From the Desk of Mr. Hegedus

Go Trenton Thunder!! Our All School Field Trip to see the Trenton Thunder baseball game this past Wednesday was an incredibly fun time for everyone. While Mother Nature was throwing us a few “curve balls” with the weather throughout the day, the game was in fact able to be played. As always, our seats were absolutely perfect and the Trenton Thunder Team treated us to a 5-4 victory over the Akron Rubberducks. A number of our students took part in various on-field activities such as running the bases and tugs of war. In addition, several of our children threw out the “first pitch” and Dan Rosander, a 4th grader from Mrs. Anastasi’s class, was chosen as “Fan of the Game.” We are deeply indebted to the Joshua Harr Shane Foundation who donated tickets to our school so that all of the children and all of the teachers could attend the game. Thank you Joshua Harr Shane Foundation.

Extended School Year (ESY) program. Please see attached the REVISED flyer which provides information about our summer classes. As we continue to meet with public school district Child Study Teams and Case Managers to conduct annual reviews for each of our students, recommendations are being made about whether your child has meet criteria to participate in our ESY program. As we’ve said in previous years, in order for a student to attend ESY, it must be written and stated specifically in your child’s IEP. If you are uncertain about whether your child has been or will be recommended for our summer program or, if you need additional information about ESY, please contact me at bhegedus@thenewgrane.org or at 609-584-1800. Lastly, please note that because of the number of “emergency closing days” that we were obligated to use this past winter, we needed to revise the start and end dates of ESY. We will now begin classes on Monday, July 9th and conclude our program on Friday, August 17th.

Red Nose Day – May 24th!! As we had mentioned several weeks ago, we will be celebrating the National Red Nose Day Program that will be taking place here at our school on May 24th. Each of the children and the teachers will be receiving a sparkly red nose on the morning of May 24th. We are requesting that everyone wear their red nose in support of this incredibly rewarding humanitarian program. Please see the attached letter/flyer written by Mrs. Anastasi, one of our elementary teachers, which contains more information about “Red Nose Day” at Newgrange School.

Weekly NewsletterFriday, May 18, 2018 Robert Hegedus, Principal

Howard Kaplan, Supervisor of Education

*All of the non-Newgrange School attachments to this newsletter are for informational purposes only. The seminars and workshops may be of interest to you, however the Newgrange School is not affiliated with the individuals or organizations that sponsor these events.

Year Books – 2017-18!! A flyer has been attached which contains information about the purchase of this year’s Newgrange School yearbook. Yearbooks are always a great way to remember the events of this past school year and will be treasured in the years to come. Please note that the yearbooks are priced at $20.00 and will be delivered and distributed by June 19th.

In closing, have a great weekend and please try to find some restful moments for yourself.

Mrs. Camins

The year is speeding by. This spring we are busy as always learning new things. In math we finished a unit on fractions. We are currently studying measurement. This includes volume, mass and time. Elapsed time is a tricky concept. Please try challenging your child to answer some real-life elapsed time problems. After measurement we will move on to charts and graphs, one of my personal favorites.

In social studies, we have begun to learn about New Jersey’s beginnings in the original 13 colonies. In addition we are discussing the causes of the American Revolution. We have had some interesting discussions on the importance of representation in our government. We will continue to find out what role New Jersey played in the Revolution and more about the rich history of this area.

States of matter is the current topic in science. The students have a good grasp on the differences between solid, liquid and gas. We are finishing our unit by doing some experiments on the different states of matter as well as making a lap book as a culminating project.

We have talked about problems and solutions in language arts. The students are becoming well versed in figuring out the problems in fiction books, as well as coming up with the solutions that the author provides. We also continue to work on DMS. Everyone enjoys the naming and categorizing activities, as well as the story retell. We are also revisiting Framing Your Thoughts, reviewing common and problem nouns, subject and predicate agreement and the use of commas in series of subjects or predicates.

Mrs. Morris

The school year might be winding down, but my students certainly are not. They continue to work hard and will continue to the very end of the school year to ensure maximum learning. English I has finished an author study of Saki. Currently, they are writing responses to show the similarities between three of Saki’s short stories. They will move on to a graphic novel unit to complete the school year’s studies. English II is continuing their graphic novel study and are beginning a manga. We are exploring the differences between mangas and graphic novels. Students will use a close reading method to draw text to text, text to self, and text to word connections. English III is reading “Piper,” a graphic novel based on “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” story. We will be comparing “Piper” to the actual Robert Browning poem. Graphic novels are a great way to include literature in your child’s world. There is minimal writing, great vocabulary, and pictures to support reading comprehension. Also, by analyzing the visuals, readers can get a feel for emotions, body language, and character development.

As a side note, please be aware that starting May 29th students will be able to purchase their yearbooks for $20. If paying by check, please make the check payable to The Newgrange School. Otherwise, students can come during lunch time and see Mrs. Morris to make their purchase. Students will receive their books approximately June 19. 2018. Any questions please contact Mrs. Morris at dmorris@thenewgrange.org.

Speech and LanguageMarissa Grossman M.A. CF-SLP and Andy McAdam M.S.Ed. CF-SLP

Happy May! May is an exciting month in the speech department because May is Better Speech and Hearing Month. The goal of Better Speech and Hearing Month is to increase awareness and importance of communication. One way to raise awareness of communication disorders, is understanding what the speech language pathologist does within your child’s school. As defined by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (2018), a school speech language pathologist works on:

Speech Sounds - saying sounds correctly and speaking clearly. Spoken Language and Literacy - language includes listening and speaking while literacy includes reading and

writing. We work on following directions and sharing thoughts, ideas, and feelings when speaking, reading, and writing.

Stuttering - how speech flows. May have difficulty starting to speak or may repeat sounds, syllables, words, or phrases

Assistive Technology - children who cannot talk may benefited from augmentative or alternative communication (AAC) to display or “say” the words they want to use.

Social Communication - refers to how well a child follows the rules of conversation such as knowing how to take turns and how close to stand to someone else during a conversation

Voice - may sound hoarse or nasally, may lose their voice easily if they overuse their voice, or may speak too loudly or softly.

Cognition - involves thinking and memory including paying attention, solving problems, and staying organized. Feeding and Swallowing - some children need help eating safely without choking. Swallowing problems can

lead to other issues which may interfere with a child’s academics.

For more information regarding Better Speech and Hearing Month, please visit www.asha.org.

Please feel free to reach out with any questions about speech and language services. Miss Grossman can be reached at mgrossman@thenewgrange.org and Mr. Andy can be reached at amcadam@thenewgrange.org.

Mrs. McCowan

Wow! We have had some crazy weather. I can’t believe that we are already half way through May. We have been very busy with the PARCC testing and two field trips this week. Our class was very flexible during testing and very well behaved on the trips.

We are busy bees in our language arts class. The students are learning to write more meaningful sentences by using Framing Your Thoughts. We are learning comprehension strategies using Developing Metacognitive Skills and we end our week with a read aloud chapter book. We are currently reading The Lightning Thief.Orton Gillingham (OG) is a phonics based approach to teaching reading. During class, the students read and spell words and sentences related to a specific sound or concept learned during the week. Please continue reading with your child daily.

Each day, we begin our math class with Otter Creek. Otter Creek is used to help students learn their addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. We have finished our unit on area and perimeter and beginning a new unit on decimals next week.

In social studies class, we are just finished learning about Pioneers and the move westward.. Projects, writing, and multimedia will be used to teach skills in class.

Science class is a hands on based approach to teaching skills and concepts. We are currently working on a space unit. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns you have at mmccowan@thenewgrange.org.