Clinton Township Newsletter

1 5 J u l y 2 0 1 8 Spruce Run School Summer is a time of relaxation, lazy, warm days, and fun with family. Although the next school year seems far in the distance, it is important to help children be ready for the upcoming school year. One of the best ways to do this is to read EVERY DAY! A visit to the library is a fun family event, and an opportunity to check out exciting stories to read together as a family, as well as independent reading opportunities for children. Please be sure to visit your library or local bookstore, and please continue to keep reading every day! Patrick McGaheran School PMG Literacy Teachers' Suggestions for 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 out loud 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. I N O U R S C H O O L S : Round Valley School 6th grade students Ira D. and Abby W. served on the Round Valley School Safety Culture and Climate C o m m i t t e e f o r t h e past school year. One suggestion was to use The CTMS Courtyard Inspiration gARTen! our Words of the Month as hallway 'Street Signs' for students and visitors. We can't wait to hang them up this summer! P M G C o m m u n i t y o f A r t i s t s : T h e Clinton Township F o u n d a t i o n f o r E d u c a t i o n a l E x c e l l e n c e generously funded a g r a n t t h i s y e a r , enabling us to work w i t h a n A r t i s t i n Residence to beautify the school cafeteria. Artist, Dan Fenelon, worked with students to create a beautiful mural that will be enjoyed by students a n d t e a c h e r s f o r years to come! Thank you CTFEE! The teachers and students at Round Valley School have e m b r a c e d P r o b l e m Based Learning which culminated with an a c t i v i t y t o s h o w learning. We are so pleased with the fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students whose project helped to beautify the front o f o u r s c h o o l . Students researched plants that were indigenous to New Jersey, could withstand all weather conditions, and are deer resistant so our four legged friends would not be tempted to eat the plants. Students calculated the area of each plant bed, (there were four plant beds) the number of plants needed, prediction of growth within the area, and the cost of the items. All goals set by these students were met and exceeded. Thank you all! Clinton Township Middle School Stock Market Teams Win Big in 7th Grade! Starting in February, students in Mr. Greco's social studies classes competed in the nationwide Stock Market Game contest. Dozens of teams from CTMS participated along with over 600 middle school teams from throughout the State. Students formed teams and received a fictional $100,000 to invest. Every day students had the opportunity to make changes to their portfolio by buying and selling stocks(based on the real stock market). It has been a great learning experience, teaching math, teamwork skills, financial literacy, and risk management. The winners from CTMS were the team of LT Friend and Ryan Voorhees, (pictured from L to R with their medals). They placed 39th out of over 600 teams in the state, turning their fictional $100k into approximately $104k in just a few short months. Way to go, guys! Congratulations to all of our filmmakers! The Hunterdon Film Festival was held in May, and CTMS students received three out of five trophies! Winning films were– Honorable Mention:Molly McDermott and Olivia Malok, Third Place: Avni Kondra and Madison Morra, First Place: Anneliese Johnson and Keira Morrow. Excellent work, Filmmakers! Inspiration GARTen: Our Inspiration Courtyard GARTen is open, and we have a beautiful path of student made mosaic stepping stones! We also have our fountain installed, which was the PTA Class of 2018 graduation gift! Thank you to Ms. Cormican, Ms. Lindaberry and the art students for painting the bench and creating the ART in our gARTen! Special thanks to Ayden Brickell and Joe Mazuca for all your help, too! CTMS Retirements: We wish a sad goodbye to six of our veteran Clinton Township Middle School staff members who are the fabric of Clinton Township Middle School. Jean Baxter, sixth grade English language arts teacher, Grace Balog, Spanish teacher, Michele Beha, school nurse, Ellen Jacobsen, physical education and health teacher, and Victor Samit, CTMS night custodian. We wish them well as they embark on the next chapter and new adventures in their lives. We will miss you. Thank you for your years of service to the students of the Clinton Township School District.

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