Connors School Scoop
May 7th, 2021
Dear Connors Families,
We had such a wonderful Teacher and Staff Appreciation Week at Connors! Each day was filled with special ways to celebrate our Teachers and Staff. We want to thank our Connors PTO for making this week so special for all of our Teachers and Staff!
In addition, I am so excited to share with you that our Kindergarten Moving Up Ceremony and 5th Grade Moving Up Ceremony will be outside on the Connors Playground! We are so excited to celebrate with you. In addition, we will be having Field Day outdoors at JFK stadium. We will be also offering virtual field day as well for our remote students. Our Connors PTO virtual meeting will be on Tuesday, May 11th at 12:00 pm. We will be discussing all of our end of the year activities. Feel free to join us and help us plan our wonderful end of the year events!
Our Connors School Scoop also includes:
- Teacher and Staff Appreciation Week Festivities
- Kindergarten Moving Up Ceremony Invitation
- 5th Grade Moving Up Ceremony Invitation
- Field Day Information
- Congratulations to Ms. Chambers, our All-Star Koala of the Week
- Connors Spring Family Fun Day Sign-Up
- Connors Green Team-Green Drop Donation
- Free Little Library
- Summer LEAP Program Information
- Special Education Summer Program Information
- Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Activities
- Grade level Math, ELA, Science and Social Studies Learning Activities
- Social and Emotional Support from our Integrated Services Team
- Move this World Parent Login Information
- Connors PTO Swag Sale
- Dates for Upcoming Events
Happy Mothers to all of our Connors Koala Moms!! I hope you and your family have a wonderful weekend!
All the best,
Principal Addi
Happy Mother's Day to all of our Connors Koala Moms!
Connors PTO Chalk Messages of Thankfulness To our Teachers and Staff
Teachers and Staff enjoyed amazing George Piglet Cookies from our Connors PTO!
Thank you for Helping Us Blossom
Students wrote cards on flower petals for our teachers and staff. All of the petals were attached to make beautiful flower blossoms displayed on our bulletin board. We can't thank our teachers and staff enough for helping all of our students BLOSSOM!
Teachers and Staff Enjoy Lunch with the Gringos Food Truck; A Special Gift from our Connors PTO
Teacher and Staff Appreciation Video!
Connors Spring Family Fun day
I am so excited to announce our Connors Spring Family FUN DAY, on May 23rd, 2021. It will be a wonderful opportunity for us all to meet up and enjoy each other's company! Family Fun Day will be held in our playground. We will have socially distant games, relay races, and of course...the long awaited DUNK tank with Mr. Sorafine, the prize from our 100,000 Minute Reading Challenge. In addition, our Connors Green Team organized Green Drop as well! Green Drop is a wonderful way to donate items that you no longer need.
In order to keep our numbers low so we can maintain social distance, we are scheduling our Connors Spring Family Fun Day based upon student grade levels in time slots throughout the day. By having one grade level during a specific time slot, we are able to reduce the number of attendees during each time frame. Masks and social distancing are required. If our attendee numbers seem high, we might add additional time slots. In addition, our date could be subject to change if there is a rise in Covid cases.
The times will be as follows:
Grade K-10:00-10:50 am
Grade 1-11:00-11:50 am
Grade 2-12:00-12:50 pm
Grade 3-1:00-1:50 pm
Grade 4 and Grade 5-2:00-2:50 pm
Please click on the Sign Up Genius Below in your child's grade level time slot.
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C4AAAAF2BA1FFC70-spring
In addition, Green Drop will be open from 10:30 am - 1:00 pm. All charitable donations will benefit the National Federation of the Blind.
Looking forward to our Family Fun Day and Green Drop!
All the best,
Principal Addi
T.G. Connors Free Little Library
Our Connors Free Little Library is up and running again. Please feel free to come by to donate or pick-up books. We have a Free Little Library in the front of Connors as well as another one on the Connors Playground. Thank you so much to our Connors PTO for donating the Free Little Libraries! Happy Reading Everyone!
