Comet
Ruth P. Eason School
Volume 16 Issue 1
Spring 2010
Principal’s Corner:
Dear Parents/Guardians of Ruth
Eason Students:
It is hard to believe that another
successful school year has come and
gone! Graduations and team
celebrations were held at all levels to
celebrate student successes and, in
many cases, to say goodbye. Twentysix of our students moved to a less
restrictive environment in their home
schools or in specialty programs at
nearby schools. These successes are
a direct result of the hard work of
parents and staff as they demonstrate
the Ruth Eason Vision and Mission of
increasing student independence.
Keller Williams “RED DAY” was a
huge success! I hope you have had a
chance to see our “new look.” Over 80 Keller
Williams Realty agents, friends, family members and
local businesses worked all day to place new plants and
planters in the front of the school; weed, trim, and plant
new plants in our native Maryland garden, put a new roof
on our pavilion, paint the fence, build raised flower beds
and new picnic tables and paint a beautiful mural on our
front door. This amazing group of people also worked
with several of our students who helped them paint and
do yard work. We are extremely grateful for their
generous donation of time, sweat, and material
donations!
We hope to see you as a guest or volunteer for one of the
many activities yet to come this year!
We are very thankful for the
wonderful support Ruth Eason
School has received from a variety
of community members including
Bruster’s Ice Cream, Glen Burnie
Roofing, Johnson Lumber, The
Blooming Basket, The Civitan Club
of Glen Burnie, the Knights of
Columbus, and Ravens Roost,
The Home School Association’s
Second Annual Flea Market held
on May 15th was a great success!
We are appreciative of the support
we received from our families,
staff, and members of the local
community. We are planning to
continue sponsoring this event and
will once again hold it in May of
2011. It is never too early to think
about cleaning out your closets,
basements, and garages!
For more information about our Home School
Association, please e-mail David Pelovitz, HSA
President at gdpelo@hotmail.com.
Have a safe and fun summer!!
NOTE:
School re-opens for RE full-day students
on August 24, 2010. August 23 is a
conference day for all students.
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PRIMARY NEWS:
Margaret Wise-Tapp’s Class
FROM THE CLASSROOMS............
PRESCHOOL NEWS:
Lorie Chait Smith’s Pre-School Class
This has been such a busy year. We can’t believe
that it’s coming to an end. We have spent the year
working on our Little Treasures Language Arts
Curriculum and our Growing With Mathematics
Curriculum. Everyone has made so much progress!
The past few weeks have been full of activity. On
May 7, in conjunction with our unit about the zoo, our
class joined all the other pre-school classes for a day
at the Baltimore Zoo. We had such great weather.
Everyone had fun seeing all the zoo animals. We’d like
to thank all the family members who joined us that
day.
Challenge Day was wonderful. Our students did a
fabulous job demonstrating their sports event and
certainly deserved their Olympic medals. We enjoyed
the popcorn, pizza, snowballs, and all the stations in
the Olympic Village.
In the last few weeks, we’ve joined our friends in
the other pre-school classes for a water day with
wading pools, water tables, bubble machines,
sprinklers, and popsicles for snack. We also planted
the lima bean seeds that we grew in our beautiful new
school garden. Our bean plants were tall and actually
sprouted beans!
Now some of our afternoon students are preparing
for graduation as they move on to new opportunities in
different schools. Many of our students will be
returning to us next year and we look forward to
another wonderful fun-filled year. We wish everyone
the best of luck! Have a great summer!
Mrs. Wise-Tapp’s class has been very busy this
quarter. We have been studying the life cycle of the
butterfly. We ordered live caterpillars and watched
them eat and grow. Later they formed chrysalis at
the top of the jar. For over a week we waited. When
we arrived on the Tuesday after the Memorial Day
holiday, we had a surprise waiting for us. One
butterfly had just emerged from its chrysalis. By
lunch time we had two butterflies. By the end of
Wednesday we had five butterflies. We fed the
butterflies sugar water on flowers and oranges. We
released the butterflies on Friday in the flower
garden. If you visit the school over the next few
weeks, look for our butterflies. They are orange and
black Painted Ladies.
We are proud to announce that four of my students
will be transferring to new schools in the fall. We are
wishing Madison, Alexander, Frederick and Quentin all
the best in their new adventures.
