Clinton Township Newsletter

1 4 D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7 www.ClintonTwpNewsletter.com C L I N T O N T O W N S H I P S C H O O L N E W S www.ctsdnj.org I N O U R S C H O O L S : Su R Scho C o n g r a t u l a t i o n s t o f i r s t g r a d e t e a c h e r s Heather Stanley and Jessica Partridge, who are recipients of a recent Clinton Township Foundation for Educational Excellence grant, and special thank you to the CTFEE for funding this grant! The grant will bring various flexible seating options into their first grade classroom. Research has shown that some students benefit from moving while they learn and can be more engaged in learning activities. Some students may have difficulty paying attention and being able to move allows them to sustain their attention for longer periods of time. Physical activity is linked to higher academic performance, better health and behavior. Flexible seating brings physical activity into typical learning activities. The students will use various flexible seating that allows them to use up excess energy, which can result in improved behavior and higher academic achievement. The teachers will add ball chairs and stack stools, as well as soft seat cushions and scoop rockers. Not only does this project promote healthy lifestyles, it enhances the learning place so students can be their best, which will better able our students to access learning! Thank you, CTFEE and Mrs. Stanley and Mrs. Partridge! Our "word of the month" for December at Spruce Run School is "GENEROSITY." Students at Spruce Run School are encouraged to show generosity and are provided with opportunities to be generous and help others, not only in their daily interactions with students and teachers, but also within larger communities, as well. Service projects provide our students with opportunities to work together, learn to solve problems and make decisions that will contribute to their community. In December, students at Spruce Run will join the other Clinton Township School District schools in participating in the Camden Collections Project once again this year to donate holiday items to children in need at a school in Camden, NJ. Families who participate in this project will donate a new item to be wrapped by our students and parent volunteers, and gifts will delivered to the school in Camden in December. Spruce Run students are collecting coloring books and crayons. This is a wonderful opportunity for our students to learn the value of sharing with others! Thank you to our families and staff for all of your support in providing these wonderful learning opportunities for our Spruce Run students. SRS Preschool Program has Afternoon Openings Available! The Clinton Township School District has openings this school year in our exceptional Preschool Program at Spruce Run School! In our inclusive classrooms, with highly trained teachers, typically developing preschoolers learn and play with those students with special needs. This happens in a nurturing, caring and language-enriched environment. All sessions provide a structured learning environment with a focus on play, social skills, language development, fine/gross motor and pre-academic skills. All 3- and 4-year-old children residing in the Clinton Township School District, who are 3-years-old on or before October 1, 2017, are eligible to apply for the program. We currently have openings in the afternoon session from 12:40 pm to 3:10 pm, and the fee is $300 per month to participate. For more information and to receive an application, please call our Department of Special Services at 908.236.6341, ext. 9595. Paick McGah Scho PMG Students Become Typing Agents! Students at Patrick McGaheran are using the keyboarding program, Typing Agent, through technology classes with Miss Napoli. In second grade, students take on a quest to climb the famous K2 Mountain. In order to climb up the mountain, students learn how to type with EGor and the e-minions. Students also receive plenty of typing practice through lessons to reinforce learning. They can view their progress, play fun games and earn badges. Third grade students begin by selecting their avatar (character) and phone cover design (keyboarding lessons and other features displayed). Once entered into the program, students can work on their agent lesson training, view their reports, play fun games and earn badges. In addition, students can see what their rank is (recruit, detective, secret agent all the way to super agent) after each lesson is completed. The fantastic part about this program is that students can use a PC, Mac, iPad, Surface, Chromebook, and Android devices to enter the program! Keyboarding is a very important skill for students as they work toward mastering the NJ Core Curriculum Content Standards in Technology. Winter Happenings at PMG: Word of the Month: Generosity. Each December, students and teachers participate in an all-school morning meeting led by Music Teacher, Erin Repsher. Students and staff gather together in the gym and, after reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and greeting each other, the group joins together to sing festive winter songs. Students who are nominated for their generous actions will be recognized with Friendship Word Awards. Before we leave on winter break, parents join us to help with our Winter Celebrations. Students dress in their pajamas and participate in making a craft and playing winter- themed games. Another exciting December project is now in its 30th year! Each December we ask families to donate gifts for children in Camden. This year we plan to collect picture books and flashlights. A bus full of these and items collected from the other three schools will be delivered to the students in a Camden elementary school. This is a fantastic process that helps students learn about December's Word of the Month; A L e t t e r f r o m Pamela C. Fiander, Ed.D., Superintendent of Schools Dear Clinton Township Community Members: While you probably don't need to hear this from me, particularly at this time of year, life seems to increasingly get busier and busier -- more frenetic and, seemingly at times, just plain overwhelming. It reminds me of the old Ed Sullivan Show, when he would bring out the Plate Spinner. My three brothers and I loved the Plate Spinner. We would watch with eagle-eye focus those spinning plates atop a table in joyful array, secretly hoping that eventually one would slow down, start to teeter, fall, crash, and break! Ah, but the masterful Plate Spinner, at just that critical moment, would jump from one end of the table, race to the other, and keep them all going without any casualties. Back and forth, back and forth, in ceaseless motion without a moment's rest -- for he could not let anything drop. Ever feel like that? I am pretty sure as the holiday season unfolds, "more plates" will be added to your proverbial "table." It's bound to happen. Yet, perhaps for a moment, you can metaphorically put them all down, take a breath, and bestow upon yourself a most precious gift -- TIME. Time to pause. Time to reflect. Time to just be. In Sarah Ban Breathnach's book, SIMPLE ABUNDANCE: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy, she shares this profound expression of what she calls "exquisite grace," and what I call an antidote to perpetual motion. "If, as Herod, we fill our lives with things, and again with things; if we consider ourselves so unimportant that we must fill every moment of our lives with action, when will we have the time to make the long, slow journey across the desert as did the Magi? Or sit and watch the stars as did the shepherds? Or brood over the coming of the child as did Mary? For each one of us, there is a desert to travel. A star to discover. And a being within ourselves to bring to life." — Author Unknown May your holidays bring you abiding grace and abundant gifts of time. – Pamela C. Fiander, Ed.D., Superintendent of Schools

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