Congratulations to Ms. Chambers, the Connors All-Star Koala of the Week
Hoboken Public School District Summer LEAP Program
Special Services Summer 2021 Guide
Dear Hoboken Parents and Guardians,
It is with great pleasure and excitement that I am sending you this letter regarding your child’s participation in the Special Education Summer 2021 Program. In response to the impact of the pandemic on the school experience of our children, we are offering three programs:
1) The Extended School Year (ESY) is for all students who have an IEP that includes ESY in their program,
2) The Summer Extension Camp that is an optional program for students with IEPs who would like to participate on a voluntary basis
3) Inclusion Explorations Courses
Please review the information about our Special Services Summer 2021 Programs for the details. Each component has a parent guide. Should you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s case manager before the end of the school year. Our staff looks forward to working with your child and family to offer a wonderful and enriching experience this summer.
http://www.hobokenschools.org/special_education/special_services_summer_2021_program_information
Respectfully,
Cecilia D’Elia, Psy.D., LPC
Director of Special Services
T.G. Connors Field Day
5th Grade Moving Up Ceremony
Kindergarten Moving Up Ceremony
Kindergarten
Ms. Fleischer's Kindergarten Class
This week in Miss Fleischer and Mrs. Mussara’s kindergarten class, we learned all about American symbols. The class learned all about the Statue of Liberty, which is located right in our backyard. We learned that Lady Liberty was gifted to us from France. We also learned that the color changed because of the copper and air. To wrap up our learning about the Statue of Liberty, we did a directed drawing!
Ms. Pinkas' Kindergarten Class
This week in ELA we learned how to retell a story using transition words. Students learned that every story has a beginning, middle and end. As a class we read the story Pack A Bag. Then, students had to use transition words as a guide to help retell the story in sequential order. Great job 204!!!
Ms. Rodriguez's Remote Kindergarten Class
Our Kindergarten class did a fantastic job this week as we reviewed each of the short vowel sounds. Students played a, "Spin A Vowel," game, in which they had to make CVC words and decide whether they are real or nonsense words. They blended sounds together to read words in their workbooks and practiced writing them. This week, we also learned about prepositions! Students created a book about prepositions called, "Where Are The Spring Things?" They did such a wonderful job! In math, students practiced playing the game, "Racing Bears," to understand the relationship between numbers and quantities and connect counting to cardinality. They also played the game, "Roll and Record 3," to practice their addition skills and number formation. I'm super proud of all my students and extremely grateful for the beautiful slideshow that they put together for me for teacher appreciation week!
Ms. Watson's Kindergarten Class
This week Ms. Watson’s class prepared for Mother’s Day! Each student made their mom a gift. They wrote a card using their kindergarten writing rubric and making sure their letter formation was perfect for mom! They thought of adjectives to help describe their amazing mothers! They took this very seriously and their cards came out OUTSTANDING. (Only the best for mom!) After, they wrapped their own gift all by themselves. They are so excited to give them to their moms this Sunday! Happy Mother’s Day from class 203!
1st Grade
Ms. Garcia's 1st Grade Class
Math: Students this week have been focusing on surveys and graphs. To practice, we conducted a class survey on what candy they liked the most- Skittles, Twizzlers, or Swedish fish. Students had to vote on their favorite, tally the votes, apply the data to their bar graphs, and then see which candy was the favorite! (Skittles happened to be the class favorite and won!) They had such a fun time!
Science: This week we started our new science unit about space and objects in the sky. Students learned fun and interesting facts about the planets and even learned a new song to go with it!
Ms. Romanowski's 1st Grade Class
It was a fun and busy week in room 206. In Language Arts, our phonics focus was on r controlled vowels and spelling patterns, also known as “bossy r”. We also spent time reviewing adjectives as we learned how they help add detailed description to our writing.