I would like to thank Mrs. Barbara Bryl for
substituting for me for eight weeks during the spring.
Because of her expertise I was able to rest easier and
recuperate.
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What a fun filled, full of progress year we have had in
Ms. Antkowiak’s class. We learned about the solar
system, even making our own colorful solar system
mobiles! We made a very sparkly Milky Way! We
learned about primary and secondary colors and had
such sensory fun by using our primary colored painted
feet to make secondary colors. We found out who was
ticklish!
We even grew our own bean plants after reading about
Johnny Appleseed. We chose to grow beans because it
would have taken too much time to grow our own apple
trees but we got to taste different colored apples and
make apple stamps (there is a surprise inside an
apple—a “star”)! We then planted our bean plants in
the school’s garden. We’ll be ready to taste those
beans in the Fall.
For our “Country Mouse, City Mouse” reading
assignment, we made Venn diagrams to determine the
differences and sameness for the country and the
city. We discovered that mice are everywhere! We
then made a very tasty “mouse cookie” recipe! What a
fun way to finish a unit!
Have a happy, healthy summer, everyone.
Joanne Antkowiak/Helena Davies/Amanda Lipscomb
MIDDLE SCHOOL NEWS:
The Middle School students have participated in many
activities for the second half of the school year.
At the end of February, we celebrated the sending off
of our orange ALT-MSA binders by having an
“Or….ange you glad they’re gone?” party. We ate
orange food and decorated an orange snowman. It was
a great way to celebrate!!
The students in the whole school have enjoyed planting
vegetables in the raised garden beds built and donated
by Keller Williams on Red Day. The middle school
planted squash and is watering the whole garden as
part of science class. We will see how green our
thumbs are when we come back to school next year.
In science we learned about evolution, physics, the
water cycle, and the solar system to mention a few.
Social studies covered lessons about volcanoes,
national parks, and history of the United States.
During our reading instruction we learned about the
setting of a story, main idea, and different literary
texts. Calendar skills, measurement and time were
worked on in math. We also practiced counting and
spending money. The students’ IEP goals and objectives
were incorporated into all our lessons.
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SENIOR NEWS:
Senior news from Room 135
It is finally here, the last day of school (of course).
The last day was delayed due to so much snow. We did
accomplish a lot during the school year. We are so
proud of our class. The boys worked so hard in all of
their classes.
Our school depends on us every day to get the pool
laundry washed and dried. Ryan is an expert folder
when it comes to folding pool towels, cafeteria laundry
and laundry for two primary classes. Romalis assist
with delivering and picking up laundry using the laundry
cart. He knows his way around the school to make his
delivers. Romalis has learned to deliver the cafeteria
and office envelopes independently without any verbal
directions from staff. Pelumi and Romalis help at least
two times a week with collecting all the recycling items
from the yellow recycling cans and dump everything
into the recycling dumpster outside. Everyone uses the
yellow cans to recycle their items. They sure are busy
keeping the cans empty.
There is not a moment to rest in our room. Next, Evan
and Michael have done a great job working at Arlington
Echo and The Coordinating Center. Every week we
made sure that the outdoor school sign was updated
with current information about any upcoming events or
important dates. The students would sort the letters
and put together the new information by copying the
words using the letters for the sign. Mike, our
graduate, worked in the school kitchen at least two
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times a week. He trained a middle school student,
Clayton, the jobs in the kitchen. Now, Clayton will be
ready to work when he moves to the senior department
next school year.
Oh, did I say, next school year? I hope everyone
enjoys their summer vacation and gets lots of rest.
They deserve a break from all the school work.
Mike is our graduate from Room 135. He should be so
proud of all of his accomplishments. He worked very
hard in all of his core academic classes. He loved
literature and science. He wants to come back next
year as a peer tutor. We believe that he would do a
great job helping younger students learn new jobs in
our sheltered workshop.
Thank you to our classroom staff: Tony, Doris (parttime), Fran and Jesse. They need a break also for
