Clear communication and connecting with families are two of our top priorities at MLK! The Snapshot is our weekly information newsletter sent every Thursday afternoon. Our hope is that you will be able to use this Snapshot to stay connected with important calendar dates, events, and everything else related to MLK.

MLK Families,

Each year the third week in October is designated School Violence Awareness Week in the state of New Jersey. Much like the Week of Respect earlier this month, this week affords us another opportunity to teach our students about making our school a safe, supportive environment for everyone.

At home, please take some time to discuss the importance of school safety with your children. This can include discussions about being safe at school and online - including reporting anything that may be concerning to a trusted adult. The message that we send to our students is that school safety is no joking matter. Simply put - there is no greater priority at MLK than the safety of our students and staff.

All the best,

Andrew Kehoe, Principal

OCTOBER

Friday, Oct. 17 - PTO Fall Festival

Monday, Oct. 20 - NJ School Violence Awareness Week

Monday, Oct. 20 - No School Students (Diwali / Teacher in-service)

Every Friday is a Spirit Day at MLK! Here are our upcoming themes...

10/17: Diwali Spirit Day - Wear bright colors

Week of 10/20 - School Violence Awareness Themed Days (see chart below)

10/24: Sports Day - Celebrate your favorite sports team with a jersey or a hat, or wear MLK Colors / Spirit Wear

10/31: Halloween - Wear your costume or Black & Orange

Our Fall Festival is shaping up to be a fantastic event. Students are invited to come in their Halloween costumes! This year we will have activities in the cafeteria, a DJ playing spooky tunes for dancing in the gym, a scavenger hunt around the building, and plenty of fun treats at our bake sale!

The flyer below can also be accessed as a PDF attachment to the Snapshot!

This month our 4th grade students will have the opportunity to make a visit to the nearby Cornelius Low House Museum and East Jersey Old Town Village. This trip is a great way for our students to connect with their local community and the many interesting historical events that happened right here in Piscataway.

4th grade parents - Please be on the lookout for a permission slip and more information from your child's teacher as their trip date approaches. You can find our trip dates for each 4th grade room in the calendar above!

You can find more information about this historic site at this link:

Once again we are allowing students to dress up on Friday, October 31st in their Halloween costumes. We look forward to this fun day. Please carefully review our guidelines for dress on this day below!

Please continue to frequently visit our PTO website to look for ways to stay involved.

You can follow this link to check out the site, and find our flyer attached!

You can fill out a repair ticket for your child's iPad at any time! Coming to school with a working device is important. If your child's device has been damaged in any way please use the following link to bring this to the attention of the district IT department.

Our birthday procedures at the Intermediate level have been updated for this school year. Please read carefully before planning any celebrations!

From the Intermediate Student Handbook:

Please see below for an overview of our school-wide Social Emotional Supports at King.

In addition to individual and group counseling, we provide schoolwide support to all students through two initiatives - the Second Step SEL Program and our Pillars of Penguin Pride Positive Behavior Supports (PBIS) Program.

We want your child to be successful in school and that means supporting and encouraging their whole development. While excelling in academic classes is important, children also need skills to take on learning challenges, make good decisions, manage strong emotions, and get along with others.

We utilize resources from the Second Step SEL program, a research-based social-emotional learning program designed to improve children’s social-emotional skills. Second Step skills and concepts are designed to help children both in and out of school. Four units will cover the following:

We also want to continually recognize and celebrate our students. Positive Behavior Supports programs identify desired behaviors and recognize students that practice them around the school.

At King, we have identified a core behavior each month and recognition opportunities to encourage and promote schoolwide positive behaviors. This provides a fun schoolwide way to recognize our students.

Throughout the year we offer "lunch bunches" focused on specific social-emotional needs, individual counseling, and in class lessons along targeted themes for our students. Mr. Kaiafas, our wonderful school counselor, is always here to respond to any student needs. If you feel your child would benefit from any specific programming he can be emailed at nkaiafas@pway.org. You can also call the main office any time if looking for supports for your child.

President - Melissa Lieberman-Elimanco

Vice President - Deepna Javan

Treasurer - Jennifer DeQuattro-Haskin

Secretary - Rachel Sy