In Science, students are enjoying learning about each planet in our solar system. This week we focused on Mercury. Did you know that Mercury is the smallest planet? Mercury also does not have a moon or rings. We are excited to continue our planet study.
In math, first graders are becoming data and graphing experts. We began visiting other classrooms to collect data which will then be used to create picture graphs and bar graphs.
Students were extremely excited to select cool prizes from the prize cart to celebrate their accomplishments on both RazKids and IXL. Students in room 206 are working towards earning another level up class party this year.
Ms. Gaudio's 1st Grade Class
Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we celebrated Children's Day on Wednesday, May 5th by making ‘koinobori’. May 5th is a national holiday in Japan known as ‘Kodomo no Hi’ (子供の日) or ‘Children's Day’. It is a day to celebrate the health and happiness of children. For this special celebration, families hang kites called ‘koinobori’, which means 'carp-streamer kite'. The carp was chosen as the symbol of Children's Day because the Japanese consider it the most spirited fish, full of energy and power to fight its way up rapidly-flowing streams. The carp also symbolizes courage and the ability to attain high goals due to its strength and determination to overcome all obstacles.
Math
Our current Math Investigations unit focuses on collecting, representing, and interpreting categorical data with up to three categories. This week, we learned that categorical data are data that can be sorted according to attributes and that mathematicians use a bar graph to display the data to show the frequencies with which each of the values occurs. We applied this new knowledge by creating unique topics and questions based on individual interests and engaging in the survey process with our classroom peers.
Mother’s Day Celebration
In Writers’ Workshop, we wrote to inform our AMAZING moms of all the things we love about them. Each student took the time to craft handwritten notes that our moms will open each day in May starting this Mother’s Day weekend. It was beautiful to observe the love, thought, and care that went into crafting these precious notes for our very special moms.
Ms. Sheridan's 1st Grade Class
Teachers give back their THANKS for all the beautiful and thoughtful messages sent from students and families throughout this week! We truly appreciate it!!!
Ms. Schultes' 1st Grade Class
Students have been working SO hard on IXL, Raz Kids, and Epic! On IXL they have been sharpening their math skills with addition, subtraction, story problems, analyzing data, and MORE! On Raz Kids they have been working on leveling up, and on Epic they have been reading longer, exciting stories! They are so proud of their hard work, and it has paid off! This week they got to shop for prizes at the prize cart for their reading minutes and IXL gold medals. Keep it up, first grade!
Mrs. White and Ms. Vayda's - 1st Grade Class
Science:
This week in science students are learning all about objects in the sky. Students began working on their research report for this unit. For this project, students will be researching all of the planets. They are focusing on physical descriptions, planet information such as location from the sun, size, how many moons each planet has, how long it takes to orbit the sun, and surface temperature. Once students completed that, they continued reading books on EPIC to find more interesting facts. This week we focused on Mercury and Venus.
Math:
In math we are still focusing on graphs and data. Students completed their personal survey reports and shared their results to the class. For this project, they went to other first grade classes to collect their data. Next, they want to created new questions that adults can answer. Each day in math, a student was picked to teach a math lesson from their Investigations Workbook. Everyone did amazing teaching the class and asked thoughtful questions to make everyone participate.
Reader's Workshop:
This week in ELA students focused on spelling words with er, ir, ur, or. We worked on phonics activities to help practice learning the sounds for these r- controlled words. In reading, our comprehension skill was to identify cause and effect events in the story. Students used graphic organizers to help record their answers from the text. We also reviewed adjectives and inflectional ending -er during grammar centers.
Writer's Workshop:
Happy Mother's Day! Students spent this week working hard on Mother's Day gifts. We learned how to write letters and everyone wrote such special cards. Students also worked on their "Things I love about you" jar. Inside they wrote 30 little notes. Each day they will let their mom, aunt, or grandma open one. They can't wait to share their gifts on Sunday.
