PLD November Newsletter
Where we are "All Stars"
Message from the Principal, Mr. Dias
We are entering the time of the year where thankfulness is in season. Our students can be thankful for great friendships; a great community and a wonderful learning environment. What I'm most grateful for is having a great educational community with excellent professionals who help children grow. There is something special about Drew!
November Events
November 6th - School Spirit - Election Day wear Red White & Blue
November 10th & 11th - SCHOOL CLOSED - Teacher Convention
November 13th - SCHOOL CLOSED -Diwali
November 14th - EARLY DISMISSAL/Conferences
November 17th - School Spirit - wear your favorite FLANNEL
November 23rd & 24th - SCHOOL CLOSED - Thanksgiving
November 29th - Picture re-take Day
December 1 - School Spirit -Blizzard Day - wear white
December 4-8 - PTO Holiday Fair
Important Reminders
Early Dismissal
Please note that if you plan on picking up your child earlier than regular dismissal time it is always helpful to let us know. You can do this anyone of the following ways: enter it into Genesis, email your child's teacher or call the front office and let them know that you will be picking your child up early.
Carpool Lane & Walker Pickups
Friendly reminder: To keep the front of the building clear for carpool students, if you are picking up a student as a walker, please meet your child at the BREEZEWAY. Walkers are not dismissed at the front of the building as this area is kept open for carpool students. Regarding the carpool area, I do ask that we all work together as a community. Staff will only engage with the traffic on campus but I ask that you be courteous and mindful when entering the carpool lane. Please do not block the entry of the driveway due to the buses. Buses are unable to enter the driveway safely if it is blocked. Your support with this matter is appreciated.
Chromebooks & Water Bottles
Please remind your students to bring their charged chromebooks as well as a water bottle daily! It is extremely important that they remember to bring them everyday.
PLD Arrival & Dismissal Times
Please be advised that school starts at 8:45 am and dismissal is at 3:30. While we understand illnesses and circumstances occurring beyond your control. We encourage students to be on time. Missing precious instruction time is a loss that cannot be recovered.
Early dismissal from PLD is at 1:25
Delayed Opening arrival time for PLD is 10:15 am
The complete schedule can be found here: https://www.ewrsd.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=1561786&type=d&pREC_ID=1688531
PLD Lost & Found
Please remind your children that there are lots of items in the lost & found. They can check the rack during their lunch period and claim what might belong to them!
Outdoor Recess
Cooler weather may be setting in, however, we will still be having recess outdoors. Recess is a crucial part of the day, so by all means we will continue to provide this outdoor experience daily. Please be reminded to have your child properly dress for cooler weather. Coats, jackets, and hats may be needed. Checking the weather prior to the start of school would help in making sure proper attire is on daily.
Updates from the Grade Levels
Third grade - Mrs. Pappas
What a wonderful year it has been so far here at the Perry L. Drew School! We are currently a fine bunch of ALL STARS! From the first day of school you could see and feel the excitement and enthusiasm of the third grade students as they embarked on a new school year. The students have become acclimated to the third grade classroom setting and expectations. You could also see how much they loved being with their friends and teachers. The third grade students have been very busy these first couple of months. They have participated in several activities including our annual Halloween parade and the WizFit Challenge. Academically our third graders could not be busier! They have been learning new concepts as well as spiraling back to concepts previously taught. Our third graders have really enjoyed participating in STEM classes and its challenges. They have completed building strong towers and exploring magnets. They are looking forward to their next challenge. As a professional team, the third grade group of teachers are looking forward to furthering our student's academic, social and emotional success. As always, please reach out to any team member for information. The third grade team is looking forward to continuing our hard work with our Drew Dragons and having fun doing so in what will truly be a successful year here at Drew!
