Inside this edition you will find:

• Director's Message
• Rising Kindergarten Survey for Dual Language Option
• PreK Carnival
• What is HECAC?
• April is Autism Acceptance Month
• Directories for HOPES, Mile Square, and Wallace Preschool Wildcats
  
• Weekly Site Updates
• MT's 2 Cents
• Nurse's Nook
• Ms. Mara's Book of the Week
• SpongeBob Luau
• Disney & Donuts

Dear Early Childhood Families,

Happy Spring to all of our PreK Families! It was nice to finally welcome spring and even nicer to enjoy the warmer weather that came with it. Spring break is right around the corner! As a reminder, Thursday, April 6th, 2023 we will be having a 1:00 PM dismissal. There are no Wrap services on this day. Friday, April 7th, 2023 to Friday, April 14th, 2023 there will be No School. The Hoboken Public School District will be closed for Spring Break.

Our HOPES and MSELC school day starts at 8:30 and dismissal is at 2:30. This drop off and pickup times do not apply for students in WRAP programs. If you are going to be late dropping off in the morning or picking up in the afternoon, please make sure to call or email your family advocate. Their information can be found in the directories below.

As a friendly reminder, please remember to call your family advocate and let them know the reason for your child being absent no later than 9:15 am. If you can not call your family advocate, please email dbrookes@hoboken.k12.nj.us. In your email, please state:

• your child's name
• provider
• site
• teacher
• reason for absence
• when we can expect them back in school

Important Upcoming Dates to add to your calendars:

Thursday, April 6th, 2023 we will be having a 1:00 PM dismissal. There are no Wrap services on this day.

Friday, April 7th, 2023 to Friday, April 14th, 2023 there will be No School. The Hoboken Public School District will be closed for Spring Break.

Week of the Young Child is April 17th-21st. More information will be coming.

Our 1st PreK Carnival will be held on Saturday, April 22nd at 605 Jackson Street. Please register if you have not already. Activities will be taking place from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm.

Please continue reading below to see information for our Rising Kindergarten Survey for Dual Language Option, Upcoming Pre-K Carnival, What is HECAC?, April is Autism Acceptance Month, Directories for HOPES, Mile Square and our Wallace Preschool Wildcats, Weekly Updates from each site, MT's 2 Cents, Nurse's Nook, My Book of the Week, and some fun upcoming theatre events. Have a wonderful weekend.

Kind regards,

Kimberly Mara

Director of Early Childhood Education

Dear Rising Kindergarten Families:

The Hoboken Public School District will be piloting a Dual Language program in September at the Kindergarten level.

Our goal is to operate one of the four Kindergarten classes at Connors Elementary School, two of eight Kindergarten classes at Brandt Elementary School, and two of seven Kindergarten classes at Wallace Elementary School as Dual Language Pilot classrooms. To get this up and off of the ground, we believe that starting small is the best way to staff these classrooms and learn from initial implementation.

In these Dual Language classrooms, the bilingual teacher will deliver 90% of academic instruction in Spanish and 10% in English. Our goal is to promote children in the Dual Language Pilot program the following September and once again use the 90/10 model in 1st Grade, followed by the 80/20 model in 2nd Grade, the 70/30 model in 3rd Grade, the 60/40 model in 4th Grade, and the 50/50 model in 5th Grade.

All aspects of the curriculum and content will be the same as in the other kindergarten classrooms. The only difference is that children in the Dual Language Pilot program will receive 90% of their academic instruction in Spanish and will not receive one day per week of Mandarin Chinese. Rather, that related arts period will be replaced with a Theater Arts class.

We are sure that you may have a number of questions. We will be hosting an information session on Monday, March 27th at 6:15 p.m. in the Wallace School Gymnasium for any interested rising Kindergarten family from any of our three elementary schools. On Wednesday, March 29th at 6:15 p.m. we will be hosting an online information session via Google Meet. Once both of the information sessions are complete, we will conduct a lottery on April 19th for those families still interested in participating in the pilot program.

At this time, we kindly ask that you complete and return this survey.

We are thrilled to invite you to our first Pre-K Carnival! Come out on Saturday, April 22nd to enjoy some games and activities while getting to meet and interact with our Pre-K staff. The carnival will be held at 605 Jackson Street and runs from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. So you can come anytime during that time period. We hope to see you there.

Many had asked during our parent survey what HECAC is. We wanted to give you a something information as to what the Hoboken Early Childhood Advisory Council is and what we do.

The Hoboken Public Schools celebrate the SPECTRUM of DIVERSITY as only individuals who are NEURODIVERSE can bring to our school communities. We ACCEPT these DIFFERENCES with SUPPORT for all who need assistance to ACCESS the OPPORTUNITIES that they deserve. We all benefit when we HONOR THE UNIQUENESS AND DIGNITY OF ALL.

Mrs. Allende´s class is getting ready for Spring. The class read the book, "When Spring Comes.¨ When is the first day of Spring? What do we see in the Spring? How do plants grow or what they need to grow? The class will talk about flowers, green grass, rainbows, bugs, rain, and sunshine to celebrate when Spring has arrived. The students will increase their fine motor skills by coloring, cutting, pasting, using dotters to make rainbows, flowers, and bugs.

