NEWS FROM THE BERKELEY HEIGHTS PUBLIC SCHOOLS MARY KAY MC MILLIN EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER

Residents of the Atria Senior Living Center in Cranford recently visited the Mary Kay McMillin Early Childhood Center to read with the First Grade classes. The children loved having visitors and the activity was enjoyed by all. We plan on another visit in the very near future.

Students from the Strategies for Living Class at Governor Livingston High School also visited the Early Childhood Center earlier this month. The high school students read the book "Caps for Sale," made a monkey craft, and played "How many hats can you hold?" with the kindergarten students. In the Grade 1 classrooms, the GLHS “big kids” interacted with the children and assisted teachers with ongoing projects. The Governor Livingston students enjoyed walking the hallways and reminiscing about their days at the former Early Childhood Center at Hamilton Terrace!

THOMAS P. HUGHES SCHOOL Thanks to the ongoing generosity of the Thomas P. Hughes School PTO, our In-Class Professionals committee was able to bring “Mad Science” to the school to visit all Grade 3 classrooms. This group of professional scientists helped the students to build their own electrical circuits while learning about open and closed circuits, insulators, conductors, and static electricity. In addition, the students learned important safety rules for working with electricity. This activity tied in very well with their recently-completed Science unit in class and was well received by all.

MOUNTAIN PARK SCHOOL

The Grade 4 students from Mountain Park School made Rainbow Loom bracelets during their lunchtime in order to raise money for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. The students raised a total of $205. Thank you to all the students and parents who donated to this worthy

cause… and thank you, Fourth Graders, for all the hard work and time you put into this effort! ****************************************************************** Students in Mrs. Sherry Butler’s Grade 4 class held their first writing celebration of the school year earlier this month. All the parents, grandparents and staff members who attended this event were quite impressed with the childrens' stories and oral presentation skills. Refreshments were served and a good time was had by all.

MOUNTAIN PARK SCHOOL (continued)

Kathleen Bolton (standing, center), a member of the staff at Trailside Museum and Nature Center in Mountainside, recently spent time with Grade 5 students at Mountain Park School to discuss the benefits and necessities of recycling.

She explained the long-term environmental impact that recycling can have upon our Earth as well as the importance of protecting our world’s precious resources. This was an exciting way to review the concepts taught in a recent Science unit while providing an even deeper understanding of environmental topics. Ms. Bolton’s enthusiasm and passion made for an exciting lesson as the students were captivated by her dynamic personality. We look forward to having “Ms. Kat” back to share her wealth of knowledge with our children in the future. Thank you to the Mountain Park School PTO for its generosity in sponsoring this presentation and offering yet another opportunity to connect our classroom with real-world issues; in this case, demonstrating how each child can make a difference.  

WILLIAM WOODRUFF SCHOOL William Woodruff School’s Grade 5 Student Council candidates recently spent a week campaigning with posters and signs to let the student body know about each of them. The student body had the opportunity to find out more about each candidate’s background, involvement in the school, and plans for the future during the Student Council Election Day Assembly. Each of the thirteen candidates vying for office gave a speech. The students listened attentively to each of the speeches and then returned to their classrooms to cast votes for each of the Executive Board positions. The 2013-2014 Woodruff School Grade 5 Student Council officers are (pictured above, from left): Allison Knapp, Treasurer; Desmond Lam, Secretary; Jack Grannelli, Vice President; and Nick Tarabokia, President.  

WILLIAM WOODRUFF SCHOOL (continued)

The desire to help others was evident at William Woodruff School recently as the students and staff collected over 10 boxes of food to help local needy families at Thanksgiving. This annual food drive is conducted in conjunction with the Junior League of Summit. The generosity of Woodruff students and staff members helped ensure a wonderful feast for families needing some extra support during the holidays.            

******************************************************************    The history of Thanksgiving was definitely on the minds of Woodruff Grade 3 students as they read and studied about the plight of the Pilgrims by reading the novel, The Pilgrims First Thanksgiving. The students wrote about the struggles and successes that faced the Pilgrims in search of religious freedom. A re-enactment of the first Thanksgiving served as the culminating experience for the students. The students, dressed in Native American and Pilgrim attire, sat down for a feast of school-made butter and soup along with cornbread and cheese to make the feast complete.

COLUMBIA MIDDLE SCHOOL Members of the Science Club at Columbia Middle School recently put on their winter gloves and created individual orders of ice cream by using common ingredients found around the house.

Under the direction of Mrs. Christina Froehlich, CMS Science Teacher and club advisor, the students assembled a combination of cream, sugar, ice and salt before shaking the concoctions into a frosty dessert.

More than a few students were successful in creating a small dish of ice cream, while others were happy to settle for milk “shakes.”  

