Smith News

February 1st, 2022

Achieving Excellence One Student at a Time

Ski Club

This past Friday saw the much-anticipated return of Smith School's Ski Club! After a brief hiatus last year, the Ski Club is ready to once again hit the slopes and enjoy some winter fun.

A huge thank you to our wonderful PTO for their hard work & dedication in organizing this year's club, and thank you to our parent volunteers for dedicating their time in order to make these trips a reality!

Mrs. Christine Davis

Supervisor of K-8 Education and Student Welfare

As we start the second half of the school year, it’s a perfect opportunity to take some time to do a mid-year reflection. Reflection isn’t just about going over the things that need improvement. It’s also about identifying and celebrating what has gone well and figuring out how to build upon those areas of strength.

Modeling your own self-reflection for your child is a powerful way to help them to do the same. Simple adjustments like eating well, getting enough exercise and sleep, and setting time aside for family and friends, are examples of small actions that can make a huge difference.

Whether your child needs help remembering to submit assignments or reaching out to their teacher for extra support, now is a great time to brainstorm ideas with your child. Many students are not used to reflecting on their learning in a structured way. Working together with your child to create new routines will help them develop reflective thinking skills, which will help them grow personally and academically.

Celebrating what has worked well so far this school year and thinking about how to build upon those successes to grow stronger will help students and families make necessary adjustments to foster growth and success in the second half of the school year and beyond!

Staff Spotlight- Kristin Mahoney

Hello Smith School families! My name is Kristin Mahoney, and I am the 6th grade special education English teacher. I am a former Ramsey student turned Ramsey teacher. After graduating from Marist College, I worked as a writer for a magazine company. While I enjoyed my time in this field, I realized that teaching was my true passion. I strive to provide my students with the same positive experiences I had at Smith, and I could not be happier to continue to be a part of the Ramsey community. It has been wonderful getting to know everyone so far this year.

In my classroom, we work to explore different English concepts and reflect on how they apply to daily life. When I am not in the classroom, I spend my summers on Long Beach Island. I’m either surfing or enjoying time with my family and dog, Kona!

Exploratory February Highlight

The Exploratory Team finished off a successful first half of the year with some exciting and engaging final projects for their students.

Check out all of the latest & greatest updates from many of our exploratory teachers as they encourage students in their passions!

Ms. Ormaeche, Culinary Arts: "Sixth grade students created cake pops for their 'Nailed It!' challenge!"

Ms. Patterson, Multimedia: "6th grade Multimedia Production students editing their commercials using wevideo.com"

Ms. Hanratty, Mr. Stephenson, & Ms. Sefcik, Instrumental Music: "The 6th grade band rehearses in preparation for the upcoming Dater Elementary visit in the hopes of encouraging the next generation of middle school musicians!

The 5th band/chorus trip to Smith will be held on February 8th." (Above & Below)

Mr. Baeira, Business: "8th grade business tycoons wrapped up the semester with some creative Mall projects! Students were able to create and manage their very own businesses."

Truppi.mp4

Mr. Truppi, Technology Education: "7th Grade Engineers showing of their RUBE GOLDBERG skills. Students demonstrate their understanding for Newton's Laws of motion as they build a chain reaction machine to raise a flag!"

Mr. Ricigliano, Vocal & Digital Music: "Digital Music students submit their final, original compositions for the Semester.

Choral students in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade rehearse for the impending 'Choral Collage' a chorus concert that involves all 5 school choirs of the Ramsey Public School District! The Choral Collage will be held on February 15th at Ramsey High School." (Above & Below)

Ms. Mugno, Visual Art: "Our Smith artists completed their final projects for the semester!

With 6th grade creating 'Fauvism' animals, 7th grade creating still-life portraits, and the 8th grade working on a foil project & 'wire-gesture' sculptures."

Ms. Wilson, Enrichment: "8th Grade Enrichment students celebrating after they solve an escape room designed by their fellow classmates. Collaboration and engineering at work!"

Mr. Kalman, Digital Design: 6th grade students completed their final projects using 'Scratch', 'Play-Craft-Learn', 'Microsoft MakeCode', and 'Micro:bit Edu."

RHS Connection- Ram Jams

The Ramsey High School Accapella team, The Ram Jams, led by Mr. Wolf were named ICHSA (International Championship of High School A Cappella) Quarterfinal Champions and will be moving on to Semifinals later this year. Congratulations to these talented musicians, way to represent our district! A special congratulations to Gerry Alvarez who took home an award for Outstanding Choreography as well!

Click HERE to watch their award-winning performance!

RHS Student Fundraiser

RHS Student Congress is selling sweatshirts for $35 to benefit the "P.S. I Love You, Inc." for mental health awareness. Sweatshirts come in White, Black, and Lavender. Orders are being accepted now until February 4th!

After placing your order, please Venmo @RHSPTSO-1 verification code 9850. Include "PS I Love You" in the notes.

Alternatively, you can drop cash or checks made out to "Ramsey High School" to the RHS Main Office in an envelope marked P.S. I Love You/ Nicole Wohlrab. Orders will not be processed until payment is made!

