CommonGround is a collaborative effort of the Parent Associations of thirteen Princeton area independent schools.

Each year CommonGround sponsors a lecture series featuring distinguished speakers who address contemporary educational and parenting issues.

Check it out here: http://www.princetoncommonground.org

We’ll also put a permanent link in the column on the left!

“Social and Emotional Needs of Gifted Children” is the topic of Susan Edwards, Ph.D., a psychologist with a practice in Pennington and the author of five books, at a parenting workshop Monday, October 22, 2007, at 7 p.m. at Harrington Middle School, 514 Mount Laurel Road, Mount Laurel, Burlington County. This is one of a series of workshops for parents sponsored by the N.J. Association for Gifted Children. Registration is $7 per parent, grandparent, or couple, payable by October 10, 2007, to Western Burlington County Regional and mailed to Elaine Mendelow, Memorial School, 2195 Riverton Road, Cinnaminson, N.J. 08077. For additional information or questions call (856) 786-5310, ext. 82126. Check www.njagc.org for registration forms, updates, and driving directions.

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Rocketeering (Grades 5 and 6)
Work in teams to design and build your own rocket and then launch it with compressed air! This 3 week course demonstrates the basics of aeronautics including learning about thrust, drag, and ballast. We guarantee that you’ll have a BLAST!

3 Sessions – Tuesdays – May 1, 8 and 15 or May 22, 29, and June 5 from 2:50 to 4:00 (late bus available for students who usually take a bus) Cost: $45. Location: Room 205

Jr. Engineering (Grades 3 and 4)
This class is designed to introduce students (both boys and girls) to the fun and exciting world of LEGO® Engineering. Join us as we explore, investigate, and solve problems while we learn about the building blocks of engineering – levers, wheels, gears, and pulleys. Using LEGO® component parts the children will work in teams and learn to build several simple machines. Once we have mastered building we will add a special motor to make our creations “go.” This is a fun, hands-on class exploring how simple machines work together to make things move.

8 Sessions – Thursdays – April 19, 26, May 3, 10, 17, 24, 31, and June 7
from 3:30 to 4:30. Cost: $85. Class size limited to 14 students. Location: Room 224 – Art

Hands-On Robotics–Meet Roamer (Grades 1 and 2)
Meet Roamer, our child friendly robot just waiting to follow your child’s commands. Roamer can turn, draw, measure, do Math and even play music. Children will work in teams to learn how programming and robotics go hand in hand as they write programs and give instructions for Roamer to follow. This is a fun class that introduces Robotics to younger children in an entertaining way!

8 Sessions – Wednesdays – April 18, 25, May 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, and June 6 from 3:30 to 4:30. Cost: $85. Class size limited to 12 students. Location: Cafeteria

*** Click here for Registration Form ***

Science Night Live is coming up on March 9th!

This marks our 4th year of this fun event that includes transforming the cafeteria into a Science Lab with fun hands-on activities and demonstrations for everyone. Last year budding scientists and their parents had an opportunity to learn about how your eye works, play with polymers, get fingerprinted, have a magnetic force go through your hand, and see reptiles, bees and dogs, as well as the amazing rings of Saturn right in the school’s backyard! Each of our stations are manned by adult volunteers, often working with their children.

If you would like to volunteer to help organize SNL, and / or volunteer to man a science station - either something the Committee has put together, or something you would like to do on your own, please contact Donna (dmhuryn@optonline.net) as soon as possible.

Lights, Camera, Action – We Can Make a Movie!
(Grades 1 to 4)

Join us as we learn how to use a digital movie camera to create our own masterpieces. We will do it all – storyboarding, special effects, filming, editing, and downloading to a computer. Watch out Hollywood – here we come!!

8 Sessions – Wednesdays – October 11, 18, 25, November 1, 8, 15, December 6 and 13
from 3:30 to 4:30 (Cost: $85; class size limited to 12 students). The class will take place in the UFRE/MS building. Participants will be notified about the room location prior to the first class.

Click here for registration form

Amusement Park
(Grades 5 and 6)

What could be more fun (and educational) than creating your own Amusement Park? Using the advanced LEGO Mindstorms systems that interact by infrared beam with our computers, students will build and program a bumper car, a merry go round, a tour bus, and a ghost train. Sounds very “amusing”!

8 Sessions - Tuesdays – October 10, 17, 24, November 7, 14, 21, December 5 and 12 from 2:50 to 4:15 (late bus available for students who usually take a bus) (Cost: $120; class size limited to 12 students). The class will take place in the UFRE/MS building. Participants will be notified about the room location prior to the first class.

Click here for registration form

Here are some resources for Summer Family Math Learning for elementary students. Thanks to the website of the school system of the US Defense Department.

Topics covered are Number Sense and Counting, Relationships, Shapes and Patterns, Addition, Substraction, Multiplication, Division, Expressions, Combination Activities, Money, Time, Fractions, Decimals and Percents, Roman Numerals and more!

The Camp Invention program is a nationally acclaimed summer enrichment program that provides quality enrichment in the fields of science, mathematics, history, and the arts. Strengthening the teamwork ethic and building self-confidence, the program is delivered in local schools by local teachers with a 1:8 staff-child ratio. The Camp Invention program cultivates a new appreciation for discovery – it’s learning disguised as fun!

Developed by educators, the program was created by the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation in partnership with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and all curriculum modules align with state and national education standards. This is a chance for children to be creative and messy, take apart gadgets, solve puzzling problems, build their own inventions, meet new friends, and learn about inventors who have changed the world.

