• December 20, 2024 - Report Cards Available in Genesis for Parents at 3:00 PM
• December 23-31, 2024 - Schools Closed - Winter Break
• January 1, 2025 - Schools Closed - New Year's Day
• January 2, 2025 - Schools Resume
• January 3, 2025 - TJS Spirit Wear Day
• January 7, 2025 - MPS BOE Reorganization Meeting
• January 10, 2025 - Second Grade Breakfast with the Principal
• January 14, 2025 - MPS BOE Meeting
• January 16, 2025 - TJS PTO Meeting 7:00 PM in the Art Room
• January 17, 2025 - TJS Day of Service - Students Assembling Hygiene Kits
• January 20, 2025 - Schools Closed - Martin Luther King Jr. Day
• January 29, 2025 - Single Session Early Dismissal 12:45 PM Day for Lunar New Year

Dear TJS Families:

I wanted to take this time to wish all of you a healthy, happy, and peaceful holiday break and new year! Whether your family is traveling or staying local to see friends and loved ones, I hope the time together is memorable. One thing I am looking forward to is some quiet time at home reading. Below you will find a "Winter Reading Choiceboard" for you to engage with as a family at home! See how many boxes you can complete over the winter break.

Thank you for your continued partnership and support for our school learning community. Best wishes and see you all in 2025!

Warmly,

Ms. Garcia

As a school learning community, we are recognizing TJS jaguars who consistently use their "PAWS" at school - Practice kindness, Act safe and responsible, Work hard, and Show respect. Nominations are submitted throughout the entire month and at the end of the month, one jaguar from each grade level is selected and recognized. Today, Ms. Garcia announced the December Jaguars of the Month!

Congratulations to...

• Kindergartener - Charlotte Bondroff
• First Grader - Maya Polevoy
• Second Grader - Charlotte Pappa
• Third Grader - Nora Rooney
• Fourth Grader - Aidan Sheris
• Fifth Grader - Ari Bochner

We are hopeful that as a community, students will be eager to serve as positive role models for their peers to always be upstanding members of our school.

Thank you for all of the generous donations supporting our BRIDGES hygiene drive! Peer leaders are in the process of organizing and counting items. We will reach back out in the new year if we have a shortage of specific hygiene supplies.

This month I had the pleasure of teaching lessons across grade levels. Topics included learning styles, disabilities and one of America’s unsung heroes, Judy Heumann. Fifth graders learned about Judy Huemann’s story, a girl stricken with Polio, paralyzed from the waist down who, in 1970, became the first wheelchair-bound teacher in the New York City Public Schools. Judy was a disability rights advocate and played a key role in the development of the Americans with Disabilities Act. For more information about the amazing Judy Heumann, please visit, https://judithheumann.com/project/about/

Students in grades K-4 listened to the story, Brilliant Bea. Bea is a girl with dyslexia who has difficulty learning to read and write. Bea’s teacher introduces her to a tape recorder that she uses to record her creative, imaginative stories. With this accommodation, Bea demonstrates her story-telling brilliance in spite of her learning challenges. Students were given the opportunity to discuss the meaning of dyslexia and express how the use of a recorder helps Bea overcome challenges. Students then learned about a variety of personal learning styles such as auditory, visual and kinesthetic. All students in grades 2-4 took a learning styles quiz to determine how they learn best and discussed how we each learn best in different ways, as Bea does in her story.

Today, Friday, December 20, 2024 our Kindergarteners proudly participated in an Alphabet Parade to showcase learning ALL of the letters and sounds. All students and staff were invited to line our hallways to cheer on the kindergarten students as they marched by in their alphabet vests, each representing a different letter of the alphabet! It was a fun afternoon for all! Yay, kindergarten!

Click the link below to access and print the calendar for the month of DECEMBER. As a family try to do as many of the boxes as you can during the entire month of December! You will see that many of the activities focus on winter and holidays. A huge thank you to Second Grade Teacher, Mrs. Delli Paoli, for creating this month's activity calendar!

First trimester report cards will be available for viewing in Genesis this afternoon, Friday, December 20, 2024 at 3:00 PM. Please email or call the TJS main office if you have any problems viewing your child's report card.

Fifth grade students have been participating in DARE lessons with Sergeant Glab this month. One recent lesson focused on identifying risks and consequences. Students learns how there are good and bad risks and how they all have consequences.

All classes have been working hard to finish up their recent projects! This week all classes looked at artists' use of perspective. All grades were challenged to create a-worm’s eye view of snowpeople at play. These projects should come home this week.

Happy Holidays!

Dear families,

This month our Spanish class focused on two exciting topics:

Family members in spanish: The students practiced describing their families, making family trees and sharing the importance of family in their lives.

Las Posadas: Our students learned this tradition celebrated in Mexico and Latin America. We worked together to create a comparison chart that explores Las posadas and other holiday traditions, looking at similarities and differences in food, activities and meaning.

