Spotlight On Gerace November 2015

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Principal’s Message

It is great to finally be here! Thank you to Mrs. Mahoney for leading our school for the first

two months and for making the transition smooth. A big thank you to the SJG Family for the

warm welcome and I look forward to the wonderful things we are going to do together as a

school community. I have been very impressed by the work that our students are doing and the

fantastic lessons that our teachers are conducting.

Last week was amazing with the Red Ribbon Week daily events and all the Halloween fun. The

weather for the parade could not have been better and having so many parents attend meant

so much to our students. The HSA Halloween Party was awesome with our students enjoying

great music, snacks, and fun. Thank you to everyone who made the week so wonderful including

all the faculty at SJG and our HSA.

November is another busy month, starting with Election Day, then Veteran’s Day, followed by

parent-teacher conferences, and ending with Thanksgiving. Our students will celebrate our

veterans on November 11th with our 3rd graders performing a concert in honor of our veter-

ans. They deserve our respect and thanks for all they have done for our country.

Please check the SJG website for information on how to schedule parent-teacher conferences

through the Realtime parent portal. If you are having difficulty scheduling a conference, please

call the main office at SJG. Also, if you need to meet with both special education and general

education teachers, you might need to coordinate with the two teachers if you would like to

meet with both at the same time. Mrs. Mangarelli will be at SJG for conferences if needed and

we are currently working out Mrs. Finnen’s schedule since she teaches at Hillview as well.

Finally, with Thanksgiving this month, we should all take time to give thanks for our good for-

tunes and for the important people in our lives. I hope that everyone gets to spend the day

with family, friends, or a mixture of both. Enjoy good food, great company, and a slew of NFL

football games.

Thank you again to the staff, students, and parents for the very warm welcome.

Have a great November.

Sincerely,

Mr. Reiner

Please join us for our

Third Grade Concert

“A Salute to Our

Veterans”

Wednesday

November 11, 2015

1:45 pm and 7:00 pm

Thank you... To the SJG HSA for a successful Book

Fair!

We would like to extend a special thank you to Mrs. Roberto, Mrs. Gusmano, and all of our Book Fair volunteers,

for their time and hard work that helped to make this event such a success!

The SJG Home and School Association sponsored our annual Reading Kickoff

on October 22, 2015 featuring a Reading and Halloween laser light show and

our Fall Book Fair for all K-5 students. Students were able to find wonderful books at the

book fair, and enjoyed a program that incorporated reading, stories, songs, and an

amazing laser light show. Many thanks to our SJG HSA for this event.

SJG students participated

in our 23rd

Annual Red Ribbon Week celebration,

from October 23-30, 2015.

Red Ribbon Week is a time to pledge to live a safe and drug free life.

Our first event, the Walk Out On

Drugs program was organized by Mrs. Dondero, our

physical education teacher, and held on Friday, October 23rd.

Students and staff demonstrated activities that

keep us healthy.

Students participated in school-wide events to commemorate Red Ribbon Week. The members of the Fifth Grade Computer Club designed Red Ribbon Week

puzzles for all SJG students.

Our culminating program was the Red Ribbon Week Assembly, which was organized by

our school nurse, Mrs. Griffith. Student readers spoke about the

importance of keeping our minds and bodies healthy.

Mrs. Finnen, our music teacher, led our second, fourth, and fifth

grade students as they sang special songs during the

assembly.

Our Stephen J. Gerace School “Making Strides” Team participated at the annual

“Making Strides Walk” in Parsippany, New Jersey on Sunday, October 19, 2015.

As we have done for many years, our SJG family walked together to make a difference in the fight

against breast cancer. Families, friends, and community members were able to contribute by

making donations and joining in the walk. The SJG “Making Strides” Team consisted of teachers, staff, family, and friends who walked in support of those they love and support of breast cancer awareness.

Fourth Grade

Paper Plate Land Forms

SJG fourth grade students are studying

different land forms. They made their own

“paper plate” land forms and

designed a 3-D land form model using a

paper plate. How may land forms can you

name? They are: basin-bay-canyon-cape-

channel-coastal plain-delta-

fall line-glacier-gulf-inlet-isthmus-marsh-

mesa-mountain pass-

mountain range-

mouth of river-peninsula-plain-plateau-

savanna-sea level-

source of river-strait-swamp-tributary-

volcano.

The land form projects are on display in

our library.

From the Health Office

Staying healthy this time of year!!

This is the beginning of cold and flu season. It is also the time of year we begin to see

other childhood ailments. These can include strep throat, stomach viruses, coxsackie

virus (hand, foot and mouth disease) and others. There are common things we can all do to

lessen the spread of such illnesses. These include:

Proper hand washing. Reinforce to your children how and when to wash hands. I have

gone to ALL K-5 classes and reviewed hand washing techniques with your children.

Ask them about it at home. Hand washing is the number one way to protect your-

self and others against all of these childhood illnesses. CDC recommendations for

hand washing can be found on the “In the News” section of my web page.

Remind children to cover their mouths and noses with a tissue or sleeve

when sneezing or coughing. Throw tissues away after each use. This is always

reinforced here at school.

Keep sick children home. If your child is ill, PLEASE keep them home for 24 hours -

symptom free. This means symptom free without medication like Tylenol or Advil.

Symptoms include temperature 100.4° or above, vomiting, diarrhea, consistent

coughing, runny nose, sore throat, new skin outbreaks or rashes, etc. I will only

have to send them home if the symptoms continue at school. Most illnesses, if

contagious, are spread right before and right after the illness appears. Staying

home while symptoms persist can lessen the spread to others. It also protects your

child from picking up secondary illnesses while their immune system is already

working hard.

Have children get plenty of rest and eat a nutritious diet. While these are

important every day, it is even more important when children are not feeling well.

When your child is ill, please call the school by 8:15 am to report an absence. The

attendance line is available 24/7. I also ask that you let the school know why your

child is absent and be as specific as possible. If you take your child to the doctor

it is helpful to bring documentation of the illness from the doctor. Let us know if

your child has a specific illness.

Below you can find some resources for some specific childhood illnesses.

Jacqueline Griffith RN, CSN

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/pdf/freeresources/updated/a_flu_guide_for_parents.pdf

http://www.nj.gov/health/cd/hfmd/documents/hfmd_quick_glance.pdf