The Paw Print
Cashell Elementary School - Community Newsletter
January 5th, 2018
Updates from Mrs. Jones
Happy New Year Everyone! We are so excited to be back at school despite all the cold weather. As we are all setting our New Year's resolutions, I know that our students and teachers alike are reflecting on ways to be even more successful in 2018. I cannot wait to see what this year has in store for Cashell!
School News
Our school is selling valuable, family-friendly KidStuff Coupon Books filled with hundreds of national, regional and local coupons for all ages! The KidStuff Book is conveniently organized, offers incredible savings and is sold exclusively through schools! Our school PTA earns 50% or more profit for every book we sell! Use just a few coupons and easily save more than the $25 cost of the book
Visit http://www.kidstuffcb.com for more information.
School System News
Public Comment Sought on Early Childhood and Elementary Education Policy
On December 5, 2017, the Montgomery County Board of Education tentatively approved amendments to Board Policy IEA, Framework and Structure of Early Childhood and Elementary Education. The amended policy includes concepts and language that reflect the current priorities of Board Policy IEF, Early Childhood Education, which will be rescinded upon adoption of amended Board Policy IEA. The proposed amendments to Board Policy IEA affirm the Board’s commitment to promoting the intellectual, social, emotional, and physical growth and development of children in their early learning years through high quality, developmentally appropriate, challenging and comprehensive early childhood and elementary programs. You can
view the crosswalk between Board Policy IEA and Board Policy IEF here. The draft of the
tentatively approved Board Policy IEA is available for public comment here until Tuesday, March 6, 2018.
Free Microsoft Office 365 for Students
The Maryland Department of Education and Microsoft have entered into a collaborative partnership that allows all students and all school system staff to get the latest version of the Microsoft Office software suite, Office 365 ProPlus, at no cost. The devices may be PCs, Macs, tablets, or phones.
For FAQs and instructions to download in multiple languages, visit www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/parents/.
Community News
The Gaithersburg Book Festival is giving high school students the freedom to explore their writing creativity and enter its short story contest. There are cash prizes available for first, second, and third place winners.Stories cannot exceed 1,000 words and must be submitted electronically via a web form by midnight on Thursday, February 22, 2018. Complete rules and regulations can be found online.Up to 12 stories will be selected as finalists and posted on the Gaithersburg Book Festival website prior to the Book Festival. The event, an annual celebration of books, writers, and literary excellence, will be held Saturday, May 19, 2018, on the grounds of Gaithersburg City Hall.
Words Their Way
Below is the link to information about the Words Their Way program which the school system relies on to teach students skills and strategies for spelling. I know that the philosophy and practices involved this program are new to many of you so I wanted to provide you with a resource that explains the big ideas. Your child's teacher can also share information about your child's routines for word study in the classroom. Feel free to reach out to them directly with any other questions.
Important Dates to Remember
January
1/5 - Variety Show Rehearsals Begin
1/12 - Variety Show Rehersal
1/15 - Holiday! No School for Students & Staff!
1/19 - Variety Show Rehersal
1/25 - End of First Marking Period
1/26- Teacher Professional Day - No school for students
1/29-2/2 Jump Rope for Heart Week
Classroom Corner
Students in the PEP program started their Awesome Animals theme and worked on farm animals with Mrs. Esther and Mrs. Kendra.
SCB
Our students in SCB program are working on sorting by color and classifying objects.
Pre-Kindergarten
Students in Pre-K continued their literacy work by identifying words that begin with each letter in the alphabet.
Kindergarten
Before break our Kindergarten students completed a STEM activity that involved designing a boat for their Gingerbread person and then testing their models to see if they would float.
First Grade
Our first graders are reviewing their understanding of place value by playing a trading game.
Second Grade
Our second graders are continuing their work with double digit subtraction. They are working on analyzing whether or not subtraction problems require you to decompose a ten in order to solve.
Third Grade
This week our third graders were working on reinforcing the use of many strategies to solve multiplication and division problems within 100. Their goal is great fact fluency!
Fourth Grade
In reading, our fourth grade students are finding the main idea and key details of their European Explorer texts. Then, they will identify the organizational text structure.
Fifth Grade
Fifth graders are starting off 2018 with goal setting.