working so well with our students in school and at the
community vocational worksites.
Carol Petrosky, teacher
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Greetings from Room 125
The Students in Erin Muldoon’s room have had a
wonderful year. We are so proud of all that they have
accomplished during this school year. They have all
worked very hard, and had many fun and exciting
experiences.
The second half of the year was very busy. The
students enjoyed preparing and performing at the
talent show. They all had a wonderful time at the All
Center Field day. Some students fished and canoed at
Arlington Echo, and some got all dolled up and danced
the night away at the prom.
Our class managed to work very hard during the
second half of the year as well. Our entire class
worked consistently and diligently in the Vocational
training center. In core subject classes they learned
about shapes and measurement, how our bodies work,
and they even read a novel.
We want to say thank you to our class for a wonderful
year, and wish them a fun and relaxing summer.
Erin Muldoon
Kevin McCollister
Kristen Lee
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What a great year this has been! We are proud of all
of the hard work from each of our students. Robert
and Anthony continued to do an awesome job in the
community vocational program as well as mastering the
school cafeteria jobs. Robert received an award for
the “ In-school Worker of the Year”. Courtney has
been a peer buddy for students in the Vocational
Training Program and has worked at the Coordinating
Center. She even volunteered to be a replacement for
students who were absent. Shykell, Tony and Erica
kept their peers busy in the Vocational Training Center
as part of a shredding team and in supervisory roles.
Our “rookie” student Rashad has been seen showing
off his skills with the Meals on Wheels contract and in
helping to get the cafeteria ready for lunch.
Ms. Tobias' Rm. 101 has had a very productive and fun
year! The end of the year has been packed with so
much excitement! Recently we enjoyed an end of the
year class trip to Marley Station Mall and got to eat
lunch together at Chik-Fil-A! We had a great time! We
also were cast away on a deserted island when we
dressed up like the cast from Gilligan's Island for our
annual school talent show! All year long we have been
working very hard within the school vocational and
vocational enclave programs, and all that hard work
paid off at our schools annual Vocational Awards
program. Room 101's own Sarah Frederick won the
award for Most Improved Worker in the In School
Vocational program. We are all very proud of
Sarah's achievements this year! We also said good bye
to two of our graduates: Ms. Candice Plumley who will
be attending Active Day, as well as Mr. Andrew
Maerzke who will be attending Opportunity Builders
beginning in July. It was wonderful having these
amazing students in our class and we wish them all the
best in their futures! After all their hard work this
year, Rm. 101 is looking forward to some rest and
relaxation! We hope everyone has a safe and fun
summer and we will see you in August!
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Although our days were very full, we have managed to
take some time to have fun with our friends in the
senior department. We participated in “Iron Chef
Ruth Eason”. We didn’t win, but we enjoyed tasting our
entry. We have enjoyed the senior class picnic, prom,
vocational awards program and of course, graduation.
We had to say good-bye to Erica, who graduated this
year. She will be attending an adult community program
next year. We send her our best wishes for continued
success and happiness in this next phase of her life.
We also want to say a fond farewell to Ms. Erin
Muldoon, a teacher in the senior department. Ms.
Muldoon, who has been at Ruth Eason for the past 11
years, will be moving to California this summer. We
will miss her creativity, sensitivity and passion. Good
Luck Ms. Erin! Don’t forget to write!
Have a great summer.
Molly Seely/Naomi Kigame/Adrienne Spencer
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News from Physical Education
Congratulations to all the students on another
successful Challenge Day 2010!!!! Classes
demonstrated basketball, bowling and gymnastics skills
while having a whole day of fun. This year, we had a
petting zoo, snowball truck, Moon Bounce, make-avisor, face painting, pizza, shirts, bags, toys and games
and general fun for everyone. DJ Mr. Buddy
Becker, along with the Oriole Bird, hosted the Victory
Dance at the end of the day. The students sure did
look great with their shirts and their medals! Here is
a list of people and groups that make Challenge Day
happen every year:

