Cornelia F. Bradford School PS16 Newsletter

December 24th, 2021

Each morning our students begin their day with words of wisdom from our principal. In this special holiday edition of our newsletter we share the words heard by our students a few weeks ago as we began the holiday season.

'A mosaic is a beautiful design made up of many, many small pieces of colored glass or stone. Have you seen one? Little pieces are carefully placed side by side until together they make a beautiful work of art. Former President Jimmy Carter believes that Americans, living side by side, form a beautiful mosaic of human beings. He said;

"We are not a melting pot, but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams."

In other words, one thing that makes America so beautiful is that Americans come in so many different colors, shapes, sizes, and religions. Today, think about the beautiful mosaic of human beings living in America.'

At PS16 we pride ourselves on the diversity of our school community. Our children are encouraged to share their traditions and cultures with their classmates. We welcome the opportunity to celebrate all holidays. On behalf of the CPA of PS16 we wish you all a happy, healthy and safe holiday season!

Thanksgiving is always a special time at PS16. This year we were still able to have our Thanksgiving parties in class. Turkeys were cleverly disguised! Our students all worked together to create special 'Thankful Projects' for their teachers. Fifth grade enjoyed the traditional "feast" thanks to their class parents, teachers and Mrs. Watkins Williams. It is extra important that our eldest students are able to fully participate in all their "lasts" at PS16. We hope they all enjoyed their last Thanksgiving at PS16.

Aaliya Vakharhar (Room 103; Mrs. Gauch) wrote that Thanksgiving "reminds me of Diwali because we show gratitude to God, friends and family." Fellow classmate Chloe Chen shared that Thanksgiving reminds her of "spending time with my family while eating turkey." Celine Lee believes that Thanksgiving reminds her of "Christmas because we celebrate it with food and family"

Thanks to the generous support of our parents we were able to host a Thanksgiving luncheon for our staff in both buildings. While we did have to follow Covid protocols and maintain social distancing, it was still great to provide a small token of our appreciation to our wonderful staff. A special thank you to Candace Perry, from Skyline Sweets, for the delicious desserts!

Thanksgiving would not be complete without a parade! The boys and girls at the Annex made this Thanksgiving perfect by participating in the first annual PS16 Thanksgiving Parade. The balloons on display were on par with those used by Macy's! Thank you Annex teachers for bringing joy to our students and adding another PS16 tradition for years to come.

Room 209 Kindergarten students from Ms. Nicholas and Mrs. Tapias class have been busy practicing their handwriting by writing letters to Santa Claus. This week they bundled up and went on a neighborhood field trip to mail their letters to the North Pole...just in time for the big day! We are positive that Santa Claus is just as proud of our young students as we are!

Congratulations to all our boys and girls on their amazing performance in our spelling bee. We commend each and every one of you for participating in this years spelling bee and are looking forward to recognizing your achievements in February at our award ceremony.

Third, fourth and fifth grade students with a perfect score advanced to their classroom championship. Much appreciation to our teachers for giving these students the opportunity to participate in a traditional style spelling bee! We are extremely proud of our students for all their efforts. Many of our classrooms exhausted the extensive official Scripps Spelling Bee word lists in the quest to declare a class champion.

Congratulations to the following students who advanced to our school wide Spelling bee;

• Grade 3, Room 201: Winner - Allison Gu & Runner Up - Kevin Zhou

• Grade 3, Room 202: Winner - Dhanvi Shah & Runner Up - Olivia Generao

• Grade 3, Room 203: Winner - Renee Bhatia & Runner Up - Arshia Giulati

• Grade 3, Room 204: Winner - Neha Arunkumar & Runner Up - Amara Sajid

• Grade 4, Room 308: Winner - Eva Verma & Runner Up - Vihaan Khandelwal

• Grade 4, Room 307: Winner - Aarushi Raju & Runner Up- Aarush Garg

• Grade 4, Room 306: Winner - Kashika Gupta & Runner Up - Anya Birla

• Grade 5, Room 303: Winner - Vedant Hamirwasia & Runner Up - Advita Bhatia

• Grade 5, Room 304: Winner - Avani Musale & Runner Up - Urja Patankar

• Grade 5, Room 302: Winner - Abhay Krishnakumar & Runner Up - Rishav Kothawala

Without financial assistance from our parents , the CPA of PS16 would be unable to provide opportunities like the Spelling Bee to our students. We thank you for continuing to support our students. Pledges for students who participated in the Spelling Bee can be made via this link: Spelling Bee Pledges

20 of our students competed in the final rounds of our school spelling bee championships. These students had already battled their way through their classroom spell off to make it to this point. Going into this final round they all knew that the words they would be expected to spell would be challenging and would consist of words they had never seen before. Every great spelling bee begins with studied words from provided lists but they always end with words that haven't been studied. We are proud to say that each one of our students more than met the challenge and exceeded all expectations. We thank Mrs. Hennessey, Ms. C Nolan and Mrs. Bigger for all their time and effort in helping make the spelling bee a success. It was a long day, for our officiators and our students! We are proud of you all.

Congratulations to our 2021 PS16 Spelling Bee Champion, 5th grader Vedant Hamirwasia ((Room 303)! We wish you much luck as your move on to represent PS16 at the Hudson County Spelling Bee. We also congratulate 2nd place winner, 4th grader (Room 307) Eva Verma, and 3rd place winner, 4th grader Aarush Garg (Room 308) !

