Dr. Koop's Newsletter

I hope you are enjoying the first days of Spring! This week started with a fantastic KRS PTO meeting in the KRS Dreamscape. Thank you to all the parents in attendance and beyond for your great support of KRS. Our parent volunteers are a big part of what makes KRS so special. Special thanks to the PTO leaders Mrs. Tammy de Freitas and Mrs. Katie Zurich for your dedication and overall positive, supportive, dispositions.

Congratulations to the fourth grade talent show participants! The show was amazing!

Today, we kicked-off the first ever KRS Kindness Week with special visitors Chief Miscia and Captain Longo from the Madison Police Department. They issued every class with a "Summons of Kindness". More kindness activities are planned for next week and are highlighted by school counselor Mr. Levine in this newsletter.

Next week is a four day week, because on Friday, March 29, 2024 schools are closed.

Have a fantastic Weekend!

Sincerely,

Dr. Kathy Koop

March 29, 2024 - Good Friday - Schools Closed

April 11, 2024 Finding Nemo - Spring Musical 6:00 PM

April 1 - 5, 2024 - Spring Break, Schools Closed

April 22, 2024 - KRS Green Week

April 24, 2024 - Art Show/Reading Night - Art Show 6:00 PM Reading Night - 6:30 - 7:30 PM

April 25, 2024 - Take Your Child To Work Day

April 26, 2024 - International Day

April 27, 2024 - Madison Arbor Day and Clean-Up Day

May 16, 2024 - Spring Concert 6:00 PM MJS Auditorium

Report cards are available in Genesis on March 22, 2024 at 3:15 PM.

To recognize the importance of kindness, generosity and giving, Kings Road School will be celebrating a week of kindness with various activities and projects. These activities reinforce the work that is done directly and indirectly here at Kings Road School on a daily basis. We are a school that values positive interaction between students, and adults.

Below is a list of our activities which was developed through the Kings Road School Safety Committee.

Friday, March 22 - "Kindness Summons"- Captain Longo and Chief Miscia visited each class between 9am-10:30 am to issue a "Kindness Summons". All students will be “served.”

Monday, March 25 “Compliment Day”- Students will learn how to receive and give a compliment. Students will be asked to compliment 5 people during the day. Attention will be given to complimenting people on effort and actions over material objects and physical appearance.

Tuesday, March 26 “Kind Deed Wall” - Students will decorate a bulletin board with a “Kind Deed” Heart. This will be on display for parents to view during parent/teacher conferences.

Wednesday, March 27 - “Kindness VIdeo” Featuring KRS Staff - Last week, many of our staff took part in a video where we discussed ways to be kind at KRS. Students, on this day, will have an opportunity to view this video and discuss ways they can be kind. Thank you to Mrs. Zurich and Mary Zurich (1Y) for filming, editing and producing this video.

Thursday, March 28 - Heading into Spring break students will be asked to submit pictures (via email) of their Spring Break Kindness activities to be printed and displayed on a communal bulletin board. The more the merrier! Email your pictures with the subject header “Kindness over Spring Break” to levineb@madisonnjps.org

April is Autism Acceptance Month.

We want to let you all in on what we have found in the Autism community, so that you can help us spread the word!

• One thing that we have found is that we should really be calling April Autism Acceptance Month. It is time to move forward from being “aware” of autistic individuals and move towards accepting them. We will now be celebrating Autism ACCEPTANCE Month in April along with the autism community! We hope you will join us.

• We would like to wear RED on April 12th to support the autism community. In many cultures, the color red represents love, good luck, joy, and celebration.

Greetings from the STEAM Lab!

Kindergarten, First grade, and Second grade students are continuing their work with coding on code.org and applying it to Legos. Using leveled Challenge Cards, students are decoding a Lego puzzle and then building that prompt.

Third grade students are beginning a Robotics and Coding unit. They will be building a gear robot and coding the robot to move forward, backwards, left, and right.

Fourth grade students are beginning a Makey Makey/Scratch Unit. Students will use Makey Makeys, which is a USB input device that allows users to invent projects using water and other conductive objects. Students will create a water piano using the Makey Makey and use Scratch to code the keys to play music.

Fifth grade students are also beginning a Scratch Unit. They will be coding their very own video game using the Scratch program.

Kindergarten has been working hard creating painted paper with tints of red, yellow, and green

for their Frida Kahlo collages. We read the books Frida Kahlo and her Animalitos and Frida to

learn about Frida’s life.

First grade has been learning about famous American artist Grant Wood. We read Dropping in

on Grant Wood to learn about his studio and artwork. The students are now creating art inspired

by Wood while learning about foreground, middle ground, and background in art, and mixing

tints.

