SAGE-Shenendehowa Advocates for
Gifted Education Website
SAGE sponsors Saturday Scholars, a program of mini-courses designed to
provide challenging enrichment opportunities for academically, creatively
and artistically talented children.
Shen
Dollars for Scholars program offers a wide-range of scholarships
including memorial scholarships, additional
scholarships with specific emphases, as well as the general DFS
scholarship. Interested applicants should visit the
website and click on Scholarship Application for specific requirements.
Located in the central part of the district, ArongenElementary School is
one of four
off-campus schools.
. It opened in 1992.
News
Posted on 6/22/09 On June 10th
16 students and one teacher from Arongen donated their hair to Locks of Love.
Locks of Love is a public non-profit organization that provides vacuum fitted
hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children suffering from long-term
medical hair loss from any diagnosis. Locks of Love is a charity where children
directly help other children. The girls at Arongen started growing their hair
last spring. They met once a month to have their pictures taken and to support
one another. At an assembly, in front of the entire school, the girls had their
ponytails cut. Then, local stylists donated their time to style the girls’
hair. The generosity shown by this group of girls will change the lives of other
children. They have inspired other girls at Arongen to start growing their hair
for next years’ event!
Posted on 6/22/09 On Thursday, June 4th, twenty
Arongen students from Mr. McCarthy's fourth grade class met with their twenty
fourth grade pen pals from McKenney Middle School in Canton, New York via Skype
videoconferencing. The students
had been exchanging pen pal letters throughout the school year, and were
excited to "meet" their pen pals across the Internet via the Shenet network
and EIKI video projection system in the Arongen library. The students first
met as a group, then had the opportunity to meet their individual pen pals and
ask each other questions. The project was supported in Canton by 4th grade
classroom teacher Meaghan Sullivan Leonard, who previously served as a student
teacher and substitute teacher at Arongen.
Posted on 6/10/09 A May 22 visit to Arongen
Elementary School from children’s book author Margery Cuyler capped off a month
spent reading the author’s picture books and short novels. Ms Cuyler read from
her stories while the pictures were projected on the big screen. She talked
about her inspirations and how to be a good writer. Students had many questions
for the author, and were delighted with her humorous and affectionate responses. Over several
weeks, librarian Kristen Bruno read historical novel The Battlefield Ghost to
classes assembled in the library. On Author Day students surprised Ms. Cuyler
with their drawings of favorite scenes from that and another favorite, Weird
Wolf. Younger classes heard That’s Good! That’s Bad!, Please Say Please,
Groundhog Stays Up Late and others, throughout the year. Many of Ms. Cuyler’s
books, such as Hurray for Reading Day! and Please Play Safe speak gently to
children about good behavior, fire safety and overcoming fears. The hilarious
book Monster Mess inspired kindergartners’ performance of a dance choreographed
by Mrs. Bruno! After the presentations, Ms. Cuyler cheerfully autographed
dozens of books for her many student and staff fans at Arongen. We would like
to extend a special Thank you! to the Arongen PTA for their efforts in bringing
this wonderful program to our students.
Posted on 5/28/09 In May, all
kindergartenclasses at Arongen went
on a field trip to the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library.
Students participated in story time, got
a tour of the library and approximately
90students received
library cards.
Posted on 5/27/09 Arongen Raises $7,000 to
find a cure for Diabetes!
Each year,
more than 13,000 children are diagosed with type 1 diabetes in the U.S. At
Arongen Elementary, we have 5 students in our school with this disease. The
Arongen Student Council together with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
(JDRF) held a "Kids Walk to Cure Diabetes" fundraiser. JDRF's mission is to find
a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research. The
students at Arongen were asked to sell a "paper sneaker' for $1.00 to raise
money. Our goal was $1,000. Through the remarkable generosity of the Arongen
community,the students were able to raise over $7,000 to support this cause.
During the school day last week, each grade level celebrated their success and
participation with a walk. The JDRF will be presenting the school with a "Gold
Star Banner" because we raised over $5,000. Great job, Arongen!
Posted on 5/22/09
The Shen elementary libraries and the Clifton Park - Halfmoon
Public Library, hosted a "Shel-ebration"
to commemorate the 45th anniversary of Shel Silverstein’s
Don’t
Bump the Glump! The program was designed
for students in second and third
grade and took place at the public library.
The event included games, a raffle, singing, choral reading and an evening of
fun.
Posted 5/20/09
Half-day schedule for June:
Friday, June 12, AM Kind.
attends, no PM Kind.: Arongen K-5
are dismissed at 11:15 a.m.
Friday, June 19, AM Kind.
attends, no PM Kind.: Arongen K-5
are dismissed at 11:15 a.m.
Wednesday, June 24, no Kind.
attends: Arongen gr. 1-5 are dismissed at 11:15 a.m.
Posted on 4/29/09 2009-10 School Supplies
Beginning September 2009, Shenendehowa has prepared
district-wide supply list guidelines for elementary schools.
Click here to view. This
is an effort to regulate the amount of supplies that parents have to
purchase at the beginning of the year.
Posted on 4/24/09 Arongen Elementary's Student
Council held their 2nd annual Earth Day celebration.