Social Studies:
May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage month. This week students studied Japanese culture. We focused on a celebration called Children's Day which is celebrated on May 5th. It represents children's personalities and their happiness. In Japan many families hang koinobori from their homes, which are large, colorful windsocks that look like koi fish. These traditionally represent family members. These colorful fish are a symbol of perseverance, strength, and courage throughout Japan and other parts of Asia. Students had so much fun making their own koinobori in class.
2nd Grade
Ms. Cofranceco's 2nd Grade Class
Science:
In Science this week students made paper plate dioramas. Each student picked a water or land habitat to represent in their diorama. Once the student picked their habitat, they needed to identify and include at least three animals from their habitat on their project. Check them out!
Language Arts
In Language Arts this week, students practiced with their sight words by writing each word in a white crayon and then they painted over the word to make a colorful page. During the comprehension center, the students read a drama and identified the theme of the play. For the writing center, students wrote an alternate ending to the drama for the week.
Ms. Sene's 2nd Grade Class
This week during Social Studies students worked on their writing skills! They created their very own flip books for their moms for Mother's Day! Students started this activity by completing a brainstorming map of what they want to write on each page. They then used ARMS and CUPS to revise and edit their sentences. They also had a one on one with Ms.Sene to go over what they were writing. Some students had highlighted sentences on their brainstorm maps so they can neatly copy them one at a time.
Ms. Barsuokva's 2nd Grade Class
MATH
This week, students in Ms. Barsukova's 2nd Grade Remote Class have been learning and solving 2 step story problems that involve using the concept of money. After working together as class on breaking down the 2 step problems, underlining, circling, and finding important given information in each given story problem, students were ready to create an equation based on the given details and then progress onto the second step to find the missing number or in other word, how much money was needed to get something if an object cost $1.00. When working in small groups, students were able to create their own 2 step word problems and record them on a sticky note in a Jamboard. The next step is for students to take turns solving their friends' story problems and test their knowledge and understanding of their friends' creative story problems!!
SCIENCE
This week, students in Ms. Barsukova's 2nd Grade Remote Class have been making sketches of the 4 bodies of water: Lake, Pond, River, and Ocean. After having a conversation about the facts about each body of water and noticing some differences between the types of water, students sketched the picture of each and colored it to make it vivid and colorful. Using the skill of folding the paper, students tried to fold the paper into 4 equal parts to make the project possible. Now, students can easily refer back to their sketches when reviewing the important facts about the types of water that exist on our planet Earth!
SOCIAL STUDIES
This week, students in Ms. Barsukova's 2nd Grade Remote Class had fun doing a Scavenger Hunt to better understand the difference between Needs and Wants. After listening to a video about needs and wants, students were asked to find an item in their home that is a want and write why it is a want and find an item that is a need and explain why it is a need. Students made great decisions about what items can be considered to be a want or a need!
MS. AYERS' 2nd GRADE CLASS
2nd Graders in Ms. Ayers' class began their measurement unit this week in Math. To start, students made three different types of jumps (frog, rabbit and kid) and measured each of those jumps with nonstandard units (shoe-lengths, craft sticks and paper clips). Students learned strategies for accurately measuring the length of their jumps. Then, for each measurement unit, they had to identify and find the difference between their longest and shortest jumps. Later on in the week, students used cubes to remeasure their longest and shortest jumps, which will be used for discussion purposes in upcoming days after combining the classes data on a line plot. Next week, students will create a 12-inch measuring tool to continue practicing accurately measuring.
Literacy:
Students learned about ways to be a good citizen this week in Literacy. After reading realistic fiction stories about struggling to do the right thing as well as learning about citizens' rights and responsibilities, students revisited writing summaries using the weekly read aloud, A Difficult Decision. Check out Harper and Kiyan displaying their summaries!
Mother's Day:
Students worked on showing appreciation for their mother through letters and portraits this week. Ms. Ayers' friends drew realistic pictures of their mothers, using adjectives to describe their personality and strength! They then wrote a quick letter, following the friendly letter format, to their mothers sharing why they love them. Their letters were then turned into smaller magnets for their mothers to keep on the refrigerator for years to come! Check out Gregory, Alessia and Maya sharing the portraits they created for their mothers, as well as some of our magnets!
