Dear Craig Families,

In the beginning of March, the middle school students started a project on black and white portrait drawing, taking a very different perspective since their lessons were based on the Element of Art, Value. Understanding Value in art, which is the range from light to dark, is a very important element, helping the artist build something from 2D to 3D through shading. The students began by learning the Value scale and then just practiced shading. From there they were taught the pencil scale, the higher the “B” number, the softer the pencil, the more the shading. The students watched short demos on YouTube that focused on hair, noses, eyes, and mouths. They also were shown bits of Mrs. Kutcher’s artwork along with last year's students’ finished product. Everyone was finally ready to decide their subject, a self-portrait or person of choice. 

First, the students found a picture of their chosen subject. The pictures had to be clear and crisp with a good value scale. All portraits would be black and white with shades of grey. Once the students had their pictures they traced the outline of the face using graphite paper. Graphite paper left the image on their paper which helped to make sure the proportions were correct. Mrs. Kutcher reinforced, “You are drawing what you see, not what you know.” The foundation of the drawing was started, and now came the time to render (add shading) and make it come to life! By rendering it (adding shadow and value) their 2-dimensional drawing turned into a 3-dimensional drawing. The students continued their next lesson adding value by using 3-6 B pencils, tortillon stumps, and kneaded & white erasers. They learned to sketch lightly and gradually adding value by controlling their pencil pressure. After our Spring break, the students were encouraged to look at their portraits with “fresh eyes.” That gave everyone a great opportunity to add finishing touches.

The finished projects will be hanging in our cafeteria. They are amazing! You will all get a chance to see them when you come to Grandfriends’ Day on June 3rd.

Sincerely,

Janet Cozine

May 6, 2020 (Fri) - 12:00 Dismissal

May 17-19, 2022 (Tues-Thurs) - GMADE/GRADE Testing

May 16, 18 & 19 (Mon, Wed, Thurs) - No Homework Help due to testing

May 21, 2022 (Sat) - Walk for Janet M. Cozine [10:00] 

May 30, 2022 (Mon) - School Closed [Memorial Day]

May 31, 2022 (Tues) - Classes Resume

June 3, 2022 (Fri) - 12:00 Dismissal 

June 3, 2022 (Fri) - GrandFriends Day & Craig Expo [morning]

LEADERSHIP COUNCIL

The Leadership Council has been feverishly working.

• Our 5th annual plant sale is in progress. Flowers will be delivered May 5 from 3-4:15 on the Craig campus. If you are unable to pick up at that time please email lgiven@craigschool.org to make other arrangements. 
• The first annual school dance for 7th and 8th graders is almost here!  Friday, May 6th from 5:30-7:30 students will come to campus and dance the night away surrounding by the tropical hawaiian decor. 
• Teacher Appreciation week begins next week. Leaders have been working on plans to ensure teachers know how much we appreciate them. 
• Buddy Program - Friday, May 13th. Leaders will join with their buddies for 30 minutes in the am. Brynn and Gabby are designing the morning. 
• Red Nose Day, is Thursday is May 26. It will be a full day event during school. The Leadership Council has selected Family Promise of Morris County to be the benefactors of our fundraising efforts that day. We will have representatives from Family Promise come and speak to the school, lessons on food insecurity and housing challenges, and art activities.  The day will culminate with a student designed carnival. Each game ranges from .25 cents to $1. The money raised from the carnival will be given to Family Promise. 

LIBRARY 

We are currently undertaking our typical spring inventory to determine what we need for next year. It is a big project that typically takes 3-4 weeks. Thanks to Lana, who has been a champion volunteer in the library this year. We currently have 46 books overdue. Please check to see if you have a Craig library book that could be returned. 

HIGH SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT

Earth Day 2022: Last week, CSHS joined schools around the world to celebrate Earth Day.  In Mrs. Bhakta’s Science Classes, students did an interactive NASA WebQuest where they were able to see before and after images from space from different locations around the world and over periods of time to see both the changes on our planet and the impact that nature and man have had on our planet (click on the images of change tab here).  

We also held our annual Earth Day Campus Clean Up.  In addition to beautifying our campus and earning a $600 Clean Communities grant that will be used to further enhance our school recycling program, our students competed in three Earth Day categories: Earth Day Volume, Earth Day Quality, and Earth Day Strangeness.    All in all, we removed almost 100lbs of garbage and recycling in the areas surrounding our school campus.