 

COLUMBIA MIDDLE SCHOOL (continued) The Columbia Middle School Drama Club had a very busy season during the autumn months. Students were able to practice a variety of skits in

preparation for auditions held earlier this month for this year’s mainstage production. A unique feature of this year’s activities was the opportunity students had to perform “Treed,” a play written by Hal Corley, the husband of Drama Club advisor Diane Corley. “Treed” is a one-act play of featuring three characters, each of whom play ornaments on a

Christmas tree (pictured above). Students shared that it was “awesome” working with Mr. Corley in “Treed,” an award- winning play that has been performed across the country. Students were also able to choose from any of their favorite plays in order to perform during the club’s fall “showcase of talent,” prior to auditioning for a part in the CMS spring presentation of “Charlotte’s Web.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COLUMBIA MIDDLE SCHOOL (continued)

Be it a mock debate in Eighth Grade Social Studies, cooking up a snack in World Language Clubs, offering a musical

break to the staff in the Main Office, or parading around as our new Tiger mascot, the students of Columbia Middle School remind us each day how their individual interests are what make CMS such a wonderful place to be. Happy Holidays and best wishes for a wonderful Winter Break from the entire Columbia Middle School community!

GOVERNOR LIVINGSTON HIGH SCHOOL “Is Our Constitution Still Relevant?” Yes, says Kira Mathias-Prahbu, a Governor Livingston High School Senior who took seventh place out of 50,000 nationwide entries in the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Voices of Democracy Patriotic Audio Essay Competition. Kira had already earned first place honors in the local, district and state competitions before moving on to Washington D.C., for the national competition. In recognition of her outstanding achievement, Kira received a certificate and a $3,000 scholarship, which was presented to her by Joseph McCourt, the Voice of Democracy chair for VFW Post 10122. Present at the awards ceremony were Kira’s mother, Nirupa Mathias-Prabhu, Governor Livingston Principal Scott McKinney, District Social Studies Supervisor Stephen Hopkins, and six representatives from the VFW.

In addition to Kira’s individual honors, a plaque was presented to Governor Livingston High School, as well as to Berkeley Heights Post 6259 recognizing the Berkeley Heights School District’s support of the VFW and its Voice of Democracy competition.          

 

 

 

GOVERNOR LIVINGSTON HIGH SCHOOL (continued)

Congratulations to Governor Livingston High School Seniors Ipsita Chatterjee (left) and Rachel Zhu (right), who recently earned perfect scores and won highest honors in this year’s WordWright Challenge, a national

literature competition for high school students. Participating with 596 school teams from across the United States, Governor Livingston placed 12th in the nation in the year’s first meet, which was held in October. Out of the 69,000 individual participants, only 32 high school seniors – including Ipsita and Rachel - in the entire country earned perfect scores. Governor Livingston’s participation in this challenge was made possible through a GLHS PTO grant awarded to the English Department Faculty. Best of luck to our GL students in the three additional WordWright competitions that are scheduled throughout the remainder of the 2013-2014 school year.  

DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL SERVICES The iPads are out in full force at Governor Livingston High School! In Biology, Mrs. Lisa Ketcherick’s students are using a "cell" app to review the parts of the cell. In English, her students have taken a quiz using the Socrative app while her Academic Strategies students have created a resume using Pages. Mrs. Shirlane Yannuzzi is using the iPad with her classes for vocabulary and flashcards. Her students are researching authors for a non-fiction unit and will be researching poetry terms and creating a presentation with interactive links for their classmates. In classes taught by Ms. Christine DiNoia and Mrs. Marcy Helmstetter, students have used the Socrative to take a quiz and to download the Promethean Flipcharts from First Class. In Ms. DiNoia’s English classes, the students used the iPads to create a soundtrack for The Catcher in the Rye, choosing songs that represent the book, its events and Holden as a character. The students used the Quickmark app to link to an anticipation/reaction guide in Google Docs where the students' responses get organized in the document for future reference. The students also used the iPads to complete an internet scavenger hunt about life in the 1930s and the life of John Steinbeck for the Of Mice and Men unit. Ms. DiNoia will soon be teaching students the different ways they can annotate a text using the iBooks app. The annotations can include underlining, highlighting and inserting a sticky note. They can also bookmark pages and use the text-to-speech feature. In history classes taught by Mrs. Lisa Wasser-Berlin, students use the iPads to read primary source material and look up vocabulary words they don't understand. They are experimenting with note taking apps, including Popplet and Evernote. E-books, now available through the IMC, were used for a Civil Rights project, creating a less intimidating way for students to access material. Students have used the ShowMe app to create a timeline of key events leading up to the Civil War. ShowMe has also been useful in analyzing historical pictures and cartoons, allowing teachers to highlight items they are discussing. Finally, students have used the Videolicious app to create a one- minute movie of post-Revolutionary War America.

DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL SERVICES (continued) In the Academic Strategies classes taught by Ms. Jeannette Franzone, students have been using the iPad to teach students certain apps to help with organization and study skills, such as Quizlet. This app allows students to create flashcards and study using the interactive flashcards, testing themselves or playing a memory game. This app also allows students to use the cards for their World Language classes, specifying English to Spanish or Spanish to English. The app has almost every language a student would need.

In many classes, students downloaded the Flashcards+ app and created flash cards to study for upcoming tests in their content area classes. The app also takes the information from the flash cards and makes a multiple choice test, true/false test, and a memory game that the students can use to quiz themselves. The next meeting of the Special Education Parent Advisory Committee (SEPAC) will be at 1:00 pm on Wednesday, January 8, 2014, in the second floor conference room of the Clausen Administration Building.

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Enjoy the Holiday Season! May the New Year be filled

with Joy!!!