April 7, 2014
It’s hard to believe that it’s April already! We are beginning to sense that the end of the year is just around the corner. Everybody continues to work hard to finish the year off on the right foot. With that said, the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (NJ ASK) will begin at the end of the month and will last into the third full week of May, including make-up days. All children are required to participate in the statewide assessment according to N.J.A.C. 6A:8-4.1. In other words, there is no opt-out policy in the state of New Jersey. As always, please be sure your children are well rested and have a good breakfast prior to beginning his/her school day. More information will follow.
Students in grades 1, 2, and 3 had the amazing opportunity to visit with Author Vicki Croke via Skype. The students were able to interact with her and ask some very important questions, such as: What inspired you to become a writer? Why did you decide to write about animals? What will you write about next? When Vicki asked the students, “Who loves to write?” all hands went up! They were even introduced to Nikko, her Irish Wolfhound. The students were enthralled and hopefully inspired to become authors one day themselves! With our close partnership with Rutgers, we are hoping to Skype with science experts in the near future as well.
The students who participated in our young entrepreneur program (TREP$) did an outstanding job to say the least! The April 3rd issue of the Today in Hunterdon news publication had a nice article about the event. Again, authentic learning experiences are the best way to make learning meaningful for our students and that’s just what this program accomplishes. We also had four teams in grades 3 through 8 compete in Destination Imagination (DI) at Ridge High School in Basking Ridge recently. The students worked hard over the past several weeks preparing for the big day. All had fun and learned throughout the experience. A huge thank you goes out to all the volunteers that helped make both programs a success!
As part of our STEM push, we will be hosting our first annual Siemens Science Day! It was originally scheduled for March 25th but Mother Nature had other ideas. It will now be held on April 17th. Representatives from the Siemens foundation will be here to lead the students in a hands-on science activity during two separate times. PreK through 4th grade students will participate in an earth science activity called “Shaky Ground” and our 5th through 8th grade students will participate in a physical science activity called “Hole-in-One.” The website for this foundation was just recently listed on our website under “Highlights.” We are hoping to continue working with Siemens as a partner in education.
Next year, the district is moving toward an online grade book. Over the past several weeks, the teachers have been hard at work revising our school report card. You will see the change take place next year. You will notice at the lower grades that the report cards will be more standards based aligned with the Common Core State Standards.
Enjoy your day!
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