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,

We have one of our busiest weeks of the year coming up next week! With Back to School Night, our family fundraising kickoff, and Book Fair all happening this upcoming week we look forward to enhancing our wonderful partnership with families and the community. Hope to see you on Wednesday!

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!

SEPTEMBER

Monday, Sept. 23 - PTO Book Fair Begins

Wednesday, Sept. 25 - Fundraising Kickoff Assemblies

Wednesday, Sept. 25 - Open Book Fair Evening @ 5:00pm

Wednesday, Sept. 25 - Back to School Night @ 6:00pm

Monday, Sept. 30 - Picture Day

PISCATAWAY DISTRICT CALENDARS

Our Back to School Night is scheduled for Wednesday, September 25th at 6:00pm. I highly encourage all parents to attend this informative night!

Please see the attached schedule for the evening below!

The Book Fair invades MLK this week. Please make sure to check out the PTO newsletter below if you wish to sign up to volunteer, check out the selection of books, or learn anything else about next week's fair.

Remember, the Book Fair opens for special after school hours on Wednesday, September 25th before Back to School Night. Feel free to come check it out!

This week we will kick off our Fall Fundraiser in conjunction with Kastle Fundraising. Students will participate in assemblies on Wednesday afternoon and will be bringing home flyers with additional information.

Interested in joining Band, Chorus, or Orchestra? Check out the information below!

For 4th grade students, new MLK students, or 5th grade students looking to play an instrument for the first time at MLK - please see the attached letters for sign up information!

For 5th grade returning Band, Chorus, or Orchestra members - you do not need to sign up again as you will be carried over to this year in the program.

Sign-ups for our groups are due by September 24th, but students should sign-up and rent as soon as possible to secure the instrument of their choice and to facilitate lesson scheduling.

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
• Book Fair Flyer and Volunteer Sign-Up Links
• Sign up and Zoom Link for our October Meeting

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