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The Arbor Times
Arbor Intermediate School’s Monthly Newsletter
Janelle D. Williams, Principal
Dion Patterson, Assistant Principal
A message from the Principal
As we enter the month
of November, we
embark upon the end of
the first marking period.
Many students have
worked hard to earn
grades which display
the learning of new
information and
excellent teaching by
the Arbor staff. Please
remember that report
cards are no longer sent
home in hard copy form
but are only available
via the Genesis Online
Parent Portal. If you
have not signed up for
the portal, please do so
as soon as possible.
Conference time is
also upon us. This is a
wonderful opportunity
to meet with your
child’s teacher to
discuss their report
card, set learning goals
for the remainder of
the year, and develop
a relationship that will
foster learning
throughout the school
year. If you have any
difficulty signing up for
conferences, please
contact the school so
that we can provide
you with assistance.
November
2016
The relationship
between teachers and
the families of their
students is vital for the
educational success of
many students. I look
forward to seeing you
at conferences and
throughout the school
year as an integral part
of the teaching and
learning process.
Inside this issue:
Principal’s Message
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PTO Corner
1
Nurse’s Notes
2
Classroom Spotlight
2
Classroom Corner
3
Tidbits & Dates
4
Counselor’s Connections 5
Sincerely,
Janelle Williams
Arbor Principal
P.T.O. Corner
Hello Arbor
Families!
We hope that you
have had a great
year so far and are
ready to jump in and
support the Arbor
PTO! In our section
of the newsletter,
please find dates of
events, meeting
information, and
how you can
support our school
fundraising efforts.
Fall/Winter
Fundraiser
Our CherryDale
Fundraiser is underway!
This fundraiser is a
personal favorite of the
school and PTO with
many items that our
community enjoys.
Please support this
fundraiser as the money
raised will fund various
school activities. The
forms are due back
November 7th, 2016.
Next Big Event:
Our first dance of
the school year will
be held on Friday,
December 2nd,
2016. Arbor School
dances are a great
way for students to
mingle and have fun
right here at the
school. Please save
this date and we
look forward to
seeing you!!
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Nurse’s Notes
Coats, jackets, sweaters, hats, gloves!
As we come upon the cooler fall months please make sure your child is dressed
appropriately for the weather. It is better to send your child to school with warmer
clothing that can be removed during the day if needed. Students will go outside for
recess as often as possible so please prepare for this. The physical movement and
fresh air is needed to keep them alert and mentally sharp for the day. 
Thank you very much!!
Corinne Fender-School Nurse
Classroom Spotlight
Ms. Garcia Wins a Grant!!
Sandra Garcia, was recently awarded a
grant for a computer-based math program.
ExploreLearning Reflex is an online, gamebased program that helps students build a
fast and effortless recall of math facts. The
program continually monitors student
progress and adapts to each child’s
individual needs, helping them to grow
mathematically overtime. Students use the
program throughout the week in class, at
home, and during their WIN (What I Need)
learning blocks. Ms. Garcia shared that the
students have shown tremendous growth
and have collectively mastered nearly
3,000 math facts!!
Students hard at work using the Reflex Math
online program!
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Classroom Corner
Math
The 4th grade students currently are finishing their unit on
solving multiplication problems using partial products or
regrouping. The students have also completed their “Million
Dollar Math Project”, in which they are given $1 million to
spend with the guidelines of reviewing Place Value, reviewing
Adding & Subtracting, as well building life skills, such as
managing money. The 4th grade students will move into their
division unit where they will be given the task of estimating
quotients using multiples, interpreting remainders, dividing
using the distributive property, repeated subtraction, & partial quotients. The “Division” project for
this unit will require students illustrate three ways to divide using the methods of partial products,
long division, distributive property, or repeated subtraction.
The 5th grade students recently finished their division unit where they were given the task of
estimating quotients using multiples, interpreting remainders, dividing using the distributive property,
repeated subtraction, & partial quotients. The students also completed their “Division Project” for
this unit, which required them to illustrate three ways to divide using the methods of partial products,
long division, distributive property, or repeated subtraction. The 5th grade students will move into
their decimal unit, where they will be asked the task of reading and writing decimals through the
thousandths, rounding decimals to any place, adding & subtracting decimals using all strategies,
and making reasonable estimates of sums and differences.