Second Grade is learning about abstract art. We read the book Opposites Abstract by

everyone’s favorite author Mo Willems. We looked at art by famous artists Pacita Abad and

Joan Miro. They used foam dice with Miro’s shapes to inspire abstract thinking.

Third Grade has begun a mixed media project inspired by the wonderful book Along the

Tapajos by Fernando Vilela. They are using painting, monoprinting, ink, and collage to create

their own depiction of the banks of the Tapajos.

Fourth Grade is completing their mixed media project inspired by the mud houses of Burkina

Faso in Africa. This project involved creating their own stamp to make paper printed with

geometric shapes to include in their collages.

Fifth Grade is learning about symmetry in art and architecture. They are creating their own

Origami Relief Sculptures with Radial Symmetry.

"The Shakespeare Theatre Company of NJ is coming to KRS on Friday March 22. Doug West, the Education Director, will read a story version of A Midsummer's Night Dream to the 5th grade class and then coach students on how to read Puck's final speech from the play!

This past week we learned about Beatrix Potter to help celebrate Women's History Month. We learned about Beatrix's life (including her nature conservation efforts preserving over 4,000 acres of the Lake District of northwest English countryside and donating it to the country via the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty) and read The Story of Peter Rabbit. We practiced taking notes on details from the story as well as recording Peter's sensory impressions from his romp in Mr. McGregor's garden. Younger students also practiced basic writing and colored in reproductions of original illustrations from Peter Rabbit. Students were also able to borrow Beatrix Potter books in their original small format from the KRS library. I introduced students to the concept of library and museum exhibits by showing them The Morgan Library and Museum website which is showing a Beatrix Potter exhibit entitled "Drawn to Nature" which runs until June 9. Check out the Morgan Library's Family Activity Guide about

Beatrix Potter!

KRS now has a library department page on the KRS school website. When on the KRS website, click on "Menu", then "Library" under the "Departments" section. The library page features various online resources, including databases and the library catalog which students can use to look up books in the KRS library to see if the library owns those books and find out where to locate them in the library. There is also now a chromebook in the library that is a dedicated library catalog computer for students to look up books in the library or use for database research. Next month, students will begin an extensive unit on the Dewey Decimal System, educational database research, and citations use that will culminate in an end of the year research project.

Students also recently learned about literary genres, eg, historical fiction, history, science fiction, dystopian, realistic fiction, informational, biography, memoir, poetry, novels in verse, and others. The purpose of learning about literary genres is to introduce students to different categories of books and broaden their reading horizons so that they are constantly reading new types of books. After learning the fundamentals of various literary genres, students had fun applying their knowledge by watching movie previews and identifying the genre the movie belonged to. Students then wrote about their favorite book and genre and wrote about a genre they would like to read more of and why.

Miss Bihuniak and Mrs. Garita were granted funding from the Madison Education Foundation to purchase new multicultural books for the KRS library. They are currently on display in the library for the students and staff to see and read.

In March is Read Across America week and also the Diverse Book Challenge. So what better way to celebrate and learn about our diversity than through all of the new books we received?

This week and next, library classes will be able to start checking out these books. Since we have so many new books, books will also be distributed to classroom teachers to read to their students. This will allow students to be exposed to more of the books than just during library class.

Registration is OPEN for the 2024 MEF Pickleball Tournament on Saturday, June 1, 2024. Register individually or with a partner for a fast-paced, fundraising day of round-robin style play.

• Adults 18 and up
• Prize baskets and medals sponsored by The Spelker Real Estate Team
• Lunch offering for purchase from Harvest Bistro
• Registration cost is $65
• 
  

NEW THIS YEAR is the MEF Youth Pickle & Play on Sunday, June 2, 2024. Register your kids for a fun morning of pickleball games and tournament play. Activities will be tailored by experience and age (elementary, middle, and high school). Beginners welcome!

• Ages 18 and under
• Warm up led by CrossFit 377
• Prizes and refreshments
• Registration cost is $30

ACADEMIC CALENDAR

2023-2024

Trimester 1 (61)

September 5, 2023 First Trimester Begins

December 6, 2023 First Trimester Ends

December 12, 2023 Report Cards Posted for Review

December 15, 2023 Report Cards Available in Genesis

Trimester 2 (61)

December 7, 2023 Second Trimester Begins

March 14, 2024 Second Trimester Ends

March 19, 2024 Report Cards Posted for Review

March 22, 2024 Report Cards Available in Genesis

Trimester 3 (61)

March 15, 2024 Third Trimester Begins

June 20, 2024 Third Trimester Ends

June 13, 2024 Report Cards Posted for Review

June 20, 2024 Report Cards Available in Genesis

Conferences:

November 6 (Evening), 7, and 8 2023

April 15 (Evening) 16, and 17, 2024