Thanks to Jack the bagpiper for starting our morning with beautiful music today. As always, the children were riveted as Jack stood on the front steps playing, and as he walked around the hallways for the first few minutes after the bell filling them with the sound of bagpipes.

Clinton School’s St. Patrick’s Day bagpiper has now become a tradition of sorts.

It is even included in this Patch article on things to do on St.
Patrick’s Day:

Poetry Performance a Huge Success!

On Friday, February 18th, Clinton 4th grade students as well as Ms.
Rebecca Antunes’ special education class had the opportunity to perform their original poems, raps, and rhythms to fellow students, parents, friends, a Board of Education member, and local media.

The event received some great local press coverage:

Article 1

and

Article 2

The Poetry Jam was the result of an amazing artist-in-residence program Clinton School was awarded this year. Through the program, Clinton 4th graders had the opportunity to work with Lamont Dixon, a poet, performance artist, and this year’s artist-in-residence at Clinton School.

Thanks to a generous grant from the Artists-in-Education Consortium, which includes the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Arts Horizons, and Young Audiences New Jersey, Clinton fourth graders had the wonderful opportunity to explore poetry with Mr. Dixon, aka Napalm Da Bomb, a Philadelphian who has been a prominent presence on the jazz- poetry scene for many years. His poetry has been published in numerous magazines including Essence and African Voices, and he recently published a book of poetry called Come Ride My Poems.

Students also had the pleasure of working with percussionist Josh Robinson.

Mr. Dixon employed basic theater games and exercises designed to develop and enhance the students’ stage presence and voice projection as well as to help the students attain proper diction and help them emit emotion through body language. Under his guidance, the students created their own haikus, free verse, acrostics, and tongue-twisters, and they also learned about odes, limericks, and nonsensical poems.

Music was also an important focus. “Rhythm, cadence, beats, and sound are major components of poetry,” explains Mr. Dixon. In fact, the residency is also funding a guest artist, percussionist Josh Robinson, who will teach students how to use “found objects” for percussive effect.

At the February 18th performance our amazingly creative students played percussive instruments to accompany each other’s poems and they performed their written pieces. The result was incredibly inspiring.

Clinton School has been fortunate enough to receive arts education grants for the last several years. Making this happen requires tremendous partnership between school administrators, faculty, and our PTA., who all believe strongly in the power of arts education.

The Patch has a great article about yesterday’s Poetry Slam. Congratulations to all who participated in this extraordinary event.

Josh Robinson and, Artist in Residence, Lamont Dixon

We cordially invite

You to

Clinton School’s

4th Grade Poetry Jam

Friday, February 18th, at 1:15 pm

Clinton School Auditorium.

The performance is the culminating event representing the amazing work your children have done with our our artist-in-residence this year, poet Lamont Dixon.

Thanks to a generous grant from the Artists-in-Education Consortium, which includes the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Arts Horizons, and Young Audiences New Jersey, Clinton fourth graders have the wonderful opportunity to explore poetry with Mr. Dixon, aka Napalm Da Bomb, a Philadelphian who has been a prominent presence on the jazz- poetry scene for many years. His poetry has been published in numerous magazines including Essence and African Voices, and he recently published a book of poetry called Come Ride My Poems.

The residency has also funded a guest artist, percussionist Josh Robinson, who has taught students how to use “found objects” for percussive effect.

The final performance will feature the students, Mr. Dixon, and Mr. Dixon’s band Jazzpoetics.

Please join us for what promises to be a very special afternoon. Parents are asked to sit in the balcony.

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!

If you still have some holiday shopping to do, please visit Sparkhouse
Kids (Scotland Road, South Orange) next Wednesday, December 15th
between 10 am and 6 pm. This wonderful local toy and bookstore will
donate a percentage of your purchase to Clinton School if you mention
Clinton School when you check out. Mark your calendar so you can
finish up your holiday shopping for kids and support Clinton School at
the same time.