Kindergarten Corner

Pre-School Corner

P.R.I.D.E. Starts Here!

Cub Corner News Norma Elementary School

873 Gershal Avenue • Pittsgrove, NJ • 08318 Phone: 856-358-6094 Fax: 856-691-2885

MAR/APR

ISSUE

EVENTS

MAR.

Someone Special Celebration Mar. 22th

Early Dismissal &

Parent/Teacher Conferences Mar. 16th

No School

Professional Development Mar. 17th

NJCAP Mar. 13th – 23rd

Grandparents Luncheon

Mar. 24th

Jump Rope for the Heart Mar. 29th

APRIL

NJCAP Apr. 3rd & 4th

Book Fair Night Apr. 4th

Round Up – By Appointment

Apr. 6th

PK Field Trip - Cohanzick Zoo Apr. 12th

Early Dismissal – Apr. 13th

Spring Break – No School

Apr. 14th & Apr. 17th

Family Fun Night – Apr. 19th

PK Parent Meeting Apr. 25th

BSI Corner

We are excited for all of the things we will be doing in the classrooms during the upcoming months! We have completed the first 3 units of Journeys and finishing unit 4 in literacy. The students continue to learn their sight words, as we strive to learn all 88 by the end of the school year! We are working on strengthening our narrative, informative, and opinion writing pieces. The students are practicing proper sentence structure, stretching out their words, and writing independently. We are continuing our My Math curriculum, learning about addition, subtraction, measurement, and classifying objects. Please continue to practice all of these skills at home! The students are doing great with C.U.B. Time. They are also enjoying our D.A.R.E lessons with Mr. Mario. We are looking forward to all of the fun events coming up at Norma. We have our Grandparent’s luncheon, Jump Rope for Heart, Someone Special Celebration, and Family Fun Night coming up! Keep up the hard work everyone! Ms. Knorr

Mr. Nestor's Basic Skills Classes have been reading books and working with sight words on a daily basis. We recently finished our Sight Word Leprechauns and Pots of Gold Sight Words. Students are reading and writing on a daily basis and have earned the opportunity to take books home to read. The more they read, the better chance they have to earn prizes. Our Math classes have been breezing through addition and subtraction. We even had a chance to do some subtraction bowling. ~Mr. Nestor

We are celebrating Dr. Seuss’s birthday by reading a different book each day! We had 8 parents come into our classroom as guest readers. We also learned about using “Good Manners” at home, on the playground, at school, on the bus and at the table. We have been diligently working on writing letters with Fundations and having homework. We made and painted leprechauns for St. Patrick’s Day! We will be working on a variety of fun and exciting themes together. We are going to plant seeds and watch them grow! Some students will plant vegetables and some will plant flowers. We are going to study the life cycle of a frog and conduct a few Science Experiments! We will be going on Nature Walks for our Small Group Time, looking for insects and other signs of Spring. We can put our interesting findings on our Science Area table. On Earth Day we are learning about our planet earth and about some of the things we can do that are good for our planet. We will have special lessons about Recycling and learn a new song called, “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle”. Our class trip to the Cohanzick Zoo is coming up and we will get to see new and unusual animals and learning many interesting facts about them! Hopefully we can see some of our favorite animal friends too! Mrs. Munafo

Page 2 Cub Corner News

Principal Daniel F. Bruce Ext. 4770

Assistant Principal Loretta Elwell Ext. 4732

School Secretary Becky Hall Ext. 4731

School Nurse Susan Hunkele Ext. 4707

Guidance Counselor Terri Probasco Ext. 4731

Norma Educational Team Gwen Acosta Irene Apostle Tina Armstrong Kelly Bayzick Natalie Caputo Ryan Carr Jamie Mehaffey Katrina Carvalho Janice Chassier Danielle Feaster Yolanda Garcia-Balicki Danielle Glasser Connie Green Jessica Grelli Kara Kalitz Nancy Kershak Irene Krawiec Erika Knorr Joseph Kratzer Clare Luisi Kristin McCaffrey Eileen Miller Joyce Moskalow Stephanie Munafo Josh Nestor Chelsea Ogilvie Jason Ragan Katie Rogan Raechel Spicer Janet Straub Janel Umbra-Hughes Lisa VanMeter Raechal Walczak Keyanah West Matthew Wentz

Nurse Corner

Special Education News

ABC Corner

Notes from the Nurse All Kindergarten students have participated in “Project Brush”, an educational program about good oral health practices. Ms. Knorr’s class was selected and participated in the “Ask a Dental Hygienist” activity. The students have been very excited about this program. Our upcoming health lessons will focus on Nutrition for the month of March and Earth Day activities for April. As always we learn about ways to keep us healthy and safe. Norma School will again hold Preschool and Kindergarten registration for students on April 6. If you know anyone with a school age child, please spread the word. You can make an appointment by calling the school office. While the winter season has been a mild one temperature wise, we have had a lot of illness. Students have had sore throats, fever and vomiting to name a few. Please allow your child the time they need at home to recover before their return to school. This is for your child’s benefit as well as for the other students. Mrs. Hunkele