The entire school has been
working all week on cleaning up the outside of their school - raking leaves,
weeding, picking up litter, and sweeping the basketball courts. All the
classes made hats out of newspapers for the Earth Day assembly that was held
in the afternoon and learned songs to go with Earth Day. Ms. Tina Palmero,
Chief of the Renewable Energy and Environmental Certification & Compliance
Section of the NYS Department of Public Service did a presentation for the
entire student body on Renewable Energy. The students learned about wind
power, solar power, hydropower, and "CowPower". The day was ended with a
plaque given to Dr.McDonald to be put outside in "Arongen's Natural Learning
Habitat", an outdoor patio classroom that was donated by last year's Student
Council.
Posted on 4/9/09 Mrs. Renzi's class showed team spirit
for Partners in Reading. This class
that has been particularly creative in their enthusiasm
for reading. Students wrote a song to
the tune of "We Will Rock You" by
Queen. Their
version is called "We Will Read A Lot." It was amazing to hear
students play instrumentsand
show their support for reading.They were able
to share their talent by performing for classes on their team and on
morning announcements to show their love for literature.
Their song inspired their team to win for Partners in Reading. Congratulations
Team One! GO here (http://www.shenet.org/arongen/ar_library/ar-lib.htm)
to see the video.
Posted on 4/3/09 Middle school boundary changes - As a result of the need to balance
enrollments across the three middle schools students from the various elementary
schools will be reassigned. The major changes are:
Skano, Shatekon and
approximately half of Arongen 5th graders will go to Koda for sixth grade.
Chango, Karigon and Orenda
5th graders will go to Gowana for sixth grade.
Tesago, Okte and
approximately half of Arongen 5th graders will go to Acadia for sixth grade.
Students currently in middle
school will remain assigned to the same school until they move on to High School
West for 9th grade.
Requests to attend the same
school as a sibling should be sent to the superintendent's office. Students with
specialized programs may be assigned to a different middle school for that
particular program. Formal notifications will be mailed to parents next week.
Posted 4/3/09 Partners in Reading is in full
swing at Arongen. All grades have been divided up and placed on
eight teams, with four classes per
team. Reading is running rampant throughout the building. Classes
have been partner reading with others to score points for their team. Mr. Myers
students have been coming to the library to earn points by reading Margery
Cuyler chapter books. Margery Cuyler will be Arongen's
guest author on May
22nd. Students are doubly excited to contribute to team reading and read
books by their guest author.
Posted
3/17/09 Arongen student, Kyle
McFarland, received an "Award of Merit" at the New York State level for the PTA
Reflections program in the area of Music. Kyle's drum solo advanced to the
NYS level and out of all of the entries, his entry made the top 5 for the
Intermediate (3-5th grade) group. While he did not get first place to advance
to the National level, he is among the other four who received the "Award of
Merit". There are four age groups, so 20 winners overall for NYS Musical
Composition. The 20 entries will be copied into a single stream and played at a
NYS convention that this year is being held at a hotel in Saratoga Springs.
Posted
3/3/09 Almost March Madness was a HUGE
success! In February, the PTA sponsored Almost March Madness, a basketball
competition between elementary schools. Staff members from
Arongen, Okte, Shatekon,
Skano and Tesago played basketball to a sold-out crowd of supporters. The
program was complete with cheerleading exhibitions for each school. The event
was such a success that there are plans to expand it for next year. Money raised
will be used to support the PTA and our schools! Congratulations to the Shatekon
team for winning the event! Click
here for photos of the event.
Posted
2/17/09
Sue Morgan, who is a teacher for
students with hearing loss, worked
with Nick L. from Mrs. LaGoy's class to educate the
students about his hearing impairment. On January 30th,
he gave a Power Point
presentation in the library and answered questions from his
classmates. He is truly a remarkable student.
Posted
January 29, 2009
On January 27, students in Mrs. Wollner’s third grade class experienced
a field trip to Japan via Google Earth and Skype in the Arongen Library.
Integrating with their social studies curriculum, we used Skype to
videoconference live and talk with Mrs. Bruno’s friend who is
currently living in Japan. The lesson reinforced what students have
learned about Japan, and they asked questions about geography,
landmarks, money, and schools. She gave students a tour of her
home, including the tokonoma room in a Japanese house. Students
even were able to learn some Japanese words. It was a great
opportunity for the students to meet people, use technology, and
learn about different cultures.
Please
be aware that NO students are to be dropped off before 7:50 a.m.
Students
should be dropped off ONLY at the designated drop off area.
We
strongly recommend that all students take the bus to and from school in
order to avoid traffic and safety issues at arrival and dismissal.
Under
no circumstance, should students be dropped off in the main parking
lot.
Research
shows that the safest way for children to arrive and depart from school
is on a school bus. It is dangerous when children walk in the
parking lot and are not dropped off at the designated area.
Thank
you for being considerate of our children’s safety.
In an
effort to ensure consistent practices and protocols across
our elementary schools, the district has developed an
elementary handbook for students and parents and a volunteer
handbook.
Gr. 1-5 schoolstarts at 8:05 a.m.
and dismisses
at 2:15 p.m AM kindergartenstartsat 8:05 a.m.
and dismisses at 10:40 a.m. PM kindergartenstarts at 11:45 a.m. and
dismisses at 2:15 p.m.
Take the Northway I87 to Exit 9. Head west on Route
146. At the first light, take a left onto Clifton Country Road. At second
light take a right onto Clifton
Park Center Road. Arongen is
approximately 1/4 mile on the right.
News
