Thomas G Connors Read All About It
3rd Marking Period Newsletter
Principal's Message
Dear Parents and Guardians,
Wow, it's hard to believe that we have finished the 3rd marking period. We are continuing to build a family partnership in which each and every child and family is a part of our school's journey towards the success of every child. Throughout this school year, we have continued to focus on the three priorities of Connors: Parent Partnership, Centrality of the Child and Academic Excellence. Those priorities are embedded in our district’s mission, vision and goals. I would like to circle back to those priorities and share with you our progress in those specific areas during the 3rd marking period, whether it is through in class instruction or remote learning.
Parent Partnership
Research shows that effective schools have high levels of parental and community involvement as those partnerships are positively correlated to success in student academic achievement, positive behavior and school attendance. I truly cherish our partnership. I want every parent to feel welcome and to feel a part of our thriving school community. Parents and families have partnered with our staff to create exciting and impactful school and community events to further strengthen the bond between Connors and our family community.
Parent partnerships emanate through Connors elementary school. Our Connors Green Team led Green Week where students learned how to reduce, reuse and recycle. There were daily fun green activities as well as a day where our green team came into Connors and led green lessons with our students during Green Camp. Our Green Team also partnered with Connors for Green Drop, where families made charitable donations of clothes and household items with all proceeds benefiting the Red Cross. In addition, parents were a huge part of our Read Across America week. Our parents and our school resource officers were our daily mystery readers throughout the fun filled week. Our Connors school spirit wear is led by our parents on our PTO. The School Spirit Wear fuels so much of our Connors school spirit! Our PTO also sponsored the Free Little Library. Our 5th graders were able to stain and finish the Free Little Libraries as part of a 5th grade project. Now, anyone in the community can donate or share a book! I cannot express enough how much I sincerely appreciate our Connors family.
Centrality of the Child
Student voices, interests and needs shape the planning of learning experiences that are relevant to each individual child. Each of our students have different strengths and weaknesses. Our goal is to celebrate and continue to develop our children’s strengths and assist our students in closing gaps in which their skills may be weaker.
Social Emotional Learning is a key element in the centrality and development of the whole child. As part of our students Social Emotional Learning, the Move this World program has become embedded in our school culture. During morning meetings and during afternoon closure, students are developing their social emotional learning through the Move this world program. Children can be heard saying...."Let's meet in the middle", or "Walk away quietly".
To also support our Social Emotional Learning, Dean Sorafine and our School Resource Officers initiated and developed a friendship bear program. Each student wrote a special note to a friend in the class sharing a special message of friendship. Every student gave a friend a friendship bear with a special note of friendship attached to it.
During this time of remote learning, there is a wide range of individual student and family circumstances. It is during times like these that the centrality of the child has an even heightened level of importance. Every family has different technology, schedule, health, academic, and social needs during this time period. Therefore, we try to be as flexible as possible, especially during this unprecedented time and continue to make the centrality of the child a top priority.
Academic Excellence
Our students are continually immersed in academically stimulating and challenging educational programs. Our curriculum is rigorous, responsive and relevant. We are striving for each child to continuously grow academically. Teachers are closely monitoring the academic growth and achievements of each student by giving data-driven instruction.
We have also continued our school-wide focus on reading and math growth. Teachers and faculty, as well as myself, have fostered a love of reading to transmit that love onto the students' views of reading. Studies show that children who read independently for pleasure become better readers, score higher on achievement tests in all subject areas and have greater content knowledge. Our D.E.A.R and Reading Buddies program have become a huge part of our reading school culture. In addition, every child at Connors has a RAZ kids account, where they can access thousands of books at a touch of a button. Every child also has an IXL account where they can practice and play math games that are either of personal interest or directly correlated to the math unit the students are working on. Our teachers have been closely monitoring student academic growth in math and ELA using our LinkIt platform. Using Linkit assessment data, teachers provide individualized challenges and support, in order to foster the growth of all students.
The rest of this newsletter is a window into Connors through both traditional classroom learning and through remote learning. I hope you enjoy viewing the happy and engaged faces of our students while they are learning. I also want to reiterate that if you have any questions about remote learning, please always feel free to reach out to me. I know that the circumstances for each family outside the school environment are different right now. This is a time period where the centrality of the child and individual needs are so important. Please don’t hesitate to contact me should you need anything, as I am always here for you.
All the best,
Juliana Addi
Principal
Dean's Message
Hello T.G Connors School Community,
During this unique time of distance learning it has been a priority of ours to continue to focus on the importance of social and emotional learning. Our team at Connors discussed some of the challenges that our students would be faced with and ways we could continue to support them to ensure they still felt connected to our amazing school community.