Language Arts
In writing, the 4th grade students currently have finished their fictional narrative writing
pieces, where they were asked to use plot diagrams that illustrated the exposition, rising
action, climax, falling action, & resolution of their piece of work. As the students move into
their next writing task of opinion writing, teachers are ensuring students understand the
process of using the strategy titled “Boxes & Bullets” which allows students to state their
claim or thesis with valid support and evidence to back up the claim. In reading, the 4th
grade students currently are working on identifying non-fiction text structures, as well as,
touching on text features within a text. Students will be asked, as time progresses, to
elaborate on their write-longs & thinkmarks to increase awareness of character traits within
a story.
The 5th grade students recently finished writing their 1st published piece, which was a personal
narrative. Their task focused on identifying and elaborating on small moments using flashbacks and
other strategies. In the coming weeks, students will move into their unit on Literary Essay. The 5th
grade students recently finished reading in their interpretative book clubs, where they met with their
respective book clubs to discuss characters, themes, & book dynamics of a selected novel.
Students will now move into their non-fiction unit where the focus will be on tackling text complexity
& comprehension.
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Newsletter Tidbits
Are you Involved?
Parental and family involvement makes the job of educating children seamless and comprehensive.
Your support is vital to ensuring success. Become a member of our PTO, volunteer in your child’s
classroom, and attend community events. All of these non-academic factors will aid in an overall
positive school environment.
Emergency Contacts:
Please ensure that any one picking up your child is listed as an emergency contact in
Genesis. We cannot release a student to an unknown individual.
Important Dates
 11/4-Spirit Day! Wear your P-Way Black and Gold
 11/8-No School for Students-Election Day
 11/10-11/11-No School-NJEA Teacher’s Convention
 11/14-Picture Retake Day
 11/18-Afternoon School Conferences
 11/21-11/22-Evening School Conferences
 11/23-Half Day
 11/24-11/25-School Closed-Thanksgiving
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Counselor’s Connections-Mrs. Robyn Rosenthal
November Counseling lessons focus on Marvin Marshall’s Levels of Development in 4th grade and
Positive, Peaceful Communication in 5th.
Dr. Marshall (http://marvinmarshall.com) is an educator who has developed a Hierarchy of
Development that helps students understand how they are behaving, and ways they can improve
themselves so that they will be the best students they can be. The hierarchy is as follows:
LEVEL D – Democracy (INTERNAL motivation) – Shows kindness to others, is responsible,
does the right thing because it is the right thing to do. Doesn’t require outside reinforcement.
(This is the highest level)
LEVEL C – Cooperation/Conformity (EXTERNAL motivation) – Cooperates and does what
is expected when someone else is present in order to receive some sort of reinforcement (praise,
prize, etc.)
LEVEL B – Bothering/Bossing/Bullying (Needs to be bossed to behave.) –Bothers others,
breaks classroom standards and rules (This level is not acceptable)
LEVEL A – Anarchy – Out of control, unsafe/chaotic, breaking rules (This is the lowest level
and is never acceptable)
The 5th graders are learning some rules of positive, peaceful communication so that they can get
their thoughts and feelings across to others without putting them on the defensive. The rules
are:
1 – Use I-Statements not You-Statements – rather than saying, “You are not being nice to me!”
say “I don’t like when you do that.”
2 – Don’t say anyone “makes” you feel anything. Rather than, “You MAKE me mad” say, “I feel
angry when you do that.”
3 – Don’t generalize – Rather than saying, “My sister ALWAYS calls me names!” say, “I really
don’t like when my sister calls me names.” Or rather than, “My teacher NEVER lets me go on
the computer.” Say, “I wish that my teacher would let me go on the computer.”
4- Don’t ask “Why?” - Rather than “Why didn’t you tell me we had homework?” Say, “I really
don’t appreciate that you didn’t tell me about the homework.”
When we choose to use more peaceful, positive forms of communicating, we feel less frustrated
and people are more receptive to our thoughts and feelings.