Long Beach Island Consolidated School District
Happy New Year! Despite the polar temperatures, the staff and students are having an action packed January! As we all continue to work together to teach students about the importance of building goals and working towards academic success, students have been working hard to engage one another in what they have learned and to teach others through special projects and activities within the classrooms. Student Council The Student Council organized the Second Annual Winter Fun Run and Canned Food Drive, which was held on the first day of winter, December 21, 2016. All LBI students were invited to walk or run five laps around the grass area to kick off a healthy holiday season. On the day of the run, each student brought one non-perishable food item, which was donated to the St. Francis Center Food Pantry. The goal of the event was to give back to the community, encourage a healthy lifestyle, and spread school spirit by coming together with a common goal. We thank you for your support of our second annual Winter Fun Run and Canned Food Drive!
inter Concert W Mr. Cotov and Mr. Gross continue to provide a dynamic music program for the students and families of the Long Beach Island School District. On December 20th and 21st the parents, students, and staff members were delighted to be part of an amazing winter concert at Ethel A. Jacobsen and Long Beach Island Grade Schools. The chorus and instrumental music students had been practicing for many weeks to put forth a delightful performance! Character Education This month's morning announcements focused on setting goals in a new year and respecting others (in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr). We continue to work with the students on solving conflicts, being kind to each other and looking for ways to encourage one another. At EJ, Mrs. Oldham introduced the students to Captain McFinn - the SHARK who decided not to be a bully anymore and instead make better choices. SHARK stands for Students Help Achieve Respect and Kindness. We will continue lessons with Captain McFinn throughout the winter months. Announcers! Special thanks to our homeroom announcers who have taken over the airwaves at EJ. Each day a homeroom has the opportunity to send a few students to the main office and lead our school in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Special thanks to the A.S.T.R.A. Club!!! Outstanding night!!! Astronomy Night, January 4, 2016 at the Long Beach Island Grade School from 6:30-8:00 p.m.
Since October 27th, during one PEP class per week, sixth grade students are becoming STEAM Leaders for STEAM Night scheduled January, 18, 2017. As leaders they will be researching STEAM activities to share with LBI students in fourth & fifth grade and their families. The
Leaders will be joined by other sixth graders who share an interest in a particular topic or activity. The teams will then present and teach at STEAM Night. World Language LBI Grade School Spanish Classes participated in some traditional Spanish New Year's customs. Third grade students observed in Colombia "El Muneco de Ano Viejo" The Old Year Doll tradition. Third grade students made a paper doll to represent this tradition. Fourth and fifth grade students discussed various Latin American traditions as well as learning about the Cuban tradition of throwing water out the window. Sixth grade students compared our Time Square Ball Drop to Madrid's Puerta del Sol Plaza Clock Tower. All grades learned the Spanish observation of Three Kings Day by placing a shoe outside the classroom. The Kings must have visited since the students found a small treat in their shoe!
Huge thanks to Officer Megan and LBT PBA 373 for having Santa visit us at EJ.
Parent Teacher Association Coffee and Coffee Mug sales exceeded our expectations in December! We have mugs still available for purchase. The PTA is finalizing dates for After-school Enrichment that will start on February 7th. Spirit Wear will be our next big project! Remember to save the date for our Family Dance on March 10th.
Special thanks to the PTA as Brent Daniels from Academic Entertainment presented Music Technology to the EJ students
Website! We have made some updates to our website, and added a Twitter feed (Centered on Website). Please check it out, as we look to communicate updates daily, and retweet information that is pertinent to our school community in the way of social, emotional, and academic growth. Additionally, our teacher class pages are dynamic! Keep in mind, as we progress to add Google Applications and Twitter, we are moving carefully to insure the links and accounts are working correctly. If there is anything we can do to assist in the way of using Google Email, Docs or Twitter - let us know! Half-Day PK Students in AM preschool continue to explore, play, and grow during our new year. Our musically inclined class really enjoyed going to the PTA music and technology assembly to learn, dance, and make music. January shared reading and extension themes include snow/dressing for winter, snowmen, diversity/friendship, hibernation, and winter animals. Our focus letters this month are L, U, V, W & X. We practice building the letter and saying words that begin with the letter in our alphabet journals. In math, we continue our introduction to counting by focusing on the numbers 8 and 9. We also continue to recognize, repeat, and extend patterns through the use of manipulatives. Students will explore matching sets and sorting by color, shape, and size throughout various theme-related activities. Most importantly, our days are guided by exploration and discovery play through center time. During this time, children are engaged in a variety of independent and small group activities that extend the experiences and themes in the curriculum. Centers included dramatic play, blocks, puzzles, games, books, art, and
sensory. Students were excited to explore our new sensory bin with water beads and pretend snow. We also enjoyed creating art through ice painting.
