Dear SHARP Parent(s)/Guardian(s),

We had a very busy November with so many wonderful events!! We started with a Respect Attitude Assembly

on Empathy with our musical mornings program. We had an amazing Fall Book Fair that added books to our

wonderful library. The Fair’s Ice cream Social Night is always “a treat”; this successful fundraiser supports our

5th grade activities. Thank you to our wonderful teachers for a great Parent Visitation Day. It is one thing to hear

what our children learn every day, but to see the dynamic lessons is another experience! Thanks to the whole

SHARP community for coming out to our McDonald’s night during Spirit week. Congrats to the 2nd grade and

especially Ms. Spence’s class for winning McDonald’s class and grade participation contests. Also, we had a great

movie night with the showing of “Frozen”. As a SHARP community, we have to CELEBRATE that we can provide

all these fantastic/educational programs to our children.

As December starts and the weather is getting colder, we have a lot to CELEBRATE at SHARP this year. First, let’s

congratulate the KAM sisters, Hailey and Joy, for winning 1st place honors for the Township-wide Red Ribbon

Contest. Please see the pictures attached on the next page. Also, we had a great CELEBRATION of creative

theme days during Spirit week which culminated with a fantastic Pep Rally. The kids and Faculty/Staff had a

great time!!!! In addition, what a great Display Case this month in the Sharp lobby--not only did we CELEBRATE

our school spirit, but our very talented Green Team with their innovative recycling projects!!!! The

CELEBRATION continues for Sharp’s 50th anniversary throughout the year especially in January. More

information soon!!!!!

Our PTA will coordinate a Toy Drive throughout the month benefitting children in our community who may

need gifts for the holidays (12/1-12/18). More information will be forthcoming about this important event. Also,

mark your calendars for our second school Skating Night on Monday 12/1 at the Cherry Hill Skating Rink, Parent

Teacher Conferences during the week of 12/8-11 and our second PTA Meeting on Tuesday 12/16 at 7:15 pm in

the SHARP library. Also, please try to attend the PARCC district wide information meetings. There will be six

meetings scheduled throughout the next few months (see attached schedule).

Lastly, as the winter holiday season approaches, we should all be grateful and CELEBRATE what we have as

individual families and as a school. There are those in our community that need some support from all of us. The

Cherry Hill Zone PTA has asked that all school communities to please consider donating gift cards in $10

increments from local stores (Target, Shoprite, Walmart, Wegman’s) to help local families in need. If you are

interested in helping, please send your donation to the PTA office by 12/15/14. You may send in a gift card(s) or

cash, and the Zone PTA can purchase a gift card for a neighbor in need.

Joseph D. Sharp Elementary PTA

CELEBRATE!

Winter season means CELEBRATING individuals and groups who have contributed to our SHARP community!!!

Please look at the latest list of those to whom we are THANKFUL and CELEBRATING in this newsletter.

All the best,

Tammy Raden

Sharp PTA President

gold_raden@yahoo.com

We had 2 winners from Sharp in the Red Ribbon

Week poster contest. This contest was Township-

wide, but 2 of our own took the “blue ribbon” in the

Red Ribbon contest. In Kindergarten, Joy Kam took

first place and in 3rd Grade, Hailey H. Kam received

first place.

300 Old Orchard Road, Cherry Hill, NJ 08003-1299

(856) 424-1550, Fax (856) 424-6577, http://sharp.cherryhill.k12.nj.us/

Mr. Ric Miscioscia, Principal rmiscioscia@chclc.org

Dear Sharp Community,

With the first marking period quickly coming to a close, it is a good time to reflect on my first few months

as a Bulldog. I have begun many positive relationships with students, staff, and parents, and feel lucky to work

with our enthusiastic children and caring adults each day. I was told by many of you in our first meeting

together how special Sharp School is, and I am very fortunate to experience it from a principal’s perspective.

Our November character attribute of “Empathy” was one that I have used in conversations with our students

often, and an attitude they all seem to own and seek from our school community. I greatly appreciate your

guidance and support of our young learners, and of the dedicated teachers that strive to both challenge and

support them throughout the year.

