CJL Newsletter Fall 2009

The CJL News

Principal’s Message
Mrs. Banecker

Welcome to the fall 2009 edition of CJL News. We had a terrific start to the 2009-10 school year welcoming 190 students to our Lawrence School Family. I feel the main reason why the school year is going so well academically and behaviorally is that the entire staff has adopted the Responsive Classroom (RC) Approach to teaching and learning. The teaching practices in RC bring together social and academic learning throughout the school day. When teachers take the time to get to know each student they can better make decisions about curriculum, classroom organization, classroom management, and discipline that allows all children to reach their potential.

Mrs. Affrime, Mrs. Ferrara, Mrs. Fischer and I, known as Lawrence’s RC team, attended a week long RC institute this past summer and brought back our learning to share with our staff during faculty meetings and in-service days. On November 3, 2009 the Captain James Lawrence School RC team as well as teachers from Samuel Smith and Wilber Watts Intermediate School presented at a district-wide workshop for teachers of grades PreK – Six. Mrs. Calderone, our guidance counselor, also was a presenter.

Each day, as students enter their classroom, the group gathers in a circle on the carpet to have a Morning Meeting. The format consists of friendly greetings, sharing of news, having fun together with an activity, and warming up for the day of learning with a morning message. An underlying belief of RC is that academic






learning happens best within a positive social context.

During the first week of school, students and staff shared their “Hopes and Dreams” for the school year. Teachers collaborated with students to develop classroom rules that support everyone’s learning so that all may reach their “Hopes and Dreams.” Of course we still have our three school rules:
 Take care of yourself
 Take care of each other
 Take care of Lawrence School

During the November in-service day, staff also learned about “The Power of Teacher Language” and “Discipline using Logical Consequences.” A teacher’s language is a powerful tool modeling respectful and caring social interactions.
There are three types of effective teacher language:
 Reinforcing Language: Naming Strengths
 Reminding Language: Helping Students to Remember Expectations
 Redirecting Language: Giving Clear, Non-Negotiable Instructions

The goal of Logical Consequences is to give children the chance to regain self-control and restore positive behavior. It helps children recognize that all actions have consequences while preserving the child’s dignity and keeping children safe. Logical Consequences need to be respectful, relevant, and realistic. As you can see, Logical Consequences differ from punishment with emphasis on changing the behavior for the future.

I am extremely proud of the students and staff for helping to make The Captain James Lawrence School the “Best School in Burlington City!”


Mrs. Affrime - Raising Readers

On October 22, 2009 Captain James Lawrence School had a very successful Raising Readers event. Principal, Mrs. Banecker, Pre-school Master Teacher, Mrs. Butler, and Literacy Coach, Mrs. Affrime spoke to parents about fluency, early literacy and comprehension.

At the end of this short discussion, parents went to visit their children’s classrooms in time to participate in Morning Meeting. The meetings give all students a chance to be greeted, seen and heard. It is a way to begin the day with a combination of social and academic practice.

After Morning Meeting, students began Reading. This workshop featured students working in small groups or individually while the classroom teacher pulled students for small group instruction.

We hope that this parent workshop helped you to see some of the important work that students and staff do each day at school. Please mark your calendar for these two up coming events: Math Matters January 21st 2010, and our very first Writers’ Workshop on February 25th 2010.
Thanks for joining us. We look forward to sharing more parent workshops with you.

76ers Book Break Challenge

Students at the Captain James Lawrence School are in the middle of a very exciting reading challenge. The 76ers Basketball Team has challenged school children to each read 760 pages, from the beginning of October through the end of November. Each child who completes the challenge will receive 1 free ticket to a Sixers basketball game, the ability to buy additional tickets at a discounted price, and a Book Break Challenge Certificate of Achievement.

In order to be the best they can be children need to read both in school and at home every day. Make the Book Break Challenge your challenge. Read and record the pages every day. At the end of each month send the paper back to school so your child can receive credit for his/her accomplishment. Tickets will be given out at a later date.


Ms. Britt – School Nurse

Much has been said in the media and flyers have been sent home from school in reference to the flu season this year. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do not send your children back to school following a temperature until they are fever free for 24 hours without taking a fever reducing medication.









Mr. LeBrun – Safety Patrol

In early December the Safety Patrol will begin a food drive for the Division of Youth and Family Services along with a local church food pantry.

All second grade students are eligible for the Safety Patrol. Our two Captains for the 2009/2010 school year are Raniya Bruton-Moore and Javier Hall-Soto.



Mrs. Morgan – Librarian

There is a lot of learning going on in the library. The K5 students have been busy listening and learning about fairytales. Using finger puppets and character masks, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Little Red Hen have come to life. The children certainly enjoy acting out the stories and look forward to doing more interactive stories with various hands on activities. With the first grade, I am correlating fiction and non-fiction materials. After listening to the cool fictional story- Bats in the Library, the boys and girls enjoyed seeing real photographs of bats and learning many interesting bat facts! Did you know that a bat can eat 600 mosquitoes in an hour? The 2nd graders enjoyed the story- There Was An Old Monster, a version of the famous There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly.

