Clinton Township Newsletter

1 5 n o v e m b e r 2 0 2 0 greetings, numbers, colors and the alphabet. In Health and PE, students are practicing routines while learning about wellness, vision and kindness. Every Monday morning, students are invited to participate in a live workout! We look forward to the exciting learning opportunities throughout the autumn and into winter. ClintonTownship Middle School The Enrichment Program at CTMS has gone virtual! Students choose to enroll these extra programs for extra challenge opportunities. While not all of our programs are possible in the new hybrid learning format, we still have many students who elected to participate! In the mock trial program, sponsored by the New Jersey Bar Foundation, we have four groups this year! This is a competition where the students learn about courtroom law and write an original, balanced court case. Last spring we had two first place teams, and the students are motivated to repeat that success! WordMasters, the national word analogy competition, is going strong with three teams (one per grade level) already diving in to the new "gold division" list. Poetry Club has many returning poets and many new members. Congratulations to Estefanie Valez and Faye Fletcher, who submitted poems to the national student poetry competition. Both young poets are now published! Academic competitions will be held virtually, including Continental Math League, Spelling Bee and the National Geographic Geography Bee. Our School Council has over 30 students from all three grade levels, who are determined to make this "new normal" as enjoyable and memorable as possible! Join the CTMS Virtual Book Club! Our book selection is Wishtree by Katherine Applegate. Audio recordings will be posted to Google Classroom which students can listen to at their convenience. Discussion "meets" will be scheduled once the group is established. Wishtree is an uplifting story of friendship and h o p e – e n c o m p a s s i n g themes of diversity, inclusion, acceptance, and forgiveness. U l t i m a t e l y , i t i s a s t o r y w h e r e i n r e s i l i e n c e a n d compassion triumph and one which reminds us of our common humanity. Students can view t h e W i s h t r e e s l i d e p r e s e n t a t i o n i n their Library Google C l a s s r o o m f o r a preview of the book a n d e m a i l M r s . Zaleski if they would like to participate or have any questions. Patrick McGaheran School Parent/Teacher Conferences are approaching at the beginning of November. Studies have shown that children whose parents are involved in their education do better in school. Parent-teacher conferences are one way to get involved. Every time a parent/guardian attends a parent-teacher conference, we all learn more about your child and strengthen the bond between home and school. We are looking forward to collaborating with our families during the conferences, and throughout the school year! Week of Respect - The Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act (P.L. 2010, c.122) required that the week beginning with the first Monday in October of each year be designated as a "Week of Respect" in New Jersey. During this week each school in our district recognized the importance of character education, and observed the week by providing age-appropriate instruction focusing on preventing harassment, intimidation or bullying (HIB), and deepening our understanding of the power of respect. At Patrick McGaheran School, we address the social growth of children through use of the Responsive Classroom approach. The school lives by three basic social guidelines that strike at the core of life for children and staff at PMG: Take care of yourself Take care of others Take care of the environment We hope that you are able to take some time to explore our website: www. pms.CTSDNJ.org, and learn more about our school and district. I am happy to help you in any way; if I can be of assistance, please reach out to our school! We look forward to working in partnership with you to help your child to learn and grow. – Sincerely, Melissa Goad, Principal Round Valley School At Round Valley, staff and students are adjusting to the hybrid and virtual learning environments. Classes remain busy places with students learning synchronously in school, home and other locations. This learning format is an adjustment for everyone, and we so appreciate the support of our entire school community. For our third grade students, this experience is different than the spring, as they each have their own Chromebook to use. Third graders have been incorporating technology into all of their lessons. They have been patient, tenacious, and respectful learning online. They are learning about rural, urban, and suburban communities and using map features to identify landforms and locations. Third graders are also using varied strategies to solve multi-digit addition equations. They are using place value, number lines, estimation, and compatible numbers to add. We are also beginning to review subtraction strategies. These learners are reading and writing personal narratives, learning about the different types of sentences, and incorporating them into our writing. The Unified Arts teachers are excited to share some of the activities they are working on with students. In Art, students are learning about the elements of art and design, through drawing either landscapes or still life drawings in the cubist style. Music classes have been reviewing rhythm, learning about composers, experiencing music through movement and reviewing and learning about musical notes. Students are practicing their Spanish "Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other." ~ Randy Pausch

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