CREATE During the week in the Create program, children become automobile engineers in Spills and Chills™, outer space pioneers in Problem Solving on Planet ZAK®, and roller coaster design interns in Imagination Point: Ride Physics™.

Location: Millstone Township Middle School, Monmouth County, NJ
Dates: July 10 to July 14, 2006
Times: 8:30 am to 3:00 pm
Cost: $199/$209 after May 31/Sign up with a buddy and each save $20
Fee includes t-shirt and snacks. Campers must bring their own lunch.
Contact Camp Invention: Phone (800) 968-4332

Here’s information about the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Teacher at Sea program.

By giving working teachers the chance to spend up to a month on board a ship at sea, the program aims to give teachers a clearer insight into our ocean planet and a greater understanding of maritime work and studies, and to foster an interdisciplinary educational experience that provides a unique environment for learning and teaching. And the government pays.

The program is open to currently employed K-16 teachers and the application deadline is February 28.

Some of our readers may find this upcoming presentation in West Windsor interesting:

The PTA of Dutch Neck Elementary School will be having a meeting on Wednesday, February 15, 2006, at 7:30 p.m. in the Media Center. The topic for discussion will be: “Understanding the Gifted and Talented Program and Pressure Students Face in School.” The speakers for this special will be:

Patricia Buell. Ms. Buell is the WW-P K-3 Resource Specialist. She will discuss the district’s Exceptionality Program.

Gabrielle Gill. Ms. Gill is from PEI Kids (www.PEIKIDS.org) and she will talk about the pressures K-3 students face today.

This informative program is open to everyone within the district.

Enrichment Programs
Sponsored by EQUITY/Computer Explorers

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Chess Club – All Grades Welcome

Come join us for a game of chess! For beginners, the basic rules, chessboard layout, names of the various chessmen and their functions, good game openings, middle and end games, and how to keep score will be practiced. For advanced players, take your chess ability to the next level! Learn opening traps and zaps, middle game forks, pins, and skewers, and end game knockouts. And best of all, have a chess game with your classmates!

Mondays – February 6, 13, 27, March 6, 20, 27, April 3, 24, and May 1, 8, 15, 22
Middle School Students 2:50 to 4:15 (late bus will be available to Middle School students who usually take a bus home); Elementary Students 3:30 to 4:15; Rooms 201 & 202 (Cost: $10)

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Spybotics - Secret Agents at Work
Grades 5 and 6

The innovative Lego Systems has designed the ultimate secret agents – awesome spybots that the students build and program. With the remote control Lego spybot and our computerized link to S.M.A.R.T. (secret agent headquarters), the students will be able to plan missions, program their robot vehicle, download the missions and track their scores. Join us on this journey into a world of undercover agents, high tech robots, and secret missions. Let’s go agents…the countdown has begun!

Tuesdays - February 7, 14, 21, 28, March 7, 21, 28, and April 4 from 2:50 to 4:15 (late bus available for students who usually take a bus) Room 214(Cost: $120; class limited to 12 students)

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Junior Engineering
Grades 1 - 4
This class is designed to introduce students (both boys and girls!) to the fun and exciting world of Lego engineering. Guided exploration will be used to teach basic concepts such as levers, pulleys, wheels, gears, and more. We will introduce Lego component parts, work together in teams and learn to build several simple machines. Once we have mastered building, we will add a special motor to make our creations “go.” This is a fun, “hands on” class exploring how simple machines work together to make things move.

Wednesdays February 8, 15, 22 and March 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
from 3:30 to 4:30 in Room 224/Art Room (Cost: $85; class limited to 12 students)

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Registration

1. Register by mail
Complete the registration information below - one form per person. For additional registrations, copy form or use blank sheet. DO NOT SEND CASH. Mail completed form(s) with check or money order payable to UFRSD Community Education to:
UFRSD Community Education Program
Attn: Ed Tranosky, Coordinator
Allentown High School
27 High Street
Allentown, NJ 08501

2. Walk-in Registration
Complete the registration form - one form per person. For additional registrations, copy form or use blank sheet. Take completed registration form to: Allentown High School, Main Office.

3. District Website
Go to the Upper Freehold Regional School District website: www.ufrsd.net and click on link for Community Education. There you will see a listing of classes and also a Registration form to use. You may use the mail, fax, walk in, or email the necessary information. The email address is: tranose@ufrsd.net.

Name:_____________________________________________________________________________

Address:___________________________________________________________________________

Email:_______________________________ Age and Grade (child only):______________________

Phone: (Day)____________________________ (Eve) _____________________________________

Course Title/Day_________________________________________________ Fee: $__________

Course Title/Day_________________________________________________ Fee: $__________

The YWCA of Princeton offers a special program for female gifted poets entitled “Cool Girls”. This program will consist of eight semi-monthly meetings of seven girls (sixth grade and older) who will explore poetry with seven Cool Women, who are collectively teachers and writers, won numerous awards, published many books as individuals, and have written for journals, newspapers, and magazines. Cool Girls is for young women who have demonstrated excellence as poets and who have extraordinary talent. The focus of the Cool Girls is to critique and perform poetry. A nature walk is included and is mandatory. The final event will be a poetry reading by the Cool Girls. Applicants must provide five to ten poems to apply for acceptance to the program.

For more information about this cool program and how to apply, contact the YWCA at 609-497-2100 or email Susan Kubota at skubota@ywcaprinceton.org.

The Princeton Plasma Physics Lab offers a variety of programs that reach out to students, teachers, and the general public. They include research opportunities, teacher workshops, student workshops, public lectures, partnerships with schools and communities, and innovative web sites. There’s a permanent link in the “Resources Section” on the left.