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Hilltop Elementary opens its doors to parents
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Tom Scurich, music teacher at Hilltop Elementary School, greeted students and their parents at the school’s open house Sept. 30.
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The Hilltop PTO held its Canfield Cardinals spirit wear sale, which included various Cardinals apparel and school supplies at the school’s open house Sept. 30.
By ABBY SLANKER
The halls at Hilltop Elementary School were filled with students and their parents as the school held its annual open house Sept. 30. Parents were invited to spend the evening visiting their children’s classrooms and meeting their teachers.
“We love celebrating families. We are able to create the best learning environments for the children because we view our parents as our partners. It was wonderful to see the excitement in the eyes of the children as they shared everything they are learning in school. Activities like open houses provide an opportunity for us all to share in their enthusiasm,” said Cathy Mowry, Hilltop Elementary School principal.
In addition to visiting their classrooms, students were encouraged to give their parents a tour of the school, including the cafeteria, gym, computer room, music room, art room and library, and give them an idea of how they spend the school day.
Artwork the students made in class decorated the walls of the hallways, including pictures welcoming parents to the school and get-to-know-you mock newspaper front pages on which students wrote a newspaper article about an important event in their lives, drew pictures of themselves and described their heroes and more.
Teachers welcomed the parents into their classrooms, answered any questions and gave the students a chance to show their parents around the room.
Doug Dawson, a fourth-grade teacher at Hilltop, even organized a scavenger hunt around his classroom for parents and children to complete together. The scavenger hunt included clues for the parents to follow which led to specific areas of the classroom, including the computer station, the student job board and the reading corner.
The clues even led each family to a jar of jellybeans, where everyone was encouraged to pick their favorite flavor. The hunt started at the students’ desks and ended up with meeting Dawson and him taking a picture of each family.
As a fundraiser, the Hilltop PTO held its Canfield Cardinals spirit wear sale, which included various Cardinals apparel and also offered Cardinals school supplies such as book covers, pencils and rulers.