Principal
From the Desk of Jacqueline Norcel, Principal
Dear Frenchtown Families,
Our February theme at Frenchtown is “People Who Made America Great.” Our theme will permit our teachers to investigate the lives, teachings, values, and principles of great Americans whose birthdays are celebrated in February – George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, John Glenn, Marian Anderson, and Thomas Edison. During February we also celebrate Black History Month. With our students, we will share the lives of Frederic Douglas, orator and writer; Elijah McCoy, inventor; Phillis Wheatley, poet; Benjamin Banneker, mathematician and scientist; Ralph Bunche, peacemaker; Thurgood Marshall, Supreme Court Justice; Guion Bluford, astronaut; and Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States. We will celebrate by telling our students about these and other contemporary Black Americans whose knowledge and skills benefited others. Later in the newsletter is a worksheet on African Americans of character, please read them with your children. The activities on the worksheets will add to their enjoyment and help them decide on their own powerful dreams.
At Frenchtown, we will all “Have a Heart.” Valentine’s Day will be celebrated on Tuesday, February 14, 2012. Our school postal carriers are readying themselves for an abundance of valentines.
Besides making and writing valentines with your child, discuss people they admire and why they admire them. Ask them to write a sentence on each person’s outstanding qualities. This is an authentic way to utilize our Character Counts principles.
Happy Valentines Day - "Charm your way into someone's heart." Celebrate Valentine's Day by sending your friend, teacher, parent or someone special a Valentine treat. Charm lollipops will be for sale for $1 starting Monday, January 23rd through February 6th with delivery to be on February 14th. Look for "special instructions" on the flyer to be sent home soon.
The first American Mardi Gras was celebrated near modern-day New Orleans on March 3, 1699. It wasn’t until the mid-1800’s that official parade organizations started to form with the Mystick Krewe of Comus in 1856 and the Krewe of Rex in 1872. In order to organize and stage the enormous Mardi Gras carnival every year, many New Orleans families have belonged for generations to krewes, groups that create elaborate costumes and floats for the many Mardi Gras parades in the two weeks leading up to “Shrove Tuesday or Fat Tuesday” on February 21st. The tradition is still carried on in New Orleans with many other krewes represented on floats in a myriad of parades. The official colors of Mardi Gras are purple, green and gold (representing justice, faith and power).
The Frenchtown staff prides itself on the warm, nurturing environment that we are able to provide to the children as they grow and learn. The focus of our work is the academic growth of your child; however, we also work on social and emotional issues. Like any school, Frenchtown does have discipline issues. As children grow, they need to learn the rules which govern our community and society. Children learn that they are to follow these rules. If they choose not to follow the rules, there are consequences for their inappropriate choices. Most of our classroom issues are minor in nature; children make mistakes, they learn from their mistakes, and they go on. We do not notify parents of every little discipline issue and will, of course, notify you and ask for your assistance if a child is having an undue number of problems, or if his/her actions are hurtful to another. It is extremely rare for me to become involved in a classroom discipline issue. Supporting our classroom teacher with these issues are Mr. Kris Boyle-School Psychologist, Mr. David Weitzman and Mrs. Luann Donovan-School Social Workers, and Mr. Ethan Ruber-Behavior Specialist. For our SRP program, Leigh Westberg-Social Worker, Darsi Baer-Psychologist and our BCBA’s help support our student’s needs. My primary goal is to sort out what happened, and to help the child understand his/her role in the problem.
Children generally start their explanations of a situation by stating what someone else did. I try to help them examine what they did, and get them to understand that if they had done something differently, they might not have become involved in a problem. We ask our students to complete a think sheet appropriate to their age.
You can use this list of skills to teach your child how to resolve normal conflict:
- Talk about problems before they become conflicts. When little things are ignored, they can grow into major disputes.
- Listen Children can never see another person’s point of view if they do not listen to what that person has to say.
- Use “I-Messages”Help your child(ren) learn to talk about his/her feelings, not the other person’s mistakes. Instead of, “YOU always leave my bike out in the rain,” your child could say, “I feel angry when you leave my bike out in the rain because it may rust. If you are going to use it, please put it away.”
- Be willing to cooperate and compromise If two people have a conflict, they both have a problem. To solve it, they will probably both have to make some changes.
- Talk to adults Sometimes children think they have to solve all their problems themselves. A trusted adult – parent, teacher or counselor – can sometimes help children see solutions they had not thought of themselves.
- Practice Just like learning to ride a bike or read a book, learning to solve conflicts peacefully takes practice. Help your child role-play different ways to resolve conflicts.
Grade 3, 4 and 5 parents, please read the Test Preparation flyer in the newsletter. The suggestions will help you help your child prepare for CMT testing beginning March.
CMT testing for grades 3, 4 and 5 will take place from March 6th through March 23rd, beginning on Tuesday, March 6th with a writing prompt. Later in the newsletter is an excellent report to parents on test preparation. On Friday, March 2nd, we will hold a pep rally for grades 3, 4 and 5. The goal of the pep rally is to motivate and relax our students. The children will complete a practice test on Monday. They will bring this test home for you to see.
We will continue our study of the character trait of trustworthiness in February—we will wear blue on February 18th to culminate our two-month study of this character trait.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Jacqueline J. Norcel
