It’s almost time to support the Franklin PTO and Stomp, Chomp & Read! The Franklin School Book Fair is coming at the end of January 2019! Wednesday, January 30 9:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. *Evening hours for parents and children: January 30 6:00-8:00 p.m.* Thursday, January 31 9:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. Be on the lookout for more communications in the new year including… The date and time your child’s class will visit the fair Volunteer sign up genius link for helping with fair set up, fair classroom shifts and fair break down Information on the NEW e-wallet payment option. A new cashless way to make funds (up to a parent-set limit) available to kids. No more scrambling for cash that morning and hoping the cash (and change) arrive safely! We are partnering with Scholastic Books for the first time this year and expect it to be a dyno-mite fair!  

Are you amazed at the amount of plastic bags and overwrap accumulating and going into the trash?  Please help us and the Earth by saving your stretched plastics starting now.  We are partnering with Trex in its Bags to Benches Program.  Franklin will earn a composite bench if we can collect 500 lbs. of stretched plastics in 6 months.  Bins will be set up at Franklin starting at pick up time (3pm) on Monday, Feb. 4.   What are we asking you to collect to recycle?  Stretched plastics include plastic grocery bags, bread bags, case overwrap (from toilet paper, etc.), dry cleaning bags, newspaper sleeves, ice bags, ziploc bags, produce bags, bubble wrap, salt bags, and cereal bags.  All materials must be clean, dry and free of food residue.   We need volunteers to help us with this important initiative.  Please email mwallach1@gmail.com to help out!     More information about the program can be found here:  https://s7d4.scene7.com/is/content/Trex/trex-university-recycling-program-information-sheetpdf.pdf

Bravo to the Kindness Crew—and to your generosity! The team collected 220 toys (surpassing their goal of 200) to deliver to Toys for Tots. A round of applause to Zach Battistella and his family for leading the drive, as well as team members Grace Madden, Lola Masyra, Stella Masyra and Florence Chapman (all pictured here, with Zach) for their efforts.

On Tuesday, Franklin students and staff were treated to a music-filled assembly by the Boston-based a capella group, Ball in the House (ask your kids how they got their name. Hint: The Brady Bunch). After reeling in the audience with their rendition of Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” — using no instruments at all — the quintet of artists taught each group of students the value of Listening, Blending, Tuning and Teamwork. Our kids were bursting with great questions for the guys, who truly loved working with your kids, getting them to “beat box” and work the bass pedal. Check out Franklin’s FB & Insta pages (@franklinelementaryschoolpto) for videos of their performance. Want to know more about Ball in the House? Here’s a link to their YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-JIS99ZYcXOsMXVZB9nt6w Ball in the House Performs at Franklin Elementary School

  Dear Franklin Families & Friends,   On behalf of the entire PTO Executive Board, I hope everyone enjoyed a happy & safe Thanksgiving holiday weekend. We have so many reasons to be grateful this season, mostly that we recognize how lucky we are to be surrounded by so many generous and giving families in our community. This was on full display in the lobby of Franklin these past few weeks…donations of candy, toys and hats and mittens were everywhere in sight! Truly inspiring as we head full swing into the holidays!   I couldn’t be more proud of what our team of dedicated parents has accomplished so far this year, and look forward to the exciting programs we have in store.   We kicked off the year with Welcome Packets for every Franklin family (with round the clock help from the amazing Marta Napoles!), followed up with the always-popular printed School Directory. And of course, Back to School Pops for everyone!   As we welcomed our wonderful new Principal Tierney to Franklin in those first weeks, it was a joy to see so many families and teachers celebrate the school year at the Annual Back to School BBQ & […]

Ms. Stochaj’s FLIC Kindness Crew Candy Drive reached their goal and much more! Over 275 lbs of candy is headed to the troops and their families! Thank you Franklin friends for your generosity. TOP: Maya Tung, Brian O’Neil, and Anna Przbylko are all members of the Kindness Crew who helped to organize the collection. BOTTOM: Janice Tierney, Principal, and Custodians Rodrigo Palomo and Charlie Frank helped to box and weigh all of the candy.

This past Friday, students were treated to a brain challenging, but high energy adventure through the (secret) world of robots. Led by presenter David Jack and his screen “robot” Cozmo, the kids discovered the three characteristics that makes a robot a robot (ask them what they are!) and how robots help humans in real life —  from dirty to dull to dangerous, even in outer space. jobs. PS: the 4th/5th grade group got some homework: research what the letters in  NASA stand for (lots of guesses, no right answers :-). Check out our Facebook & Instagram pages for more photos and videos of the assembly @franklinelementaryschoolpto. A student volunteer David and his robot

Have a Birthday, Student-of-the-Week or other Milestone? Recognize and honor your child – and benefit the library at the same time – with a ‘Remember Me! Book.’ Each book adds to the permanent collection and comes with a personalized bookplate; class-wide, library-time recognition; and your child’s picture on the wall of honor!! Great for birthdays or any milestone celebration!  Kids love it! Get started at Amazon by clicking on this link: FLIC Wish list.  As an added bonus, books purchased through this link will earn money for the Franklin PTO through our Amazon Affiliate program!  Books will be sent through Amazon directly to the school – just remember to use “Gift Options” to write a message for your dedication. Questions?  Want to know more about the program? Contact: Ms. Stochaj (lstochaj@summit.k12.nj.us) or Mrs. Priscu (npriscu@summit.k12.nj.us)  

The drive is going to take place in the front entrance from November 1st to November 2nd! All of your candy will make a soldier’s day! How would you feel getting up on Halloween day without the thought of Trick-or-Treating with your family? We can help make their day! Our Franklin school goal is to collect 450 pieces of candy. Let’s see how we do!  

Dear Franklin Families,   The overarching mission of the PTO is to enrich our children’s experience throughout their years at Franklin in conjunction with the principal and teachers. With that in mind, we are pleased to share that we’ve presented a one-time Teacher’s Book Fund in the amount of $4,200 to Mrs. Tierney. With these funds, each teacher (grade level and specials) will be able to purchase new books for their classrooms or teaching spaces.   We jump (for joy!) at the opportunity to allocate funds towards a tool that benefits our children the most — books. Our hope is this will give our teachers the opportunity and freedom to introduce new books (whether reading or instructional) that help forward their teaching goals – a little extra surprise to kick off the new year!     We hope you agree that this is a worthy endeavor on behalf of the parents for the teachers and their students, and we happily join with Mrs. Tierney to present this Book Fund to Franklin’s amazing teaching staff.   Best regards, The Franklin PTO Board

The BNL flyers in yesterday’s Wednesday folders had the incorrect date and code for Picture Day on them. Please disregard these flyers. NEW flyers with the correct date and code will be sent home with students today (Friday).

New opportunities for students to get involved in FLIC are coming up the first week of October! Please click here for more details: FLIC September 2018