Parent Volunteers Needed for Dancin’ With the Honeybees

THIS AMAZING ASSEMBLY REQUIRES MANY PARENT VOLUNTEERS AND WE STILL DON’T HAVE ENOUGH. PLEASE SEE THE SCHEDULE BELOW AND LET US KNOW IF YOU CAN HELP OUT DURING ONE OF THE SLOTS BY EMAILING JACKIE LAHEY AT jaclahey@aol.com

The Clinton PTA is excited to present Cliff Sunflower’s assembly and workshop program, Dancin’ with the Honeybees, on Thursday, March 31,
and Friday, April 1. Using honeybees as his focus, Cliff reaches
all levels of students and adults with concepts, facts, and ideas about the ecology of the natural world. Dancin’ with the Honeybees uses storytelling, poetry, prose, puppetry, music, dance, and participatory theatre. The follow-up “Bee Touch Me Museum” lab program reinforces the science concepts presented in the main assembly. Every participant makes a beeswax candle to take home.

In order to make the follow-up lab program work smoothly, we need at least six parents from each grade to volunteer to help at the museum stations, which will be set up in the gym. We ask that you attend the morning parent orientation, and then help during your child’s workshop. (If you are coming only to the afternoon workshop, Cliff can do a 10-minute orientation for you beforehand.)

The schedule is as follows:

Thursday, March 31

8:15 – 9:15 Assembly, Grades K-2

9:15 – 9:45 Parent Orientation

9:45 – 10:30 2nd Grade Workshop

10:35 – 11:20 1st Grade Workshop

12:45 – 1:30 Kindergarten Workshop

Friday, April 1

8:15 – 9:15 Assembly, Grades 3-5

9:15 – 9:45 Parent Orientation

9:45 – 10:30 5th Grade Workshop

10:35 – 11:20 4th Grade Workshop

12:45 – 1:30 3rd Grade Workshop

If you would like to volunteer, please contact Jackie Lahey at jaclahey@aol.com, or 973-313-9757. Please give your name, your workshop time, your email address, and your phone number.

Thank you very much!

The Clinton PTA is excited to present Cliff Sunflower’s assembly and
workshop program, Dancin’ with the Honeybees, on Thursday, March 31,
and Friday, April 1. Using honeybees as his focus, Cliff reaches
all levels of students and adults with concepts, facts, and ideas
about the ecology of the natural world. Dancin’ with the Honeybees
uses storytelling, poetry, prose, puppetry, music, dance, and
participatory theatre. The follow-up “Bee Touch Me Museum” lab
program reinforces the science concepts presented in the main
assembly. Every participant makes a beeswax candle to take home.

In order to make the follow-up lab program work smoothly, we need at
least six parents from each grade to volunteer to help at the museum
stations, which will be set up in the gym. We ask that you attend the
morning parent orientation, and then help during your child’s
workshop. (If you are coming only to the afternoon workshop, Cliff
can do a 10-minute orientation for you beforehand.)

The schedule is as follows:

Thursday, March 31

8:15 – 9:15 Assembly, Grades K-2

9:15 – 9:45 Parent Orientation

9:45 – 10:30 2nd Grade Workshop

10:35 – 11:20 1st Grade Workshop

12:45 – 1:30 Kindergarten Workshop

Friday, April 1

8:15 – 9:15 Assembly, Grades 3-5

9:15 – 9:45 Parent Orientation

9:45 – 10:30 5th Grade Workshop

10:35 – 11:20 4th Grade Workshop

12:45 – 1:30 3rd Grade Workshop

If you would like to volunteer, please contact Jackie Lahey at
jaclahey@aol.com, or 973-313-9757. Please give your name, your
workshop time, your email address, and your phone number.

Thank you very much!

Japan Relief Efforts

On March 11th, an unprecedented 9.0 magnitude offshore earthquake struck and unleashed a 23-foot tsunami along the northeastern coast of Japan. Tens of thousands of people’s life were lost, millions of homes, buildings and even entire towns were swept away.

People in Japan are still living in fear as already more than 200 after-shock earthquakes have shaken the country. Much of north-east Japan does not have any electricity, gas, fresh water or enough blankets to keep warm. Now, they are faced with potential radiation disaster as the nuclear plants are unstable and under threat.

Mihori Tada-Lee, mother of two Clinton students and Afterschool Enrichment teacher for the Japanese Language and Culture class, has family and friends who have thankfully survived the quake and tsunami.

Inspired by the courage of the Japanese community, she asks our Clinton community to consider a contribution to the Japanese Earthquake Relief Fund.

If you would like to make a monetary donation, please consider the following reliable organizations:

All contributions are tax deductible.