PACS

Log onto our store, browse our items, order for your student and your family and The Craig School receives 20% of the order! All of the proceeds from this go towards the community events that we have planned throughout the year for you and your students to enjoy!

CRAIG SPIRIT WEAR STORE

PACS Executive Committee information along with membership forms are on our website.

It is not too late to join our membership drive, please email Angelina Bright, PACS PRESIDENT at  pacs@craigschool.org

ADMISSIONS

It's time to enroll in The Craig School Summer Academy!  Please fill out the registration form to enroll your child in the full-day or half-day program. The dates of the Summer Academy are July 5th- 28th and 29th, depending on whether your child is enrolling in the morning or afternoon program. Prices and times for the camp are on the registration form.  Spaces are limited for the Summer Academy, so please enroll right away. Click this link for a full description of the program.

https://www.craigschool.org/academics/summer-academy/

If you have any questions regarding re-enrollment or The Summer Academy, please reach out to Nicole Moon in the Admissions office.

nmoon@craigschool.org   (973) 334 1234.

What is orthographic mapping?  Orthographic mapping is a process in which student uses the oral language part of their brain to map the sounds in the words to the letters that represent those sounds.  The students of The Craig School use this process to help build their sight word vocabulary.  This process can be used for phonetic and nonphonetic words. The students use Sound Mapping Boxes to map out the sounds that they hear in a word.  Each box represents one sound.  The box may contain more than one letter that represents the sound.  For example, the word chain contains three sounds.  

The students use manipulatives to mark the sounds they hear in a word.  In Mrs. Imperatore’s class, the students use yellow blocks to represent the vowel sound in the word.  Once they have used the manipulatives to map out the sounds, they then remove the blocks and replace them with the letters that represent the sounds.  The student begin to see patterns in words.  For example, ai comes at the beginning or middle of a word, while -ay comes at the end.    Through orthographic mapping the letter sequences are glued to the pronunciation of the word.  In the photos below, the student’s were mapping the word skill. 

See our photo gallery.

Lacrosse is back at The Craig School. We are going to run lacrosse as an in-house program as we reintroduce the sport after a two-year pause. The program will include girls and boys in grades 5th to 8th. Our goal will be to teach the lacrosse skills needed to have a competitive team or teams next year.  See schedule below.

May  3 (Tues),  5 (Thur)

May 10 (Tues), 12 (Thur)

May 17 (Tues), 19 (Thur)

May 24 (Tues), 26 (Thur)

May 31 (Tues) & June 2 (Thur) Last Day

Practice runs from 3:05-4:30 pm.

Your child will need a lacrosse stick and a water bottle to start. 

If you are interested in team gear please go to Squad Locker. We recommend that each player purchase a reversible pinnie from the store. 

https://teamlocker.squadlocker.com/#/lockers/the-craig-school-lax

If your child is interested please email Mrs. Calvano at MCalvano@craigschool.org

Any questions please contact Mr. Furlong at NFurlong@craigschool.org 

TUESDAY, June 21 at Ballyowen Golf Club!

Registration at  Craig School Golf Outing Registration and learn more about the event at https://www.craigschool.org/giving/annual-events/.  Our Annual Golf Outing is looking for support!  You can join us for golf, sponsor a faculty member, join us for dinner or even become a tee box sponsor!   Information about how you can help with our Golf Outing Auction will be forthcoming.  Please reach out to Katie Burke, Director of Development, at kburke@craigschool.org if you have any questions. I hope you'll join us for this fun day on the links

JANET M. COZINE AUDITORIUM

Thank you for all of your support for the Janet M. Cozine Auditorium renovation. We are grateful to everyone who has contributed to this project, and for those who have gotten involved and shared their experiences at The Craig School.

Our campaign continues and as of today we have raised $165,000 with gifts from every constituency of the school: students, parents, faculty, staff, former faculty, alumni, alumni parents, and grandparents. A testament to Janet's 42 year career and the impact made on the lives of so many families that are a part of Badger Nation.

Our goal is to raise $265,000 for the completion of the project.  If you have not given to the campaign, please consider a gift today to celebrate our esteemed Director of the Lower and Middle School, Janet M. Cozine.

You can pledge here:

Donate to the Janet M. Cozine Auditorium,

pay via Text2Fund by texting Badgers to 71760,

pay via Paypal at https://www.craigschool.org/giving/ 

or send a check made payable to The Craig School. 

