Clinton Township Newsletter

1 5 J u n e 2 0 1 7 I N O U R S C H O O L S : Rd V Scho Su R Scho Rd V Scho Round Valley School's sixth grade Law Fair students were honored by the Hunterdon County Bar Association for winning second place in the New Jersey State Bar Foundation's Law Fair Competition! Students were honored at the Historic Hunterdon County Courthouse in Flemington. Their mock trial case, "Slot Slip Up: Winn vs Lucky Casino," centered around a minor getting lost in a casino, accidently roaming into the adult casino and winning the jackpot playing "Wheel of Fortune." Students researched laws and the judicial system, created a script and will be performing their case in front of a judge and other students, who will serve as jurors, at the Law Center in New Brunswick. Retirees from Round Valley School: We're happy for the three wonderful people who are retiring from Round Valley School in the Clinton Township School District. Their dedication to our students and staff is to be commended, we wish them all the best in their upcoming journey! Patty Buongiorno: School Secretary, Renee Sielaff: Enrichment Teacher and Rich Hoffman: School Custodian! Best of luck to you all! t Tohip Midd Scho STEM is alive and well at CTMS! Students participated in two challenging events this past month. Students in Robotics club participated in the Middle School Technology and Design Challenge held at Bridgewater Middle School and had an outstanding showing! The team of Michael Patuto and Justin Shapiro came in first place in the Lego Only Sumo challenge, with Team Dankbot, consisting of Daniel Elwell, Sumanta Das and William Toledo coming in second place. In the Water Bottle Flip challenge, Danielle Miceli's robot flipped the water bottle and landed it on its cap in her first trial. Her robot took runner up in the competition, though it was the only robot to flip the bottle in the true spirit of "Bottle Flipping" - not just pushing it! We are very proud of her hard work and persistence on this original, difficult challenge. Additionally, 30 students also participated in the Junior Solar Sprints Competition at CTMS, building their own Solar Cars from scratch and racing under the power of the sun. Four teams will be moving on to the Regional Race on May 15 at Great Meadows Middle School: The "Steamy Faucet" team of Connor Belica, Ishaan Dey, and Nick Hoyer; "The Thing" team of John Giovanucci and Jake Waddell, The "Honey Badger" Team of Matt Metzger and Patrick Schroeck, and the car "BackTrack" by Danielle Miceli. Runners up were "Robin" built by Garrett Gonzalez-Rivas and "Spicy 5000" built by Collin Keith, Sumanta Das, Alex O'Neill and Alex Valendo. All of the teams should be commended for their hard work and perseverance! On Tuesday, May 2, a group of CTMS 7th graders attended the EXXON ENERGY EXPO at their research center located in Annandale. The students had a wonderful time learning about wind, solar and electrical energy. They participated in some hands on activities and toured the energy conservation & generation plant. Thank you, EXXON! Each year the New Jersey Bar Foundation sponsors a student mock trial competition. The CTMS team, Hilton v. Rolling Pines Rehabilitation Center won second place! They turned their case brief into a mock trial and performed at the Law Center in front of a judge and jury. The Annual Hunterdon Film Festival is held at CTMS every May. Students from area middle schools are invited to make a 4-6 minute documentary on a topic of their choice. This year's festival was held on Tuesday, May 23. Check back next month for the winning films and filmmakers! Round Valley's Sixth Grade Lawfair Team: Angelo Aralar, Patrick Kochanowski, Avni Kondra Rahul Battula, Mrs. Sielaff, Danica Chakroborty, Max Delia, Jack Guan, Janie McSweeney, Kylie McSweeney, Anokhi Matta and Attorneys who helped us celebrate! Su R Scho Problem Based Learning at SRS: Students are benefiting from our teachers' study and implementation of Problem Based Learning or PBL at Spruce Run School. PBL is a student-centered approach to teaching, in which students learn about a subject through the experience of solving an open-ended problem, with the ultimate goal of helping students to develop skills that prepare them to be ready for college, career, and life, and have fun at the same time! First graders are participating in activities related to zoo animals in all special area and first grade classrooms, while focusing upon the question, "Why do we have zoos?" Students researched different animals in the library and classroom, completed exercises including animal movements in Physical Education, learned the Spanish names of animals, created artwork related to animals, learned map skills in Enrichment, created google docs based upon research and presented their documents in Technology. The activities culminated in the First Grade chorus concert with a zoo theme, and at Arts Fest where students shared their paintings and drawings of animals. Students also visited the Makerspace to create animal enclosures, all while considering the ethical nature of zoos. Paick McGah Scho Preventing the "Summer Slide" : We all look forward to the relaxing days of summer but it's important that families still set time aside for learning. Here are some fun ways to help children avoid summer regression. Reading is a great summer activity. Using the extra time available for reading can help to strengthen fluency and comprehension. Children should be encouraged to read for a minimum of 15-20 minutes each day. Summer reading activities could include going to the public library to check out books of interest or books for any summer reading groups a child may join. Books on CDs are a great way to pass the time during long car trips and reading aloud with a child is a great bonding experience. Children should also continue to work on math facts. There are many websites that can be used or families can simply practice facts while riding in the car. Children can help with recipes or budgeting and calculating during shopping trips, both of which increase mathematical know-how. There are many opportunities for summer writing. Children can send postcards from destinations, write letters to friends and family or keep a summer journal to memorialize their fun. They can also practice creative writing or answer prompts about their summer activities. Parents can help children with revising and editing. Working on capitalization, punctuation and spelling is a basic way to start. When September arrives families will be thankful that they helped their child be prepared, confident and ready to start the school year in a new grade- level. School Nurse, Lynne DiLeo, Retires from PMG: PMG's beloved school nurse, Mrs. Lynne DiLeo, will be retiring at the end of the school year. Mrs. DiLeo began working in the Clinton Township School District at Spruce Run School in 1998. She moved to PMG in Fall of 2007 as the district expanded to four schools. While at PMG, Mrs. DiLeo has been a leader in the health and wellness of students and staff. She encourages each student to be responsible, independent, kind and healthy. Mrs. DiLeo helps facilitate programs in fire safety, dental health, hygiene, healthy eating, handwashing and using good manners. In 2007 Mrs. DiLeo was recognized as Teacher of the Year. She was nominated many additional times. When her current students were asked what they like best about Mrs. DiLeo, they shared: "She appreciates everyone and is helpful and encouraging", "She helps me when I'm hurt", "She understands kids and knows how to cheer us up." Mrs. DiLeo will be sorely missed by students, colleagues and families. We wish her health and happiness in her new ventures!

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