NEWS FROM THE BERKELEY HEIGHTS PUBLIC SCHOOLS MARY KAY MC MILLIN EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER The Mary Kay McMillin Early Childhood Center continuously seeks ways of engaging the district’s youngest students in philanthropic activities. By creating opportunities for children to give back to their communities, students are taught how they can help make the world a better place. A prime example of these opportunities took place recently when Grade 1 students brought their bikes, scooters, and big wheels to school for our Annual Saint Jude Wheel-a-Thon. The efforts of the children enabled MKMECC to raise $1,362.00 for Saint Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The Wheel-a-Thon is just one of the many events our school community sponsors each year. Another event, “Dancing for Drew” will be held before and after the Early Childhood Center’s Annual Music-Fest.

THOMAS P. HUGHES SCHOOL

The end of the school year is rapidly approaching, and students at Thomas P. Hughes School are enjoying many traditional activities. The beloved Bike Road-eo was recently held on the blacktop near the playground. Nearly 100 Hughes students brought their bikes to school

to practice and demonstrate their bicycle safety skills with Officer Mark Stallone of the Berkeley Heights Police Department. Students from each grade level had the opportunity to ride the course to demonstrate their proficiency in operating a bicycle. At the conclusion, each participant received a sticker designed by a Grade 5 student to celebrate their success. Students who participated in the Bike Road-eo are now welcome to ride their bicycles to school!

MOUNTAIN PARK SCHOOL Students in Grades 2-5 at Mountain Park School were recently treated to a wonderful cultural and musical experience through the PTO’s cultural arts efforts and in conjunction with the elementary Spanish program. Andes Manta, a group of four brothers who are professional musicians from Quito, Ecuador, performed the vibrant music of the Andes Mountains and mesmerized our students with songs played on their own hand-made instruments that often imitated sounds of the wind, rain, thunder, and birds of the Amazon rainforest. After the assembly, all Fourth Graders received kits and participated in a workshop to make their own pallas, or panpipes, thanks to a grant from the Berkeley Heights Education Foundation that was awarded to “Señora” Mariann Tierney, Teacher of Spanish. Under the direction of the musicians, students were taught to assemble the panpipes and then perform a traditional Andean song together. The Andes Manta experience was especially meaningful to Mountain Park Spanish language students since they had been learning about the people, animals, plants, and especially the importance of the rainforest in Mrs. Tierney’s classes as part of a rainforest unit she developed and integrated into the elementary Spanish curriculum. Students are greatly concerned about rainforest destruction and worked hard to raise money to help protect it by selling handmade rainforest animal rock creations and unique spinning tops made from recycled CDs and plastic bottle caps which they collected. The Mountain Park Student Council also participated by hanging posters, selling bookmarks, and collecting donations in classrooms. A total of $700 was raised, and students are thrilled that we will be able to save seven (7) acres of real rain forest land through our donation to The Rainforest Trust – Kids 4 Rainforests Organization.

MOUNTAIN PARK SCHOOL (continued) Students in Grade 4 classes at Mountain Park School are reflecting on their favorite memories from this school year. They created flowers for the hallway bulletin board display depicting their top five favorite memories, which included lessons, assemblies, and PTO sponsored events.

The most mentioned were lessons about kindness, PTO music assemblies, the Black History Month Laser show, switching classes for Science, Fraction Math units, and taking band and orchestra lessons.

WILLIAM WOODRUFF SCHOOL The students of William Woodruff School celebrated Earth Day and Arbor Day with a school-wide assembly. The students sang, read poetry, and performed on the recorders and African drums to announce to all the significance of planting trees and preserving the earth for generations to come. As part of the ceremony, Mrs. Diana Bjorge, Teacher of Art, presented her recently-completed Peace Pole project that she had worked on with her students. Funded by a grant from the Berkeley Heights Education Foundation, Mrs. Bjorge discussed the origin of Peace Poles and how they serve as a symbol to unite us. She described how each grade level did a project using various mediums to learn and express peace through art. Mrs. Bjorge also researched the population of Woodruff School to determine the major ethnic backgrounds of the students. Based on her research, the Peace Poles statement, May Peace Prevail on the Earth, was written in the languages of English, Spanish, Hindi, and Chinese. Each side of the pole also has beautiful art created by the students. The Peace Pole project is profound in announcing to all the importance of peace on our earth.

WILLIAM WOODRUFF SCHOOL (continued) Celebrating Earth Day was on the minds of all William Woodruff School students throughout the spring. There were an array of programs and projects designed by the students to celebrate Earth Day by preserving, conserving, and being Earth-friendly.

This year, Ms. Sally Barmakian and Mrs. Sarah Burga, Woodruff Green Team advisors, came up with a neat way to get the students thinking about helping our planet. The idea was a game show titled The Green Challenge. The students were randomly selected by grade level to be a contestant on the show.

Each student was given a “green” question to answer. If they got the question correct, the audience bellowed “Go Green,” and if a student missed the answer, the crowd shouted words of encouragement, “Good Try.” The questions ranged from subjects such as using green household cleaning items to methods for conserving water.

WILLIAM WOODRUFF SCHOOL (continued) William Woodruff students care about their school well beyond the school day. This was clearly evident as Cub Scout Pack 468 gathered in the Shannon Koch/Marie Marzarella Schoolyard Habitat to help prepare the garden areas for spring planting. The boys and their dads helped toil the soil and fertilize the vegetable garden and raised flowerbeds. The Cub Scouts also planted 20 pine seedlings around the borders of the school property.    