Fourth Grade - Mrs. Collazo
Fourth grade is definitely full of all stars this school year, and we sure have been staying busy! We recently participated in the WizFit Challenge, showing our passion and excitement to raise money for a new playground. We have learned to work together as a school to complete WizFit and take part in a fun and rewarding graduation ceremony! Thank you to the PTO for all their help and for such a memorable fundraiser. We also participated in some fun, fall activities, and celebrations. Students enjoyed learning about Hispanic Heritage Month, shopping at our first book fair this year, and participating in our anti-bullying assembly. At the end of October we took part in our PLD Halloween Parade, which showcased various fun and spooky costumes. The 4th grade team chose Toy Story as their theme, which you can see in the picture! We were very proud of our very own student council reps and officers that were voted in by our classmates to represent us in the 4th grade community. We know they will do well this year! In addition, the very first round of students were chosen for Praise from the Principal, and we couldn’t be more proud of them for exhibiting how prepared, respectful, inclusive, dedicated, and engaged they are! As for academics we are very motivated to learn in our classrooms, and couldn’t be happier to showcase the work of our all star students on our classroom bulletin boards! We started our school year learning about place value (rounding, adding, subtracting, etc) as well as updating our Math vocabulary with new and exciting terms. We are now diving into multiplication, and really focusing on our basic multiplication math facts! In language arts, we are learning to apply skills and strategies to our reading, including identifying point of view, summarizing, questioning, and inferring. In writing, we are able to identify differences between narratives, expository pieces, and opinion pieces. We are currently learning how to write each section of the narrative diamond, so we can write our very own narrative! We are working hard on applying grammar skills within our everyday writing and will practice open ended RACE responses in the future. In social studies, we’re learning about our government, including its three branches and the three types of government. Science has been centered on innovative learning, using the engineering design process to conquer STEM challenges. We are looking forward to continuing this hard work in 4th grade, while having fun doing so!
Fifth grade - Mrs. Volyand
Fifth grade at Perry L. Drew is off to a great start! Our fifth graders are so excited to create amazing memories during their last year here at Perry L. Drew. Our school theme this year rings true: this will certainly been an "ALL STAR" year!
We began the year by building our entire 5th grade class community. Students participated in a grade wide get to know you game during the first week of school. Students even had a chance to see if they were able to listen to clues and identify awesome facts about their 5th grade teachers. Continuing to build our community, 5th graders this trimester are participating in our D.A.R.E program. The 5th graders are excited to learn about making healthy choices alongside officer Greg Hager and his team. Soon, we will be planning and practicing for our D.A.R.E graduation which is scheduled for December 15th! We would also like to thank the PTO and the 5th grade parent/teacher committee for continuing to support us this year through a school store and other awesome fundraising events and activities!
The 5th grade teachers are truly impressed with our students' hard work and dedication towards academics so far. Here is a sneak peek into what we have learned and what we are working on so far this year:
In Language Arts, students learned to pick "just right books" and set reading goals for themselves. Our students are using the Accelerated Reader program in order to help them meet their reading goals, and also to check their understanding of the books they are choosing. Students are working on literature and non-fiction readings skills. This year, students will be comparing and contrasting a variety of stories from different genres. They are analyzing the author's craft to deepen their understanding of story elements. They are also reading, determining main ideas and text constructs in order to deepen their understanding of expository and opinion/argumentative texts. Studying various texts is helping our 5th graders improve their writing. They are writing about their reading. Students are also working on improving the structure and style of their writing. We look forward to seeing their reading and writing skills grow this year.
Social Studies class has been a wonderful opportunity for our 5th graders to gain foundational knowledge relating to the development of the United States. Students this beginning portion of our year are learning about government. The Five Themes of Geography and Native American History. Students are participating in textual analysis, research, collaborative opportunities and projects in order to deepen their understanding and to think critically about these topics.
In Math, students have become stars at learning how to use place value position and patterns to multiply whole numbers and powers of 10. They even learned about exponents and used them to solve problems! Can you solve this problem: Our 5th graders can! They are using strategies to work with rounding, comparing and ordering decimals. Using base ten blocks helps our students subtract decimals and model their thinking. Now that students are moving into multiplying and dividing, it is important to practice these facts at home.
5th graders have taken on the role of scientists! They pretended to "fly" to different ecosystems and investigate the plant and animal life found around the world. They interpreted data as they investigated what plants need to survive. As they study the role of consumers in an ecosystem, they conducted a hands-on investigation to discover the diet of an owl by breaking apart and observing owl pellets! We have engineers here at PLD, as students designed, built and tested working catapults in the STEM Lab!
