The students honored Autism Awareness Day by wearing blue and blowing bubbles for Autism. Morning enrichment classes are in full swing with Mrs. Horner and her Lego Club and Ms. Schmitt’s Art Club. Classes have begun to utilize the various activities in Hope’s Garden to celebrate Spring! The month concluded with over 50 of the staff’s children coming to Oxycocus for “Take Your Child to Work Day.”

The PLC started April off with Autism Awareness Day. Staff and students wore blue and shared positive stories of acceptance for all student differences! On April 5th, we celebrated Lamar Day and all of our students wore red and learned about good leadership qualities. During the week of April 17th, our kindergarteners went to the Popcorn Park Zoo and saw the animals that we adopted during our Great Kindness Challenge week. We ended the month by taking our spring pictures and celebrating Arbor Day.

April kicked off with Autism Awareness Day. Students and staff wore blue and decorated the halls with puzzle pieces. The students also enjoyed a bubble parade led by the MD classes! Thank you to Mrs. Gudzak and Ms. Vaughan for their help with the bubble parade. After spring break, the second grade students at OA took the In View assessment. This test assesses the students’ cognitive abilities and skills important to future academic success. The month came to a close with visits from 43 children of our staff members for the annual Take Your Child to Work Day. It was a great month at Ocean Acres.

Mrs. Paolo’s class, as well as Intermediate students from Mrs. Rowland’s class, put on a show entitled “In the Spotlight”. The show was held at STAC and organized by Mrs. Gioe and Ms. Myers. Guests were entertained by students singing songs and reading stories from books. A big thank you to Mrs. Gioe and Ms. Myers for all their hard work! On Thursday, April 27th, the district celebrated Take Your Child to Work Day. We had thirty-five children come to school with their parents. Each visitor was given an official ID badge with their name and picture on it. They got to spend the day following the schedule of their parent and being part of the class. It was a busy day for all! Friday, April 28th, McKinley celebrated Arbor Day. Students had been asked earlier in the month to create a poster or write a poem about saving our trees. Two winners from each class were chosen by their peers and participated in a tree planting ceremony on the McKinley school grounds. Officials from Stafford Township came to the tree planting and had an opportunity to view all of the student entries and hear some of the poems. The school received a proclamation from Mayor Myhre, which will proudly hang in our hallway!

April was a busy month at Intermediate. We had our Hallway Challenge which was an Egg & Spoon race. All the students that participated had a great experience. Our MD students had a great time attending the Field of Dreams in Toms River. 6th grade students attended Project Aware which focused on the dangers of drug and alcohol use. Our Future Leaders participated in the annual Beach Blitz that involved our students cleaning up the beach in Surf City. Students began taking our school survey to help our School Climate committee. We finished the month with a great performance by our MD students during the In the Spotlight show.