Over the past few weeks ABC Kindergarten began weekly small group guided reading and writing. We are working on writing small sentences using sight words and CVC words. With this we are learning to identify and name beginning, middle, and ending sounds. Weekly, we are bringing home small books to practice reading. Just look at how much we have learned since September! Please continue practicing letter writing, letter sounds, and sight words at home. In Math, we are continuing our study of numbers 0-10. We have a great time in our number workbooks! Remember that daily reading with your child is an imperative part of developmental learning. Don't forget to ask comprehension questions before, during, and after the book! Log all of the books you read on their reading logs so that they get credit and earn prizes through our “Super Reader Cubs” Reading Incentive Program! ~ Mrs. Kalitz

. tprobasco@pittsgrov

PSD has been very busy each day with our implementation of academic centers. Everyday we complete four centers and explore mathematics, literacy, sensory integration, and fine or gross motor activities. We still continue to use Handwriting Without Tears and learn one letter a week. Recently we paused to explore Dr. Suess and St. Patrick's Day! The kids had so much fun tasting green eggs and ham and playing with oobleck!! We look forward to exploring Spring and our trip in April to the zoo! ~ Mrs. Walczak

Page 3 Cub Corner News

P.R.I.D.E. Begins Here! P – Patience R – Respect I – Integrity D – Diligence E – Empathy WE ARE….. NORMA CUBS!!!

Music The first part of the year has been a blast in music class! We learned to identify, feel and express the steady beat through singing and moving, and by using instruments. We developed our voices by using them in different ways, and we identified high and low sounds, and pitch direction that moves up or down. By the time you are reading this newsletter, we will just have finished learning about rhythm, and patterns in two, three and four. The remainder of the year will consist of building on all of these skills and of course, adding more. The students will learn loud and soft (dynamics), fast and slow (tempo), long and short (duration), and they will be introduced to the four families of instruments. Awesome stuff! ~Mr. Ragan Spanish We explore the Spanish language on F Days and the Hispanic culture. Learning how to communicate with people from Spanish speaking countries is one goal. Students can say hello and goodbye, and tell you that they are feeling fine. They can name several body parts in a game of Simon Says, and can count to 20 easily. They can name and demonstrate by physical response at least 10 cultural items in the target language, too. This quarter students are learning to name colors and use these to describe animals. It’s a wonderful journey to teach our students another language. We continue to have fun while learning! ~ Mrs. Moskalow

Specials Corner

Guidance Corner

We are excited to award our students “Caught by the Cub” certificates. Students are “caught” demonstrating NORMA P.R.I.D.E. by staff. Mrs. Probasco gives out certificates to each child at our monthly pep rally. Your child, when caught, will bring home the certificate along with the paper describing the behaviors. Thank you for your encouragement and support. Check out the pictures displayed on our main hall bulletin board. Friendship Friday or Thoughtful Thursday has been a successful endeavor to reward our students for demonstrating their friendship skills. Each week, a teacher chooses a student who has demonstrated caring and kindness to others in the classroom/school. That student eats lunch with Mrs. Probasco in the conference room. You can also check out these group pictures on our main hall bulletin board, as well. If you have any concerns or suggestions, please e-mail me at tprobasco@pittsgrove.net or call Elmer School M-W or Norma Th-F.Thank you! Mrs. Terri Probasco, School Counselor

Page 4 Cub Corner News

NORMA SCHOOL – 2016-2017 DISMISSAL TIMES

REGULAR SCHOOL DAY Kindergarten 9:00 AM – 3:36 PM Preschool - ELLI & PSD AM 9:00 AM – 11:45 AM Preschool - ELLI & PSD PM 12:50 PM – 3:36 PM

EARLY DISMISSAL TIMES

Kindergarten 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM Preschool - ELLI & PSD AM 9:00 AM – 10:45 AM Preschool - ELLI & PSD PM 11:15 AM – 1:00 PM

1 - HOUR DELAY SCHEDULE

Kindergarten 10:00 AM – 3:36 PM Preschool - ELLI & PSD AM 10:00 AM – 12:15 PM Preschool - ELLI & PSD PM 1:20 PM – 3:36 PM

1 ½ - HOUR DELAY SCHEDULE Kindergarten 10:30 AM – 3:36 PM Preschool - ELLI & PSD AM 10:30 AM – 12:25 PM Preschool - ELLI & PSD PM 1:40 PM – 3:36 PM

2 - HOUR DELAY SCHEDULE

Kindergarten 11:00 AM – 3:36 PM Preschool - ELLI & PSD AM 11:00 AM – 12:40 PM Preschool - ELLI & PSD PM 1:50 PM – 3:36 PM

Dear Parents, Parental attitudes about school attendance are so very important. Children who go to school regularly are more likely to feel connected to the school community. They are also likely to get good grades, make healthy choices and have a positive attitude about school. Try to avoid keeping your child out of school for unexcused or unnecessary reasons. Plan family trips during school breaks if possible. Schedule routine checkups and dental visits for after school as well. Set a good example when it comes to attendance, by making school a priority. Now as the weather gets warmer, if you notice that your child often does not want to go to school, talk to him or her about it. Reach out to your child’s teacher, or the guidance counselor to try to understand the reason for this behavior. We love working with parents, grandparents and community members and love having you visit our school. We are so proud of our school and welcome your involvement! Remember… “Pride Starts Here!” Ms. Elwell

A Message from your Assistant Principal