Clinton Township Newsletter

I N O UR S SCHOOLS: Spruce Run School Planting the Seeds of Friendship at SRS: Students and teachers at Spruce Run School are continuing our school-wide theme of "Planting the Seeds of Friendship" this winter. Students are learning about how to be a good friend, and how to help others. Our word of the month for January is "courage" and our rainbow color of the month is blue! Students are participating in lessons from "The Bully Busting Curriculum" by the NJ State Bar Foundation. This curriculum focuses on developmentally appropriate levels of teaching students to recognize the difference between bullying and normal conflict, to understand feelings, to recognize the difference between telling and tattling, how to help friends and how to solve normal conflict. We've always used the motto "Take care of yourself, take care of others, and take care of our environment" in our schools and this curriculum helps us to continue to enhance this motto. During the month of January, students will learn about the difference between telling and tattling. They'll learn that when you "tattle" on someone, you're trying to get someone into trouble, and when you "tell" an adult something important, you're trying to get someone out of trouble. This helps students to be a part of our caring school community and take care of each other. Collections for Camden at SRS: For over 20 years, some of the classes within the Clinton Township School District have sent holiday treats to students in need in the Camden area of NJ. This year families at SRS were invited to participate in this service project and donated a new item wrapped by CTSD students. Gifts were delivered to the school in Camden in December. Students at Spruce Run collected coloring books and crayons to donate. This was a wonderful opportunity for our students to learn the value of generosity and sharing with others! We're proud of the kindness and compassion that our students and families show. n P a t r i ck M c g a h e r a n S c h o o l Native American Lessons: Third graders at PMG participated in presentations on the Lenape Native Americans by the educators from Winaking Village at Waterloo. The presentations included many hands on experiences to help students connect with the Lenape. This program was funded by a grant from the Clinton Township Foundation for Educational Excellence. Students used recreated Lenape tools, such as monos and metates for grinding corn, and bear skins to sit on, and more! These activities were designed to promote an understanding of how the Lenape used the world around them to survive, as well as to help students understand the ways in which we are similar to the Lenape. Building Community at PMG: With "Making Friendships Grow" as our PMG school-wide theme this year, positive lessons in life are weaved into our daily routines. Throughout the year we celebrate a new character development word each month. Our December Word of the Month was "Generosity", which we've been practicing through our many in-school programs.  One way children learn about  generosity is by sharing with their class and their friends.  We have many opportunities to share stories, ideas and fun activities. Currently, our school and staff continue to donate to the Sandy relief efforts, military personnel and our local food pantry, children in Camden, as well as taking care of local families in need. Recently, during Physical Education classes we honored the brave members of our military by playing a game called Veterans Tag and learned that the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard make up branches of our military. Turkey Fitness taught us that exercise is not only good for our health, but fun too, especially when you do challenges together. We also danced the Turkey Dance together in our whole-school friendship meeting and viewed student written definitions of friendship from a slide presentation put together for the students by Mrs Collett, the technology teacher. Since this year's theme is one of growing friendships, all students constructed a friendship chain that shared what friendship means to each of us. The chain is decorating our tree in the courtyard. This is a constant reminder that we support each other and continue in our quest to be part of a caring community. All students participated in a fantastic schoolwide assembly, listening to songs written and performed by Grammy nominated songwriter Steve Seskin. The program concluded with the world premiere of the new PMG song, "Where Friendships Grow." Visit Mr. Seskin's website, www.steveseskin.com, to hear it! n Round Valley School Sixth grade science students at RVS visited by Stephanie Stephens, local historian and author of Beneath These Waters, a history of Round Valley. The students, who have been studying the impact of meeting human needs on our local and global environments, learned of the extensive history of the valley before it was converted into the Round Valley Recreational Area and the reservoir it is today. Prior to becoming a reservoir, the valley was home to the Lenape Native Americans and some of the founding fathers of our country, including Robert R. Livingston who served on the committee of five that wrote the Declaration of Independence. Mrs. Stevens also spoke to the students about the many Hunterdon farmers and families displaced from their land in the process of building the reservoir, how the decision was reached to build it in our community, and shared details of the construction. The students plan to continue their study of Round Valley through examination of historical maps and interviews with former valley residents; a spring site study is also planned. We've got spirit yes we do, how about you? Every Friday at RVS our students have a spirit day! The students create and vote on the spirit day choices each month. On December 7, we started a new spirit day of Duct Tape Day. Students were very creative designing, shirts, dresses, hats, ties and so much more! The Reading Olympics is about to begin and the students are excited to start reading!  Round Valley School participates in the North Hunterdon Region Reading Olympics where we compete against teams from the county. Students form teams and choose from 35 books–10 to 12 of them–and then become experts on each book. Teams meet several times to quiz each other on the books in preparation for the competition.  At competition, very specific and detailed questions are posed to the teams, testing their memories and comprehension of the book.  We're looking forward to this event and the competition in April! School Council has held two very successful fundraisers this year.  In October, they held their annual "Wear Pink Day." The students and teachers raised $575 for Breast Cancer research. In December, School Council joined with our school-wide service project by having a "Bucks for Books" drive. The goal was to raise money to provide 160 students a book for the holidays. School Council handed out unique Team-RVS bookmarks to those who donated a dollar or more. n C l i n to n T ow n s h i p M i d d l e S c h o o l The Student Council Hurricane Sandy Survivor's Drive was a huge success, thanks to all of the CTSD schools! Our community came together and donated a truckload of supplies and hundreds of dollars worth of gift cards to help the people of Toms River. Thank you for your compassion and generosity! J After a month of practicing, developing strategy and learning to work as a team, the 8th grade Knowledge Masters competed in the National Team Competition in a grueling 2 hour contest. The 15 students earned a score of 1365, and are awaiting our state and national placement. Go team! a n u a r y 2 0 1 3 The American Cancer Society Relay for Life Committee is planning our 2013 Relay! Mark your calendars: Friday, Feb. 22 from 6-9. Join a team, start a team, or donate to your favorite relay member at:  http://relay.acsevents.org/site/ TR?fr_id=53399&pg=entry. Email Ms. Cormican today to help: dcormican@ctsd.k12.nj.us 9

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