October 2006
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October 31, 2006
BOO!
Halloween came a few days early this year at the lower school.
The traditional Halloween festivities are held at Craig generally on the last Friday before the 31st when the 7th and 8th graders are away at Frost Valley. This way, the younger children can get into the spirit of things (ha!) without the older kids hogging the limelight.
The children changed into their costumes after lunch and led by the gypsy queen, Mrs. Cozine, paraded around the block. Then all returned to their homerooms for a variety of activities organized by PACS Halloween Chair, Ann Rendina, and a host of Moms. For the first time this year, school supplies were donated by Craig parents for distribution by the Morristown Food Pantry to needy families. (See the stash below gathered in a pumpkin and guarded by knight and navy!)
Thank you PACS parents for making this a very special day!
October 28, 2006
Upper School Connects with Art
11th graders travel to Hamilton, New Jersey, to visit the Grounds for Sculpture.
The Grounds for Sculpture is both an indoor and outdoor gallery of "...works by well-known and emerging contemporary sculptors in the museum buildings and landscaped sculpture park." It is a favorite trip for both upper and lower Craig School students.
When the 11th graders visited recently, each student was instructed to select a particular sculpture and apply the four steps learned in their art class in preparation for writing an essay. The four steps are: analysis, description, interpretation, and judgment. The essay is a typical example of the cross-curricular emphasis at the Craig School -- in this case between the art and english departments.
October 17, 2006
A Soldier Returns
Former Craig student, Marine Lance Corporal John Miller, is on leave from Iraq.
When Haydee Miller heard her son, John, was coming home, Su Wieland and Celeste Caparulo organized the whole school to sign a huge welcome home banner. The original plan was to send the banner to California where it would be hung in the barracks for the soldiers returning to Camp Pendleton in San Diego. The men will be stationed at the base until December when they will be allowed to come home for a month long leave. John will return to Camp Pendleton after the New Year and currently has orders for a second tour in September of 2007.
The banner was signed and sent a couple of weeks ago. Then Haydee found that she could fly to San Diego and greet John in person! She flies out on Wednesday, the 18th, and will be seeing her son for the first time in many months on Thursday. They will spend four days visiting family in the San Diego area before she returns to work at Craig.
October 16, 2006
My Fellow Students!
Lower school students make impassioned speeches in their bids to become members of the Student Council.
Students running for Student Council had a chance to present their platforms during an assembly in the Wilson School auditorium on October 11th. The assembly followed upon several weeks of active campaigning at the school. Campaign posters for the offices of class representative as well as the various members of the executive committee covered nearly every available wall space. During the assembly each candidate was required to deliver a campaign speech to the entire lower school, faculty and students.
The candidates for president and vice president promised everything from more dances, a greater voice for the younger students, a bigger and better carnival, more school trips and parties, to (my favorite) a "wear your Mom and Dad’s clothes day"! Some promises were a bit frivolous, others more serious, but each was delivered with a great sense of poise and confidence despite one student remarking as he approached the stage that he was about to have a heart attack!
After the speeches had been delivered, all presidential and vice presidential candidates gathered on stage to answer questions prepared by Mr. Aquino and Ms. Chavanon. These were questions on the order of what makes a good leader, how important should the point sheet be to the student council president, and how do you handle someone who has been bullied. Even though the questions were directed to specific students, there was no shortage of hands raised among all the candidates indicating their willingness to address the issues..
Regardless of the election outcome, every student on that stage showed leadership ability and the potential to achieve prominence not only at the Craig School, but in the larger community as well.
October 08, 2006
Parents Go Back to School
Lower school parents spend an evening learning what their children do in school all day!
Lower school parents witnessed a mini school day when they assembled at Craig for “Back to School” night in early October. As parents arrived, it seemed as if the organizational strategies taught at Craig were seeping into the home as most parents remembered to bring their schedules for the evening. Parents even managed to locate their homerooms with relative ease, although some found ways to make frequent detours past Mrs. Cozine’s office to sample the awesome brownies and other goodies.
The evening was enjoyable for faculty and parents alike – the former relishing the opportunity to demonstrate the many innovative classroom strategies at Craig and the latter equally enthusiastic about the learning possibilities opening up for their children.
Back-to-School night is always an eye opener for new and returning parents given the new methods incorporated into the curriculum each year. We can safely say a good and informative time was had by all. We also want to thank PACS for producing such a delicious assortment of baked goods!
October 04, 2006
Stepping Out on the Delaware
The first upper school Stepping Out puts students in deep water!
To kick off our “Stepping Out” program for the 2006 school year, the Craig Upper School rafted down the Delaware River. Seventeen students along with Mr. and Mrs. Cap traveled the seven mile course from the Kittatinny base at Stair Case to Matamoras, PA. Our adventure took us 2.5 hours to complete. Our day included 70 degree weather, lunch on the river, and some unexpected raft trading. There was only one case of mutiny and two attempts to throw the Director overboard. We are happy to report that all attempts failed.
October 01, 2006
Monarchs Rule!
Students at the lower school learn about the Monarch Butterfly.
During the week of September 18th, 6th and 7th grade students at Craig School in Mountain Lakes, got “up close and personal” with monarch butterflies as they learned about the life cycle of this beautiful butterfly. The program was organized by a 6th grader and her mom, whose yard has been designated a “Monarch Wayside Station” through the Monarch Watch Organization. These Monarch Watch volunteers provide a milkweed garden for the egg-laying females and their caterpillars along with flowers that the adult butterflies use for nectar, and a source of fresh water. Monarch populations are on the decline due to the rapid disappearance of the milkweed plant, which is the only food source for the larvae. The farmland, meadows and roadside areas where milkweed once grew are rapidly disappearing as a result of urban sprawl.
The students learned about the larval stage by meeting Henry and Henrietta, two of the caterpillars brought to the school. Trying to match various types of insect larvae with their corresponding adult forms proved to be a challenge for the students. A jar full of mosquito ‘squigglers’ illustrated how different the larval and adult form of insects can be!
A lucky morning class watched an adult Monarch as it emerged from its chrysalis and began pumping up its soft, moist wings to dry. The young science students observed the caterpillars during the week and logged changes in their life cycle. They watched the caterpillars gradually stop feeding on the milkweed plants, crawl to the screening at the top of the tank, hang upside down and pupate into a chrysalis. Times and dates were noted as each new adult emerged from its chrysalis. The students had previously learned how to identify a butterfly’s sex by wing patterns, and were able to identify a male as the first-born, which they fittingly named "Craig". The high point of the experience was the moment when the butterflies were released to begin their long journey to winter destinations.
Students learned that a butterfly’s life is very short. The Craig butterflies were actually the fourth brood of Monarchs. The first brood had begun the trip through North America from a distant mountain forest in Mexico, or possibly as far away as Venezuela, where they had gathered to spend the winter. This first brood mated and laid eggs in early summer. By the time the butterflies reached New Jersey, they belonged to the third brood to have hatched since the start of the journey north.
Students came away from this experience with an understanding of insect life cycles, a new appreciation for the preservation of animal habitats, and the value of a pesticide free environment. Some students are planning to begin milkweed gardens of their own with the seeds they found while dissecting the milkweed pods. All, however, will smile when they see a monarch flying among their flowers next summer, wondering if it is a great-great grandchild of “Craig”.