We are excited for our 5th graders to continue to build our learning community throughout the rest of the school year.
Updates from Our Fine Arts Departments
Art - Mr. Roselle
Every week a student is chosen to be the Artist of the Week. Their art is then posted in the display case to be viewed for a week. Each of the chosen artists will be photographed and displayed in the newsletter.
Music - Ms. Behrens
We would like to welcome Mr. Embrich, Miss Rose and Miss Berry, students from Westminster Choir College of Rider University who will be doing their music education practicum experience at Drew. On their first morning, Mrs. D'Errico's 5th grade class shared one of their favorite dance activities with them.
Technology - Ms. Swinarski
In Technology class, students from Mrs. Volyands 5th Grade Class continued to practice their coding skills using Lightbot on the iPads.
Library - Mrs. Holcombe
During the month of October, students practiced searching for books in Destiny Discover. We also did fun pumpkin activities such as reading the book The Runaway Pumpkin and making ramps to see how far our pumpkins could roll. We also read Pumpkin Jack and/or Rotten Pumpkin and started a cool science project in which we're going to watch a pumpkin decompose and learn about the decomposition process and the life cycle of a pumpkin. Speaking of life cycles, the chickens are coming! During our Halloween parade, students learned that our chick hatching dates have been set - the eggs arrive on February 14th and the chicks will hatch on March 6th. There's so much to look forward to in the PLD Library! During the month of November, we'll celebrate Native American Heritage Month and learn about the American Indian Youth Literature Award. Check out some of the great books available in our Native American Heritage Month collection on Destiny Discover.
Update from Nurse Lopatine
Hello PLD Families!!!
Yearly Nurse Screenings have begun. They include: 3rd grade-Height, Weight, Blood Pressure and Hearing; 4th grade-Height, Weight, Blood Pressure and Vision; and 5th grade-Height, Weight, Blood Pressure and Scoliosis in the Spring. If your child fails a screening, a referral will be sent letting you know and suggesting a follow up with the doctor. Once your child has been seen by your physician, please forward me any notes from the doctor.
2023-2024 Yearbook Orders
The 2023-2024 Yearbook is ready to be ordered! We are ONLY doing online ordering this year, so we will give you a quick guide to help you place your order. Yearbooks are $20, credit card / debit card only. Deadline for orders is April 26th, 2024. As we are working directly with a company to produce copies of the yearbook, orders must be in on time. No other orders can be taken after April 26th and access to the site will be closed. It is important to meet the deadline. Books will be delivered to the school and distributed in June. NO EXTRA COPIES will be available for purchase in June.
Please check your child's photo release status on Genesis. Many students are still marked as NO PHOTO/MEDIA RELEASE, which means that their picture cannot be used in our yearbook. Photo release forms have to be marked off on Genesis.
If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. Rupp and Ms. Swinarski at the emails here :
Mrs. Rupp mrupp@ewrsd.k12.nj.us
Ms. Swinarski - sswinarski@ewrsd.k12.nj.us
HOW TO ORDER YOUR YEARBOOK:
Log into: https://ybpay.lifetouch.com/
Yearbook ID Code: 14469124
PTO News
Our Wiz Fit Challenge is still ongoing until November 6th and has been an outstanding fundraiser for us, generating over $6,500 so far. During our assemblies, the students have been having a blast and really seem to be enjoying the challenge. Some of the winners already are pictured below.
PLD Photo Gallery
Sports Jersey Day - 10/13/23
Student Council hosted "Wear your favorite Sports Jersey Day" Please enjoy some photos below.
Wacky Wednesday/Mismatch Day - 10/25/23
Student Council hosted "Mismatch Day". Please enjoy some photos below.
About PLD
Address: 70 Twin Rivers Drive North, East Windsor, NJ 08520
Contact: Kathleen Donohue, 609-4436-7820 X3000 - kdonohue@ewrsd.k12.nj.us OR
Evelin Surita (Habla Espanol), 609-443-7820 X3005 - esurita@ewrsd.k12.nj.us