Originally the district report card date was changed from November 19th to today, November 16th. The date was then changed back to the 19th. It has come to my attention that there has been some confusion about this. Report cards will come home on the 19th. I apologize for any confusion.
We have a phenomenal staff here at Cucinella. They go above and beyond for their students each day. Many of them continue to go above and beyond outside of schools as well. At the end of last school year I posted a few things about staff members volunteering their time outside of school. They do not like to “toot their own horns,” but I can’t help doing so.
One of my posts had to do with Mrs. Penza taking a trip to help people in Haiti. When I saw this video, I just had to share. Mrs. Penza YOU ROCK!
On Friday, October 30, 2009, the students of Cucinella School will be permitted to dress up in costume for Halloween. Individual teachers at the different grade levels have made plans to celebrate in various ways. Aside from these plans, parades will be held as follows (weather permitting):
9:30 AM AM Kindergarten
12:45 PM PM Kindergarten and Grade 1 through Grade 5
Parents are invited to come to observe and take pictures at the outdoor parade. Students will exit the side door and march around to the front of the building where they will pause for a photo op. I ask you to cooperate with us in the following way:
1. Parents, please do not come into the building. Obviously, there will not be enough room for everyone. If it does happen to rain, the parade will be cancelled.
2. I also ask that all parents plan to leave the school grounds immediately after the parade. This will be necessary to allow the school buses entrance for dismissal.
3. Please be considerate; do not double park, and do not block other cars. Feel free to use the bus loop for overflow parking.
4. Students should not wear their costumes to school. Costumes should be of the nature that they can be put on and taken off easily in the classroom. Also, there should be no play guns, knives, swords, etc. brought to school on this day.
5. Please remember that in accordance with district policy and federal law, no candy should be dispensed during school time.
Your cooperation in these matters will make this day an enjoyable experience for all involved.
We have received notification, that a student enrolled at Cucinella has the flu. The student was swabbed and confirmed with influenza type A. The student was not tested for H1N1. At this time, tests to differetiate the sub-type of flu are only being done for ICU patients.
Symptoms of the flu include fever of 100 degrees or greater, cough, sore throat, a runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache and feeling very tired; vomiting and diarrhea may also occur. If your son or daughter has these symptoms please have them stay home
When you report your child’s absence, please continue to include the information that the absence is due to flu-like symptoms. If flu has been confirmed via testing, please call the Health Office directly at 908-850-3161 ext. 2.
In accordance with the CDC guidelines: anyone sick with flu-like symptoms must stay home until they are fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication.
Prevention is essential to controlling the spread of the virus…
Please reinforce these messages at home by reminding your children to wash their hands frequently, use hand sanitizer, and cover coughs and sneezes properly.
As a part of School Violence Awareness Week, we are celebrating the new Cucinella R.O.C.K.S. program. Any student interested in creating a poster on a theme contained in Cucinella R.O.C.K.S. will receive an extra R.O.C.K.S. raffle ticket! Winning posters will be enlarged and published in order to be hung in the school.
Due Date: Monday, October 26th
Poster sizes must be 81/2 x 11
We recently received a memo from Lucille Davy, New Jersey Commissioner of Education. The subject line read: Creating 21st Century New Jersey Schools: Fall 2009 Parent Outreach. The memo links to a video podcast for parents. The following is an excerpt from the Commissioner’s memo:
President Obama has recently called for schools in the United States to prepare students as future adult citizens and workers in a globally interdependent and innovation-driven economy. This is aligned with New Jersey’s goal to enable every student to graduate with the knowledge and skills now deemed essential for future personal and professional success. To that end, I am pleased to inform you of the availability of a video podcast accessible at: http://cie.kean.edu/CIE/21st_century_videos.html targeted for parents of K-12 students. The podcast is a seven-minute segment during which Alan November, international expert in 21st century teaching and learning, and I discuss the skills students will need for college and career readiness in the 21st century. This outreach to parents is part of the department’s three-year statewide systemic model to engage all education stakeholders in preparing students in an information age where critical thinking, effective communication across cultures and the ability to collaborate in a global environment to create new products or solve local and world problems are considered indispensible skills.
Mrs. Langsam, our guidance counselor, is getting to begin this year’s first round of Banana Splits. Banana Splits is an in-school support program for students that have experienced a loss though divorce, separation, or the death of an immediate family member. The group meets voluntarily during lunch with Mrs. Langsam and peers with similar experiences. For more information, please visit Mrs. Langsam’s webisite.
What is Banana Splits?
“Banana Splits” is an in-school support program for students that have experienced a loss, either through divorce, separation, or death of an immediate family member.
Banana Splits is not for all students in this category. Some children have adapted well to the changes in their lives, or have outside community support. However, many children may continue to feel “different”, angry or confused. Some children may feel very alone and may not realize that there are other students going through the same. Many children are in need of additional coping strategies to continue to learn to deal with the conflicts that occur. These children would benefit from our group. For years, it has been a positive experience for our students.
Don’t forget that tonight is the first BAC PTO meeting of the year. Come share your thoughts!
A letter regarding M.A.P. testing was sent home via Honeywell yesterday. Most students at Cucinella will be taking the M.A.P. testing during their library periods throughout the month of October.
In addition, 4th grade will be taking the CogAT during the week of October 12th.
The school district will be implementing a new assessment, Measures of Academic Progress (MAP), with all students, grades 1-8, during September and October. Specific dates for your child’s testing may be viewed on the school’s websites. The test was selected in response to parent committees and their requests for standardized testing data about achievement in mathematics. Students will take the assessment in both language arts and in mathematics so that the schools will have additional data about individual student performance. The assessment is also being administered now so that teachers will have additional data to guide them in differentiating instruction throughout the year.
Measures of Academic Progress is an adaptive test that uses interactive technologies to adjust to the student in real time for each item as he or she works through the test. It tells you where a student’s strengths and weaknesses lie and delineates detailed information teachers can use to design lessons appropriate to each child’s learning style and need. Another positive feature of this assessment is that it provides a grade independent score measuring growth over time so teachers and administrators can track meaningful progress across seasons and years.
During fall conferences, you will receive a written report and have an opportunity to discuss your child’s performance with his/her teacher. If you would like additional information about this assessment, you may refer to www.nwea.org/support/article/930 , a parent toolkit website.
Traditionally we have give out Perfect Attendance Awards at the end of the school year. We will be discontinuing this practice. Last year we realized that there were students coming to school ill just because they were working on Perfect Attendance. If your child is not feeling well, please keep him/her at home to recover and to minimize exposure to our other students. This will help to keep everyone healthy. Thank you for your cooperation.
CLICK HERE to find some H1N1 basics provided by NAESP.
It’s football season!
If your child is interested, he/she can enter this contest to bring a player from the NFL Cucinella.