COLUMBIA MIDDLE SCHOOL When the students who operate the The Tiger Market, the school store of Columbia Middle School, heard about the devastating fire at James Monroe Elementary School in Edison, they knew they had to do something to help. Working with their suppliers, they were able to donate pencil cases and pencils to each of the students at James Monroe in Kindergarten through 5th grade. A note was sent along with the gift for the students. It read: “We hope this

donation enables your students to continue to be creative and excel in all their subject areas. We are sending our positive thoughts to you and hope for a happy future.” The Tiger Market accepts help from many volunteers, but is run primarily by the students pictured here (from left): Michael Ham, Timothy Koubek and Max Charbonneau.

COLUMBIA MIDDLE SCHOOL (continued)

Alicia Wintemberg, a Grade 8 student at Columbia Middle School, was recently recognized for having her painting chosen to be displayed as part of the Union County Teen Arts Touring Exhibit. “Alicia is a wonderful artist,” said Mr. Joseph Lanni, her Art teacher at CMS. “We were absolutely thrilled when we learned that her work was chosen to represent Columbia Middle School in this prestigious display.”

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Columbia Middle School Eighth Graders Sans Yuksel (left) and Nick Kwan (right) were celebrated as winners for the State of New Jersey in the Letters about Literature program.

Letters about Literature is a reading and writing contest for students in grades 4 through 12. Students are asked to read a book, poem or speech, and write to that author about how the book affected them personally. In recognition of their achievements, both students were invited to attend a special ceremony held earlier this month at the Seward Johnson Center for the

Arts, located at The Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton.

GOVERNOR LIVINGSTON HIGH SCHOOL Governor Livingston High School’s entry recently took top prize in the Anti-Alcohol Public Service Announcement contest sponsored by Prevention Links. The video created by GL students (pictured L to R) Celeste Teodosio, Alex Papalitskas and Joseline Loaiza, earned First Place honors from over 40 PSAs that were submitted for consideration. The students were assisted in the production of their video by Mr. Joseph Voorhees, Teacher of Television Production at Governor Livingston. These public service announcements were designed to depict the dangers of alcohol abuse for teenage audiences. The top five videos, as judged by officials from Prevention Links, were selected and placed online for voting by the general public. The Prevention Links Web site registered 12,104 online votes, with the Governor Livingston video receiving the most votes for best PSA. Earlier this month, an audience of 130 people gathered for a screening at the Rialto Theatre in Westfield to view the five finalists in the 2014 Prevention Links Public Service Announcement contest. In addition to this great honor for Celeste, Alex and Joseline, Governor Livingston also had the most people in attendance at the screening and, as a result, won a “GoPro” Camera for the GLHS television studio!  

 

 

 

 

   

GOVERNOR LIVINGSTON HIGH SCHOOL (continued)

Governor Livingston High School is proud to announce that two student duets were recognized and invited to perform their original music at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark earlier this month as finalists in the New Jersey Shout Down Drugs music contest.

Ryan Hernandez and Kylie Meltzer (pictured, left) performed What You Meant To Me, which was selected as the best song submitted from Union County; while the song entered by Teddy Cole and Kate Parker (pictured, below), See Straight, won the “People’s Choice” Award. See Straight received 7,982 of the nearly 45,000 total votes cast during online voting that took place on the New Jersey Shout Down Drugs website.

The New Jersey Shout Down Drugs music competition is designed to allow high school teens throughout New Jersey to utilize their musical talents and writing ability to create original songs that instill drug prevention messages among their peers and throughout the New Jersey community. The two duets from GLHS performed and competed against some of the best young musicians in the state of New Jersey. The GL students performed flawlessly and did an excellent job representing our school community in front of the more than 400 people in attendance.  

 

 

GOVERNOR LIVINGSTON HIGH SCHOOL (continued)

Congratulations to the Governor Livingston High School team that achieved Second Place honors in the New Jersey State Consumer Bowl competition, held recently at the Hughes Justice Complex in Trenton.

The GLHS team (pictured, L to R) Jeremy Berlinski, Christopher Weeks, Matthew Chen, Beatriz Medeiros and Sama Manchanda, had earned its way to the State Finals by winning both the Union County and Central Region Championships earlier this school year. The team is coached by Mr. Joseph Hubert, Teacher of Business Education at Governor Livingston.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL SERVICES  The Deaf/Hard of Hearing Program at Governor Livingston High School recently hosted a GLHS Graduates Panel for the purpose of providing current students in the DHH program with insight into the successes of our deaf/hard of hearing graduates. Lunch was provided to both past and present students involved of the DHH program, during which time students and graduates communicated and networked with each other. GLHS deaf/hard of hearing students also made posters to display during the week of the Graduates Panel in order to raise awareness of their disability. Mrs. Gale Bradford, Mrs. Tobey Schocklin and Ms. Cristina Cerulo worked on a project at Thomas P. Hughes School to promote disability awareness during the recent Special Education Week celebration. Students used the book, “The Crayon Box That Talked” by Shane Derolf, to explore the beauty of diversity and the unique qualities that each individual brings to the world. Dr. Michael Asher, Ph.D., ABPP of Behavior Therapy Associates, recently provided a workshop for parents about interventions to promote executive skills at home. This was the last meeting for the 2013-2014 school year of the Special Education Parent Advisory Committee (SEPAC). A tentative SEPAC meeting schedule for the 2014-2015 school year can be found on the district’s Special Services website under the heading of “Parent Advisory Committee.” “We could learn a lot from crayons…(they) are all different colors, but they all exist very nicely in the same box.” –Unknown Author