Clemens Crossing Cougar Comments
April 23, 2021 - Volume 42, Issue 33
Clemens Crossing Elementary School
We're Here to Help You!
Edward Cosentino, PrincipalSonia Hurd, Assistant Principal
Stacey Wells, Principal's Secretary
Jennifer Aballo, Teachers' Secretary
Dulce Boyer, Teachers' Secretary
Website: cces.hcpss.org
Location: 10320 Quarterstaff Road, Columbia, MD, United States
Phone: 410-313-6866
Facebook: facebook.com/ClemensCrossingElementary
Twitter: @hcpss_cces
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Spanish
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Important Upcoming Dates and Events
May
- 5 - MAP Reading Testing: Gr.1 thru 5 at 9:40 a.m.
- 12 - MAP Math Testing: Gr.1 thru 5 at 9:40 a.m.
- 19 - MAP Testing: Makeup Test Date - 9:40 a.m.(Reading) and 1:00 p.m.(Math)
- 13 - School Closed for Students - Professional Learning/Articulation Day
- 19 - Science Fair
- 31 - Memorial Day - Schools and Office Closed
June
- 9 - 5th Grade Promotion Drive-Thru
- 10 - Professional Work Day - Schools Close 3 Hours Early
- 11 - Professional Work Day - Schools Close 3 Hours Early
- 14 - Professional Work Day - Schools Close 3 Hours Early
- 15 - LAST DAY OF SCHOOL Professional Work Day - Schools Close 3 Hours Early
From School Administration
Can you believe that Spring is in full bloom? Clemens Crossing is surrounded by mature flowering trees, and they are in full bloom right now! Science is happening all around us.
Nature is offering a great opportunity to make real-world connections. This past weekend, one of our Girl Scout troops helped maintain the flower garden in the front of the school. Thank you! Additionally, our PTA Science Committee maintains a vegetable garden on the 5th grade side of the school. The committee is always looking for help maintaining the garden. Science is all around us! Speaking of science, this is the final week to sign-up to participate in this year’s Virtual Science Fair. Please take advantage of this great opportunity! The registration information is at the bottom of this newsletter for the final week.
Spring allows us to measure the growth of not only plants, but our students as well. As we inch closer and closer to the end of the school year, teachers are busy reflecting on student growth. One important milestone is the release of the third quarter report cards. Report cards are now available in Family File so you can review your child’s progress and growth through the end of the third quarter. This is a great time to set goals for the final quarter of the year so all kids can end strong!
As we approach May, we are busy working on plans for next year. We are reflecting on our student’s growth and progress in the virtual and hybrid models in addition to student progress in Maryland’s College and Career Readiness Standards. Once we look at all the available information and data, we will reflect on the best way to proceed with class groupings for next year. In some situations, class groupings may include looping current class groups intact to the next grade level with the same teacher or a different teacher. In other situations, we could regroup students entirely. We could do combinations of all approaches depending upon other variables such as changes in teacher allocations and assignments in certain grade levels. We are in the early stages of this process which is finalized in mid to late summer. Part of the process of class groupings is getting feedback from parents and guardians! If you have not done so yet, please complete the Consideration Form included in this newsletter. The form will be in the newsletter for two more weeks, and it will close on May 12.
We are fortunate to have such incredible teachers at Clemens Crossing Elementary School. The PTA is busy preparing for Staff and Teacher Appreciation Week. This year, more than ever, please help recognize the incredible efforts, challenges, and accomplishments of our amazing teachers and staff. Please read the section from the PTA about how you can help recognize our teachers and staff during the first week of May.
Thank you very much for your continued support.
Mr. Cosentino, Principal
NEW INFORMATION
Commit to Participate in the HCPSS 2021-2022 Digital Education Center by May 5, 2021
HCPSS is planning for a full-time online option for students entering grades K-12 who wish to learn virtually for the 2021-2022 school year. Once finalized, the Digital Education Center (DEC) program will give students the opportunity to take classes and earn credits virtually, while receiving support services from both the DEC and their assigned home school.
Parents/guardians who wish to commit to the DEC should login to HCPSS Connect Synergy by Wednesday, May 5 at 4 p.m. (see directions below). Families must commit to the DEC for the full 2021-2022 school year. Click here for more information.
To access the commitment form:
- Log in to HCPSS Connect Synergy using parent/guardian credentials
- Select More Options from the left panel
- Select Digital Education Center Commitment from the middle of the page
- Complete the questions in the form for each child and select “save”
Staff Appreciation Week: May 3-7
This year for Staff Appreciation Week, the PTA will be buying food and other small gifts for the staff, but we would like your help in showing our staff just how much we appreciate them!
We ask that students and families write notes or cards of appreciation for their teachers and other staff members and deliver them to the school in one of three ways. You can either mail in the notes/cards to the school address, you can drop them off in a collection box that will be in the vestibule at school all week, or if your child is hybrid they can hand it to their teachers. If you wish to celebrate staff in additional ways, many staff members have Amazon Wishlists (available on the PTA website) or you can send gift cards to individual staff members (gift cards of $25 or less are allowed). We also ask your help in celebrating other staff members using the following guide per grade:
Kindergarten- Related Arts Teachers, 1st Grade- Administration and Front Office Staff,
2nd Grade- Health Staff and Paraeducators, 3rd Grade- Special Education Staff,
4th Grade- Academic Support and Student Services, and 5th Grade- Custodial Staff and Cafeteria Staff/Monitors. (Names of staff can be found on CCES Website.)
