This past month we celebrated our 90th and 100th days of school. 3rd grade celebrated the 90th day of school with fun activities, while the 4th and 5th graders had 100th day of school celebrations within their grade level classrooms and teams. In collaboration with the Spirit Club & our school PBIS, we conducted a 100 days, 100 Eagles scavenger hunt. 100 pictures of eagles were hidden around the school to celebrate the 100th day of school. When an eagle was spotted, the students brought it to the board to be posted and they signed their name. It was a fun activity that had the ES school community working together as a TEAM. This past month the Spirit Club also created a Kindness Tree to showcase acts of kindness completed by our students. Each act of kindness was written on a heart and placed on the branches as the leaves of the tree. The completed tree is pictured above.

5th grade students in Mrs. Recco's Computer Lunch Club just completed behavior expectation videos which are being presented to the student body. The students worked closely with Mrs. Recco to create videos which highlight our school expectations for behavior in various areas of our building. Staff and students in all of our grades participated as actors for these videos; while the club students directed, produced and edited the content. The projects turned out amazing and I am so thankful for their work.

This month we will celebrate Women's History Month, Read Across America, World Down Syndrome Day and participate in some fun TEAM spirit activities. The trimester ends March 8th and we will celebrate with our second Be Your BEST Pep Rally. Our cross grade level teams will get together once again to play fun games, work together as a team and meet other students within their school community. Also this month our 3rd graders will go on their class field trip, we have Spring Pictures and at the end of the month we start Spring Break. It's an exciting and fun month at the Elementary School!

In looking ahead to April, we are excited to share a special author visit on April 17th. Millstone Elementary School will proudly welcome New York Times best selling author, Susan Verde. More information about her visit will be shared with students this month. Linked at the bottom of the newsletter is information regarding a book pre-order. You can pre-order signed copies of her books through April 5th.

Our students continue to exemplify our school motto each day, "Try your Best, Nothing Less at MTES!"

Grade 3 - Charlotte

Grade 4 - Camila

Grade 5 - Aidan

Digital Citizenship Information

• Each month we will share with you a new resource from Common Sense Education
• This month's resource is about helping kids interact safely with others online. The PDF is linked here: Help Kids Make Friends and Interact Safely Online

School Counseling News

• Counseling class lessons will continue.
• This month’s mindfulness practice with Mrs. Meyrick is focused on emotions. Being mindful of our emotions can help us to either appreciate the present emotion or decide how to respond to it. The students will practice that when they feel a big emotion, to stop and take three mindful breaths before they take action. This can help make safe and helpful decisions.
  
• Students have an opportunity to practice this mindful activity every Monday during morning announcements as part of Mrs. Meyrick's Monday Morning Mindful Minute.

Enrichment Opportunities

• Any students motivated to challenge their minds are encouraged to participate in Mrs. Levinson's weekly challenges. A new Brain Buster challenge and Word of the Week will be posted for each grade level every Friday. Paper copies are always available from the CHALLENGE YOURSELF bulletin board in the cafeteria, and can also be accessed online. To keep kids motivated, Mrs. Levinson keeps track of how many challenges each student completes and maintains a Leaderboard for each grade level. Students can also earn prizes!
• Art Club is the place for 4th & 5th grade students to come and creatively explore any art concepts, ideas, or skills at their leisure! Students stay after school on their assigned day to work on art projects of their own design! Mr. Locandro helps students further develop skills through mini-lessons based on individual student needs.

The 5th grade Hawaii Helpers have concluded their virtual food drive to collect donations for the Maui Food Bank and victims of August’s wildfires. Students volunteered lunch and recess time to organize the event, create and prepare a game that taught about Hawaiian culture and language to play in all Gym classes, write and deliver Morning Announcements, create fliers to hang in the hallways, record progress, cut out and organize paper flowers for our donors, and finally string donor-decorated flowers onto our giant Hawaiian lei. They set a goal to raise $2,000, and with all of the support from our school community, surpassed their goal by collecting a total of $2,132.13! Pictured below are some of the Hawaii Helpers posing with our giant Hawaiian lei, and the bulletin board we colored daily to show our progress. Hana nui (Great job), Hawaii Helpers, and mahalo (thank you) to all who donated!

If your child will be arriving late, or is staying home from school due to illness or personal reason, please call the absence line by 9:00 AM that day indicating reason for absence/tardiness.

The following is a list of common illnesses that exclude a student from school:

● COVID - Students who test positive for COVID-19 will be excluded for 5 days and may return on day 6 if fever-free for 24 hours without medicine and symptoms are improving. These students are strongly recommended to wear a mask in school on days 6-10.