Happy Mother's Day to our Connors School community!
3rd Grade
Ms. Januse's 3rd Grade Class
This week in 3rd grade, students worked on tackling 2 digit by 1 digit multiplication problems. We have been working diligently to master on math facts and this week we had the opportunity to put our knowledge to use!
Ms. Aligo's Class
The students in Mrs. Aligo's class have been recognizing "Heros" in their Social Studies class. They had a very special visitor this past week. His name is Keeon Walker and he is a firefighter in Hoboken. Everyone had a chance to ask a question. These are some of the questions that the students asked: "How did you become a Firefighter"? Answer: "I filled out an application and then I took a written and physical test." "How does it feel to be a Firefighter"? Answer: Its great to be able to be there for people in trouble. I definitely enjoy it. "Do you still go to school"? Answer: " Yes, we continue to train in relation to our job". The students wrote Thank You cards and appreciate his visit. He's the best!!!!
4th Grade
Ms. Rodriguez's - 4th Grade Class
ELA
4th Grade Readers collaborated with a partner to analyze a narrative passage and apply discussion techniques for answering multiple choice questions about story elements and figurative language. They used different strategies depending on the type of question, supported their answers with text evidence, and explained their reasoning. Partners then participated in a Kahoot game to showcase their learning!
Ms. Schulz's - 4th Grade Class
4th Grade learners have started work on Sorting & Classifying Polygons in their Investigations unit. Students played Guess My Rule with Power Polygons in which they sort polygons according to whether the polygons have a certain attribute or not. They use Power polygons to make new polygons that fit given descriptions. Students worked well together and are excited about their geometry unit.
5th Grade
Mrs. Ortiz's 5th Grade Remote Class
What a week in the 5th Grade! Mrs. Ortiz surprised the 5th graders with caterpillars. Students will be doing daily observations of the caterpillars, maintaining daily virtual journals, and we are tying the caterpillars into our Science Ecosystems unit. Students are learning about how the caterpillars are primary consumers and the entire life cycle of the caterpillars. None of the 5th grade remote students have ever raised caterpillars so they are beyond excited to have some new buddies and watch them grow. We also did a little experiment with baking soda and vinegar and students were able to get a virtual hands on experience of how the volume changes during a chemical reaction but not the weight, this helped students understand the Start Strong Science mini lessons from this week. In Math, we learned about adding and subtracting decimals, students worked independently and as a whole group to solve, discuss, and peer teach one another. In Social Studies, we wrapped up our Civil War unit by students creating mini booklets that highlighted key abolitionists, events, battles, advantages, and disadvantages of the Civil War. Students also participated in a virtual field trip of some of the Civil War battlefields and were able to learn about the advances in medicine during the war. In Reading we continued reading our core novel, 'The Watson Go to Birmingham" and students are discussing character traits, character motivation, and evolving themes of the novel.
Mr. Azzarto's Music Class
1) In Kindergarten this week, the students practiced drawing our half notes and rest. After they drew them, they learned about how many beats they are worth. Music is based on time values and melody and the first step is learning how to sing various note values. All the students practiced saying half notes and rests. Here is Savannah from Mr. Fleischer's class showing off her manuscript of half notes and rests.
2) In the 5th grade, we are continuing our music history unit by learning about the Romantic period of music. After viewing the movie, "Beethoven Lives Upstairs", students answered questions about Beethoven and the methods he used in which he composed his final 9th symphony. One of the facts they learned was that this was the first symphony to ever combine a choir with symphonic instruments. If you haven't listened to the 9th, please do and if you already have, listen again. What a magnificent piece of music that forever changed the world of music. Here is Samayah with her completed questionnaire about the movie.
