Shop the Franklin Spirit Wear store and show your school pride!  New designs include pastel tie dye tee, digital camo performance shirt, and winter hats.  The store is OPEN now and will close at Midnight tonight, Oct 2 .  Orders will be available for pick up at Thompson’s in about 3 weeks.  Go Falcons!     http://www.thompsonsportinggoods.net/team-store/franklin-school-2016-17/    

We have two people who have stepped up to help lead the Franklin Fair-thank you! Now we just need a team of people to hang (work) together on the Silent Auction. The more the merrier! It is not as daunting of a task as it seems; it is manageable and we will support you. So grab two friends, email me your interest smccraith@hotmail.com and help make the Franklin Fair the success it always has been! 

Thank you to everyone who came to our 1st (hopefully annual) Welcome Back BBQ!  The weather was perfect as students, parents and teachers/faculty enjoyed Towne Deli BBQ fixings (YUM!) , music and entertainment by World of Rock and the ever famous Dunk Tank.  Paul Fes Rocked out and kept the students entertained with hoola hoops, jump rope and many favorite dance songs.  Our fearless PTO President, Sheila Cheney, spent the better part of the evening getting dunked over and over again.  Kudos to Ms. Schwarzenbeck for volunteering too – kids ran from all corners of the field as she took up her position in the tank.  Big thanks again to all!

Next weekend is National Custodian Day. If you see Rodrigo or any of his team members this week, please take a moment to thank them! They all do a lot for Franklin behind the scenes to help it run smoothly, to keep it safe for our kids, and to make it even more beautiful. 

Help Franklin Earn Money with Box Tops! All Box Tops are due by end of day on Friday, October 21, 2016! The class who submits the most, wins a ***PIZZA PARTY! *** Remember…. *CLEARLY LABEL your baggie/collection sheet with your child’s teacher/class! *Clip Carefully: the expiration date and product code MUST be visible. *Make sure they are NOT EXPIRED! They don’t count if they are! *Separate Bonus Coupons from regular Boxtops. Please don’t tape Bonus coupons to collection sheets. Use a paperclip, or just put in a baggie. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR HELPING US COLLECT FREE MONEY FOR FRANKLIN! Email me anytime with questions! Donna Patel dgp212@gmail.com

On the evening of January 5, 2017, at 7:00 p.m. Lawton C. Johnson Summit Middle School will host a special Principal’s Coffee where we will invite parents of students in grades 4-8.  Our guest presenter for this Coffee will be Sgt. Tom Rich.  Sgt. Rich is a long time member of the Summit Police Department and also co-creator of the program, STOPit, which deals with social networks, texting, sexting, cyberbullying and other technology-related issues.   

We’ll review procedures and a lesson plan for an artist.  Great training for parents who are new volunteers for art in the classroom! See you Friday, September 30th, at 8:30 am in the Cafeteria.

Here are student opportunites in FLIC in the mornings! Monday Mornings in The Space: Create and Problem Solve The Space is a part of our library where all learners are invited to create, solve problems, dream. Each month there are challenges available at the end of their library period. Monday mornings The Space is open for different activities. Some activities your child must be signed up in order to participate and some activities your child can just show up. On Monday, October 10th everyone is welcome to join us to create a bookmark. Tuesday Mornings in FLIC: Library Pages Grades 3-5 What is a Library Page? It is someone who wants to do one or more of the following: adopt a shelf in FLIC to take care of it, help write a weekly school tweet, assist in preparing for special school events that involve the library (author visits, Read Across America Day, and so on), create book reviews to get other children excited about reading. Library Pages will meet on Tuesday mornings in FLIC from 7:45 AM to 8:15 AM. It is not a club so attendance is not mandatory. If your child would like to participate we will begin […]

We have successfully made it through a full week of school! Yeah to us! Thank you to our “Back to School Popsicle People:” Susan Huffman, Vandana Rajiv, Suja Natarajan, Bulbul Bhattachanya, Paola Penarete, Line Barlow and Melissa Cooper, who braved the wicked heat to make the first day extra special for our kids. It was a pleasure seeing many of you at the 1st General PTO Meeting on the 2nd day of school. If you missed it, you can find the notes here: (insert link.) Also, you can always find up-to-date PTO news here and on our PTO Bulletin Board, outside the main office in the hallway. Thanks Michelle Goin for decorating it just in time for Back-to-School Night and thanks to all the Class Parents for making BTS Night go off without a hitch! The school year has started off strong and full of positive energy; an indicator of a great year to come! As always, please contact me (smccraith@hotmail.com) or anyone of the board with questions, suggestions, or concerns!