I encourage you to talk with your child about your own family traditions, especially during the holiday season. Thank you for your support as we explore language and culture!

Felices fiestas,

Mrs. Dearborn

Happy holidays everyone!

This week, we had some holiday themed activities, such as “Home Alone”, “Holiday Lights”, and “Do You Want to Build a Snowman”. All of these not only worked on some fitness and teamwork skills, but focused on sportsmanship too.

As a reminder, especially with the winter weather approaching, it is very important to wear sneakers on PE days. Hope everyone has a great break!

Tis the Season for Respiratory Infections

If your child has a fever and/or any of the symptoms of Covid-19, flu, bronchitis or pneumonia, please keep them home from school and take them to the pediatrician to be evaluated. Your doctor will determine if a test for Covid-19 or the flu is needed. Mycoplasma pneumoniae (walking pneumonia) has been on the rise in New Jersey and several cases have been reported in the TJS community. Although most cases are mild, infection can be serious in vulnerable populations including students with asthma and those who are immunocompromised. If your child is diagnosed with pneumonia, please ensure that they have been on antibiotics for a full 24 hours and fever-free (without the use of fever-reducing medications) prior to returning to school. Note that the Covid-19 guidelines have changed and it is now treated the same as other respiratory infections. Students may return when they have been fever-free for a full 24 hours and symptoms have significantly improved. The CDC continues to highly recommend vaccination against both Covid-19 and the flu. Please see the attached link for CDC guidance and recommendations: https://www.cdc.gov/ncird/whats-new/getting-your-immunizations-for-the-2024-2025-fall-and-winter-virus-season.htmlI I have also linked the NJDOH school exclusion list which provides a detailed description of communicable diseases and the required school exclusion time period (not limited to Covid-19 and the flu): https://www.nj.gov/health/cd/documents/topics/outbreaks/School_Exclusion_List.pdf.

Help Encourage Healthy Habits:

Handwashing on a regular basis with soap and water for at least 20 seconds and coughing or sneezing into a tissue or your elbow has been proven to prevent the spread of germs and protect you from getting sick. In fact, educating others on handwashing has demonstrated up to a 21 % reduction in respiratory illnesses such as the common cold or the flu. Furthermore, handwashing alone has been proven to have a positive effect on attendance, with up to a 57% reduction in the number of missed days from school due to gastrointestinal illness. Please visit the CDC site to learn more about the importance of handwashing and helpful ways to encourage proper hand hygiene for your children: https://www.cdc.gov/clean-hands/prevention/index.html

Attention 5th Grade Parents/Guardians: Mandatory 5th Grade Immunizations

As a reminder, when your child turns 11 years old they are required to have 2 additional vaccinations, Meningococcal and TDAP, in order to enter grade 6 in the fall. As you begin to schedule your child’s well visit around their birthday, please remember to follow up with the necessary immunizations and documentation that is required for entry into school. Please see the attached document for the necessary form and return it to the TJS health office upon completion. Should your child’s appointment be scheduled over the summer months, please send the form to the MJS nurse, Pauline Bliss, RN at blissp@madisonnjps.org.

Click here for more info and to learn how you can be a part of Madison Reads.

Hello Everyone!

Winter Break is finally here! Candy Cane Lane was a huge success. We want to express our gratitude to our Candy Candy Committee. They went above and beyond to create a magical morning filled with gingerbread houses, hot chocolate, and festive decorations. The Holiday Sing-A-Long was the perfect way to spend the morning as we listened to the students sing our favorite holiday songs. Thanks to your continued generosity, class parents presented holiday gifts to teachers and the PTO was also able to provide gifts to many school staff, custodians and crossing guards for this holiday season. We hope everyone has a relaxing winter break filled with family, friends, and good times. We wish you a Happy New Year and look forward to seeing you in 2025!

Our next General PTO Meeting is on January 16th from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the TJS Art Room. Join us to learn about the PTO, our work so far, and upcoming volunteering opportunities. Principal Ileana Garcia and Superintendent Danielle Shanley will attend.

Do you have a half hour to spare? The library is still in need of volunteers to re-shelve books. Please click on the link HERE to help out!

• Fri. Jan. 3rd - Spirit Wear Day

• Fri. Jan 10th - Second Grade Breakfast with the Principal

• Thurs. Jan. 16th - General PTO Meeting from 7:00 - 8:00 pm in the TJS Art Room

• Wed. Jan. 29th - Second Grade Awesome Art

Click to submit PTO membership dues of $35/family!

Stay up to date on anything PTO by visiting our TJSPTO.org Website

See what we’re offering at our TJS PTO Square Shop

To share your ideas or any questions or to volunteer, contact us at presidents.tjspto@gmail.com.

Patricia Alvarez & Anna Italiano

TJS PTO Co-Presidents

Don't forget to follow Torey J. on Instagram @toreyjsabatini to see all of the wonderful things happening in our school community.