• January 11 - General PTO Meeting at 7:30 PM, TJS Art Room
• January 13 - Second Grade Awesome Art
• January 16 - Schools Closed for MLK Jr. Day
• January 16 - Incoming Kindergarten and First Grade Student Registration Opens
• January 31 - PTO Sponsored Assembly, Dance China New York
• February 1 - World Read Aloud Day
• February 1 - Second Grade Breakfast with the Principal
• February 3 - TJS Spirit Wear Day!
• February 10 - Third Grade Awesome Art
• February 14 - Valentine's Day Celebrations
• February 20 - School Closed for President's Day
• February 21 - Schools Closed for Staff In-Service Day
• February 28 - Troy Cummings Author Visit!

Check out the flyer below for all registration and residency requirements for new students to Madison Public Schools who will be entering kindergarten or first grade during the 2023-2024 school year. For your student’s registration to be processed, you must log in to the site, enter the appropriate information, and complete or upload the required forms. The portal for registration will open on January 16, 2023.

Please be aware of an increase in the stomach virus within the TJS community. For most students, this presents with stomach pain, nausea and vomiting, oftentimes accompanied by diarrhea. The children that I have seen in the health office have generally not presented with a fever or may have a low grade fever. Most students recover within 24-48 hours. Please keep your child home if they complain of persistent stomach pain or nausea and monitor them for developing symptoms. If your student does develop symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea and/or fever, please keep them home until they are symptom-free for a full 24 hours prior to returning to school. During the duration of illness, it is of paramount importance that the children are hydrated. Offering small sips of fluids or popsicles throughout the day will help to minimize further vomiting and maintain proper hydration. In addition, a BRAT (Bananas, Rice, Apples, Toast) diet is recommended until symptoms subside.

Additionally, seasonal colds and flu are still with us. The NJ Department of Health mandates that students be excluded from school until they are fever free for a full 24 hours and symptoms have improved (understanding that coughs can linger for some time). For a Covid-19 positive result, students must be kept home and isolated for a full five days, with day one starting on the day following the onset of symptoms or a positive test result. The student may return on day six with a mask for the next 5 days. All positive cases must be reported to the health office so that we can work together to advise on a return to school date and consult with the classroom teacher about schoolwork.

As always, please feel free to reach out to me with any questions or concerns. Happy New Year and here’s to a safe and healthy 2023!

All About Building Reading Fluency

As your child engages in their reading practice in school, building their decoding skills and their fluency go hand-in-hand. Below are the components of fluency that students are continually building on as they grow in their reading and strategies for building fluency at home!

*Accuracy - making sure what you say matches what’s on the page and checking/rereading to make sure what you are reading makes sense.

*Rate - reading not too fast and not too slow - reading like you talk.

*Phrasing - reading in smooth phrases instead of one word at a time.

*Punctuation - paying attention to punctuation (stopping at a period, pausing at a comma) or changing your voice when you come to an exclamation point or question mark.

*Expression - paying attention to the character’s feelings and showing it in your voice - put yourself in the character’s shoes.

*Intonation - making your voice go up or down/become louder or softer depending on the reading.

*Stress - reading words in italics or bold lettering with more emphasis.

Strategies for Building Fluency at Home!

-Make sure your child is choosing/practicing just-right books so the reading is comfortable for them and listen to your child read aloud as often as you can.

-Reread familiar books - the fluency is always stronger the second and third time around and it’s a great confidence builder!

-Read books to your child and model what it looks like to be fluent (show them what it sounds like when the reading is choppy vs. when the reading is smooth).

-Engage in the reading of a Reader’s Theatre plays or poetry to build expression.

-Record your child reading so they can listen back - talk about what they are doing well and ways they can improve their fluency. Practice the skill through a reread. Building confidence and keeping it positive is key!

-Take turns reading aloud, choral reading, or echo reading.

-Encourage your child to use tracking tools to follow and move themselves along in their reading (an index card, their finger, or highlighting strips). This helps with both accuracy and rate.

-Have your child use their finger to “scoop” or group the words together into meaningful phrases.

-Sit upright at a table when reading and have your child use their finger to push themselves along in the reading. Sometimes fluency comes down to just building the amount of energy they put into their reading and building their reading stamina as they move into longer books - the more they read the more stamina they will have!

My name is Rachel Rose Montagna. I'm an alumni of Fairleigh Dickinson University as well as the Academy of Saint Elizabeth in Florham Park. My family is from Madison and a fun fact about us is that my great-grandparents used to grow the roses that gained Madison the nickname "Rose City." It has been a pleasure meeting your children this week and I am so excited to work with them for the next few months in music class until Mrs. McEachern returns. I will also be directing the before school chorus and assistant directing the after school musical for 4th and 5th graders. I studied theatre for ten years at the MAYO Performing Arts Center in Morristown and had amazing opportunities like performing on broadway. I have also worked with Spotlight Kids Company in Madison. I am thrilled to get to use this experience in music class and our extracurricular activities. I hope that your 4th and 5th graders sign up!

Hi Torey J. Families! I'm Megan Niper and I have been at Torey J. Sabitini since I graduated from TCNJ. I can't believe it's been 16 years already! While I have been lucky enough to teach second grade for the majority of that time, I actually began my time here at Torey as a first grade teacher. Though I have taught the same grade for a long time, I have enjoyed the different changes that have come every year: from different students to different curriculums, second grade has been a wonderful spot for me. While in high school (nearby Watchung Hills) and at TCNJ I developed an interest in the theater arts, and though rarely on stage, I have been a part of the production of many plays and musicals. I was lucky enough to bring my enthusiasm and experience to Madison, when in 2012 I was given the opportunity to direct the Fall Plays at the high school as well as the musicals here at Torey as well as Kings Road. Though I was only able to fulfill that role for a short time, I have fond memories of those productions and hope that the love of theater continued to grow in those students.

My husband, Braden, and I met while working at Oak Crest Day Camp, in Somerset, and we have been married since 2010. Working at day camp was a big part of our lives growing up, and I am so lucky my two children are able to go to that same camp each summer. Westley is in second grade, which has provided us lots of laughs this year as we compare what we are learning, and Penelope is 4.5 (she would insist on including the half) and I can't believe she will be in kindergarten next year. We love spending our time outside, especially at the beach. I also enjoy cooking and baking, with my new fixation on learning how to master biscotti.

Please join us next Wednesday, January 11th at 7:30pm in the TJS Art Room for our next General PTO meeting.

Check out our new and improved TJS PTO website! It is full of information on all things TJS PTO! www.tjspto.org

Save the Date for our Spring Adult Social and Fundraiser on Friday, March 31, 2023. We’d love your help to plan! Email presidents.tjspto@gmail.com to join the planning fun!