Over the past four weeks students participated in a virtual spirit week, an online talent show, and classroom zoom meetings. This gave students a way to share their experiences while staying connected to their classmates. Students participate in the morning Pledge with Ms. Addi, celebrate birthdays with one another, and compete in a daily riddle challenge. We have continued to use our Move This World social emotional learning platform during morning meetings, and we are glad to hear students are still practicing their emotional management tools at home.
Although this period of social distancing is new to all of us, and has definitely come with some challenges, we are confident that it has made our school community stronger and more resilient. We are extremely proud of our entire school community and grateful for the effort put forth to keep our students emotionally healthy.
Blurb regarding access to the Move This World resource center and their videos:
In light of our school closing, our friends at Move This World have created an online resource center with downloadable materials all focused around social emotional learning (you can access that by clicking here). They have also created unique access to a selection of their video exercises for families in our community. Amidst the hectic nature of this time period, maintaining a routine around social emotional wellness is more important than ever. We hope that our students will find comfort in being able to continue to engage in their Move This World practices.
Here's how it works:
Click here to access Elementary School breathing exercises.
Your Dean,
Mr. Sorafine
A Message From Christy Gaudio, Reading Specialist and District ILP Coordinator
The Power of Reading 20 Minutes a Day
The ability to read competently and, more importantly, the enjoyment of reading has great implications for a student’s academic success. Increasingly, new research is showing that the best predictor of future education achievement and life success is reading ability - or, more significantly, being an engaged reader. The engaged reader is purposeful, intrinsically motivated, and socially interactive. Engaged readers who read independently, or who are read to for at least 20 minutes per day will hear 1,800,000 words per year and will have read for 851 hours by the sixth grade!
As a reading teacher, one of the most beautiful things I have witnessed during this unprecedented time is the way communities are coming together to give America’s children access to incredible literature. We may no longer be able to congregate on carpets at school to hear books read aloud or check out our favorite titles from the local library, but the following links will help to ensure that your children still have access to a vast library of captivating books, allowing them to continue to engage in a powerful 20 minutes of reading every day.
We’d love to see how you are continuing your 20 minutes of daily reading practice at home! Send a picture of your child or your whole family reading in your favorite reading spots at home and send them to Principal Addi at juliana.addi@hoboken.k12.nj.us
HPS Reads: K-12 educators and administrators from our very own Hoboken Public School District are recording themselves reading some of their favorite children’s books. What better way to engage in a book than getting to hear it read by your teacher?!
KidsA-Z: Every student at Connors Elementary School has access to over two thousand beautifully illustrated and engaging ebooks. Reach out to your child’s teacher if you have any questions at all about accessing your child’s personalized KidsAZ account.
Storyline Online: Storyline Online streams videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside creatively produced illustrations. Readers include Oprah Winfrey, Chris Pine, Kristen Bell, Rita Moreno, Viola Davis, Jaime Camil, Kevin Costner, Lily Tomlin, Sarah Silverman, Betty White and dozens more.
Epic Books: Epic is offering 30 days of free and unlimited access to over 40,000 books including award-winning fiction, non-fiction, STEM, biographies, chapter books, and graphic novels.
Audible for Kids: For as long as schools are closed, Audible is offering unlimited and free access to hundreds of stories that will help children continue reading, dreaming, and learning.
Magic Tree House Home Adventures: Do you have a child that loves the Magic Tree House Series? Random House Children’s Books, together with Mary Pope Osborne, launched Magic Tree House Home Adventures. There are crafts, activities, games, and more, all related to weekly Magic Tree House Series themes.
Dav Pilkey at Home: The beloved author of the Dog Man series, Dav Pilkey, is posting weekly readings of his #1 New York Times Bestseller Dog Man stories that include engaging drawing, writing, and acting activities.
Story Time From Space: Story Time from Space is a project of the Global Space Education Foundation, which sends children’s books to the International Space Station. While in space, astronauts record themselves on video reading these books to the children of Earth and share them on the Story Time from Space website.
Lit2Go: Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 format.
Story Time with the Hoboken Police: Members of the Hoboken Police Department read their favorite children's books to bring joy and big smiles to your home.
A Message from Our Integrated Services Team
Good Day Parents and Guardians,
As we continue our Remote Learning we wanted to reach out and give you all an abundance of credit for all of your efforts with your children. We have all hit bumps in the road as we navigate this journey with our children. There will be days that are more difficult than others and also a lot of successes both big and small. We encourage you to speak with your children regarding the great job they are doing with their school work, as well as in life! Life is hard and different right now for us all and complimenting our children for doing their best under such uncertain times not only will make them feel good about themselves, but it is also necessary to help them push forward. Make sure to take time each day to unwind, have some fun, let you kids just simply be kids and be accepting of the difficult times due to the pressures we are all feeling.