● Fever - Students are sent home with 99.5°F. Prior to returning to school, student must be fever free for 24 hours without the use of Tylenol/Advil.

● Diarrhea or vomiting - Students who vomit or have diarrhea in school are sent home. Students may return to school when symptom-free for 24 hours. If symptoms continue for more than a few days or if the child is listless/sluggish, contact your doctor.

● Common Cold - Students are sent home when symptoms are severe (i.e. severe cough, excessive nasal flow, tight congestion, etc.) Students may return when symptoms are minor.

● Strep throat - Antibiotics must begin 24 hours along with relief of symptoms prior to returning to school. A sore throat accompanying a stomach ache could indicate strep. Watch for fever, swollen neck glands, diarrhea and/or pain.

● Skin infections (Impetigo, Ringworm, etc.) - Students with suspicious skin rashes are sent home for doctor evaluation. Students may return to school with a doctor's note once evaluated and treated.

A RETURN-TO-SCHOOL CLEARANCE NOTE FROM YOUR DOCTOR IS REQUIRED FOR ANY CONTAGIOUS DISEASE, INCLUDING PINK EYE AND RASHES

If you have any questions, please contact the school nurse

See picture for list of theme days

PTO Book Fair

Family Literacy Night & PTO Book Fair at the Primary School from 5:00-7:30

The students will participate in fun games as part of our Be Your BEST Pep Rally.

This is also a PTO spirit day - students can wear green and white

PTO School Store

Wear crazy socks and blue & yellow

Information regarding pictures will be sent home with your child

Shortened school day and class parties

School will be closed and reopen on April 8th.

MTFEE is raising money to purchase new books for the book vending machine. The contest is running from February 26 - March15. The grade that has the most coins wins an ice cream party.

• 3/4-3/8 - Read Across America Spirit Week 📚
• Every Tuesday in March - TEAM Spirit Days 😊
• 3/15 - Wear Green & White ☘️ 🤍
• 3/21 - Wear crazy socks and blue & yellow 💙💛

Doors open for student drop-off at 8:55 am each morning. Parents are asked to pull to the middle doors where students will exit curbside and be assisted into the building by our duty staff. We ask all families to remain in their vehicles so that we may keep traffic flowing. Additionally, we ask that families pull all the way forward as directed by staff.

Students should not be dropped off unless duty personnel is present. Doors close at 9:05 am. If you are running late, kindly park and escort your child to the main entrance where he or she will be buzzed into the building.

Afternoon dismissal begins at 3:35 pm. Students will be dismissed from the middle doors of the building. Families will be asked to gather outside of the middle doors to pick up their children. Families will park in our lower lot and use the adjacent staircase to make their way to the middle doors. Once our parent pick-up list has been verified inside by a staff member, students will be escorted outside and matched with their adult(s).

If you plan on using parent pick-up each day, you may send an email to Mrs. Piccinnini in the main office stating such. Your child will be added to our permanent parent pick-up list. If you plan on using parent pick-up occasionally, we ask that you email the main office no later than 3pm on the day you wish to use parent pick-up. It is important that you notify your child's teacher and the main office anytime there is a change in your child's typical dismissal plan.

Is your child looking for something different to do during recess? Here's how we can help:

• Students have the opportunity to join enrichment clubs during recess time. Each morning we will announce the clubs available to each grade level - art, computers, etc.

In accordance with NJ State Law, the Millstone Township School District has created Policy 8505: School Nutrition and Policy 5331: Management of Life Threatening Allergies in School. These policies are available for review on the District website. To aid our efforts in providing students with only nutritious foods/snacks, we are requesting parents adhere to the adopted nutrition policies. This includes providing only healthy snacks during birthday celebrations and/or curriculum celebrations.

• Please be note that the following must be adhered to:

1. Items identifying sugar as the first ingredient, items that contain artificial sweeteners, and candy are not permitted to be served to students during the school day.
2. Items may have no more than 8 grams of fat per serving.
3. All beverages offered to primary school students must be water, milk containing 2% fat or less, or 100% fruit juice. 4. Food and beverages served during school-wide curriculum events are exempt from the above guidelines with the exception of soda, water ice, chewing gum, and candy, which may never be served at school.

• Maschio's offers the option of purchasing birthday snacks through their company. This option ensures that the snack meets all of the guidelines. The flyer is attached below.

Click on the title above to access this month's lunch menu