JMI Monthly Newsletter

Dear JMI Families,

Happy New Year! I hope that 2024 brings you and your family peace, happiness and health!

JMI was full of fun leading up to the winter break. The students and staff really showed off their holiday spirit during our December Theme Week! Our Band, Strings and Choir put on an amazing performance during the Winter Concert at JMP for JMP and JMI students! It was a great preview of the upcoming concerts that will take place in January. JMI really showed the caring community we are with our Giving Tree which supported the Toys for Tots drive in conjunction with the Edison Police Department. December 2023 was definitely a month to remember.

JMI has also been undergoing some upgrades during the recent months. Our roof has been prepped for the addition of solar panels that will be added soon. All our exterior doors have been outfitted with weather-stripping to provide a more energy-efficient seal. Finally all light bulbs have been replaced with LED lights that have a motion sensor technology.

1:30 Dismissal Days in January

January 10 - Professional Development Day

School Closed

January 15 - Martin Luther King Jr. Day

The new year is a great opportunity to ensure that all contact information in the Parent Portal is correct. Please make sure that the phone numbers are accurate, that voicemails have been set up and that your voicemail mailbox is not full so you can receive voicemails. When calls do go out, please wait for the voicemail to load and listen to it before calling the school back. If you need help updating your contact information, please call the school at 732-452-2960 and Press 8 to connect to the Main Office. Please note that change of address cannot be done at the school level. To change your address in Parent Portal, please go through the Enrollment Department.

Happy January!

Mrs. Abatemarco

Along with snow and freezing temperatures, winter also means an increase in colds. I ask that you please keep your child home if they are not feeling well. Students are NOT allowed to come to school with a fever. We have had several students come to the office reporting that they had a fever in the morning but then took medication so they could come to school. This is not allowed. Students must be fever-free for 24 hours without the aid of fever-reducing medication. I understand that by students being home, this precludes from being able to participate in certain fun school events and night events. Please do not medicate your child and send them to school just so they can participate in whatever the event is (Spelling Bee, Winter Concerts, Fun Nights, Science Fair, etc.).

Students who bring cell phones to school must have them completely turned off and stored in their bookbag. Students are not allowed to call/text or receive calls/texts during the school day. If you need to speak to your child, please call the main office at 732-452-2960, and press 8 to reach the main office.

Smart Watches can be worn but can only be used in the capacity of a watch during the school day. Students are not allowed to call, text, take pictures, play games, or record with their smart watches.

Reporting Times and Performance Times for Each Group

Strings - Report at 5:00; Performance at 5:30

Chorus - Report at 5:45; Performance at 6:00

Band - Report at 6:15; Performance at 6:30

Concert Dates

Tuesday, January 9 - 1st Year Strings/4th Grade Chorus/Beginner Band

Thursday, January 18 - 2nd Year Strings/5th Grade Chorus/Advanced Band

Attire

Dark Green Top or Green JMI Music Shirt

Black Bottoms

For questions or concerns, please reach out to our JMI Music Department:

Chorus - Ms. Tarby at rebecca.tarby@edison.k12.nj.us

Strings - Mrs. Biscocho at molly.biscocho@edison.k12.nj.us

Band - Mr. Zapata at daniel.zapata@edison.k12.nj.us

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.

The Self Contained Classes of JMI will be hosting a School Store on the 3rd Friday of each month where they will sell trinkets that will cost from $1.00 up to $5.00. Some examples of what is available are pencils, pens and fidgets with inventory rotating throughout the year. The school store will offer the students in the self contained classes an opportunity to bolster their social skills and life skills that are very important for them to acquire. The other homerooms will have a schedule to visit the school store and have a chance to either purchase an item or just assist the self contained students in acquiring the before mentioned skills.

The next time the JMI School Store will be open is Friday, January 19.

Order forms are being sent home with the students the first week of January so please look for it in your child's folder. You can also click the shirt above to access the order form.

Funds from last year's fundraiser were used to purchase our sensory path in one of our hallways! As always, thank you for your support!

The school will be purchasing shirts for all JMI students to wear during their class trips and on field day. I ask that all families fill out the attached Google Form to order the correct shirt size for your child. The shirts are youth sizes and a size chart is available on the Google Form. If you need a size that is not available, please email Ms. Luciano at melinda.luciano@edison.k12.nj.us.

Please complete the form by January 26 otherwise the shirt size is not guaranteed.

JMI will once again be taking part in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The first round will be the classroom-level bee on Monday, January 22. Each homeroom teacher will ask students who are interested in participating. Those interested will be asked to spell a word. If they spell the word correctly, they will continue in the classroom rounds until one student is declared the classroom winner. Families are not invited to the classroom rounds. The classroom winner will then move onto the school-level bee which will take place on February 22. Each classroom winner will be allowed to invite two adults to the school-level bee (no children or infants are allowed to attend). More information regarding the school-level bee will be sent to those families later in the month.

Once we receive the Scipps Spelling Bee Word Lists, we will send them out to all the families. Please keep in mind that students could be asked to spell words that are not on the list.

Past Events - Gingerbread Night and Holiday Shoppe

During December, our PTO hosted a Gingerbread House night and a Holiday Shoppe! It was great to see so many families bonding over the best way to construct and transport the gingerbread houses home! The MPR was beautifully decorated and families were able to take a photo opp before leaving at the end of the night! Thank you to all who came and supported the event and thank you to our PTO for putting the night together.

We also had our Holiday Shoppe where students had an opportunity to buy items for their loved ones. This event would not be possible without the team of volunteers! Thank you to all the volunteers for making this event happen!

Upcoming Events - Fun Nights

Each grade level will get their very own Fun Night during the month of January. During Fun Night, students watch a movie in our multi-purpose room. Students are encouraged to dress comfy and bring pillows, blankets and sleeping bags as they will be sitting on the floor during the movie (chairs are not allowed). Students need to register for the event and purchase a value meal in order to attend. As with all events, students who are absent from school are not allowed to attend night events. Once the parent/guardian checks the child in, they are free to leave. This is not an event where parents/guardians must stay with the child, unless the parent/guardian is volunteering. The movie for all the Fun Nights will be The Super Mario Bros.

Dates

January 12 - 5th Grade (registration closes January 3)

January 19 - 4th Grade

January 26 - 3rd Grade

Each grade will receive their own flyer and own registration for the event.

Pick Up Time is 8:15 for all three nights. Please park in a designated parking spot in the parking lot and come into the MPR.

In January, our school-wide character pillar will focus on RESPONSIBILITY. Students are asked to WEAR GREEN on Friday, January 5 to show that we are a responsible school community.

Throughout the month, Mr. Ford will share resources with the teachers to reinforce important aspects of digital citizenship. Our students will also be adding to our school-wide Character Chain with examples of how they can demonstrate digital citizenship daily. Thank you to Ms. Misko 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, January 5 we will have our Golden Knight Luncheon, recognizing students who embodied being good digital citizens during the month of December.

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