Upcoming Events
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May 5
Borough Cleanup
May 9
Mother's Day
May 10 |
May 12
Memorial Day - School Closed
May 25
BOE Meeting
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Franklin Lakes Public Schools
School News and Views April, 2015
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Dear Community Members,
Our schools are buzzing with excitement this spring. In this issue of School News & Views, you will read about some of these exciting happenings. Butterflies have hatched and flown, students are demonstrating their artistic flair, and the themes of giving and friendship are alive and well. I know you will enjoy reading all about these wonderful events.
I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Ms. Kelly Hart, Supervisor of Curriculum and Instruction to Franklin Lakes. Ms. Hart comes to us from the West Orange school district, and brings expertise in the areas of Technology, Science and Mathematics to our team. We are extremely pleased to have Ms. Hart on board, and know that she will make a great addition to our district administrative staff.
As you may already know, the District Satisfaction Survey is now available. This is a great opportunity for parents/guardians to share your thoughts with us regarding a variety of areas of school and district life. I encourage you to participate so that we can benefit from your thoughts and ideas. Click here to take the survey.
There are many wonderful things happening across the district. Please enjoy this issue of School News & Views.
Sincerely,
Lydia Furnari
Lydia Furnari, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools
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How We Connect
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District News
Curriculum & Instruction: Gifted & Talented Programs
The District's eligibility criteria for the Grades 4 - 8 Gifted & Talented programs for 2015/2016 has been revised. The NJASK component has been removed; new qualifications for participation in the ACES program take cognitive skills and academic achievement into consideration. For a complete description of the ACES eligibility requirements, please click here. For an overview of the District's entire Gifted & Talented program offerings, please click here.
Technology: FLEF Supports Our Schools
The Franklin Lakes Education Foundation is there to support our schools. FLEF has been very generous once again in funding a new wide screen projection system for the FAMS multi-purpose room. The projection system is used for the school play, student assemblies, teacher professional development and faculty meetings, Board of Education meetings and of course, movie night. With the new, extremely bright projector, a wide projection screen and two locations for audio video connections, the MPR now has a state of the art projection system. Thank you FLEF. Please click here for information about FLEF.
Business & Operations: Community Calendar
Recently, the Borough of Franklin Lakes, the Franklin Lakes Board of Education and the Franklin Lakes Public Library  purchased and implemented a shared online calendar, which will show public events from all three entities in one calendar. The shared online calendar was a recommendation of the Synergy Task Force, which was formed in 2014 to explore opportunities for improving efficiencies and saving costs by finding operational synergies amongst the Borough of Franklin Lakes, the Franklin Lakes Elementary Schools, and the Franklin Lakes Library. The Synergy Task Force implements the objectives of the Synergy Project, which was approved by resolution of the three public bodies.
Just click on the Calendar icon on the Borough's website, the Calendar tab on the Library website or the Community tab on the District's website. You will see public meetings, classes and events for the Borough, Schools and Library. With a shared calendar, residents can see all public activities of these three Borough entities at a glance. You can also customize the calendar by sorting by Borough, Schools or Library, or by event type or by age group. Meetings, classes and events are color coded by entity (Borough - yellow; Schools - blue; Library - green).
Historically, the Borough, Schools and Library have worked cooperatively together in providing many services to residents and, through regular meetings of the Synergy Task Force, they are committed to continuing to explore opportunities for shared efficiencies and improved service delivery.
Special Services: Earth Day 2015
On Wednesday, April 22nd, the students in Mrs. Dalton and Ms. Miller's classes joined together to learn about Earth Day. They
 watched an informational piece that provided students with tips, ideas and suggestions on how they can save our world. Students then engaged in a class discussion on the importance of Earth Day. After the discussion, students worked independently to write a short paragraph on how they could "Improve Our World."
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FAMS News
FAMS: Environmental Club
We are currently growing herbs and vegetables in theclassroom along with the seventh graders. Plants will then be transferred to the outdoor garden. The club has started to build the outdoor garden covers to allow for year round gardening.
We also had our Black Swallowtail Butterfly  emerge from the chrysalis! Students were very happy to see that their caterpillar survived the winter in our classroom and were excited to release it into nature.
FAMS: 7th Grade Social Studies
7th Grade Social Studies has begun their unit "Age of Jefferson," which begins with the election of Thomas Jefferson and concludes with the War of 1812. Students are currently involved in a Lewis & Clark Expedition project, where they are working collaboratively to use a variety of technology resources to construct an illustrated digital timeline of events that occurred during Lewis and Clark's exploration of the Louisiana Territory. As part of the project, students will get into character to write a historical fiction diary entry that describes an event from the journey from the perspective of one of the members of the expedition.
FAMS: 7th Grade Science
Students in the ACE classes just wrapped up their eCybermission and Mystery Disease projects. Mystery Disease project participants were challenged to analyze symptoms, interpret patient case files, and diagnose the disease affecting people at the fictional County Fair. Problem solving and critical thinking skills were used to deal with the public, save lives, and create a proposal to improve the following year's fair. Projects culminated in a 'Town Hall Meeting' where the students gave their presentations as professional public health workers. eCybermission project participants worked in groups to choose a specific community problem and then conduct research using either scientific practices or engineering design process to come up with and actually follow through with a solution. Groups submitted their work online and received positive scores and comments from the judges.
