From the Principal's Pen
May 19, 2019
It was an exciting week at JC!
“Grandparents make the world a little softer, a little kinder, a little warmer!” - Unknown
The PTA successfully planned and presented another amazing Talent Show and fabulous Grandparents Day at Julian Curtiss this week! Thank you Kirsten Hennigan (mom of Tess in 4G and Callum in 1MK), Josh Fields (dad of Lexi in 4E), Bob Chaney (dad of Zachary in 1MH and Jackson in 3M), and Jessie Bennett (mom of Murphy in 5O, Grace in 3M, and Olivia in 1MH) and our fabulous committee. Thank you so much for what you did to make our grandparents feel so welcome at our school!
A special thank you to Heather McGuinness and Anna Ripegno for a beautiful heartfelt message from the children to their grandparents by video. Thank you to Melanie Champion for organizing a fabulous performance from our fourth grade chorus! Most of all thank you to the teachers for welcoming the grandparents into your classrooms.
We had a great turnout of grandparents! This is a tradition still going strong at our school. The accolades just kept coming at the end of the event. Grandparents stopped to thank us for all of our efforts. It amazes me how far some of the grandparents have come to be at the event. They call us early in the year make sure they schedule their visits around this event. That is pretty special!
Thanks again to Bob Chaney and Josh Fields along with an amazing committee of volunteers for organizing and presenting a fun and engaging Talent Show. CONGRATULATIONS to the TALENT SHOW PARTICIPANTS! Our students at JC really have some incredible talents! The musicians, dancers, singers, martial arts board breaking and overall talents - the kids were just amazing! The students, parents, grandparents, and guests loved the evening!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Trish McGuire
Principal
Thank you for your generosity!
Coins for Kids
Coins for Kids supports the Horizons at Brunswick, which serves 22 students here at Julian Curtiss. Our Service Club helped to collect donations which will be used to provide funding for this unique program that takes place during the summer including academics and enrichment activities for boys in grades K-8 across the town of Greenwich.
Mismatched Shoe Day
We also participated in Mismatched Shoe Day to Show support for Sam Buck, an 8 yr old boy from Glenville School who was diagnosed at age 2 with Vanishing White Matter Disease (VWM), a rare neurological condition that erodes myelin, the brain’s white matter. By participating in Mismatched Shoe Day, Julian Curtiss contributed to the nearly $20,000 raised by the entire Greenwich community for the VWM Families Foundation which funds research into this rare disease. Below is a special "thank you" message from Sam himself!
Literacy Spotlight
General PTA Meeting Guest Speaker
Join us for General PTA meeting and Special Guest Speaker Lori Elliot, GPS Humanities Coordinator. She will give us a quick overview of curriculum and what parents can do at home to help with language arts.
Do you have any other specific questions for Lori? Email your questions in advance to: jcptacopresident@gmail.com
Let's talk about...FLUENCY!
Fluency Matters
If you’ve been around classrooms and teachers, you’ve probably heard the term “fluency.” Fluency is something worth knowing more about! Read on to find out what it is and how to develop it in your young learner.
Fluency: What is it? Why is it important?
If someone is fluent in speaking another language or in playing an instrument, there’s a smooth, graceful and easy quality to it. The same is true with reading skills. Reading fluency is a child’s ability to read a book or other text correctly, quickly, and with expression. A fluent reader doesn’t have to stop and “decode” each word. Rather, most of the words can be read automatically. This means the reader can focus his attention on what the story or text means. For that reason, fluency is critically important — it’s the bridge between decoding words and understanding what has been read.
How can we foster reading fluency?
Parents can help their child develop reading fluency through a few simple and fun activities.
Paired or “buddy” reading
The easiest and best way to help your child develop fluency is to sit with your child and read! Read together every day, which is often called paired or buddy reading. To use paired reading, simply take turns reading aloud. You go first, as your reading provides a model of what good fluent reading sounds like. Then, ask your child to re-read the same page you just read. You’ll notice that your child’s reading will start to sound more and more like yours. Do this for several pages. Once your child is comfortable enough, and familiar enough with the book, take turns reading page for page.
Reread favorite books
Another way parents can help develop fluency is to build a tall stack of books that your child can read quickly and easily. Encourage your child to reread favorite books over and over again. With each reading, you may notice your child reading a bit easier, a bit faster, and with a bit more confidence and expression.
Record it
Another fun way to practice reading and build fluency is to have your child create her own audio books. This can be done simply with a tape recorder or audio recording feature or app (like Audioboo) on your phone. Or, use something more sophisticated like StoryKit, where a user can create an electronic storybook and record audio to accompany it. Regardless of the method you choose, your child will be practicing what they want to record and that reading practice is critical. Sharing your audio recordings with family and friends is a great motivator too!
Parent tips for raising strong readers and writers - Growing readers! Brought to you by Reading Rockets, Colorín Colorado and LD OnLine
IMPORTANT CALENDAR NOTES
Last Day of School for Students
Smarter Balanced and NGSS Assessments for Grades 3-5
Please do your best not to make appointments for your child that will take him/her away from the grade level assessment time. Makeups may be held at other times during the day. Also, please ensure that your child arrives at school on time, well rested, and has a good breakfast. On testing days, grade levels follow the schedule below:
Grade 3: 8:45 am - 10:15 am
Grade 4: 9:00 am - 10:30 am
Grade 5: 10:45 am - 12:15 pm
Spring Concert Update
The JC Weekly Show
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Mrs. Trish McGuire - Principal
Email: trish_mcguire@greenwich.k12.ct.us
Website: www.greenwichschools.org/jcs
Location: 180 East Elm Street, Greenwich, CT, USA
Phone: (203) 869-1896
Twitter: @jcsprincipal