Thank you to Levi Mittman from Mrs. Gauchs 2nd grade class for sharing his book report on Chanukkah. We hope all our PS16 familes who celebrate had a joyful and peaceful Hanukkah.

We are resharing the writings of now fourth grader, Elijah Turtel, on the meaning of Hanukkah.

"Hanukkah, or Chanukah, may not be the most holy holiday of Jewish religion, but lots of kids from Jewish families look forward to it.

Chanukah honors the victory against the wicked King Antiochus’s army to worship in freedom. It is called the festival of lights and is observed for eight nights because it celebrates a miracle that a small amount of oil kept a light on for eight days.

Jewish families gather together and have fun. Each night at sundown, they light candles on a menorah. Then, they sing prayers and eat a meal that includes delicious potato pancakes called latkes. After that, kids open presents. Each child opens one present per night. Finally, kids play games with spinners called dreidels and eat coin-shaped chocolates called gelt.

People celebrate Chanukah respecting the religion or just enjoying a fun and interesting holiday."

Much appreciation to all our sponsors for supporting our Holiday Sing Along and Tree Lighting event. Our sponsors are all PS16 parents and we proudly endorse their small businesses in our community.

Shehnaaz Dance Academy (SDA) is a New Jersey based Performing Arts & Cultural School, born out of our love for teaching and a passion for dance. SDA offers a variety of Indian & fusion dance classes, Indian Classical music instruction as well as Cultural Exploration classes. Our mission is to instill a love of dance, inspire self-confidence, discipline, harmony and respect for the arts and all culture. We create a nurturing and accepting environment to allow students to blossom and discover their passion for the arts.
SDA's Spring 2022 Schedule and our Spring 2022 Class Offerings can be found here!

At Taurus Financial we pride ourselves on providing industry leading financial knowledge for our clients while maintaining a trusted devoted relationship with every person we serve. Located right across from PS16 our partners have extensive Wall street experience and are amongst the top in their field. More details can be found on www.Taurus-Fin.com. To schedule a consult call 201-500-6322

Located in the heart of Jersey City, Brighter Bee Academy is only within 15-minute walking distance from P.S. 16. We offer both in-person and online classes throughout the week. Classes are Offerings: Math Olympiad, Chess, English writing, Drama, Art, Piano, Cello, Vocal, etc.

Enrollment is on a rolling basis. We welcome you to join our community at any time.

Congratulations to fifth grader Haley Roca and fourth grader Siya Khandelwal for being selected as "Top 25" in the annual PATH Holiday Poster Contest. Their winning designs are currently on display at Journal Square Transportation Center. Thank you Ms. Gordon!

Thank you to Mila Dadlani from Mrs. Gauchs 2nd grade class for sharing their book report on Kwanzaa. We hope all our PS16 familes who celebrate have a joyful and peaceful Kwanzaa.

Special shout out to our CPA kids, Dylan Park and Haley Roca, for braving the cold mornings to assist your moms with the holiday merchandise sales. You guys rock!!

This school year we have been trying to continue with our weekly CPA hour on Tuesdays between 9am and 10am. Weather permitting we have been outside the main building to address your concerns and assist with uniform purchases. We are putting a pause on outdoor CPA hour at this time. We are always available via email and are open to meeting up at one of our local coffee stores!

The district calendar for the school year can be found here.

At this time both gates to Paulus Hook Park remain unlocked during the school day. Our staff are being extremely vigilant while overseeing outdoor recess. However we also need parent cooperation during drop off and dismissal times. Please close the Grand Street gate when you enter and exit. We ask that you allow our teachers to safely assemble our children at dismissal and refrain from permitting younger siblings to use the equipment until our security guard (assisted by CPA volunteers) opens the Washington Street gate at 2:45pm. Our students safety is always our number one priority. We must work together to ensure this.

Please also note that a Jersey City ordinance (Ord. No. 16-167) prohibits ALL dogs, whether leashed or unleashed, from Paulus Hook Park.

Birthday Wishes to our staff members who are celebrating this week and who have recently celebrated

• Ms. Assatou Barry - December 15th

• Mrs. Tiffany Kane - December 18th

• Ms. Dana Damato - December 23rd

• Ms. Kelly Nicholas - January 6th

The CPA Executive Team for 2021-22:

President - Leanne Kerr

1st Vice President - Shweta Bhatia

2nd Vice President - Jackie Cox

Secretary - Angela Park

Recording Secretary - Maeghan Robertson

Treasurer - Priya Rasquinha

Ass. Treasurer - Didi Roca

Please support Concerned Parents Association of PS16, a 501(c)(3) organization, through your Amazon account. Login to Amazon Smile, link your account and select “CPA of Ps16 - Cornelia F Bradford” as your charitable organization. Through Amazon Smile, 0.5% of every purchase will be donated to CPA of PS16.

**UPDATE** You can now participate in Amazon Smile through the Amazon App on your phone! Update to the latest version of the Amazon Shopping app on your phone. Under 'Settings' tap on 'AmazonSmile" and follow the onscreen instructions.

Boxtops for Education is online now! Download the Box Tops app, find your school as “Cornelia Bradford Elementary 16”. After you shop, simply scan your store receipts to find participating products.The app will automatically credit your school's Box Tops earnings online.

Useful Links

• CPA of PS16
• Infinite Campus
• JCBOE Calendar
• My School Bucks
• STARS & CASPER