Welcome to Hillwood

For new students, welcome! We want to give some highlights about what happened this year:

September

In September, we had a fun start to the school. Last years 4th graders moved upstairs and into 5th grade.

October

In October, the 4th graders and lower went to the pumpkin patch. The 5th-8th graders went to City Hall to help pass a law to make McDonalds sell healthier Happy Meals. The 5th-8th graders also went to a math play.

November

In November, we went to the San Jose Tech Museum.

December

In December, we had a winter talent show and winter break.

January

In January, we came back to school from winter break and 2011 began!

February

In February, we had book orders.

March

In March, we had a Pajama Day where we can come to school one day in our pajamas.

April

In April, we had picture day. We also had no school on Good Friday. We had spring break too! Also, we had a field trip to Beauty and the Beast at Mercy High School. The 2nd-6th graders went too.

May

Now its May and its Teacher Appreciation Week. Also, we had the school's annual Walk-a-Thon, a fund raiser where students walk from Hillwood to Crissy Field and back.

By Angela and Anya

Field Trips

Our first field trip that was good

was The Exploratorium . It was good because our class went to a big maze called the Tactile Dome. In the Tactile Dome it was crazy because 1 it was dark,2 it was pretty big,3 and it had a lot of objects around the wall.

The second field trip that was good was watching Percy Jackson and the Olympians The Lightning Thief. It was a good movie in my opinion. We watch this movie because we are going to read The Odyssey and the movie

has some simularty.

The third field trip that was good was going ice skating going to the Deyoung. It was pretty good because learned a lot about King Tut. At ice skating people were getting crazy skating around the ice rink.

This picture is the movie poster of Percy Jackson. This was a movie that we saw.

By Brandon

Field Trip Highlight: The Zeum

The Zeum is a place where you and your family could go to have fun, and work on fun little creative projects. One project that I worked on with my class on a field trip earlier this week was with clay animation. What you did was, make a couple clay figures, and take many, many pictures of them doing something. When you play them all at once, it looks like they are moving all by themselves. You could also make a music video of yourself and friends singing your favorite song, with a back round of your choice. After, if you want to keep it, they could burn it all into one disc.


The above video clip is an example of the clay animation from the Zeum.

Upper-Graders Head to City Hall

On Monday, November 16, the upper-graders of Hillwood went on a field trip to San Francisco's City Hall. We toured this majestic dome learning about its history, looking at valuable objects and artifacts, and found out facts about San Francisco that we never knew before.

Some things that are memorable include the San Francisco flag, city flower, and the architecture. Most of the walls with designs were handcrafted and made from wood from Manchuria.

Brigette and I also learned about the San Francisco flag. On the flag, it has a phoenix emerging from the fire standing for the 1906 earthquake. On it, there are also the Spanish words: "Oro en Paz - Fierro en Guerra." When translated, it means "Gold in Peace, Iron in War."

Our city flower is the Dahlia. Its color and beauty symbolizes the life of San Francisco and the spirit of the people who live within the city.

And that was our field trip!

For some history about City Hall, read last week's post previewing our trip.

Photo of students: Ms. Woods
Photo of flag and building by Brigette and Irene

Photo of Dahlia is from the San Francisco Dahlia Dell.

City Hall in Pictures

These photos highlight our tour to City Hall on Monday, 11/16/09. I think the most interesting aspect of the building was the amazing detail of the architecture, it gives a sort of 'Renaissance' feel to it.

By Brigette

Our Upcoming City Hall Field Trip!

On Monday, November 16, we are going to go on a field trip to City Hall. This trip will be part of our social studies lesson.

City Hall, located in San Francisco, California, was opened in the 1800s but then damaged by the 1906 earthquake. It was restored in December of 1915 and is now the fifth largest dome in the world. Numerous couples have married at City Hall but the most famous is Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio.

The Board of Supervisors are there to help discuss problems with their districts. Our district supervisor is Michela Alioto-Pier, and she also manages the Catheral Hill neighborhoods, Cow Hollow neighborhoods, Presideo Hill neighborhoods, and some others.

The City Administrator is Edwin Lee and he was appointed by Mayor Gavin Newsom. His responsibility is to manage all the policies and regulations made by the Mayor, board of supervisors, and voters.

And last but not least, Mayor Gavin Newsom! Mayor Gavin Newsom works from day-to-day to "chair the city council" and governs, specifically, San Francisco.

Picture Credit: Google Images
Sources: Wikipedia, The City Hall Website, Sfgate.com

40th Anniversary Celebration Weekend

This weekend is the 40th anniversary of the Exploratorium. The upper-graders went on a field trip to the Exploratorium last week.

This upcoming weekend the people who made all those amazing inventions we saw will actually be there. From 10.am to 5.pm there will be many bubble activities. You can also see someone do a trans dissection of a cow eye. At 11.am to 4.pm you can take a tour behind the scenes on History and art.