The fair is our biggest fundraiser…but it won’t be fun or a raiser of funds without you! We need 6 volunteers to help get the ball rolling on the fair. You need not be intimidated as we have broken the fair down into manageable size leadership positions, all of which work together as a team: general logistics (2), silent auction (2), children’s raffle (1), and games(1)! And, our former chairpeople as well as the PTO Executive Board are here to support you and help you. Email Betsy at elizabethflaim@yahoo.com sharing that you are ready to support Franklin in a fun way or email Rachel Callahan at rachelrcallahan@verizon.net with questions. 

The weekend of February 10th, 2017 is going to be fun-filled and having us all laughing as we watch our 4th & 5th graders amaze us on stage in an OGRE-sized way! “I am a Believer” that it will be a “Big, Bright Beautiful World” at Franklin this winter as we bring “SHREK JR” to life! With a large cast and a fun song list with some great lessons (eh, hem, like being a “Morning Person” which maybe will help get our kids to school easier?!) this year’s musical is going to be fantastic! Come to our first informational meeting, Wednesday, September 28th at 8:45 in the Franklin Cafeteria to learn about the Producer/Director and team we have hired as well as to learn about all of the opportunities for children and parents. Questions? Email Sheila at smccraith@hotmail.com

Franklin is participating in the Box Tops for Education program again this school year. Please clip the Box Tops coupons from any participating products you have purchased and send them to school in a plastic baggie in your child’s backpack. (Box Tops appear on a variety of products, including Kleenex tissues, General Mills cereals, Ziploc bags, and hundreds of others.) Franklin earns 10¢ for each Box Top redeemed. (Please make sure that the Box Top is intact. Both the product code and still-valid expiration date must be visible for the Box Top to count.) We collect Box Tops throughout the school year and offer rewards to the class that submits the most. The PTO will be rewarding the class that collects the most Box Tops this Fall with a pizza party. Please include the teacher’s name/class with the Box Tops so that we can keep track of the totals. Please send in your Box Tops by Friday, October 21, to be counted toward the class pizza party. Feel free to contact Donna Patel (dgp212@gmail.com) with questions.  Click here for a Collection Sheet- Box Top Collection Sheet

Please join the PTO and help us continue to bring enriching programs to our children.  Click on the PTO icon to the right under Important Links and join today!

Art in the Classroom signups are live! Click here to sign up: http://franklinparents.com/pto-programs/art-in-the-classroom/art-in-the-classroom-sign-up-sheets/  One or two parents can present at a time so feel free to sign-up with another parent in your child’s class. Please note that this year, in an effort to optimize maximize classroom curriculum time, our goal is to have Art in Classroom on days listed in Sign-up Genius (Fridays, Single Session Days, Day before Holiday) and on any Professional days.  Please ask teacher  for Professional days as they vary.  

This past spring Ms. Stochaj entered the Teacher Rocks Sweepstakes sponsored by Little, Brown and Company. She won a visit from author/ illustrator Todd Parr! He will be meeting students in grades 1 to 3 on Monday, October 24th. You can order books to be signed by Todd. Order forms will be sent home on Monday OR you can get a copy here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1I7KORgYqW9Io9PEd590mjEc_nE3hjeiLE9EoSyHs94I/edit?usp=sharing The forms are due back to school on Monday, September 26th. One of the books you can order, Be Who You Are, will not be released until after his visit but our school will get it early. That is so exciting. Check out his website: http://toddparr.com/todd/ Thanks to our very generous PTO everyone at Franklin School will get to meet New Jersey author, Audrey Vernick, on Friday, November 4th. She writes both fiction and nonfiction books. In her presentations she will focus on where she finds a story. Audrey will also be signing her books. Order forms will be sent home on Monday OR you can get a copy here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vxu8mApVuqmh74fnGvbyPVk7lP-T6Wzgj9WyCMaQIrE/edit?usp=sharing The forms are due back at school on Monday, September 26th. Check out her website: http://www.audreyvernick.com/