CES Family Bulletin #28

Dear CES Families,

We hope that everyone found time over the snow days this week to connect and participate in fun activities with your children. Speaking of snow days, our 2nd grade musical will be rescheduled for after spring break. Once we have a date and time we will share it.

We often have questions about things to do over breaks to support school. Below are a few ideas that might be helpful over spring break.

  • Daily Reading - child reading independently, with an adult, and/or to an adult is fine.
  • Play Math Games - with a deck of cards you can play many fun games that work on strengthening your child's number sense and computation skills.
  • Journal - have your child keep a journal of the things they did over the break. Have them include pictures and/or drawings with their writing.
  • Play Board Games - board games promote Executive Functioning skills.
  • Play Outside - outdoor and environmental learning are two of the pillars of CES.

As you partake in fun activities over spring break, please share photos of your adventures with Mr. Douds at jtdouds@fcps.edu.


Weekly Photos

Spring Book Fair

Hot Diggity Dog! It’s time for our Spring Scholastic Book Fair!  

Please mark your calendars to join us at our cat and dog-themed PTA Spring Book Fair!  We will open the fair with a family event on Saturday, April 7th from 10 AM to 2 PM.  There will be a raffle at this event for a gift certificate to the book fair.  We will also be open Monday, April 9th – Wednesday, April 11th from 9:30 AM to 3:45 PM.  Be sure to join us for another family event on Tuesday, April 10th from 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM.  There will be another raffle at this event.  The book fair will close on Thursday, April 12th at 1 PM. 

Also, parents, we can use some helping hands throughout the book fair.  If you’d like to volunteer, please use the sign-up link :  https://www.volunteersignup.org/MW7PQ

Thanks!

We look forward to seeing you at our PTA Spring Book Fair—Let’s “paws” for books!

Contact Aubrey Thorne (adthorne@fcps.edu) with any
questions.


Family STEAM NIGHT

Family STEAM night on Monday was a blast! A big thank you to Mrs. Settlemyre for organizing the event. Students and their families were challenged to build a bridge over a stream using 50 pennies and nothing else. It was awesome to see how engaged and resilient everyone was as they worked to accomplish their goal. Come out and join us at our next Family STEAM night on Monday, April 9.

Penny Bridge
Weekly Photos

p2

This week we focused on FORGIVENESS through the Positivity Project. This is the ability to move past being injured and to allow yourself to reconcile with the person who hurt you. Forgiveness can often be seen as a selfless act, but it also carries many benefits for those who practice it. 

Forgiveness does not mean rolling over and allowing yourself to be harmed. It does not mean that you forget the transgression. By forgiving someone, you don’t have to say that what he/she did was okay. And, forgiveness is not contingent on the other person apologizing.

This week’s character strength example is Nelson Mandela. As this article highlights, Mandela leveraged the character strength of forgiveness as a strategic element towards peace and reconciliation in post-apartheid South Africa. And, the below video, from the movie Invictus, shows that forgiveness takes courage as well.


weekly photos

Bike Rodeo

PTA Board Positions

Thank you to everyone who has volunteered to be on the PTA Board. At this moment, the PTA only has to fill 1 more board position for the 2018-2019 school year. Without this position we could lose many of our wonderful afterschool clubs we offer our students. Anyone interested in learning more about these positions should contact Tammi Milburn at president@centrevillepta.org

 

Available Positions

  • 2nd Vice President – After School Programs

Techstravaganza

Exploring the Effects of the Online World on our Kids

Rocky Run Middle School presents “Exploring the Effects of the Online World on our Kids.”  April 26, 7:00 p.m. at Rocky Run Middle School.  This program is open to all parents.  Parents of elementary and middle school children will find it most useful.  Parents will be given information on

  • how to guide and protect children on-line
  •  what technology is used in the classrooms in FCPS
  •  parent resources:  parental controls, independent reviews of apps, age ratings
  •  information about all types of media children are using and/or exposed to

In order to make this program more meaningful for our parents, we ask you to complete a short survey, found at https://goo.gl/forms/6vvXX1tVR4PV9Hsp2


CES Soaring Eagles

Please share your thoughts with the staff! CES Soaring Eagles are compliments, kudos, etc. that we will share with the staff. What a great way to show your appreciation and to help make the CES Staff's week positive! Please click HERE to share your CES Soaring Eagles!


Calendar Reminder: Spring Break Is March 26-30; April 2 Is a School Planning Day

As a reminder, spring break will be held March 26-30. Monday, April 2, is a school planning day and a holiday for students. Classes will resume on Tuesday, April 3. See the 2017-18 calendar


Online Elementary Magnet School Application Now Open

Fairfax County Public Schools is now accepting applications for its elementary magnet school programs. Bailey’s Primary School for the Arts and Sciences will accept lottery applications for students who will be in grades K-2 during the 2018-19 school year; Bailey’s Upper School for the Arts and Sciences for students in grades 3 and 4.

Hunters Woods Elementary School for the Arts and Sciences will accept lottery applications for students who will enter grades K-5 during the 2018-19 school year. Selection for available magnet school spaces is based on a lottery. Registration for the elementary magnet school lottery closes on Monday, April 2.   

Get information about the magnet school lottery.


2018 Special Education Conference to Be Held Saturday, April 21, at Hayfield Secondary School

Mark your calendars now for the 13th annual FCPS Special Education Conference, which will be held on Saturday, April 21, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Hayfield Secondary School. Go to the Special Education Conference website for further information and to register for conference workshop sessions. 


How Many Inclement Weather Days Have We Used This Year?

A common question each winter is "How many inclement weather days have we used so far this year?" As of today (March 23), the number of inclement weather days used is seven. State law requires school districts to provide 180 days or 990 hours of classroom instruction each school year. FCPS has additional hours built into the school year calendar which is set at 180 days

FCPS reverts to the 990 hour state requirement when days are lost because of the weather or other emergencies. FCPS exceeds the 990 hour requirement because of the length of the student day and has the equivalent of 13 days built into the calendar.  


Students to Take Computer Adaptive Standards of Learning Tests in Grades 3-8 This Year

This spring, students in grades 3-8 will take a computer adaptive Standards of Learning (SOL) test for both reading and mathematics. Computer adaptive testing (CAT) is an assessment model that provides a customized test experience for each student. Each CAT assessment begins with a question of moderate difficulty. A correct response leads to a more difficult question, while an incorrect response leads to a less difficult question.

Since question difficulty is tailored to each student's responses, CAT assessments can measure a student's performance with fewer total questions than are needed with a traditional assessment. All students complete the same number of questions for the overall test. To find out what opportunities your child will have to prepare for this test format, be sure to talk to your child’s teacher.

Learn more about computer adaptive testing in FCPS


Upcoming Events: 

Monday, April 2

  • No School - Teacher Workday

Thursday, April 5

  • 7:00 PM - PTA Meeting in the Computer Lab

Saturday, April 7

  • 10:00 - 2:00 - Spring School Clean-up & Family Book Fair Event

Thank you for your continued partnership!