Dear Craig Families,
Last Friday we commemorated Read Across America Day and Dr. Seuss’s birthday. By honoring Read Across America it reminds all of us of the importance of reading. Dr. Seuss and his books still bring out the child in all of us, and gives us an excuse to embrace our passion for reading and celebrate the day.
We began the morning with an incredible breakfast provided by PACs. Breakfast included green eggs and ham, rainbow bagels, muffins, and of course One fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish jello jigglers. It was so nice to have a team of parent volunteers in person, giving us that sense of community we desperately crave. Thank you, parents, for your support, and thank you Amanda Jahn for your menu.
The celebration continued in all of the classrooms, as Dr. Seuss has had a wonderful impact on everyone. In Science, the students created campaign posters to “Save the ….”, modeled after the famous character The Lorax and his campaign to “Save the Trees”. Lower School Social Studies highlighted all the places we go in the fashion of “All the places You’ll Go” and Middle School Social Studies centered on World War II with connections from “Horton Hears a Who”. The math department participated in an estimation activity where students guessed how many swedish fish were in the fishbowl, relating to one of our all time favorite books, “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” and everyone got a chance to play Dr. Seuss Math Jeopardy. In Language Arts students practiced their Visualizing and Verbalizing strategies by taking a picture from a Dr. Seuss book and creating their own story using their V&V cue words. Reading classes made connections between a few of the Dr. Seuss books such as “The Sneetches and Yertle the Turtle to other books they had most recently read in class. Other reading classes just enjoyed reading aloud from some of their favorite Dr. Seuss stories.
While the classroom activities continued, students were rotated to the gym for Minute to Win It games. The Peer Leaders were completely in charge and developed 9 stations with creative activities centered around Dr. Seuss’s books. The students competed in games such as Horton Hears a Who Clover Over game, Hunches in Bunches Tallest Tower, I Can Read with my Eyes Shut, Face the Cookie and so many more. The leaders did a beautiful job explaining the challenge and cheering on the students. There was such positive energy and enthusiasm.
Our day culminated with the entire school participating in Drop Everything and Read. Read Across America Day gave us an ideal time to embrace a school-wide reading event which we all truly cherished. As a wise man once said, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
Sincerely,
Janet Cozine
March 9-11, 2022 (Wed-Fri) - 12:00 Dismissal [Parent Teacher Conferences]
March 16, 2022 ( Wed) - College Counseling Webinar
March 18, 2022 (Fri) - 12:00 Dismissal [Parent Teacher Conferences]
March 24, 2022 (Thur) - STEM Night [Virtual Event - 7:00 pm]
April 1, 2022 (Fri) - 12:00 Dismissal
April 11-15, 2022 (Mon-Fri) - School Closed [Spring Break]
April 18, 2022 (Mon) - Classes Resume
COLLEGE WEBINAR
Please join Dr. Mary Herbert, along with Lindsey Skerker, Director of College Counseling and Placement at The Craig School, and Dr. Loftin we navigate expectations for accommodations and the services available to our students in a postsecondary setting. This webinar will be full of valuable information and is not to be missed. Register for your spot on Zoom!
LEADERSHIP
On Friday, March 5 the Leadership Council set up nine stations in the gymnasium for our Dr. Seuss Minute to Win it Challenge. Each station had a challenge based on a Dr. Seuss book. We had five groups of students in half hour intervals move through the challenges. Leaders were responsible for explaining the challenge, cheering on the participants and then filling out the score sheets. The student in grades 2-5 with the highest score and the student in 6th grade that earned the highest score will have lunch delivered from a local restaurant. After tallying up the scores, we have the winners. Riley and Maya congratulations to both of you!
Leaders are currently working on creating the student lounge, spirit days, plant sale and teacher appreciation.
Laura Given - Leadership advisor
LIBRARY
We have quite a number of overdue books, 83 to be exact! Please look around your home to see if you have any Craig library books to return. The last time I put out this request 50 were returned that week! I am hopeful I will have the same result this time. The library typically has 100 books that are taken out weekly. It is gratifying to see the library has become an integral component to our school. In less than a decade we have grown to a collection of over 5,000 books that support our curriculum and students' independent reading interests.
Laura Given - librarian
PACS
Hello Badger Parents!
Your PACS Board wants to give a huge THANK YOU to the parent volunteers who were an integral part of making our Dr. Seuss / Read Across America celebrations such a wonderful success. On Thursday we had 2 sets of volunteers. In the morning, we had high school parents in our high school kitchen making and decorating cookies, making truffula tree treats, dying green eggs and making cat faces on marshmallows that we used to make cat in the hat treats on Friday. While in the afternoon, our lower school parents decorated the Wilson cafeteria and helped with jello jiggler treats. On Friday morning, we had a team of parents at the lower school serving our Dr. Seuss breakfast which included rainbow bagels, waffles, muffins, jello jigglers, green eggs and ham, orange juice and milk. We also served gluten free waffles, donuts and pop ems to our gluten free students with the help of knowledgeable parent volunteers. Friday afternoon, our volunteers served the high school students the treats we made the day before - cookies and truffula treats, as well as rainbow bagels, green eggs and ham, cat in the hat strawberry & banana treats and jello jigglers. Our students truly enjoyed these celebrations and our parent volunteers enjoyed being back in the school interacting with the student community. Thank you again to the volunteers and we look forward to presenting more opportunities for parents to get involved.
View our photo gallery!
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.
FAMILY STEM NIGHT
March 24th: Virtual event starting at 7:00pm. Be on the lookout for sign-up information from your child’s science teacher next week.
HIGH SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT
The Craig School- High School has selected the 2022 Student Council.
Our council members went through a rigorous vetting process that involved application submissions, student interviews, and teacher endorsements. Congratulations!
Boys Basketball
Tuesday March 15, 2022 Team Party From 3:05 to 4:30
Clinic Grades 2-5
Monday March 14, 2022 From 3:05 to 4:00
Bonus Week
Monday March 21, 2022 From 3:05 to 4:00
CLINIC
DUST OFF THOSE GOLF CLUBS AND SUPPORT THE CRAIG SCHOOL!
As the temperatures begin to rise and our desire to be outside increases, consider registering to spend the day on one of the most beautiful golf courses in New Jersey while supporting your favorite school! Registration is now open for our Annual Golf Outing which will occur on Tuesday, June 21st at Ballyowen Golf Club in Hamburg. There are various levels of support including sponsoring a faculty member, joining us for dinner and the auction or sponsoring a tee. Use this link to register: Craig School Golf Outing Registration and learn more about the event at https://www.craigschool.org/giving/annual-events/. 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!
A Walk to Honor Janet M. Cozine
Saturday, May 21, 2022
Thank you for participating in The Janet M. Cozine Fund. We appreciate all of the gifts and messages received from our current families, alumni families, alumni, faculty, and staff. Although we are well on our way towards raising the $265,000, there are still funds to be raised.
Please consider giving by using the donate button on this page.
You can also share our campaign mission with others.
https://www.craigschool.org/giving/janet-m-cozine-auditorium/ on social media, ask your company for a matching gift, or speak to others that may be interested in the Janet M. Cozine Auditorium.
Thank you again for your support of The Craig School.
BADGER HOMEWORK SUPPORT
Dates the Week of March 14th
Monday, March 14th
Wednesday, March 16th
No BHWS Thursday, March 17th - ½ Day Parent-Teacher Conferences
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:
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.
973-334-1234
PACS EVERYDAY!
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!
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
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:
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.
If you have any questions regarding the program, please contact Mary Calvano at mcalvano@craigschool.org.
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.
For more information on ways of giving or to make a donation online you can clicking here.