Order Form Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeJcIq5wwQuzQR6wZ-MP_9D5g7OygkgWXu6iRCklYZ18txZew/viewform

Future Ramsey Graduates at Work

In the Ramsey School District's "Profile of a Ramsey Graduate", the four C's (Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity) are clearly highlighted as key components to a successful education, and Smith School students & staff are incorporating these skills & concepts everyday! Mr. Schrettner works with and provides feedback to individual student projects in 6th grade Social Studies (Above). Mrs. Meyer's 6th grade scientists construct penny towers to facilitate meaning making for center of gravity; students worked together in pairs to creatively problem solve how to most effectively build their tower (Top Left). 7th grade students in Ms. Csengeto's class hone their critical thinking skills as they summarize the key points of lengthy scholarly articles (Left), while Ms. Johnson's 7th grade ELA students have a chance to practice the art of communication as they develop arguments for a civil debate on the topic of bottled water versus tap water (Bottom Left & Below)

Last month, the Physical Education & Wellness department held the 2022 Wellness Week! The whole week was dedicated to showing our student & staff commitment to Wellness of the mind, body, and spirit as each day of the week had a a theme & activities to coincide. Days included 'Thankful Thursday' where students took stock of what they are grateful for, 'Walk n' Roll Wednesday' where students participated in a variety of walking exercise challenges, 'Try it Tuesday' where students were encouraged to try out a new game, sport, or exercise to broaden their horizons, and 'Stress-Free Friday' where students & staff were given a day to dress in their casual & comfortable best! (Above, Right, Below)

The 7th grade French students at Smith celebrated "Jour de l'Epiphanie" on January 6th and each class crowned a King/Queen for the day.

We added to this excitement as each student received a handwritten letter from their pen-pals in France! (Below, Right, Bottom Right)

Smith School Shows our Love of Learning!

Rehearsals for our Spring musical production of Cinderella are in full swing! Students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade have been meeting daily after school to run lines, try on costume pieces, learn music, learn choreography, all in preparation for our weekend of shows in early March! (Above, Top Right, Right, Below)

How do values affect the decisions people make?

Sixth graders in Ms. Young's class analyze tough questions as they reflect on the Holocaust and events of the Civil Rights Movement (Left & Right)

The 2021-2022 Smith Wrestling Team led by Mr. Romeo has had a successful season thus far, with students taking home wins for Ramsey against Bergenfield Middle School and Roy Brown Middle School. Way to go, Rams! (Above, Left, Far Left Top & Bottom)

Smith School Environmental Club has started their composting project. They are collecting compostable food scraps from the culinary arts classes every Wednesday! (Above, Top Right)

Students participate in a Valentines craft project during Wellness Wednesday! (Below, Bottom Right)

Health Information from Our Smith School Nurse

If you have specific questions, contact Laura Spiegelman

Phone: 201-785-2314

Email: lspiegelman@ramsey.k12.nj.us

Ramsey School District COVID-19 RESOURCES & FAQ's: https://sites.google.com/ramsey.k12.nj.us/restart/home

**Reminder Parents/Guardians: report your child's confirmed or suspected COVID case to the Smith School's health office (201-785-2314) to allow for reporting to local health officials and to perform contact tracing procedures.**

COVID-19 Testing Options

Safe2School Diagnostics- Location- Old BOE Office, 266 Main St., Ramsey. An appointment is required, no walk-ins. Click here to view available time slots and schedule an appointment.
COVID-19 screening tests at locations across New Jersey can be found on the NJ COVID-19 Dashboard. Enter your zip code in the "Find Near Me" box. Be sure to note if the location requires an appointment.

American Heart Month Toolkits 2022

https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/american_heart_month.htm

Key NJDOH Updates: COVID exposures for children over age 12 & booster shots

Exposed close contacts who have no COVID-19 compatible symptoms in the following groups should be excluded from school:

• Age 12 or older who completed the primary series of a recommended COVID-19 vaccine but have not received a recommended booster shot when eligible.

• Persons who are not fully vaccinated.

Exposed close contacts who have no COVID-19 symptoms in the following groups do not need to be excluded from school:

• Age 12 or older and have received all recommended vaccine doses, including boosters and additional primary shots for some immunocompromised people.

• Age 5-11 years and completed the primary series of COVID-19 vaccines.

• Had confirmed COVID-19 within the last 90 days (tested positive using a viral test).

Click HERE for this month's book choices.

Click HERE for the interest form and schedule of meetings for the school year.

Click HERE to contact Ms. Kelly if you have any further questions.

Parent Book Club

The theme for our February meeting will be: 2021 Award Winners! All three book choices will be Young Adult books that won literary awards this past year.

Our next meeting will be February 16th in the Smith library at 9:15 AM and will last about one hour.

The books and descriptions can be found by clicking here for the Smith Library Media site.

If you are interested and have not already signed up, please complete this form, print, & have your student submit it to the library media center, OR you can complete the form and email it directly to our library media specialist, Ms. Kelly.

Happy Reading :)