After listening to the story, each class made up their own story and chose what they thought he should swallow. Each student illustrated their choice of what he should swallow. I will be hanging them up in the hallway by the library soon. We definitely think he is in for a tummy ache! Please read to and with your child! Catch the reading habit! You will both enjoy it!

Mrs. Calderone - Guidance

Character Ed. is off to a great start this school year! We have had a back to school fashion show, car wash, a trip to the Philadelphia Zoo and a Fantastic Fall Hayride Trip. Students are really working hard to earn monthly privileges and are displaying "positive" character traits. Continue to enforce good character at home and remind your child to be the BEST they can be!

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Mrs. Ferrara

Since September, we have been working with Responsive Classroom techniques such as team building and community with in the classroom.

Along with learning to read, write and count, we are trying to take care of ourselves, each other and Lawrence School.

Happy Holidays!


Mrs. Sharlot – Tutoring
Literacy/Math Tutor

Tutoring is an important part of our Reading and Math programs. Children are tutored in small groups for 25 minutes a day. The same materials that are used in their classes are used in tutoring.

The goal of tutoring is to help students “catch up” or “keep up” with classroom instruction. Students work hard in tutoring learning reading and math skills. They feel proud of themselves as they reach their goals and are given a small reward for their hard work.

CHILDREN LEARN TO READ BY READING!!
PLEASE READ WITH YOUR CHILD 20 MINUTES EVERY DAY.

Ms. Neindorff – Music

Students have been working very hard in music this fall. We watched Disney's Fantasia movie and then drew pictures to illustrate “In the Hall of the Mountain King” by Edvard Grieg. Recently, we sang some fall songs and accompanied ourselves using rhythm instruments. We are now working on our music for the Holiday Concert. Our concert will be on Wednesday, December 16th at 6:30 PM in the gymnasium. We hope to see everyone there!


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Mr. McKant – PE

Hello from the Captain James Lawrence Elementary School P.E. Department. There is so much fun and excitement taking place in our gymnasium. There are lots of exciting lessons being taught in the gym this fall season including: large and small group games, fitness, and cooperative games. The students are also taking care of themselves, others, and Lawrence School! Parents please don’t forget to send your children to school with their SNEAKERS and appropriate attire. Parents please, no boots, shoes, or dresses!

Also, for those who don’t know, I have a beautiful newborn daughter that entered the world on September 18th, 2009. Londyn Sa’naa McKant was 6lbs and 14 ounces when she was born! My wife and I are very excited, as each day with her is a new experience!


PTA

Lawrence tied first place in the Scarecrow contest held on High Street.




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Our up coming calendar events in December are the Book Fair, Dec. 8-12. and Breakfast with Santa on Dec. 12.

Mrs. Fischer & Mrs. Tucker – K5

As the leaves begin to fall to the ground, the K5 friends have been introduced to letter names and sounds. We will begin to stretch and read (using our reading finger), watch out as we pick up speed. We continue to work on recognizing numbers 0-31 and counting on objects to 30 has quickly begun. Looking forward to seeing you on our conference date. Check your calendar and circle the day, we wouldn’t want you running late.

Cassandra A. Cooblall - SLS
Ccooblall@burlington-nj.net

Miss C’s Speech Stars
At the Captain James Lawrence School, speech and language therapy helps our children develop strategies for developing oral communication, articulation, and listening skills so that they can achieve academic success, and interact effectively with their peers, teachers, parents, siblings, and community in a variety of situations. Miss C’s Speech Stars continue to work towards improving their articulation, expressive/receptive, and social and pragmatic language skills through various motivating activities. Good speech therapy attendance, positive reinforcement, and home practice are the common denominators for success in therapy.

Helpful Hints to work with your child at home:
Enrich vocabulary with language based games such as: “Scrabble™,” “Wheel of Fortune™,” “Scattegories™” and “Outburst™”. These games all help enrich and improve vocabulary skills. Crossword puzzles and word search games are excellent forms of written vocabulary games.
Know your child’s learning strengths and weaknesses. There are many forms of intelligence including linguistic, kinesthetic (body), musical, artistic, logical and social. Use your child’s strong areas to help improve speech and language. For example: if your child is gifted musically, let him/her sing a song to practice his/her speech sounds!

Remember, a positive attitude really makes the difference!









Ms. Reissmann & Ms. Teah - PreK
Mrs. R. and Ms. T’s room is on the move! Our transportation theme surrounds the room. The preschoolers boarded the in class trains. Some children had tickets for the yellow train and others had tickets for the purple train. They checked into their numbered seats and away they went. The train music played as we pulled away from the station. We unbuckled our seat belts, hopped off the train, and spent time in our imaginary aquarium. Before we knew it, it was time to go. We took our tickets, matched them with the seat numbers and headed back to Captain James Lawrence School. What transportation do you ride?