To improve the golden moment of opportunity and catch the good that is within our reach is the great art of life.

Here at Edison we are privileged to work with a community that provides us with many “golden moment(s) of opportunity” and we will continue to do all we can to be sure that we “catch the good that is within our reach.”

Sincerely,

Cheryl A. O’Brien, Principal and Stewart T. Carey, Assistant Principal
 

PTSO EXECUTIVE BOARD

If you would like to nominate someone or you would like to serve on EIS PTSO Executive Board next year please contact Donna Perch at Dperch@ColdwellBanker.com or (908) 301-0256.

Vice President: 3 year commitment, preferably (1yr VP, 1yr Junior Co-Pres, 1yr Senior Co-Pres)
Treasurer: 2 year commitment

PTSO CALENDAR

GENERAL MEETING DATES
This is a list of the remaining general membership evening meetings fro the 2002-2003 school year. We hope that you can attend. The dates for the meetings are:
 

ATTENTION 8TH GRADERS & PARENTS

The GEPAs will be held on March 10 – 13, 2003 in the morning. As in the past, EIS has provided supervised activities for the students to participate in after lunch. The 8th graders will be going to Rexplex, bowling and rollerskating. The cost per student will be $25 which includes the cost of the activities each day and bus transportation to & from EIS. More information will be provided at a later date.

OKLAHOMA

Our students have been working hard preparing for this year’s production of “Oklahoma.” Performances will be held on March 20, 21 & 22 in the EIS Auditorium. The March 20th performance is a dress rehearsal/elementary student matinee. The student tickets for the matinee are $1 with an accompanying adult’s ticket for $3. Tickets for the evening performances go on sale March 11th in the auditorium lobby. Advanced sale price is $8 or $10 the night of the performance. If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Shapiro at 789-6134.

Please see the attached flyer concerning the Playbill for “Oklahoma”. Please support this event. Ad monies will be going to next year’s Fall and Spring productions.

“Kid-to-Kid” ads will be sold at lunch for $1.00. They will be sold from March 4th – 7th.

DEPARTMENT NOTES

LIBRARY

Did you know that if your family is connected to the Internet your child can do research using Edison’s on-line resources? Just go to our website, www.westfieldnj.com/eis and click on the LIBRARY button. Then scroll down to the link to On-line Resources. Students can access the on-line Encyclopedia Britannica, Facts on File, and magazine articles on EBSCO HOST.


PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Our 3rd marking period will begin with the Self Assessment Testing: pushups, long jump, rope climb/peg board, sit ups, shuttle run.

We then move on to floor hockey, box tennis, basketball, and once a week we have our fitness day (aerobic or strength day). Aerobic day is a circuit routine where students perform activities for 30-45 seconds in each one, then they rotate. Strength day is when we use dynabands, free weights, rope climb activities, pylometric box jumps, jump rope activities, peg board, pull-ups. It is also in a circuit type format where they participate in each one for 3-4 minutes, then they rotate.

SPEECH AND DRAMA

The Drama Club/Forensic Team is currently preparing for the Millburn Middle School Theatre-fest competition. They will be competing in dramatic and comic scenes and monologues.

JOURNALISM

In Journalism this marking period, the new students are currently learning how to write for a newspaper. They just finished writing stories after interviewing fellow classmates. They also took part in a mock press conference to practice their listening and note-taking skills. After their basic writing training, the students will begin researching articles for the next Edison Insider.

SGA

Spirit Week was the first week of February. Spirit Week is an annual event to raise money for the NJASC charity, The Sunshine Foundation. The week before students competed in the Coin War and Links for Charity. Going into Spirit Week, the 6th graders were in the lead in both links and coin war. Mad Rush Days were the 7th and 8th graders’ only opportunity to catch up. Each grade level Spirit Night was well attended as was School-wide Spirit Night.

The results are in:
 

Congratulations to the 8th grade and all EIS students on a job well done!! You truly showed your SCHOOL SPIRIT!!

6TH GRADE

In the 6th grade we’ve had a very educationally exciting new year.

Mrs. Moore’s Language Arts classes are currently reading The Cay. Unit activities include: learning vocabulary in context, applying literary terms learned during our short story unit, and writing statements of theme. The unit also includes a grammar strand, the focus of which is prepositional phrases.

