We hope you enjoyed time together as a family over the winter break.

Our December was filled with memorable events and special holiday happenings. We look forward to seeing you at our Winter Concert, Math Night and Book Fair.

Wishing everyone a healthy and happy 2025!

Warmly,

Cynthia Tufaro, principal

Argiris Hristofis, assistant principal

Please bring your cell phone with you to late arrival or early pick up and scan the QR Code to enter information.

Parents/Guardians must notify homeroom teachers in advance (preferably a day or more in advance) of PLANNED early pickups or late drop offs via email to the teacher. Only the parents/guardians and those on your emergency contact list are allowed to pick up your child. If there is someone not on your emergency contact list picking up your child, you must notify the teacher and/or office in advance via email and provide that person's full name, phone number, and that person must have an ID with them at time of pick up.

Anyone picking up a child must still provide their identification at the front door.
The cut off for early pick up is 3:15.

Our Holiday Sing-Along was an engaging and spirited way to end our year! Thank you to our music teacher, Mr. Jacob Goode for leading this fun and interactive celebration of the holiday. These video highlights are sure to get your toes tapping!

Our annual Winter Stroll on Friday, December 6th was a festive gathering including children's holiday crafts in our lit up garden, delicious treats from our PTO, visits with Santa and the Grinch and train rides around the school. We were also treated to a performance by our school chorus. Please enjoy these photo highlights from Mrs. Donner. Thank you to Mrs. Rommel and her elves for helping to make this special holiday tradition come to life, the PTO for supporting a family night and all the staff who volunteered.

Thank you for all of the donations for our Student Council CHOP Pajama Day Fundraiser. We exceeded our goal and raised over $1200! Thank you much for wearing pajamas and your generous donations to help families with children at one of the nation's best hospitals.

Our Student Council Candy Cane Grams raised funds for our local pediatric patients at St. Peter's NICU. Thank you to all the students who helped to sort and deliver the sweet messages!

Join us for the December edition of Whoo's in the News! We are so proud of our students for creating such a wonderful highlight video!

Students in fifth grade made winter-themed crafts with their buddies in the SCA classes. This partnership is a positive social experience for our students to develop communication, empathy and friendship with students from different classes.

Please join us in the cafeteria or virtually at or next PTO meeting on January 14th at 6:00 pm. A link will be shared to join virtually as well before the meeting.

Thank you to our parents for delivering some holiday cheer to our staff this month when the coffee cart visits classrooms and made deliveries. Staff appreciated being treated to hot drinks, cookies or healthy snacks to boost their morning.

What's Cooking at James Monroe Math Night will be held on Thursday, January 23, 2025, from 6:00 pm to 7:15 pm. The night will include demonstrations and presentations by Maschio's nutritionist, a district chef, James Monroe's very own Mr. Fernandez, and the John Adams Middle School FCCLA club. Join us for an evening of cooking fun! Registration is now closed.

Music filled our hearts as we enjoyed the Herbert Hoover band, jazz band, orchestra and chorus this past month. It is always inspiring for our students to see our former Monroe graduates return to perform and to hear how much they have progressed since their days at James Monroe. Our school's concert will be held January 9th.

ARRIVAL - Students will enter the building at 8:45 a.m. on inclement weather days.

• DO NOT ARRIVE BEFORE 8:45 A.M.
• DRESS WARMLY
• ALL FAMILIES MUST WAIT ON THE SIDE BLACKTOP AREAS.

DRESS FOR PLAY - Please remember to check the weather for the need for WARM coats, gloves, scarves and hats. We will go outside for recess as long as the "real feel" is above 32 degrees for healthy fresh air and exercise!

“Just thinking about tomorrow clears away the cobwebs and the sorrow…till there's none!”

These are the words Annie sings as she dreams of a brighter future and words that our James Monroe community has continued to instill in our students- Nothing is too great when we come together and follow Monroe’s motto!

This year, the James Monroe Theatre Club, under the direction of Mrs. Meagan Sanchez and Mrs. Lisa Romeo, has decided to journey to New York City where we will focus on teamwork and the power of looking ahead .

We started out this year’s production of Annie, Jr., the Musical , in October at our interest meeting and received 173 responses from grades 3 through 5.

Students participated in a Q & A session with the directors to learn about the various Theatre Club opportunities. 100 students decided they wanted to be considered for a featured role. This year, students had the opportunity to submit a FlipGrid audition reel and sing a few bars of Tomorrow! From that group, many third through fifth graders participated in a 3 week-long audition process where they read some lines from the script and interacted with other actors. The directors , and an audition committee of Ms. Russell and Mr. Goode, listened to them perform dialogue and monologues from different characters and scenes. This intense process proved challenging this year as we had such a large pool of talent from which to choose.

When the leads were announced, the smiles on not only the faces of the actors but their fellow castmates were joyful beyond belief . The rewards are tenfold as this experience provides such a sense of community and truly speaks to our building mantra: #choosekindness.

We look forward to starting rehearsals in January, and working together to tell this beautiful story !

Our first rehearsal will be Monday, January 13, 2025 ~ for lead roles only~ and we will share a detailed rehearsal schedule at that time.

Stay tuned for forthcoming information for interested students in grade K-2 to be a part of our opening numbers!

Children can purchase snacks after they eat lunch on Tuesday and Thursdays!