November 2013 Volume 2

Cougar Courier

EAST AMWELL

TOWNSHIP SCHOOL

Greetings!

We have had a wonderful October without the inter-

ruption of hurricanes and snow storms! Staff and stu-

dents have been hard at work and our teachers are looking forward to shar-

ing their student’s growth at our upcoming Parent-Teacher Conferences in

November. Please be sure to make time for the conferences November 20th

and 21st.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We all have a great deal to be thankful for.

Sincerely,

Edward Stoloski Superintendent

November 2013

Calendar

5: Fall Drama Production

6: PTO Meeting 7:30 PM

6: End of 1st Marking Period

7-8: School Closed: NJEA

12: Picture Retakes

15: Report Cards Go Home

19: Board of Ed Meeting 7:30 PM

20-21: Conferences School Closed

22: Spirit Day

27: Early Dismissal 1:30 PM

28-29: Thanksgiving Recess

Cougar Courier

The Superintendent's Corner

School Vision State-

ment:

East Amwell Township

School District... is a

safe, supportive com-

munity that recognizes

all students as unique

individuals and pro-

vides opportunities for

academic, artistic, cul-

tural, emotional, physi-

cal, social and charac-

ter development in a

diverse and ever-

changing society.

Dear Parents,

What do 200 Monarch Butterflies have in common with 350 runners? The answer is you could

find them all flying and running around the grounds of our school during the month of October.

The beautiful fall season has highlighted the success of both our Discover Running Program and

our Monarch Butterfly Science Project. Ms. Ernst’s science class worked with our second grade

to raise and release over 200 butterflies. The Monarch species has been dwindling and our fifth

grade science program has been working to reverse that process. Once the butterflies were re-

leased, they traveled from Ringoes all the way to Mexico, a distance of 2,700 miles.

Speaking of miles, our physical education classes ran both the full and half mile races in our an-

nual Discover Running Event. Over 350 kids participated in the 34th running of this race. Rib-

bons and medals were awarded to all runners and a banner number of parents attended this won-

derful program.

The fall athletic season saw both soccer and cross country post many wins and display great

sportsmanship. It was great to see so many parents at both our home and away contests.

Inside our classrooms, our Character Education Program hosted an anti-bullying assembly and

lessons are in the works to honor Violence and Vandalism Prevention Month. Also, we have held

a Red Ribbon Week for drug prevention awareness and a Wear Pink Day for breast cancer.

These are just a few of the events we hosted this fall. Please be on the lookout for more so that

your children may participate.

Lastly, our next large project will be the annual Cougar Share Service Project. This project will

begin on November 20th through December 6th. Once again, we will be asking our school com-

munity to donate to less fortunate children. An information letter will be coming home soon.

This character building and empathetic project is a labor of love and we hope you will continue to

support. This activity will certainly make the holidays a bit brighter for several children and their

families. Sincerely,

John Capuano

Principal

The Principal’s View

Thank You to All That Made The Book Fair A

Great Success

Environmental Club News Our school is still collecting certain types of trash for TerraCycle. We get paid from TerraCycle to collect these items. Every piece helps. Please bring to East Amwell School, with a label on the outside of the bag, Attention Sharon Ernst TerraCycle Materials. Students can bring down to room 16. For this school year we are already at $630.00. Keep on Collecting! Special Notes: There are contests from TerraCycle for us to earn bonus money or items: These are:

1. Capri Sun (highest earner a playground for the

school!)

2. Diaper packaging- extra points and diapers to do-

nate

3. Cheese wrappers- extra points

Solo cups- extra points

Collected Items: chip bags, popcorn bags, pretzel bags, beauty products: shampoo, conditioner, nail polish,

lotions, shower gel, deodorant, hair gel, hair spray, hand soap, etc., go-go squeeze, sprout baby food pouches, glue sticks, pens, marker, highlighters, scotch tape inserts, Toothpaste, toothbrushes, floss, mouth wash & all wrappers

Cereal bags (no boxes, the insert), Energy Bar wrappers, Breakfast Bars, Protein Bars

Candy Wrappers- all brands and all sizes, Solo Cups (rinsed please), Capri Sun & all pouch-drinks- emptied please! & separated in sealed bag, Entenmann’s Little Bites, Yogurt cups, but-ter tubs, hummus containers, sour cream- all rinsed please!, Diaper packaging- all brands

Cleaning product lids, caps, and spray bottle parts, Lunchables- all packaging, Cell phones, Lap-tops, Ipods, ink & toner cartridges. If you have any questions please check out the TerraCycle website:

http://www.terracycle.com/en-US/ or contact me at sernst@eastamwell.org

Thank you for helping out our school! Sincerely, Sharon Ernst Fifth Grade Teacher/Environmental Club Leader

East Amwell Township School

MUSIC CLUB GRADES 4 & 5

Thursday @ 3:15-4:15 PM

MUSIC CLUB GRADES 6-8

Tuesday s @ 3:15-4:15 PM

Instrumental Music Notes

Music Club permission slips are available in

the Music Room. Music Club for Grades 4 &

5 meets on Thursday after school and Music

Club for Grades 6-8 meets on Tuesday after

school. Dates and times for meetings appear

in the Cougar Courier and on the Instrumen-

tal Music webpage. Students can join Music

Club at any time during the school year.