Mrs. Boutsikaris’ Language Arts classes are finishing their analysis of the novel Letters from Rifka. They are completing a writing assignment in conjunction with the novel. The next unit of focus is poetry where students will be introduced to a variety of unfamiliar poetry, complete a reciting and research project, and write their own poetry.

Mr. Tirone and Ms. Kirshenbaum report that the Math classes are currently working on perimeter and area of one and two-dimensional figures. They are also calculating surface area and volume of three-dimensional figures. Pythagorean theorem is also discussed.

In Social Studies, Ms. Lester’s classes will be studying ancient Egypt for most of the third marking period. Students will be in the library starting February 10th to research this culture. Mrs. Hedden’s classes are working on the Babylonian and Assyrian Empires. Then they will be studying Egypt.

Mrs. Squillace and Ms. Leparulo are two thirds of the way through the chemistry unit. The students just completed Chapter 5 on solutions and will be working on Chapter 6 studying acids and bases. For additional help on these topics, visit the Science hot links on the Edison homepage (www.westfieldnj.com/eis). The sixth grade science classes will be expressing our sympathy for the loss of the Columbia Space Crew by e-mailing messages to the Condolence Book. The book is to be published and given to the family and friends of the lost crew members

Mrs. White-James has been meeting with each student in the sixth grade individually since the second marking period and is beginning LUNCH WITH MRS. WHITE-JAMES. Spirit week is going great. As of February 6th the sixth grade is ahead in all categories. They are displaying an abundance of “school spirit”. We are very proud of all of our sixth graders.

7TH GRADE - TEAM A

The New Year brings new projects to the 7A team. Mrs. Vezos’ classes just finished writing about their New Year’s resolutions. The goals that the students set for themselves were amazing. We are going to have a team full of responsible, non-nail biting, organized, healthy, well exercised children who spend lots of time studying. Currently, Mrs. Vezos’ classes are working on the novel Lyddie. Students researched child labor and wrote a research paper with the information. Students had to propose a solution to the child labor problem of the world. Maybe Mrs. Vezos’ class will come up with a plan that will work! Mrs. Vezos’ students are also becoming grammar experts. They devote every Friday to practice with the parts of speech. Not only are they learning their grammar, but they are also becoming more responsible at budgeting their time. The grammar day freedom allows students to work at their own pace to accomplish given tasks by the end of the marking period.

The New Year brings out the creative candy makers in Miss Phelan’s classroom. Miss Phelan’s classes just finished a unit on cells. After carefully choosing candy to represent different organelles, the students created edible (kind of!) Jello models of the cells. Miss Phelan’s classroom rivaled Willy Wonka’s factory for most candy in one place! Just recently the students turned plain old boring cells into amazing places of adventure - amusement parks, islands, waterparks and even a cruise. The students created travel brochures to entice visitors to the cellular playlands. Now we are turning our attention to how things move across the cell membrane through diffusion and osmosis. Maybe we’ll determine if sleeping with your book under your pillow really will help you learn through osmosis!

Candy creativity is not the only creative project students have experienced. In Western Cultures, Miss Hogan’s classes just finished class elections for the Roman consul. Student senators created and performed their speeches for their fellow senators. Based on their rhetoric students elected two consuls for the Roman republic in class. Unfortunately, the Roman republic is in critical condition. Students are creating their own illustrated history books to explain why the Roman republic is failing and Civil War in Rome is likely. Luckily, gladiator games at the Colosseum provide a distraction for the Romans. Student’s current work is to investigate women gladiators through a web quest. In February, students will study about Roman emperors, especially Claudius, who played a hand in creating the holiday in honor of St. Valentine.

In Miss Syers’ class, students moved from origami creations to the Sam’s Sandwich Shop Dilemma. Have you ever wondered how many different combinations of sandwiches you can get at a deli? Your child now knows how to find the answer. Students also worked on review for the midterm. The chat room review session was very successful. With the midterm in the past, students are now concentrating on more advanced topics. Some students will be discovering slope through the penny experiment, while others are learning to write equations with the assistance of graphing calculators and the computer program Green Globs.

7TH GRADE – TEAM B

Mrs. Whitehead’s Language Arts students have recently completed a research project. They spent 3 days in the library researching child labor, following the reading of the novel Lyddie by Katherine Paterson. This novel is set mainly in the textile mills of Massachusetts in the mid-1840’s, in the time of the Industrial Revolution. Students were greatly helped by Miss Sheridan who found for them a host of books and materials relevant to the topic of exploitation of children, both then and, sad to say, now.