The upcoming months will bring more celebrations and challenges. Of note is our school’s 50th Birthday

celebration, which began at the Spirit Week Pep Rally in November and will continue with a school-wide

recognition ceremony in January. The Sharp Pride felt by current students and families has been echoed by

many alumni that I’ve met during the past several months. Another is our state’s transition from NJASK to the

Partnership for Assessment in Readiness in College and Careers, better known as PARCC, in grades 3, 4, and 5.

Although PARCC will not take place until March, our district is offering a 3-part public information session

beginning next week (see flier in this Bulldog edition) that I hope you will be able to attend. This is a new

process for educators, parents and most importantly students, but I am confident our students will be ready for

this challenge and we look forward to again celebrating their efforts.

Wishing you a peaceful winter break and a Happy New Year!

Sincerely,

Ric Miscioscia

Principal

Library News from Mrs. Laskey

Happy Fall and Happy Holidays! This year has seen many changes at Sharp and throughout the district, but one

thing has not changed. I remain so fortunate and blessed to have so many wonderful parent and grandparent volunteers.

Every week, I am reminded of what a caring and devoted community we have here at Sharp. It is truly a special place!

Our kindergartners are excited about taking home books to share with their family members. They learned all about

proper library manners and book care and are anxious to find just the right book. First graders continue to enjoy learning

about the characters, plot and setting and are able to support their thinking and speaking with text evidence. Second

graders are learning the informational text features every month. They really enjoy finding books about the topics they

are learning about in the classrooms. Third graders have learned the Six Thinking Hats strategies to use when analyzing a

problem or a situation. I see many future party planners in this group! They have extremely creative ideas! Fourth graders

are working on atlas and note taking skills. Fifth graders have begun to evaluate websites based on a number of criteria.

They are getting ready for middle school. TAG students have been working on the science units. We have all learned a lot

about the subjects of sustainability, archaeology and solving mysteries.

The Fall Book Fair was a big success, thanks to the terrific trio of moms who ran it this year. Kudos to Mrs. Hart, Mrs. Kerr

and Mrs. Field. They divided the duties and ran a popular book fair. What a great addition to the fair - the Wall of Posters

contest! Of course, the committee chairs had a great deal of support from the volunteers who patiently wrote down

books titles, counted money and searched for books on the shelves. The kids absolutely love the fair. Hope you and your

kids were able to stock up on some reading material for the long cold months in front of us.

VOLUNTEERS STILL NEEDED: Almost every class has at least one library volunteer but I can always use more help,

especially with the younger ones. So if you are able to help out during Kindergarten time, please contact me at the email

below. The days and times are Kindergarten AM – Day Two 10:10 to 10:40 and Kindergarten PM – Day One 2:35 – 3:05.

Donations: A big thank you to the Gordon family who donated several books to the Library. We are grateful that Karly

(former Sharp student) was such a good reader! She gave the library many popular titles. The Hart Family gave the Sharp

Library several books with great photographs of animals. And thank you to Brandon Dekerlegand who donated the book

You Wouldn't Want to be on the First Flying Machine! to the library in honor of his birthday. How about that? Brandon

had a birthday and the library got a present – WOW! If you want to donate a book to the library in honor of a special

occasion, please contact me at klaskey@chclc.org. I always have a wish list for the library!

I hope all of you have a very special holiday season and a relaxing winter break. I have a suspicion that 2015 is going to a

busy year!

Kim Laskey, Librarian klaskey@chclc.org

December 2014

SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

1 2 3 4 5 6

TOY DRIVE STARTS

SKATING NIGHT 6pm

ATTITUDE ASSEMBLY-

Acceptance

PICTURE RETAKE

(morning)

7 8 9 10 11 12 13

EARLY DISMISSAL -

Conferences

EARLY

DISMISSAL -

Conferences

EARLY DISMISSAL -

Conferences

EARLY

DISMISSAL-

Conferences

14 15 16 17 18 19

20

PTA General

Meeting –

7:15pm

TOY DRIVE ENDS

21 22 23 24

25 26 27

EARLY

DISMISSAL

NO SCHOOL -

WINTER RECESS

NO SCHOOL -

WINTER RECESS

NO SCHOOL -

WINTER RECESS

28 29 30 31

NO SCHOOL -

WINTER RECESS

NO SCHOOL -

WINTER RECESS

NO SCHOOL -

WINTER RECESS

Additional Dates:

• Bulldog articles for next month are due to Ben Ovadia by Friday, December 19th via email at

Ben1721@aol.com.