Students in Grades 4 through 8 can begin in-

strumental music lessons at any time during

the school year. Parents and students should

check the Instrumental Music webpage for

details.

Chess Club

November 4th and 11th—3:15 PM tp 4:15 PM

Please meet in the Li-

brary

SPARK Note

Johns Hopkins CTY Talent Search

Students in 7th and 8th grade who are eligible to participate in the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth program received letters and brochures recently. This program is also available to any student in grades 2 through 6 who scored in the ADVANCED PROFICIENT category on the NJ PASS (second grade) or NJ ASK (grades three to six).

You can learn more about this program on the wesite site, www.cty.jhu.edu. CTY requires students to take specialized tests to assess their math and verbal/reading talents. If students perform at a high level on these assessments, they are eligible to participate in CTY’s Summer Programs and CTYOnlinecourses. If your child meets the ADVANCED PROFICIENT criteria and would like to participate in this program, you can register on the CTY website or contact me at jhiggins@eastamwell.org or ext. 331. I will be happy to send you all the neces-sary information.

Mrs. Janet Higgins

PTO HAPPENINGS

The new school year is off to a great start, and we look forward to many exciting activities during the year. We're always looking

for new fundraising ideas, so let us know about them!

We continue to collect Box Tops and Labels for Education. Simply clip them out, put them in an envelope with your child’s name

and homeroom, and send them in via backpack. You can register on the Box Tops website (www.boxtops4education.com) for

online shopping with various merchants and our school will receive a percentage, at no cost to you. When you sign up, simply

type in "East Amwell Township" to select our school.

Our clothing drive is Saturday, November 2 from 9am to 12noon, or anytime at our clothing donation shed. Volunteers are

still needed, please contact Maria Prendamano (mprendamano@aol.com) or Shelley Connelly (sconnelly710@comcast.net) if you

can help out.

The clothing donation shed is located near the grassy area by the main exit driveway. Clothing, shoes, sneakers, belts, purses,

blankets, sheets, pillowcases, drapes/curtains, and stuffed toys are all accepted, and may be dropped at your convenience. Toys

and books are not accepted. Please place all items in a sealed plastic bag to keep them clean and dry.

Shop Rite gift cards are available for purchase in $25 increments. These make great gifts or use them for your own shopping.

The PTO receives 5% of the total of gift cards sold at no cost to you. If you're interested in purchasing, please contact Marian

Wasitowski (609-333-9985 or email mwasitowski@yahoo.com).

Donations for Frosty's Workshop are welcome; please contact Shelley Connelly (sconnelly710@comcast.net).

Thank you to all the volunteers and families who participated in Trunk or Treat and the Book Fair!

The next PTO meeting is Wednesday, November 6th at 7:30pm, and our December meeting is Wednesday, December 4th

at 9:15am. Hope to see you there, and thank you for your support.

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Cougars SHARE

Holiday GIFTS

NOVEMBER 20–DECEMBER 6

Donations will be collected from Wednesday, November 20 until Friday,

DECEMBER 6.

Please write checks to East Amwell School.

All donations will be used to purchase gifts for children in need in the central Jersey area. Two students per class will be chosen to shop on December 10 when we travel to Toys

R Us. The entire class will help wrap the gifts and make tags and cards.

Each year our toy drive exceeds our expectations! We look forward to making the holidays special for deserving chil-

dren once again.

THANK YOU for your generosity!

East Amwell School District is looking for some very special children.

If you have or know of a child who is 3 years of age or older who may have a speech, hearing,

vision, motor or emotional problem, your local school’s Child Study Team can help with re-

ferral information and, if appropriate, a free assessment and a special education program.

Have the child’s parents contact the school today. If we can find these youngsters, we can

help them. Call the Coordinator of the Child Study Team at 908 782-6464 ext. 228.

East Amwell School is devoted to educating all school-aged children residing in East Amwell

Township. If you know of any homeless or migrant children currently residing in the town-

ship, please contact the Main Office of East Amwell Township School at 908 782-6464.

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Board of Education News

The East Amwell School district has recently been awarded two grants from the

Exxon Mobil Corporation totaling $1,500.00. Lauren Parillo, 4th grade teacher,

and Sharon Ernst, 5th grade teacher, both received a grant to help further Sci-

ence initiatives in their classrooms. Mrs. Parillo will use her grant to further

concepts learned in her training at the Michelson Academy and Ms. Ernst will

use her grant to integrate concepts from the Sally Ride Foundation.

The 34th annual "Discover Running" race was held on the first Friday in Octo-

ber. It is the culminating activity for the running unit in Physical Education. Over

350 students participated and each were given a ribbon as well as medals

awarded to the winners.

In other sports news, the soccer team currently has 15 players and is being

coached by Mr. Schuler and Mr. Wonser. Ms. Venettone and Ms. Falivene contin-

ue to coach cross country. They have 40 runners and the girls are currently un-

defeated while the boys have only one loss. Lindsay Zengel has won all of the

girls races and Chris Tyerech has won all of the boys matches for East. The girls

are 61-0 and boys 60-1 over the past several years. What an impressive record!

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