Mr. Favino's Physical Education Class
This week in PE our students continued with our tennis unit. Great progress has been made by all our students since the beginning of this unit with our tennis skills. This was a big week in our unit as the objectives for our students were to get accustomed to a rally with at least 3-5 shots, and we introduced the overhand serve this week. After the students got some individual practice with the skill cues of the overhand serve, we gave students the goal of using the overhand serve to accurately hit a stationary target. Some of the activities included an agility race with an overhand serve where students shocked me with their accuracy! To finish the week we played Knock ‘Em Down where students aimed to knock down bowling pins before their opponent could. When the rain came, we put the tennis rackets aside and practiced those activities using our hands as rackets. It was an excellent week, and our students once again showed that they can pick up new skills so quickly.
Ms. Jia's - Mandarin Class
This week students continue the topic of countries of the world. We reviewed the countries' names and locations. We played a game to locate countries on map when hearing a name in Mandarin. Students are very interested in learning how to greet in different languages. We learned how to say "Hello" in ten different languages. Students also start to think about what colors and designs of the national flags have and why some countries' national flags are so similar. They had some fun in coloring the national costumes reflecting the basic colors of the national flags. Enjoy our Video below!
Ms. Musella's - Art Class
In the Art Room with Mrs. Musella the students from 302 began their lesson called "Alphabet Soup" The first Phase of the lesson they need to paint a pattern for the placemat using a crayon resist technique. They created such colorful placemats. The next phase will be to create the bowl of soup and draw the alphabet in the bowl with crayons, then paint the soup in using the crayon resist technique. Last phase we will put it all together and add shading to create the illusion of 3-D. I will be posting when they are done.... So far they are doing a great job!
World Day for Cultural Diversity
May 21st is identified by the United Nations as World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. On May 20th, the Hoboken Public Schools will partner with the Diversity Council from Kean University to highlight the importance of celebrating diversity, in educational institutions and the community at large. Diversity is a point of pride in our district and we want to highlight you. We are so proud of the diversity found within our school community. Every family is beautiful and unique and we would like you to email a family selfie to Dr. Pollins at tpollins@hoboken.k12.nj.us and Mr. Munoz at christopher.munoz@hobokenk12.nj.us by May 12th. Please save and send photos as a.jpeg or .png.
Our amazing students speak over 20 different languages! We would also like to celebrate World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development by creating a video representative of these languages. Please join us by recording “I love Hoboken” in your home language. Videos should be saved and sent as .MP4 or .mov format and sent to Dr. Pollins at tpollins@hoboken.k12.nj.us and Mr. Munoz at christopher.munoz@hoboken.k12.nj.us by May 12th.
Please save the date for this event that will take place on May 20th from 5:30-6:30 via zoom.
Character Education
Parents, would you like to learn more about Move this World? Would you like to use Move this World at Home? Use the following credentials to login after clicking the link in the title.
Username: connors.family
Password: hoboken123
Connors School Spirit Wear
Would you like to purchase more Connors School Spirit Wear? Click on the link below to view our Connors School Spirit Wear. If someone wishes to purchase an item, please email the swag team (swagconnors@gmail.com) and the swag team will contact you.
Connors PTO Meetings
Our Connors PTO will be meeting the 2nd Tuesday of every month at 12:00 pm virtually.
Here are the Connors PTO meeting dates for the 2020-2021 School Year
May 11th
June 8th
Click below to join the meeting:
meet.google.com/nqs-hhna-dkb
- May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Month
- May 11th, Connors PTO Meeting-Virtual
- May 20th, World Day for Cultural Diversity Dialogue
- May 23rd-Connors Spring Family Fun Day and Green Drop
- June 1st-T.G. Connors Field Day
- June 15th-Kindergarten Moving Up Ceremony
- June 24th-5th Grade Moving Up Ceremony
Juliana Addi, Principal, Thomas G. Connors Elementary School
Email: juliana.addi@hoboken.k12.nj.us
Website: hoboken.k12.nj.us
Location: 201 Monroe Street, Hoboken, NJ, USA
Phone: 201-356-3684