Johns Hopkins Health Care - Maura Walden
and Angie Porter

Civitans Club of Glen Burnie

Church On The Rock Christian Academy

Anne Arundel County Police Department

Anne Arundel County Special Olympics

Ravens Roost #75, Magothy Beach

Ruth Eason Home School Association

David and Michele Roling

Victoria Willis, Anne Arundel County 4H Club

Dave Shewbridge, Shewprints

Rob Williams, Snowballs

Buddy Becker, D-Z Entertainment

Three Brothers Pizza, Glen Burnie

Skip Lee, Coordinator of Health, Physical
Education and Dance, Anne Arundel County
Public Schools

Tracey Sponsler
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
Tammy Wolanin, Kathy Shewbridge and Norma
Giunta, Vocational Training Center

Jessica Dulin

Carey Paytas and the Baltimore Orioles
Thanks to all the staff for their help this year and
have a wonderful summer!
Mr. Bruce Sponsler
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equipment, and safety concerns of camping. Through a
live ladybug kit from www.insectlore.com and the book
Ladybugs by Margaret Hall, the students learned the
steps in the metamorphosis of a Pink Spotted Ladybug.
They were then released in Ruth Eason’s flower
garden. They also learned about the Blue Crab and the
Chesapeake Bay by reading Steamer and Shelly Go to
Pot by Richard Stack, a Baltimore area children’s
author.
As we move into the summer months, please be sure to
keep reading to your child. If you get a chance, please
take your children to the Anne Arundel County Public
After a fun holiday season in the Media Center and
many days off due to snow, it was time to kick off the Library and get them involved in several of their fun
New Year! One of the goals in Media this spring was to activities.
get the students more familiar with the Smartboard.
Have a great summer and keep reading!
Each lesson included many opportunities for every
student to participate in Smartboard activities.
Ms. Selinda and Ms. Mary
MEDIA NEWS:
Since February was Dental Health Month, the students
read Sweet Tooth by M. Palatini to learn about healthy
food for healthy teeth. For the Winter Olympics, the
students watched and discussed the sports and
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athletes who competed in Vancouver.
FROM THE BEHAVIOR DEPARTMENT:
In March the students read, Oh, the Thinks You Can
Think! by Dr. Seuss, Leonardo the Terrible Monster
by Mo Willems, The Computer by G. Worland, and An
Egg is Quiet by D.H. Aston. With these books, the
students learned the difference between fiction and
nonfiction, computer and internet safety, and the
beauty and wonder of a variety of eggs. For Dr.
Seuss’s birthday on March 2nd, the students watched a
Dr. Seuss movie in their classroom and ate ice cream.
In April, the students got a chance to see, touch and
learn about many different types of seeds from the
book Seeds by Ken Robbins. The students also learned
how chocolate was made by reading a fun book, Oh
Ducky: A Chocolate Calamity by David Slonim. Since
Ruth Eason is on its way to becoming a Green School,
the students discussed Earth Day by learning the 3R’s:
Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.
May and June were also fun months in the Media
Center. They became familiar with the skills,
The behavior team is located in the front office area.
We have a new Behavior Specialist this year. Lorraine
Condon came on board in November and is getting to
know your children. Lorraine is here on Tuesdays.
Joyce Spayd’s position of behavior Technician was
upgraded to a Crisis Interventionist. She is at Ruth
Eason Monday-Friday. If you would like to contact the
behavior team call the office and they’ll get back to
you. The behavior team collaborates with staff and
parents/guardians to provide supports for student
success. We love it when our students are showing
appropriate behavior!
For the summer:
1.
Provide your child with predictable
routines and schedules.
2. Provide visuals supports as needed.
3. Let him/her know what is happening, how
long it’s going to happen, and what’s next.
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4. Some children may need a calendar with
“home”, “vacation”, “school” picture
symbols to help them understand what
they are doing on a particular day.
5. Encourage communication. Have your child
“ask” for what they want/need.
Enjoy your summer and we’ll see you in August!
Recipe of A Great Student
Several dashes of positive praise
1 cup of consistency
Several pinches of earned privileges
1 cup of visual supports
Several explanations of what to do, not what not to do
Vocational Training
Wow! What a year! Our students who moved on from
Middle School have done an outstanding job
transitioning and doing their very best at trying new
jobs. Keep it up!
A new site has also been added. We now work with the
Anne Arundel County Warehouse where we shred
paper and sweep.
We have also started to work with the H.O.P.E. for All
program wrapping coins that will be used for
emergency funds for the needy.
Much thanks to all students and staff for making this
year so successful.
Tammy Wolanin
Kathy Shewbridge
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Delicious Recipe for Summer Time!
Taffy Apple Salad
Ingredients:
2 8 oz cans pineapple chunks (save the juice from 1
can)
Granny Smith apples—2 cups cut into small chunks
1 cup peanuts
1 T flour
½ cup sugar
1 egg
2 T vinegar
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Mix in saucepan:
1 T flour
½ cup sugar
Pineapple juice
1 beaten egg
2 T vinegar
Stir over heat until thick. REFRIGERATE UNTIL
COLD.
Once cooled, fold 8 oz. Cool Whip into cold mixture
Combine:
2 cups apples
Pineapple chunks
1 cup peanuts
CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS
Mix cold mixture and fruit mixture.
Refrigerate several hours before serving.
ENJOY!
July 7
First Day of ESY, student hours are
10-1:45.
July 29
Last Day of ESY
August 23
School Opens for Students
September 6 Rosh Hashanah – Schools and Offices
Closed
September 9 Labor Day – Schools and Offices
Closed
September 12 Primary Election Day – Schools and
Offices Closed