In Ms. Allie's class there has been a lot of talk about water, pipes, leaks, faucets and toilets. The students started by borrowing pipes from another class and explored building with them. Ms. Allie gave each student a challenge: could they create a “pipe” that could transport water without leaking. Each child created their own pipe and they carefully looked through each part while adding stoppers and turns to prevent leaking. The next step was to make blueprints. The students carefully looked at the pipes they created and drew a picture of them, noticing the different shapes and colors they used. During our “Science Week”, the students tested their pipes to see if they were successful in their challenge. The students took turns pouring water into the top of each pipe to see if it traveled through to the bottom without leaking. Some pipes worked and others did not. For those that did not work, the class looked at what they needed to change and added or took away pipes and/or stoppers until each pipe worked. The class recorded their results on their blueprints. The class went on a pipe search to see where they could find pipes in their own school building. The final challenge was to create one huge pipe by putting all of the small ones together. The class is super excited to test the large pipe outside— fingers crossed it works!

Last week, each student in Ms. Anne’s and Ms. Gloria’s class made their own leprechaun trap after reading “How to Trap a Leprechaun.” They worked on them at home with their families and brought them in on Thursday before St. Patrick’s Day (because that night is when the leprechauns come out). Each student described how their trap worked and some even wrote instructions! Unfortunately, they didn’t catch any leprechauns, but it is always fun to see how creative students can get. Maybe next year!

Students in Room 303 sat next to a buddy and used mediator cards to take turns. They engage in sharing and listening to a story during the Tools of the Mind Buddy Reading activity. This is one of the many Tools of the Mind activities used to help build a foundation for students to connect spoken language with written words.

In Ms. Dimitra’s and Ms. Jazmen’s class, students went on a trip to the Fire station. The students had the opportunity to go onto the firetrucks, see how they look on the inside, and take a look at the different equipment it has. Students were given firefighter hats and were able to sit on the front seat of the firetruck. The class had a lot of fun!

In Jubilee 102 this week the class celebrated the arrival of Spring. They have been enjoying winter so much but now the students are definitely looking ahead to sunnier and warmer days. The class has been reading some books preparing for the Spring Season. So far the class has read “The Tiny Seed” by Eric Carle and “When Spring Comes” by Kevin Henkes to give the students a better idea of what to expect during the Spring season. As the class anticipates the change in weather, they also discussed the different kinds of clothing that they would need to wear. For example, the students discussed that instead of big heavy coats they would have to start wearing lighter jackets including rain jackets. The students kept adding more items they can wear during Spring so the class decided to make a poster to highlight all their wonderful suggestions.

What a great time of the year for a walking field trip and a delicious slice of freshly made pizza. This pizza is special pizza because it is handmade by our super pizza chefs in classroom 4. Hoboken's very own Pizza Republic was nice enough to teach our amazing students how they make one of the best slices in the city. They rolled the dough, added the cheese and secret sauce. The class learned that the trick is to let it cook for 7 minutes on medium heat. What a delicious pizza and a wonderful experience. Great job classroom 4 students and thank you so much Pizza Repulic for the experience!

On the first day of Spring, the message of the day was, “We are going to look for flowers.” On the walk to the park the students looked around to see if they could spy any flowers. The class discussed why they didn’t see any flowers and that Spring had just arrived so seeds needed time to grow. The students read the book “The Things About Spring” and talked about what plants and flowers need in order to grow. After the story, the students observed artificial flowers in the science center. Students described what they saw to their buddy and draw what they observed for their “Science Eyes Activity.” Prior to this lesson we had planted lentil beans and pinto beans to see which one will turn into a plant the fastest and hung them up on our classroom window for the students to observe each day.

Our Pre-K 3 superstars in Room 403 at the Mile Square Early Learning Center located at the St. Francis site are celebrating SCIENCE WEEK! The students had a week full of experiments that had them thinking and exploring. One of their favorite experiments of this week was inflating a balloon using just vinegar and baking soda! For this experiment they used an empty water bottle, a balloon, vinegar, baking soda, a funnel, and a spoon. The little scientists were able to put vinegar in an empty water bottle and put baking soda in a balloon. After attaching the balloon to the water bottle, they were able to mix the two together creating a chemical reaction, which caused the balloon to inflate. The students learned that when vinegar and baking soda combine it creates a chemical reaction that releases carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is trapped in the water bottle and has no way out. The only solution is for it to go up and that causes the balloon to inflate. This week was so much fun and the students got to explore and think outside of the box!

MSELC at Wallace had a special event this week just in time for SCIENCE WEEK. An in house laser light show! The show taught the children how light can be manipulated and moved in special ways to make fun pictures and characters like Pikachu, Spiderman and even friends from Toy Story! The whole show was paired to fun music for the students to sing and dance along with.

A Message from the Master Teachers!

As we all know, young kids absolutely love to ask, “Why?” That’s what makes science such an exciting subject for them. Preschool science students should be encouraged to explore everything about the world around them. These experiments and activities are easy to do, and curious kiddos will enjoy every moment of the hands-on learning!

Physicals and Immunizations

Preschool students need a new physical every year. Physicals will expire one year from the date on the Universal Health Record (Ex. If your child’s Universal Health Record is dated 10/15/2021, it will expire on 10/15/2022). Please be prompt in scheduling yearly physicals and give all updated physical/immunization forms to family advocates.

Another Friday, and another favorite book of Ms. Mara's.

Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion is a book my grandmother always read to me when I was little. Reading it always brings me back to being a little kid over her house. I loved the adventure Harry went on just to not have to take a bath. Read the story to discover all the dirty places Harry explored to make him change from a white dog with black spots to a black dog with white spots!

In the Early Childhood Program we operate using an upward communication procedure. If you have any questions, concerns, etc. please refer to the chart linked below when sending an email. When in doubt, please send your email to your child's Family Advocate and he/she will escalate it to the appropriate person.