JMI Monthly Newsletter

Dear JMI Families,

Welcome to March! There are so many things to celebrate in March and we are super excited for all of it! We kick off the month with our Read Across America Celebrations. This year, along with many distinguished guests from the Edison Board of Education and town, we also have the Rutgers Women Lacrosse team reading to all our classes. Our celebration continues with Edison Mayor, and JMI Alumni, Sam Joshi, reading to our third grade and Stick Dog author Tom Watson coming on March 14.

March 14 may be just another Thursday, but at JMI it's better known as Pi Day! We love math at JMI and what better way to show our love for math than celebrating 3.14! Students have the opportunity to participate in our annual Pi Day contest where they memorize as many digits as possible. We will also be hosting our annual Math Night on Pi Day where all students who attend will use their estimation skills to try to win a delicious pie!

Finally, March 16 is James Madison's birthday so students will be learning all about our namesake, who was also the fourth president of the United States of America!

Mrs. Abatemarco

Our state testing, or NJSLA (New Jersey State Learning Assessment), will take place from May 6 through May 13. It is ideal that all students are in school on time for each day of testing.

The testing schedule is as follows:

Monday, May 6 - Math (Grades 3, 4 and 5)

Tuesday, May 7 - Math (Grades 3, 4 and 5)

Wednesday, May 8 - Language Arts (Grades 3, 4 and 5)

Thursday, May 9 - Language Arts (Grades 3, 4 and 5)

Friday, May 10 - Science (Grade 5 only)

Monday, May 13 - Science (Grade 5 only)

Every Sunday (or the day before the first day of school that week), Mrs. Abatemarco will send out a weekly update. Please check your spam/junk folders and send the emails to your inbox to ensure you are up to date on all the latest and greatest JMI news!

If you have checked your spam folders and are still not receiving the weekly updates, please email Mrs. Abatemarco to be added to the list.

Introducing the "Tournament of Books" – an electrifying competition that will not only engage students in the world of literature, but also foster a sense of camaraderie and friendly competition. This tournament is designed to make reading an unforgettable adventure, and will captivate the hearts and minds of your students. In February, students familiarized themselves with all the sixteen different books that Mrs. Coyle selected as part of this years tournament. Then in March, students had the opportunity to vote for their favorite book in each bracket! With the help of Google Forms, Mrs. Coyle tabulated the results and updated the bracket each week! We are all super excited to see which book is crowned the 2024 Tournament of Books Champion!

This year, our 3rd Grade Wax Museum focused on famous African-Americans and Women as a tribute to Black History Month (February) and Women's History Month (March).

For the first time in many years, Odyssey of the Mind has returned to JMI! Odyssey of the Mind (aka OM) is a nation-wide club where students are presented with a dilemma that they work collaboratively to create a skit to solve. The students then present their prepared skit in front of a panel of judges. Students also have to do a spontaneous problem, which again is scored by a panel of judges.

While our teams did not advance to the next level, we are extremely proud of all the hard-work our students put into their skits and props! Both our teams presented with confidence and were entertaining! Thank you to all the OM parents for all their support! A giant thank you to our OM Coaches, Ms. Rutzler and Ms. Misko, for your commitment, dedication and taking on the huge responsibility of getting OM up and running again at JMI.

Congratulations to all the 2023-2024 Classroom Round Winners:

Vihaan P., Surabhi M., Ayaan G., Vivvan B., Miera R., Syed M., Ayaan P., Ayaan K., Jivaansh A., Vihaan Z., Chethan M., Krish N., Dharit P., Rohan S., Mahika H., Vivaan B., Ria S., Ansh D., Advika A., Risha N., Miles W., Aaditya D., Senon J., Navya K., and Kailyn J.

A huge congratulations to Vihaan Z. and Vivaan B. for going 31 rounds and we are thrilled to congratulation Ria S. for being our 2023-2024 JMI School Spelling Bee Champion for the second year in a row!! Please join us in sending Ria positive thoughts as she prepares for the next round!

In March, our school-wide character pillar will focus on TRUSTWORTHINESS. Students were asked to WEAR BLUE on Friday, March 1 to show that we are a trustworthy school community.

Throughout the month, Mr. Ford will share resources with the teachers to reinforce important aspects of trustworthiness and mindfulness. Thank you to Mrs. Bowler for being our guest reader for our school-wide read aloud!

Each month, one student from each class is selected as the Golden Knight for the month for exemplifying the character pillar. On Friday, March 1 we had our Golden Knight Luncheon, recognizing students who embodied being kindness during the month of February.

Students also can earn JMI Adventurer tickets for demonstrating the four pillars of a JMI Knight: Respect, Responsibility, Safe, and Kind. Students who earn tickets deposit them into their classroom bucket and are eligible to receive a prize of their choosing. At the end of each month, all tickets are collected, and one ticket is selected from each grade level as the PBSIS Student of the Month. Their picture is then displayed on a bulletin board in our lobby.

We are so proud of all our students for being kind, respectful, responsible, and safe at JMI.

Birthdays are very important to the students and should be celebrated! They are just as important as the academic instruction that our children receive daily. While we recognize the importance of the celebration, we will no longer permit food or goodie bags of any kind (containing food or non-food items)for birthday celebrations. This includes sending things to school to send home with the students. The following are “non-food” birthday options:

• Read a book to the class (either by a parent/guardian, grandparent, or child)

• Donate a book to the classroom library.

These options will allow your child to celebrate his/her birthday while having limited interruption to classroom instruction.

Invitations to birthday parties cannot be distributed during the school day or on school grounds unless the entire class is invited.

If you had to switch devices and transfer the device insurance, please follow these steps:

1. Email edison@worthavegroup.com.
2. Please include the old iPad/Chromebook serial number & the new Chromebook serial number.
3. Please also include email account used in the purchase.

When filling out a tech ticket through Incident IQ, you will need your child's Google/Chromebook log-in credentials.

Email: donna.abatemarco@edison.k12.nj.us
Website: https://jmi.edison.k12.nj.us/
Location: 838 New Dover Road, Edison, NJ, USA
Phone: 732-452-2960
Twitter: @JMI_Edison