Clinton Township Newsletter

I N O U R S C H O O L S : Su R Scho Cooperating Teacher Excellence Award: We are very proud to support student teachers at Spruce Run School, as this is such an i m p o r t a n t o p p o r t u n i t y t o s u p p o r t n e w teachers and welcome them into the important role of teaching. It is so exciting that two of our first grade teachers, Mrs. Jessica Partridge and Mrs. Heather Stanley have been awarded the Cooperating Teacher Excellence Award at Rider University by their student teacher, Devyn Aguilar and her supervisor Dr. Joan Oley. This award recognizes educators who provided exemplary mentorship to a Rider student teacher. Rider student teachers nominate the award winners for being instrumental in their development as professionals. Rider is proud to recognize the important work teachers do. These individuals have been strong mentors to new teachers, and have made a lasting contribution to the field of education. Rider has historically only chosen one teacher to receive the Cooperating Teacher Excellence Award. They have never chosen an inclusion team before. Both Ms. Aguilar and Dr. Oley thought that Mrs. Partridge and Mrs. Stanley "represented an ideal co-teaching team that beautifully implemented inclusion." They felt that both teachers deserved to be recognized as Devyn's mentor since they function as one. We are very proud of all of our teachers, and are so happy to have Mrs. Partridge and Mrs. Stanley represent our teachers' dedication to all of our students! Paick McGah Scho Ducks Rule at Patrick McGaheran School! The second grade students and teachers at Patrick McGaheran School will spend the month of May awaiting the arrival of ducklings in each of the seven classrooms. Each classroom will monitor eggs in a digital incubator. All of the classes candled* their eggs with an EZ Scope, which enabled the students to see the development of the ducklings inside the eggs without disturbing the eggs themselves. Additionally, students learned many facts about the life-cycle of ducks and more. Students each took a stuffed animal duckling home for an overnight visit. The digital incubators and EZ Scopes were funded by a grant from the Clinton Township Foundation for Educational Excellence. Cultural Arts: A big THANK YOU to the Clinton Township PTA for providing PMG students with an impressive selection of assemblies this spring. Students in both grades were recently treated to an interactive learning experience provided by the Franklin Institute. Students in second grade learned more about "Motion and Machines." The instructor used rubber balls, bricks and wooden blocks to introduce Newton's Laws of Motion. Then students witnessed these laws in action in a lever, pulley and student-driven hover car. Third graders expanded their learning by watching "Life in Space." The show began with a bang as a rocket "launched students into space!" Once there, students entered "astronaut training" to explore the challenges of living and working in space. In April, students saw Huga Tuga, a reading themed assembly. Students were also entertained by Ball in the House, a musical group who "remains committed to being good stewards of respect, positivity and teamwork through fun and acappella music." In May students will view a performance by "Child's Play", a theater group performing skits based on student writing. Round Valley Scho Annual Science Night at RVS! Students and parents both enjoyed a night filled with science activities! There were presenters from RVS, NHHS, local companies and organizations to demonstrate how science is used for fun and in the work force. Students made silly putty, quick froze their own ice pops, worked with robots, took fingerprints and discussed forensics, learned pitching techniques from the Somerset Patriots and Sparkee! There were fitness experts, veterinarians, explanations of hazardous toxins and how to protect yourself from harm. An oil spill cleanup was demonstrated using the latest technology, students planted seeds, took part in the watershed process and identified fingerprint characteristics. Students also examined animal bones and skulls and were able to identify the animal based on their observations. It was a fantastic night! WordMasters Challenge: A team representing Round Valley School achieved Highest Honors in the WordMasters Challenge™, a national vocabulary competition involving nearly 150,000 students. The 5th grade team scored an impressive 186 points of a possible 200 points. They placed 9th in the nation! Rhythm Kumar and Sophia Reich earned a perfect score of 20! Others receiving outstanding results were Leah Kemp, Zach McBride, Kyle McSweeney, Cameron Morgan, and Emma Kemprowski. A big thank you and congratulations to the students, teachers and Mrs. Sielaff, our Enrichment teacher, who worked so hard to reach this achievement! Round Valley Talent Show! Talent galore from students and staff at Round Valley School. The talent show highlighted talents including singing, playing musical instruments, dancing, performing gymnastics and just providing a night of entertainment for all! Stock Market in 6th Grade! On April 10, students in Mrs. Comly and Mr. Greco's classes completed participation in the nationwide Stock Market Game contest. Round Valley teams participated over a 4-month period and competed against 400+ middle school teams from throughout the State. Students form teams and are given a fictional $100,000 to invest. Each week students could make changes to their portfolio by buying and selling stocks. It was a great learning experience that taught math, teamwork skills and financial literacy. Two RVS parents from the financial world, Mr. Michael Kravec and Mr. Paul Holder, came in to speak with the students, offering advice and recounting their experiences from Wall Street. This year was a first for RVS as two teams placed in the top 20 (out of 438 teams). Some of the top finishers were Thomas Ashby and Joseph Fiorentino in 14th place, Andrew Fielding, Andrew Shore, and Skyler Soltesz in 20th place, Brendon Menzak and Greg York in 31st place. Also placing as top finishers were Noah Stockwell and Zachary Rosenberg, Alicia Chapman, Claire Kuo and Katarina Webb. Congratulations to all! •t• To•hip Midd• Scho THANK YOU! Many thanks to the Clinton T o w n s h i p F o u n d a t i o n f o r E d u c a t i o n Excellence and ExxonMobil for their generous grants for robotics equipment. The 8th grade in Mrs. Waddell's class has begun building and programming their robots. The robotics curriculum develops and enhances many crucial skills such as creativity, innovation, problem solving and critical thinking. We are extremely grateful to all who contributed and made this possible. Enrichment: The students of Clinton Township Middle School and Round Valley School students collected over 600+ food items, with a total of 1,032 pounds donated to the Open Cupboard Food Pantry! Our annual enrichment trip to the Gettysburg National Park is on Tuesday, May 26. We will visit the museum, have a tour of the battlefields and visit the town and national cemetery. The Annual Hunterdon Film Festival and Competition will be held on June 4 at CTMS! Students from area middle schools will compete by making short documentary films on their choice of topics. Good luck to our contestants! * Candling is a method used in embryology to study the growth and development of an embryo inside an egg. The method uses a bright light source behind the egg to show details through the shell, and is so called because the original sources of light used were candles.

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