Miss Grabosky and the half-day preschool using the interactive smart tables
Full-Day PK This month the PreK-4 students have been introduced to our New Year 2017, the month of January, and the season of winter. Students have been practicing the relationships of the seasons and months as a cycle. This prepares them for our science experiments with an Amaryllis bulb where students observe, predict, and record changes happening to our plant in the classroom. Students have explored size relativity as they identify big, bigger, and biggest as well as discussing our “Big Idea”: Is it living? The students enjoyed playing with ice cubes to experience how they become slippery, how they taste, and ultimately melt. These lessons promote inquiry and exploration for active learners. This week students will discuss why it is important to learn the letters of the alphabet and the sounds that letters make. (Letters make words/ words make sentences/ sentences make stories and books) This “key to reading” concept empowers the students and promotes interest in these foundation skills. Our focus letter is Ss, identified through words such as see, sat, sit, and snow. Students will also be exposed to S as an ending sound to denote plurals. Students will be introduced to concepts associated with Martin Luther King Day such as peace, friendship, and tolerance. Next week the students will listen to stories by beloved author Laura Numeroff as they are introduced to tongue twisters (alliterations) such as “Peter
Piper….” Friday January 20th is our Theme/Birthday celebration where students are encouraged to dress as superheroes. Kindergarten Another very busy month in Kindergarten. We are continuing to learn and understand addition and subtraction, and we are actually doing word problems. We are going to start on Reading groups in a week or so, and the kids are very excited about this. Weekly we add 2 new words to our Sight word list. We have been learning about Martin Luther King Jr., and the kids have written what their DREAM for this world would be. They also have learned about Rosa Parks and Ruby Bridges. In Science we are continuing to study Matter and how it can change. First Grade These past couple of weeks have been very busy. First grade welcomed the new year with a whole new light. We are continuing to explore all of the short vowels, while also expanding our phonemic awareness. We have learned what a blend is and how it can change a simple word like sip to slip. We are eager learners here in first grade and have also been introduced to using commas in a series. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, in first grade not even half way through the year, and we are learning how to appropriately use commas when listing items! During the past few months, our focus in writing has been on correctly forming sentences: Capitals at the beginning, no crazy capitals within words, punctuation at the end, appropriate spacing, naming and action parts, etc. We are about to apply these traits to an awesome writing assignment: Stuck in a Snow Globe! We are really looking forward to this assignment! The kids are going to have a blast with both the writing and project that goes along with it! In Science, we are exploring plants and plant parts. As a group collaboration project, each homeroom created a flower using recycled paper. The flowers were labeled and hung outside each class. If you have a minute to wander the halls, come check out our flowers and our custom Martin Luther King Jr. peace signs that are on display on our bulletin boards! Second Grade Second graders have been learning about stormy weather and writing an informational paragraph about thunderstorms. The students have learned how to write a main idea sentence and include evidence from the reading anthology story Super Storms to support their main idea. In Science, second graders have been learning about plants and their life cycles. They have been observing the growth of bean plants. Third Grade Third grade is starting a persuasive writing piece. Students created a doughnut last week through an online doughnut generator (www.builddonuts.com). They had options such as rainbow dinosaur sprinkles, chocolate frosting, and marshmallows. Students will use persuasive writing
techniques, google docs, and fourth grade peer editors to compose their final writing piece. In social studies, we had a great discussion about Martin Luther King, Jr. Students got the chance to view the "I Have a Dream" speech and come up with their own personal "dreams" for the future.
Fifth- and Sixth-Grade Students at Fitness Club!
Fourth Grade Bring on 2017 - the fourth grade is ready! We have the complex challenge of long division under our belts and are ready to move on to our next topics - factors and divisibility. We are wrapping up our technology/science projects as Medical Specialists of the body systems, and will be presenting our findings to our peers this month. Students will also begin to ‘study up’ on football terminology in preparation for our Annual Super Bowl Prediction Newspaper Reports. Once we know which teams are competing, the fun will begin! We will become Newspaper Reporters and predict the events and outcome of Super Bowl 51. As we continue to travel around the United States, we look forward to learning more about our incredible nation. Be sure to check the 4th grade websites for updates and new events! Fifth Grade The Fifth Graders are enjoying winter and the snow it brings! In ELA we are wrapping up our unit on kindness. On Mrs.Townsend's classroom page you will find a slide show that each class created to share acts of kindness that they completed. In science students are working diligently on a research project focused on the local habitats of animals. Students are about to learn about the 13 colonies that formed our nation in Social Studies. We look forward to wrapping up the second marking period and seeing what the third has in store!
Sixth Grade In ELA, the 6th grade students are very excited to start the next round of literature circles as they will have an opportunity to read a novel of their choice. Early in January, the students participated in a “Book Tasting” where they were able to “sample” each of the 3 historical fiction books offered for the next literature circle. As a group, we talked about what to look for when choosing a book and how to evaluate each book for personal interest. After each student made their selection, they began a research project about the time period in which the story is set. This will help students build background and make a more personal connection to the novel as they read. In math, the 6th graders ended their latest unit by creating their own movie theatre. Each student was in charge of calculating costs for their theatre. This included concession stand budgets, video arcade rooms, or even school field trips. This project helped students practice their long division skills, while also relating math concepts to real life situations. Currently, students are reviewing how to fluently add, subtract, multiply, and divide decimal numbers. They will be using those skills, along with concepts from earlier in the year, to evaluate expressions and solve equations. Students have enjoyed playing Kahoot in order to test themselves to see what they remember from September. School Garden Congratulations to the EJ Garden in its 7th season of growing and as the recipient of Atlanticare's Healthy Schools Healthy Children's Sustained Edible Garden Award. The EJ Garden will be receiving funding for the creation of garden smoothies using a Fender Blender! A fender blender is a stationary bike with a blender attachment that uses pedal power to whip-up nutritious smoothies. Details are still in the early working stages and any wonderful ideas, creative collaborations and nutritious recipes are welcomed. Student Health Office The Student Health Offices would like to make our school families aware of a remarkable dental program that is available. Every February, dentists throughout NJ offer free emergency and preventative dental care for children ages 12 and younger. In 2017, GIVE KIDS A SMILE DAY is February 3rd. There are over 100 participating dental offices available for parents to schedule an appointment at a location of their choice. Make an appointment today!
