complete this study we will have our Nursery Rhyme Parade! All kindergarteners may dress up like a character from a nursery rhyme on Friday, September 27th. Families and friends are welcome to come watch at 8:00 in the gym parking lot. We will parade around several times. This is always a fun memory but also helps out students make connections to what has been learned. We will also continue with our letter introduction, phonemic awareness and pre-decodable book reading. In math we will be comparing numbers 0-5, counting to 20, Counting collections, & counting & writing within 10. To help at home please continue encouraging good listening skills, following directions and self care (like in the restroom, cleaning up after themselves, etc.).

1st Grade

Our first-grade students have had a wonderful first month of school, and we can't wait to continue learning and growing together. Our virtue of the month for September is kindness. Our kiddos do an excellent job spreading kindness inside and outside of the classroom. Students have taken their first set of reading and math tests as well as their diagnostics and literacy tasks. These reports should be sent home soon! In reading, first graders are reviewing sounds and spellings and beginning to blend words and sentences. In math, we are working on adding numbers in any order and understanding missing addends. We are so proud of our hard-working students!

2nd Grade

We are off to a great start in 2nd grade! Our students are excited to transition to chromebooks this year as their 1:1 device. Second graders are learning about "Teamwork" in our reading unit and different strategies to add and subtract in math. This fall we will take a field trip to explore the environment around us. Please continue working on reading the decodable books that are sent home each day and studying spelling and vocabulary words with your child. We are looking forward to a great year!

3rd Grade

We are off to a great start in 3rd grade!

In math, students have been learning about place value, rounding, and adding three-digit numbers. We are beginning to learn about the meaning of multiplication. Please pay close attention to how we present multiplication as equal groups and repeated addition.

In ELA we have been focusing on making inferences, cause and effect, and synonyms and antonyms. Remember that you can access our weekly story through the McGraw Hill app on Clever. Also, don’t forget to read the weekly fluency passage with your child at least three times a week.

We have ordered our class t-shirts and expect them to arrive very soon! We are also planning a field trip for October, so look for more information to come!

4th Grade

The 4th grade students are enjoying their time in the Science Lab. They have been working on Earth Science recently. Students have learned about the different types of rocks and the rock cycle. They have also been studying about rapid changes to the Earth's surface like earthquakes, volcanoes, and landslides. Check out their awesome website: https://sites.google.com/florencek12.org/fhes4thand5thscience/home
We will soon start learning Alabama History. Students will learn valuable map skills to find their place on state, country, continent, and world maps. We will also be learning about our Alabama State Symbols. One of our favorite trips that we look forward to all year is our 4th-grade field trip to our state capital, Montgomery. This trip will be May 9, 2025. Parents, more details will come home soon.

5th Grade

In 5th Grade Reading, we are incorporating Social Studies within our Unit on Perseverance. Students have enjoyed stories about Olympic Gold Medalists and our Nation's first steps on the moon! We are reviewing Grammar concepts including types of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Students have already impressed us with their "text dependent writing" skills each week on our weekly assessments. Please refer to your child's reading home connection letter for reading skills that will be assessed weekly and bi-weekly. In math we are finishing up learning multiplication using the standard algorithm and will then move into division using area model and all things decimals! Students are being organized in 5th grade by writing upcoming test dates on their monthly planners. In science, we are learning about Earth's systems. This includes ecosystems, earth's spheres, biomes, and much more! We have been working on making freshwater ecosystem posters to show how organisms interact with one another in a freshwater environment. Soon, we will receive our first AMSTI kit and we will get to have more hands on learning experiences. We will make a composting jar, observe brine shrimp, grow wheat seeds, and test out our plans for cleaning an oil spill!

Dental Care Resource for Lauderdale County

The Alabama Department Public Health (ADPH) is excited to announce that we have entered into an oral health partnership with Singing River Dentistry-Russellville, AL. Singing River will be providing in-kind preventive dental visits for expectant mothers and children ages 1-17 who are uninsured and/or underinsured. The services provided include radiographs, "cleanings," exams, and treatment plans. Children are also eligible for sealants. There is no cost to the patient.

All the patients have to do is call to make an appointment with the Singing River Dentistry, Russellville office, (256) 460-4191, mention they were referred by ADPH (WIC Dept, etc.), and have the attached dental brochure (flyer) in hand with them at their scheduled appointment.

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NW AL Free Dental, English.pdf

NW AL Free Dental, Spanish.pdf

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UPDATE! Falcon Hub App

Did you know that you have access to our school calendar with all scheduled school events through the Falcon Hub App?! All you need to do is go to settings, follow Forest Hills, navigate to the home screen and tap Calendar!

Falcon Hub App Video