We are now well into spring and as they say, “April showers bring May flowers”. I believe the “showers” we are all experiencing in our lives now, representing the sacrifices we are making, will eventually lead to May flowers…meaning greater and joyous times ahead. Our lives will get better, and before long we will all see each other again in person.
We miss seeing all the children and their families. Should you need to contact either one of us, please reach out via email. Stay healthy!
stefanee.wolfsie@hoboken.k12.nj.us
Best,
Stefanee Wolfsie and David White
A Message from our school psychologist
Hello Connors friends :),
I have missed you so much during these weeks! I miss your smiles. I miss seeing my lunchtime friends. I miss our friends who visit us in our office. I miss seeing you in the hallways and seeing you in your classes. It will be wonderful when we all get to be with each other again. In the meantime, hang in there! I wish you all the best with your online learning and your stay at home activities.
If anyone is having a hard time with staying at home, please feel free to email me at loreto.martinez@hoboken.k12.nj.us. I would be happy to chat with you on email, phone call or video conference. Stay safe and well.
All my best,
Ms. Loreto Martinez
School Psychologist
Nurse's Message
The year 2020 will be one that we will never forget. Life has taken a complete 180 and this past quarter, we all worked together to get through the “current normal.” This time of year I normally would’ve been spending countless days performing vision, hearing, and BMI screenings, educating on proper healthy practices with the change of season, preparing health records for next year, and much more.
Even though we are all home and virtually living, my role as your School Nurse has not changed. I am still here to advise if you notice your child is having some vision or hearing issues, I am still here to provide healthy eating and exercise habits at home when the routine is different and I will always be here to advise and counsel on any questions that arise about the body, chronic conditions, or symptomatic management.
While at home I have been monitoring the changes with information and statistics that come out regarding Covid-19 and we are already preparing what our “new normal” will be to protect the health and safety of our school community.
As always, feel free to reach out to me through email, ndematteo@hoboken.k12.nj.us, with any questions or concerns regarding the health of your child or family. We are a strong community and I know I can’t wait to physically be together again soon.
Nicole DeMatteo
Connors School Nurse
Kindergarten Highlights
ELA
Our kindergarten students also LOVE listening to stories! To the right you'll see one of our Mystery Readers (Ava L.'s dad) reading a story to us!
Math
Remote Learning has brought about new experiences for everyone. To the left you will see kindgarten student Morgan teaching her brother some math skills!
Using Tech and Hands-on Math
Social Studies
first grade highlights
ELA
Math
Social Studies
Art
Second grade highlights
ELA
ELA
ILP
Social Studies
Science
Art
third grade highlights
ELA
Math
fourth grade highlights
Math
ELA
Social Studies
ILP
fifth grade highlights
ELA
Math
Social Studies
Our brave 5th grade students were excited to memorize 3 powerful poems for Black History and even acted out parts of the poem.
The poems were:
“Harlem”by Langston Hughes- Performed by Donaven Crandell and Nikko Rodriguez
“Hey Black Child” by Countee Cullen- Performed by Malia Stewart, Jessica Santiago,Legaci Howard, Kenya Miller
“Sometimes I Cry” by Tupac Shakur- Performed by Kelvin Marte and Gabriel Colon
school events and happenings
Black History Month Celebration, Performance, and Showcase
At the event, our K-2 Choir sang "Martin Luther King" and "This Little Light of Mine" and our 3-5 Choir sang "Follow the Drinking Gourd" and "Rise Up". Our 4th graders read Langston Hughes Poems including I Dream A World, Walkers with the Dawn, The Dream Keeper, Final Curve and Youth. Our 5th graders read poems including Harlem, Hey Black Child, and Sometimes I Cry. Our 5th graders also read their research essays on Claudette Colvin, Nelson Mandela, Shriley Chisolm, and Freedom Writers. Our 4th graders danced a lyrical piece that told the story of Rosa Parks.
4th Grade girls perform: "Rosa Parks" Lyrical Dance
K-2 Chorus Sings, "Martin Luther King"
K-2 Chorus Sings: "This Little Light of Mine"
3-5 Chorus Sings: "Follow the Drinking Gourd"
3-5 Chorus Sings: "Rise Up"
Read Across America Spirt Week
Virtual Showcase of Special Talents
Virtual Talent Show
Friendship Bears
100th Day of School Celebration
Learning about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Housing Authority Black History Month Awards
Student of the Month
February
I want to congratulate our Students of the Month for the month of February! We are so proud of all of you!
5th Grade- Gabriel C.
4th Grade-Algelis R.
3rd Grade-Raymond B
2nd Grade- Madison M. (District Student of the Month for Connors)
1st Grade-Carlos S.
Kindergarten-Mina K.