WALK FOR JANET M. COZINE

The Craig School will be hosting a walk on Saturday, May 21, 2022 to honor Janet M. Cozine’s 42-year career at The Craig School with this school-wide celebration!

Activities will kick off at 10:00 am with music and greetings followed by a stroll down the Boulevard with Janet as well as our students, parents, alumni, alumni parents, and friends.  After the event, we will meet back on campus for more festivities and refreshments, which includes the Kona Ice Truck!  All participants will be eligible for prizes that day.  

We would love to see you and your families joining us on this special day to celebrate the one and only Janet  M. Cozine.

To let us know that you will be joining us: https://www.craigschool.org/alumni-events/

or  contact me at kburke@craigschool.org or 973-334-1234 ext. 229.

BADGER HOMEWORK SUPPORT

Dates the Week of May 2nd

Monday, May 2nd

Wednesday, May 4th

Thursday, May 5th

Please remember to follow the same traffic patterns at homework support dismissal that you do at regular dismissal. Thank you!

If your child is leaving early or not coming to Badger Homework Support, please contact Mrs. Butter by email at bbutter@craigschool.org or via call/text message on the homework support hotline 1-862-207-9863. Thanks!

Craig School Emergency Contact System:  The Craig School uses a multi-tiered communication system that provides to our families, the highest level of certainty that you are made aware of any change in the opening or closing status of Craig Lower Middle School and Craig High.  Our various communication tiers include:  

• Craig Notification Call System:  The Craig Notification call is a voice activated system so you need to say HELLO once and allow the system to activate.  If you say HELLO followed by another HELLO in rapid succession, the system will not activate and not start the recorded message.  If you are unable to take the call, it will leave a message. 

• School Email Blast:  We will send out an email blast to all of our families and students.  Keep in mind that emails are dependent on the internet so if that’s down, so are emails.

• News12:  We also post any change in our status on News12 on Cablevision.  It scrolls along the bottom of the screen and updates regularly (https://newjersey.news12.com/new-jersey-school-closings)      

• Twitter and Facebook: Follow us at THE CRAIG SCHOOL on twitter and facebook
  • https://twitter.com/thecraigschool
  • https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Craig-School/179053514357?ref=br_tf

DROP IN OPEN OFFICE HOURS with Dr. Loftin, Head of School

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday- LS/MS  2:00pm -3:00pm

Thursday - High School Campus - 2:00pm- 3:00pm

These hours are open for parents to schedule a meeting, drop in and discuss any issues or concerns or to just say hello.

kloftin@craigschool.org

973-334-1234

Birthdays: Please note:

We understand that some children want to share a “birthday treat” with their classmates on their special day.  If you are planning to have your child bring food items into school for sharing please abide by the following:

• Notify your child’s homeroom teacher prior to the day so that we are aware
• Remember we are a “nut-free’ facility and food items containing nuts,nut oils,nut butters and/or peanuts are not allowed in the school
• Each item is to be individually wrapped/packaged and can not be distributed from a communal box or container
• Please provide the ingredient list with the foods as several of our students have food sensitivities

Treats will be shared at snack time or homeroom (at the teacher’s discretion) and not during lunchtime or recess.  We have more than one group-and sometimes grade- together at those times and it is difficult to single out only certain children for the treat while others are present.

If you have any questions, please email Mrs. Ellen Meisenbacher at emeisenbacher@craigschool.org

Thank you for understanding. 

NO FUSS LUNCH WEBSITE

• Lunch orders are placed weekly, not monthly, and can be canceled up until 6:00 am on the day of service in the event your child is out sick. (See the Frequently Asked Question tab for detailed information and instructions)  
• Orders for the upcoming week open each Wednesday and closes on Sunday at 6:00 pm  
• No Fuss Lunch offers a variety of nut-free and allergy-friendly options for your children

If you have any questions regarding the program, please contact Mary Calvano at mcalvano@craigschool.org.

CALENDARS

ATTENDANCE  

Drop Off

Please schedule student arrival no earlier than 8:00 am. Classes begin at 8:20 am.

All absences and late arrivals should be reported to our main office.  Please send an email to Kimberly McGroarty kmcgroarty@craigschool.org OR call our Main Line (973-334-1234 x 101) before 7:30 a.m.