Here is a list of all the weekend events.



The above photos, from the Exploratorium, are pictures of the tactile dome inside in the light and outside. The tactile dome was a favorite of the field trip.

The Awesome Field Trip

On 9/23/09, the upper graders from Hillwood Academic Day school went on a field trip to the Academy day. First we split our class into three groups. Next the parents and our teacher drive us to the Academy of Science. Later our group arrived at Academy of Science in the front door. Then our class waited in line. Then we went in and we saw a movie called Bugs in 3D. When the movie was done our class split up. I went with my group to the aquarium which was downstairs. At the aquarium we saw a bunch of animals that we saw and animals we never saw. Later we went upstairs and went to see a bunch random science. Finally we went to a diorama of African animal and saw a bunch of real penguins.

By Brandon Wong

Photo credit: Academy of Sciences

A Trip to the Academy of Science

The uppergrade students get to go to the museum. We got there in Mrs. Woods car. the most interesting things there was the rainforest dome, the plastic model of the dinosaur skeleton, t-rex, and the model of the sharp tooth shark.

If I was given an opinion to choose from I'd say "This place is the most spectacular planetarium I've ever been to''. I also liked the little fish there. I really liked the little eel tunnel that had eel garden inside. When entering the museum you see a shark pond which is mixed with other fish. I expected the other fish to be eaten, but I guess they fed the shark well. I hope I go there again.

Visiting the National Archives Nearby

Did you know that there is a National Archive near Hillwood Academic Day School? Most people think that there are only national archives in Washington, D.C., but that is not true. In fact, if you are in a car, there is an archive only 20 or 30 minutes away in San Bruno.

At the archive, you can do a lot of digging. You can find your roots or learn about San Francisco's history, such as the earthquakes and fires. But you will have to make an appointment and go with an adult or your teacher. You have to ask to see anything and the archivists, who are like librarians, will bring you one thing at a time. These things are usually in boxes or big folders, and they are old. You have to be careful with them, and they are not the type of documents that you might expect. They are usually letters and personal things that people owned. There are also a lot of old newspapers.

Anybody can go to the archive, and there were a lot of people there.

Current Event: Upper-Grader Trip to the Academy of Sciences

Student Assignment: Jacob, Brandon

Write a brief story—five sentences—about the upper-graders' trip to the Academy of Sciences.

• Who got to go?
• How did you get there?
• What where the three most interesting things you saw?
• What did you think of the museum?

Remember to include the basics -- also known as the five W's -- of a news story:

• Who
• What
• When
• Where
• Why

Upload three images for this assignment and link to the Academy of Sciences website. You may also write about the website.

A Photo Essay About Our City Hall Trip

Student Assignment: Brigette
Create an Animoto slideshow about the upper-grader trip to City Hall. Use photos from this page or from a photo marked Hillwood on your computers desktop.

You will need to quickly pick photos from the page and then drag and drop them onto your computer. Remember to add a photo credit.

Write an introduction -- at least ten sentences -- to your photo essay.

Remember to pick appropriate music for your video. Remember your audience — your parents, friends, and teachers.

Go to http://animoto.com/

Click on the "Sign In" button in the upper-right-hand corner.
Email: laura_moorhead@mindspring.com
Password: Hillwood

You both will need to pace yourselves with this assignment — do not spend too much time listening to music or selecting images. There will be time to play with the program later.

A Report on the City Hall Field Trip

Student Assignment: Irene

Write a report about the upper-graders' trip to both City Hall and the Exploratorium.

For the City Hall portion, link to the appropriate video and images.

For the Exploratorium story, link to the photos from the art project. Explain how you made these images.

If you have time, let's post your Wikipedia entry about Hillwood.

Upper-Grader Field Trip

Assignment: Rachel & Brandon

Report on the upper graders' field trip last week. Remember to answer the five W's of a news story:

• Who
• What
• When
• Where (be sure to include a little information about the theater)
  
• Why

Also, consider the following:

• How did everyone get to the theater?
• What did you think of the performance?
• Would you recommend the performance to the readers of The Hillwood Herald?
• What were the highlights?
• What was surprising or unexpected from the trip?

Include photos from the Herbst Theater, which you can find here. Remember to credit the photo source in your article.

The Upper Graders Visit City Hall

Student Assignment: Irene

Your assignment is two part: this week you write about the upcoming upper-grader trip to City Hall and next week you report on what actually happened. (You will want to take pictures for your article. You may even use the Flip camera to interview your subject if that it all right with Ms. Woods.)

As part of your preview this week, tell readers what City Hall is, a bit about its history, what happens in it, and who of note works in it. Also, who will you be meeting with and why?

Use images and information about the site from the following websites. Remember to credit any sources that you use.

• Look at City Hall's official website
• Look at the Wikipedia entry