Woodland Park School District News

Welcome to the Woodland Park School District e-Newsletter, which is sent out weekly when school is in session. It serves as a glimpse of some of the wonderful things going on in our schools, as well as a point of reference for upcoming events.

Your Partner in Education,

Michele R. Pillari, Ed.D., Superintendent of Schools

Beatrice Gilmore School fourth grade students presented their state float projects last Friday morning for friends and family. Each student had a state that they researched and created a float that featured facts about the state as well as landmarks and characteristics.

Seventh grade students presented their Science Expo projects Wednesday evening, which they’ve been working on since January. This was a mandatory project for seventh grade students and optional for sixth and eighth graders. Students explored a wide range of topics in physical science, life science, earth and space science, and engineering and technology.

The Borough held its annual Earth Day and Arbor Day celebration on Tuesday with a tree planting at Ciborski Park behind the school. Beatrice Gilmore School fifth grade Influencers joined in to help plant a cherry tree, which they will be able to watch grow as they do. Alfred Baumann Library Children's Librarian Sara Rappa read A Tree Is A Community by David L. Harrison to all the students. A copy of the book was donated to the school library. In addition to the tree planting, the Influencers painted inspirational messages on rocks that were placed around trees on the campus and tied raffia paper on the trees with earth-friendly messages.

Congratulations to the Memorial Middle School March Mustangs of the Month! Students are nominated by staff members based on the Six Pillars of Characters, which is also utilized as the basis for Memorial's Positive Behavior Intervention Support program, the house system, at Memorial. All recipients receive recognition over a special school announcement, a displayed photo, and a certificate of recognition.

• Congratulations to:
  
• 6th - Preston Cartagena
  
• 6th - Aubree Mazzie
  
• 7th - Elizabeth Hamdi
  
• 7th - Eric Contraras
  
• 8th - Sebastian Cabrera
  
• 8th - Josie Limone
  

Ms. Altomare's third grade class at Beatrice Gilmore School had a few mystery readers recently appear in class. Students learned that teamwork can help a friend. Other stories showed the students how each of them are special and have unique talents. Minecraft stories were read and students dug for ores, redstone, iron, and other crystals.

One of Ms. Yesonosky’s fourth grade math groups at Beatrice Gilmore School is currently working on adding and subtracting decimals. To connect to real life, the group is using shopping circulars to budget a week’s worth of meals for a family of five with a maximum of $250. They must include three meals per person, per day, plus two snacks. They are using skills associated with health and science too, as they have to be sure to hit certain food groups and serving sizes.

Students in Ms Tobia's PreK-4 class at School 1 made a map of the school and planned where to look for bugs. The students followed their map around the perimeter of the school and found ants in an ant hill and flies. They found one spider but they knew that it was not an insect because it has eight legs!

The students made oobleck for the Week of the Young Child each student measured the proper ingredients and then got to have a fun sensory experience. Students in Ms. Tobia's PreK-4 class are shown above, Mrs. Herbert and Ms. Bonnie's PreK-4 class at School 1 at left, and Ms. Odaman's PreK-3 class below.

The Week of the Young Child in the District ended with Fun Friday. Family members were welcome to visit and help the students make pinwheels. Shown are students in Ms. Wittig, Ms. Tobia, Ms. Herbert, and Mrs. Chiaravalloti's classes.

Beatrice Gilmore School students had a visit on Monday from Carlos Rocha, CRCST, RDA, CDA, with the Children's Oral Health Program. The program is offered by the New Jersey Department of Health and was brought to BG thanks to our BG school nurse, Mrs. Roehrich.

The Woodland Park Education Association sends its thanks to all those who joined in for its "Engineering Explorers: Build and Learn" movie night and waffles night last week at Memorial School, which was open to all students.

Our first Pre-K and kindergarten interactive parent night was a huge success! We had many families come and participate in various stations where students practiced pre-reading and writing skills during this wonderful event. We also partnered up with Preschool HSA, Lakeshore, and Scholastic book fairs to offer parents solutions and games that they can play at home based around literacy. Families were engaged in the activities with their children and also received information on literacy play at home!

The Memorial Middle School House System is planning its annual Color Run fundraising event, to raise money to provide fun House activities for all students. Registration is open here for the event, which will be held on Saturday, May 3 at 10 a.m. on Memorial Drive. All are welcome to attend!

The Alfred Baumann Library, 44 Rifle Camp Rd., will host the following programs. Visit the Library's website here or Facebook page here. Its phone is 973-345-8120. Email is library@abwplibrary.org. Register for events here.