Thank you for your help in celebrating our amazing staff!
INFORMATION WORTH REPEATING
Final MAP Testing Cycle
On Wednesday, May 5th, 12th, and 19th, students in grades 1-5 will take the Measured Academic Progress (MAP) Assessment. The data from the MAP assessment will help schools and teachers measure your student’s academic progress. The MAP test does not affect grades and the difficulty adjusts depending on how your child responds. It is normal for students to only answer about half the questions correctly. To learn more about the MAP assessment, please visit: https://www.nwea.org/the-map-suite/common-questions-families/
The Reading test will be offered on May 5th at 9:40 a.m. The Math test will be offered on May 12th at 9:40 a.m. If your child is unable to attend, makeup testing will be offered on May 19th. Teachers will share Google Meet information and your student’s testing group as we get closer to the May dates.
Ongoing Donation Drive - Buy a teacher lunch!
The PTA is collecting money to buy all staff members food on our upcoming Chick-fil-A restaurant Spirit Day on May 5th. We are grateful for any contributions! You may choose a staff member to sponsor and can leave them a personal note if you wish. Fill out the form then proceed to PayPal to make your donation. Thank you!
CCES Virtual International Week Celebration
Clemens Crossing's International Celebration goes virtual this year - and we need your help! The CCES PTA invites you to help us celebrate our school's amazing cultural diversity from May 17-21, 2021. We are seeking video submissions of what makes your family's culture or country special and unique. We want to learn all about your family's country/culture!
Throughout the week, we will share videos created by our students and families on our PTA Facebook page, and on Friday, May 21, we have invited a chef to teach a virtual international cooking class for the entire CCES community to participate!
Some good examples of simple videos would be:
- A slideshow presentation teaching us about your country or culture
- A cooking tutorial featuring traditional food from your country/culture
- A video of you dancing a traditional dance from your country/culture A video featuring music from your country/culture (if you are playing it, that's even better!)
- A video showing traditional costumes from your country/culture
- A video featuring traditional stories from your country/culture
- A video featuring art from your country/culture and explaining where it comes from
- Anything else creative and fun that teaches us about your country/culture!
Please try to keep your videos on the shorter side if possible (2 to 6 minutes in length is ideal). Your entire family can participate to make it special!
If you plan to participate, please let us know by filling out this form: https://forms.gle/qc1LtW64VwGMWGUu8
We can't wait to learn all about your family's country/culture! Thanks for helping us celebrate!
Please email a link to your family's video by May 15 to culturalarts@clemenscrossingpta.org. Feel free to email any questions as well!
From The Related Arts Team
Although grades for Related Arts (Art, Music, Media, Technology, and PE) are reported at the end of each semester this year, please help your child to ensure their assignments are submitted properly.
Please make sure to go back and submit assignments for all Related Arts classes in Canvas.
You can find Assignments by looking on the left in the Navigation Column in the Canvas course. Although we may not have asynchronous work any longer, we still have Assignments from related art classes that must be submitted. There is time to do this at the end of class, but many students forget. Look through the Canvas Gradebook to see what may be missing, and you can still submit without penalty.
From ART
Also, if you are running out of supplies (white drawing paper, construction paper, glue, erasers, etc.), those materials are available every Wednesday in the vestibule to the school.
These materials are also available any time that in-person students have Art Class.
Consideration Form Open
Consideration Form - Planning for 2021-2022
The Clemens Crossing staff is looking ahead to the 2021-22 school year. As part of this process, we would like to give you the opportunity to share some information that you would like for us to consider as we begin to make class groupings for the next school year. This consideration form is for you, as parents, to relate specific information about your child that you feel would be beneficial as our teachers meet to determine next year's placement.
When placing students, the staff, and administration utilize a wide range of criteria that are supportive of the Howard County philosophy of heterogeneous grouping. Some of these criteria include, but are not limited to:
- the personality of the child
- the gender balance in each classroom
- math strengths and needs
- written output
- test results
- reading strengths and needs
- special education requirements; IEP goals
- structured versus non-structured needs
- information from previous teachers and school counselor.
There are certain concerns that we cannot consider as part of this Consideration Form, therefore, we ask that you not use this form to propose the following:
- specific teacher requests
- grouping based on siblings’ experience
- grouping based on friends
- grouping based on hearsay.
Your input on this form will be used in our planning for your child rather than a letter requesting a specific teacher. Your response is OPTIONAL but is a very valuable source of information to the school staff and to the next teacher.
The form is embedded in this newsletter program below. If you cannot see the form below, you may need to use a computer.
The form closes on May 12th. Thank you for your help.
CCES VIRTUAL SCIENCE FAIR 2020
Your child is invited to participate in this year’s Virtual Science Fair on Wednesday, May 19 from 6:30-8:00 p.m.
If your child is interested in doing a Science Fair Collection, Investigation, or Invention at home, please download the corresponding attachment below. Students may do projects individually or as a group. Once your child has identified a project, please complete the online, “Intent to Participate form.” More details will be shared once participants register. We are excited to highlight the commitment shown and the hard work done by the CCES students this year. Many thanks for all of your support at home and in the building this year.
Community News and Programs
Please find the link to the Howard County Public School System's Community News and Programs page.
In alignment with Howard County Board of Education Policy 10010, Distribution and Display of Materials and Announcements, the following announcements have been approved by the Public Information Office for distribution. Please visit Distributing Community Information through the School System or contact the Public Information Office at 410-313-6682 if you have any questions.
The below community notices are neither sponsored nor endorsed by the Howard County Public School System.