In Mrs. Pyne’s math classes our online chat review for the seventh grade midterms went well. The students enjoyed studying with each other and asking questions concerning the upcoming exam. Currently, students are working on graphing and writing linear equations. During this unit the students will be using mobile computer lab and graphing calculators. On March 6th, there will be Math Night at Edison. We are looking forward to seeing our students and their parents enjoying mathematical activities.

In Western Cultures, Mr. Martin’s classes will continue to learn about the Roman Empire, including the artistic, architectural, literary, and historic contributions the Romans made to western culture. We will then study the rise of Christianity and the decline and fall of Rome. Towards the middle of the marking period we will be studying the Byzantine Empire and the Rise of Islam.

An upcoming event for all grade levels to share the “science experience” at Edison is “Celebrate Science” on Wednesday, April 30, 2003 in the Science wing of Edison Intermediate School. This program will run from 7:00 PM until 8:00 PM.

8TH GRADE – TEAM A

In 8th grade Language Arts this marking period, Ms. O’Brien’s students are currently reading Romeo and Juliet. They have created Shakespeare magazines, acted out scenes from the play, and translated Shakespeare’s language. They have also been working on GEPA preparation for their assessment in March.

In Ms. Eckes’ class, students are reading George Orwell’s Animal Farm. They recently completed research and presentations on the Russian Revolution as background for their reading. They are also working on preparing for the GEPA.

Also, both Language Arts teachers will be working with Mrs. Hutchinson on the third marking period project for the Jacksonian Period. Each student is responsible for handing in his/her assignment in both Language Arts and History. This project is called “A Journey Through Time.”

In U.S. History the class has just completed the unit on “Our Nation Takes Shape.” The students have been studying The New Republic. On February 24th and 25th, the 8th graders will be working on their “A Journey Through Time” project.

In Mathematics, the students have just completed the mid-term exams, and are now concentrating on factors.

In Science class the students are studying “Changes in Life & Earth Over Time.” They have learned about the movements of continents and the forces that cause those movements, the fossil record, and the concept of evolution. They reconstructed Pangaea, constructed on a geologic time scale, and a model of magnetic data to support the hypothesis of seafloor spreading. The class has discussed in detail historical impacts, theories of extinction, global climate changes, evolution in its stages, transitional steps of change and what organisms solved what problems so that life could advance. The class is currently working on how natural selection works, including: adaptation and variation, convolution between species, mutations, cellular structure and DNA, predicting heredity, traits and family pedigrees. As a special topic – features of genes, advances in genetics, and cloning.

8TH GRADE – TEAM B

Our team would like to congratulate Carolyn and Katie who won second and third place, respectively, in the Martin Luther King Jr. essay contest. Great job, girls!

Students in Mr. Hild’s Language Arts classes have been busy reading Of Mice and Men. They are also diligently preparing for the GEPA. Mr. Hild and Mr. Stasi assigned a joint Language Arts/History project on the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

In Ms, Somers’ Science class, students are learning all about genetics and heredity. Students have learned how to predict probability, how to make Punnett squares, and the basics of how they inherited their characteristics from their parents. There has been much discussion during this unit.

Ms. Donovan’s periods 1, 4, and 8 have been working on Chapter 10, learning how to add, subtract, and multiply polynomials. They are also factoring polynomials. Solving quadratic equations and completing the square are also being learned. In Ms. Donovan’s period 2 and 6 classes, students are simplifying rational expressions, multiplying and dividing rational expressions, and solving rational expressions.

OKLAHOMA

The practices are underway – Our kids are working hard – Let’s reward them with a personalized message from Mom, Dad, Grandparents and Friends. The school also appreciates business sponsorship as well. See prices below. THANKS!!
 

 Purchaser Name: _________________________________________________________

Purchaser phone number: _________________________________________________________

Ad size: 1 line 1/8th page ¼ page ½page Full page Back Cover

(Please circle one)

Amount enclosed: ____________


TEXT: ________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

PLEASE PRINT CLEARLY

Please remember all checks should be made payable to EIS-PTSO and returned by March 7th.

IF ENCLOSING A BUSINESS CARD OR AD COPY PLEASE DO NOT STAPLE TO FORM

Any questions please call Jean Korn or j.korn@comcast.net
Forms can be mailed to Jean Korn at 1040 Seward Ave, Westfield, N.J. 07090