The MLK Snapshot

Clear communication and connecting with families are two of our top priorities at MLK!

The Snapshot is our weekly information newsletter sent every Thursday afternoon. Our hope is that you will be able to use this Snapshot to stay connected with important calendar dates, events, and everything else related to MLK. If you need to - feel free to use the translation option available for all families. Please use the menu at the top of the page!

MLK Families,

The Week of Respect is designed to recognize the importance of social and emotional learning and character education. We observe the week by providing a variety of activities and instruction focused on preventing all forms of Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying at our school.

Please take some time this week to discuss the importance of respecting one another with your child. As students grow older, and have more and more interactions with peers, maintaining respect for one another becomes increasingly important. It remains at the core of the values we hope to instill in our students each day at MLK.

All the best,

Andrew Kehoe, Principal

See the attachment below and be sure to check out our Friday Spirit Days! Our first one is tomorrow - College Spirit Day!

OCTOBER

Week of October 7th - NJ Week of Respect

Monday, October 14th - October PTO Meeting

Tuesday, October 15th - Kastle Fundraiser Ends

Friday, October 18th - Fall Festival 6:00-8:00PM

Week of October 21st - School Violence Awareness Week

PISCATAWAY DISTRICT CALENDARS

Each and every day our teachers and staff go above and beyond. Periodically I would like to reach out to the community to solicit some positive feedback to give to our teachers.

Do you feel your child's teacher is doing an exceptional job and you would like to give them a shout out? Feel free to click the link below and we will provide the feedback to them!

Passionate Penguin Program Feedback Form

Next week we will be showing the family film Encanto as a connection to Hispanic Heritage Month. This film is rated PG. I invite all families to review details of the film at this link.

If for any reason you do not wish for your child to view this film, please notify Ms. Borges in the main office at aborges@pway.org by Wednesday, October 9th.

This upcoming week we are also doing Spirit Days every day of the week:

Monday 10/7 - Wear our district colors (black and gold) or your MLK spirit-wear to show we are united in keeping respect for others within our school community!

Tuesday 10/8 - Wear your favorite color to show respect for yourself and your uniqueness.

Wednesday 10/8 - Wear your favorite outfit (school appropriate!) to show respect for yourself and your uniqueness.

Thursday 10/9 - Show respect to our earth by wearing green, blue, handed down clothing, or recycled jewelry.

Friday 10/10 - Show respect towards your country and culture by wearing something that represents your cultural identity.

A reminder that our big school fundraiser is still going on! All of the information on this fundraiser went home in an information packet with our students.

We have teamed with Kastle fundraising to invite families to purchase delicious Kastle favorites food items.

The more your child sells the more wonderful prizes they are eligible for. Please give a look at the information from your child and let us know if you have any questions.

This month our 4th grade students will have the opportunity to make a visit to the nearby Cornelius Low House Museum and East Jersey Old Town Village. This trip is a great way for our students to connect with their local community and the many interesting historical events that happened right here in Piscataway.

4th grade parents - Please be on the lookout for a permission slip and more information from your child's teacher as their trip date approaches. You can find our trip dates for each 4th grade room in the calendar above!

You can find more information about this historic site at this link:

Cornelius Low House Information

Each week you'll notice that on Friday we have designated Spirit Days. These are fun, festive days where students and staff are able to dress up and participate together in a cool theme. For students with picture permissions - we take pictures of our great outfits, put them up on school bulletin boards, and include them in the yearbook and on the school website as well!

Families are encouraged to check the monthly calendar and go all out for our Spirit Days!

You can fill out a repair ticket for your child's iPad at any time! Coming to school with a working device is important. If your child's device has been damaged in any way please use the following link to bring this to the attention of the district IT department.

iPad Repair Needed? - Click Here

You can find much more information at our school website!

https://king.piscatawayschools.org/

You can stay in touch with your child's academic information through the Genesis Parent Portal!

Genesis Portal Set-Up Guide

You can keep up with your child's classes through the Schoology Parent Module.

Schoology Parent Resources

We love to celebrate our students! If you would like to have your child’s birthday recognized in school, please be aware of the guidelines in place at MLK:

• Recognitions are brief and are scheduled at a time of the day that is convenient for the teacher’s classroom schedule.
• Recognitions are for students only (guests/family members do not attend)
• Please pre-schedule the date with your child’s teacher.
• If you would like to send in a snack:
• Store-bought
• Individual serving (nothing to cut, etc.)
• Ingredients must be visible
• No candy
• Please do not send in goodie bags or additional items for your child to distribute
• Please let your child’s teacher know if your child is not permitted to participate in their peers’ birthday celebrations.

I wanted to take an opportunity to further touch on our school-wide Social Emotional Supports at King. In addition to individual and group counseling, we provide schoolwide support to all students through two initiatives - the Second Step SEL Program and our Pillars of Penguin Pride Positive Behavior Supports (PBIS) Program.

The Second Step Program:

We want your child to be successful in school and that means supporting and encouraging their whole development. While excelling in academic classes is important, children also need skills to take on learning challenges, make good decisions, manage strong emotions, and get along with others.

Beginning in October we kick off the Second Step Program, a research-based social-emotional learning program designed to improve children’s social-emotional skills. Second Step skills and concepts are designed to help children both in and out of school. Four units will cover the following:

• Growth Mindset & Goal-Setting: Children learn how to pay attention and manage distractions, develop a growth mindset, and apply goal-setting strategies to their social and academic lives.

• Emotion Management: Children learn how to identify and label emotions and use emotion management strategies—including stress management for older students—to calm strong feelings.
• Empathy & Kindness: Children learn how to recognize kindness and act kindly, have empathy for others and take others’ perspectives, and recognize kind acts and empathy as important elements of building and maintaining relationships.

• Problem-Solving: Children learn how to identify and state a problem, recognize if a problem is an accident, and use the STEP problem-solving process.

The Pillars of Penguin Pride PBIS Program

We also want to continually recognize and celebrate our students. Positive Behavior Supports programs identify desired behaviors and recognize students that practice them around the school.

At King, we have identified a core behavior each month and are providing every staff member with recognition tickets to encourage and promote schoolwide positive behaviors. Students can then turn in their tickets by our counseling office to be entered into raffles for fun prizes. Beginning in October students will be focusing on "Respect." This provides a fun schoolwide way to recognize our students.

Counseling and Behavior Supports

Throughout the year we offer "lunch bunches" focused on specific social-emotional needs, individual counseling, and in class lessons along targeted themes for our students. Mr. Kaiafas, our wonderful school counselor, is always here to respond to any student needs. If you feel your child would benefit from any specific programming he can be emailed at nkaiafas@pway.org. You can also call the main office any time if looking for supports for your child.

Great News! Our wonderful PTO is consolidating all of our PTO initiatives into one easy to read Newsletter each month. This will be your one stop shop for many school initiatives and events, including sign-ups for many great volunteer opportunities. Please give this a look each week to stay involved in everything at MLK!

This edition includes

• PTO Membership Sign Up Information
• Spirits Sales Information
• Kastle Fundraiser Info
• Fall Festival Sign Up and Information
• Sign up and Zoom Link for our October Meeting

I strongly urge all of our families to become involved in any way possible!