Support your Sharp School PTA!

Start collecting those Box Tops! Please ask your friends

and family to collect as well; they really add up to help our

school. In the Spring, we will be springing into action on

our Box Top campaign – start saving now!

Do you shop at Target? Did you know Target’s “Take Charge

of Education” program allows Target cardholders to designate

1% of their Target charges to Sharp? Our school ID number is

72512. Visit www.target.com/tcoe to enroll your card today!

Please consider ordering your personal and work printer cartridges from nearby Cartridge World (2110 Marlton Pike East, Cherry Hill, NJ 08003 - 856.751.0900). Not only are the cartridges less expensive than the

office supply big box stores (even with a coupon!), but they offer free delivery for orders over $50. Better yet, Sharp will receive a percentage of sales from every transaction when you mention our school.

Do you have an Eat Well, Do Well Card? This free card—when properly linked to

Joseph D. Sharp School—will enable the Silver Diner to donate money back to our

school every time you have it swiped when paying for your meal. Please refer to

the following web link for more information:

https://www.silverdiner.com/eatwelldowell/join

Start collecting Box Tops now at ShopRite – register to credit

Joseph D. Sharp Elementary School, Shop and Earn

automatically.

THANK YOU TO…….

• Mrs. Motson’s class for a great “Empathy” presentation to the school at our Attitude Assembly

• Our Musical Mornings coordinated by Kristina Campoverde.

• Our Fantastic Fall Book Fair committee (Kim Hart, Marcy Kerr, Susie Fields, Mrs. Laskey and all the

parent volunteers).

• The ICE CREAM SOCIAL committee Terri Zimba, Marissa Ortiz, Suzanne Myers, Marcy Kerr

• Tanaz Dutia, our McDonald’s Night Chair, and to Shana Herring, Lisa Boyle, Alpa Shah, Madhuri

Rodriguez, Natalie Cutler, Tammy Raden helping at the table.

• Sprit Week Pep Rally was a great event because of Mr. Miscioscia, Mr. B, Dr. Beckman, Mr. Perrino,

Jade Dalumpines, Lisa Boyle, Shana Herring, Tammy Raden, Gail Vona as “Sharpie” and all of the kids

and Faculty/Staff participating!!! Also, thank you to parent volunteers, Kathleen Morley and Khendy

Dalumpines, for helping to distribute the Sharp Rally Towels to kids and teachers/staff.

• Movie Night Chairs Kim and Bart Hart and all the parent volunteers. It was so nice seeing the kids go

on stage during the movie “Frozen” and sing along with the movie.

• Alpa Shah for coordinating the Pink Zebra Soy Candle sale.

• Spirit Wear Chair Carole Timmins who distributed the delivered items with Shana Herring, Tammy

Raden and Mr. Miscioscia.

• Sharp Ambassadors and Teacher Advisors for collecting food/items for our annual Thanksgiving Food

Drive from the Sharp community.

Thank You

We want to thank all of the following students for their participation and volunteering their time to help with the Fall Book Fair. Thank you to all of these 5th Graders for helping write the Wish Lists out for the younger students on Preview Day. **Allie Meyers, Charlie Bove, Mackenzie Cooper, Paige Noble, Revathi Nair, Izzy Ortiz , Tomer Goldfinger A special "Thank You" to the following “Tag" Students, for helping remove the boxes of books off the metal carts on the day of set up, and removal of the paper Dragons off the walls. . ** Mark Khreptyk, Aidan Abronski, Alex Everett, Hannah Golden, Erica Rohrlack, Bianca Anghelache, Paige Lomas, Lilly Zhang And lastly, The 4th Graders who also helped write the Wish Lists out for the younger Students on Preview Day. **Jodi Camba, Abby Fleischmann, Katee Timmins, Devin Lindberg, Mason Torpey, Cali Simmins Thanks to all the following Parent Volunteers: Ann Gallagher, Lori Cochlin, Natalie Cutler, Laurie Greenberg, Rachel Glass, Tammy Raden, Colleen Abronski, Karen Conlon, Lisa Boyle, Christy Kam , Kristen Viglietta, Stephanie Newcomb, Mary Bove, Brenda Heal, Kathleen Morley, Cara Keller, Yujuan Hong, and Deanna Gonzalez We could have not done this without YOUR help. Thank you,

The Book Fair Committee