Also, in 7th Grade Science, the students are coming to the end of their Challenge 20/20 global project. Students conducted research collaboratively with students from other class periods using Google Docs. They skyped with their partner class in Jackson, Mississippi and they also communicated with their partner classes in Romania and Lebanon through online blogs. Students are putting together their final presentations and brainstorming solutions for the global problems of deforestation and infectious diseases.
FAMS: 8th Grade Language Arts
During the fourth marking period, the 8th Grade Language Arts classes are reading the classic novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. This literature unit will include making historical connections to the Great Depression era to better understand  the background of the story. For a pre-reading activity, students will gain knowledge about the Great Depression through children's literature. Students are working collaboratively on a Google Doc to compile their information and communicate with their peers throughout the course of this assignment. Further, students will study the concept of social psychology to better understand how people who appear different have typically been treated by society. Each class will participate in a mock trial, complete legal research, and reach a jury-rendered verdict. Finally, students will be engaged in composing an original short story. During this writing unit, students will focus on manipulating literary elements, in conjunction with the use of unique writer's craft, to create a unique, mature narrative tale.
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CRS News
CRS: Autism Awareness - Walk A Mile in My Shoes
On April 17th, our CAPS program teachers, CAPS parents, and parents from Autism Unites Us created a wonderful experience to celebrate Autism Awareness Month. Our K-5 students were  treated to a variety of activities facilitated by our CAPS and AUU parents that helped students rotate through station activities to have a better understanding about what it is like to walk a day in the shoes of a child with autism. Students were able to truly have a sense of how the world looks, feels, and seems as well as how daily life routines are affected by autism. Our students truly appreciated having this experience and we thank our CAPS teachers and parents for taking the time to plan such a memorable event.
CRS: Spring Fever
On March 26th, the students, staff, and families of Colonial Road School were treated to a spectacular event - our Spring Concert entitled, "I've Got Style!" Our fourth grade students, under the direction of our vocal music teacher Mrs. Karen Andruska, impressed our audience with their sophisticated musical repertoire, as well as their choreographed moves that accompanied each song. In addition, our Grade 5 Colonial Road School Showstoppers had everyone in the crowd beaming as they presented a medley of performances. Our show was the perfect way to kick off the spring season!
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HMR News
HMR: Stories of Friendship
The HMR Drama Club presented their show, Stories of Friendship, to an excited audience of students and families. The  show was student written and based on the topic of friendship. Under the guidance of Ms. Brincka, Ms. Lindenthaler, and Ms. Reilly, students were offered creative freedom and constructive feedback. They practiced for many long hours and the result was amazing. The show engaged audience members as young as 3 and adults of all ages. We saw some of our favorite book characters come to life and teach us about true-life lessons in friendship. Thank you to the cast and directors for an amazing show!
HMR: Fifth Grade Solar System Fair
The fifth grade class recently had a Science Fair to share their knowledge and research about the Solar System. Students  researched using non-fiction texts and were responsible for organizing their work through the assistance of graphic organizers, a calendar to manage their time, and a rubric to guide their work. Student visuals were very creative and included posters, diagrams, live experiments, Power Points, and models. HMR students and teachers visited the Solar System Fair. The fifth graders eagerly shared their presentations and answered questions about their topics using note cards, their visuals, and knowledge learned throughout the project.
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WAS News
WAS: Reading Fluency
During their most recent Reading Fluency unit, Ms. Adler's First Grade class worked hard on their reading voices, making the stories they read COME ALIVE. They learned about how to pay close attention to punctuation as well as reading in phrases to help their voices become more fluent. One of the goals for all students is to have them feel comfortable reading texts accurately and at an appropriate pace - reading with fluency. Reading fluency is developed through recognition of letters and patterns, development of sight words, and the ability to develop decoding skills. These skills begin in Kindergarten, when we teach our students "phonemic awareness" skills. Phonemes are the smallest units of sound. For example, for the word cat, there are three phonemes, /k/, /�/, and /t/. Fluency continues to be developed through reading practice, decoding (letter pattern) skills and word knowledge. To celebrate our students' great success with reading fluency, they performed Reader's Theater plays for their families. Students took on a variety of characters in three plays. Everyone had a fabulous time!
WAS: Spring Spectacular
On March 25th, our fifth grade students presented the annual
Spring Concert, "Spring Spectacular!" Our concert began with 53 fifth graders performing under the direction of Mrs. Amy Paz. These very talented singers warmed the hearts of the audience as they performed songs in beautiful two-part harmony including "On the Stage," "Wakati Wa Amani," "We Are One", "Like the Beat of a Drum" and a number involving sunglasses and rhythmically tapping cups to the hit song "Happy". Next, the Woodside Wonders thrilled the audience as they performed three vocal pieces. These 36 outstanding show choir members performed a flashlight choreography presentation to "Fireflies" and ended the evening with a choreographed song to the radio hit "Best Day of My Life" ending in a grand pose where each sun spelled out "WOODSIDE WONDERS 2015" It was truly a wonderful evening.
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Franklin Lakes Education Foundation
11th Annual Golf Outing
Monday, May 4th
Please click here to see the outing brochure.
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Franklin Lakes Borough
Clean-Up and Beautification Day
Saturday, May 9th
9am-12pm
Please click here to see the flyer.
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Franklin Lakes Public Library News
Click here to view the Library's May offerings for children.
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