The Japan Society —- The Japan Earthquake Relief Fund
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American Red Cross

Our 8th Annual Tricky Tray/Auction was record-breaking! Thanks to the generosity of our amazing school community, we raised just shy of $26K for Clinton School!

Thank you so much for supporting this event with your prize donations, your attendance, your help, and your enthusiastic response to our raffles and auctions.

It takes a special kind of community to pull this off and the Clinton School community definitely rocks!
Not only were there many current Clinton families in attendance, but there were many families of children who’ve already graduated, as well as families whose children still have a year or two to go before they attend Clinton.

Many, many people need to be thanked. In addition, you’ll notice that many local businesses and many parents who own local businesses supported the event. Please thank them the next time you visit their shops or use their services. We are very grateful for their generosity.

And also thank these people:

* Patty O’Neill and Ann Bodnar, for donating fabulous prizes and for their consistent willingness to partner with the Clinton PTA so that we can make Clinton School as incredible as it is.Their leadership makes Clinton a very special place

* Clinton teachers and staff, who donated many extremely popular teacher prizes, raised money to donate a Kindle to our silent auction, and came out to support the event on Saturday in big numbers.

* Our PTA President and Vice President, Jung Lee Masters and Elizabeth Aaron, for working very closely with us to organize and run the event.
They, too, are great leaders and work tirelessly on behalf of our students.

* Our Tricky Tray Committee. Thanks to this fabulous team, our biggest Tricky Tray ever (306 guests) ran very smoothly. From soliciting prizes to buying supplies to transporting prizes to setting up and decorating the space, to working their butts off the night of the event, to cleaning up, they did it all and they did it all excellently! Many thanks to Jung Lee Masters, Elizabeth Aaron, Patty O’Connell, Karen Betheil, Sharon Geraghty, Tammy Dandino, Janet Trzaska, Amy Janay, Nancy Friedman, Barbara Cokorinos, Mary Barber, Liz Herring, Jackie Lahey, Tammy Haynie, Sue Lunde, Shanta Gyan, Alanna Munoz, Laurie Tarkan, Keli Tianga and Rosanna McCrear.

* Heather Kern, who has been taking on the huge task of program design for many years (in addition to the many, many other things she does for Clinton) and who is always calm, organized, and wildly creative.

* Derek Romanaux and Jeremy Moss for their many years of emceeing and DJing. Derek has an exhausting job at TT and he is always wonderful.
This year, he also emceed the event on his birthday! Happy Birthday Derek! Jeremy always knows how to set the right mood and everyone is always thrilled with his selections.

* Kathleen Hong stepped in, with little notice, and designed gorgeous live auction posters for us.

* St. James Gate donated beer, Maplewood Stationers gave us balloons (and a $50 Lottery Tree), and Alex and Deidre Silberman of Great NJ Properties subsidized the cost of the wine for the evening.

* Clinton School families…we have the most generous, supportive, committed, talented, and creative families on the planet. Thanks for all of your support and for making it possible to do as much as we do on a regular basis for our students. No other school in our district has an auction every year and still manages to have an All School Musical Revue, an After School Enrichment Program, build a parade float, and host a School Fair, a Storytelling Night, a Pumpkin Patch, a Craft Fair, book fairs, and an International Dinner.

Many, many thanks,
Cecelia Cancellaro and Leah Gomberg

It seems that nature is intent on keeping our children indoors these many days for recess. We wanted to make sure you all know how hard the staff works at Clinton to provide a variety of activities for students on these indoor days.

The problem, of course, is always one of space. There is simply no place to put a whole grade level for recess indoors. On those rare
days when the gym is empty, it is an option, but not all the time. At other times the library might be empty, but not always. We also can’t
really use hallways as that disturbs classes in session, and also creates a fire hazard in the event the building needs to be evacuated.

Please be aware that Ms. Bodnar and the lunch/recess staff has created a schedule for every day of the week with a rotation that includes the
small cafeteria space, games in classrooms, and, yes, a movie…never an ideal scenario, but one that is simply a space-based solution. We
have also created a ‘Recess Reading Cart’ that will be available this week for lunch aides to take to available spaces for students to read
on their own or in small groups if they choose.

If you are available to help lead games, read books, do some yoga and jumping jacks or share another activity on an indoor recess day,
please feel free to contact me or go to school on that day to introduce yourself to Ms. Liz and the cafeteria staff to offer your assistance. So if you know the forecast will lead to an indoor day and it suits your schedule, another pair of adult hands is always welcome.

Here’s hoping the groundhog does NOT see his shadow next week, and that spring comes soon to Clinton School!

Thank you for your help!

Please see the flyer for more information.