Carson MS Weekly Updates -Updates - Week of November 25

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Carson Middle

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Important Upcoming Events

  • November 27-29 Holiday - No School
  • December 2 - Carson Book fair begins
  • December 23-January 6- Holidays/Winter Break - No School- Offices Closed
  • January 6 - School returns on an "A" Day schedule

 

A Message From The Principal

As Thanksgiving break approaches, our students and staff are excited to spend time with family, friends, and loved ones. We are incredibly grateful for the support of our parents, families, and community. Your partnership is invaluable, and we look forward to welcoming our students back after the break.

Tony Washington

Principal


Happy Thanksgiving

Friendsgiving

The Administrative Team serve Bundt cake for staff to show gratitude.

Left to right - Jennifer Miley, Raffinee Archible-Ehivue, Tony Washington and Monique Berkeley


SWAG

November Student Recognition

Each month teachers from different departments recognize students for their hard work, perseverance, and commitment to making a positive impact at Carson through our SWAG Student Recognition Program. SWAG stands for “Students with Awesome Growth”. Mr. Washington shared why each student was nominated during our November celebration. Congratulations to the following students for having Carson SWAG: Sophia, Nandhana, Isha, Mebea, Olivia, Hazin, Atticus, Lire, Luna, Madilyn, Joseph, Mateo, Elliot, Riya, Jana.  A picture of these students is proudly displayed outside of the cafeteria for all to see. Congratulations, Panthers!


Federal Impact Aid Survey 

The Federal Impact Aid Survey is now available in electronic format via ParentVUE. All families should complete the survey whether you are military affiliated or not.

Please complete this survey online in ParentVUE. Click HERE to log into ParentVue to complete the survey or to create and set up a ParentVUE account. Please remember, only the enrolling parent may complete and submit the survey. Please complete the online survey by December 16, 2024.

Paper copies will go home on December 2 and should be completed and returned asap.


If you are having technical difficulties with the online survey,  call the Parent Technology Help Desk 8T33-921-3277

www.fcps.edu/impact

 


Impact Aid

Student Services Family Workshops

Student Services will offer Family Workshops throughout the school year to support our families using feedback from our Advisory Council meeting.  Our first is a prerecorded presentation called Middle School Mastery led by our amazing RCMS Strategies for Success teacher, Kelli McCoy-Williams. You can view the recording and access the workshop materials in the Student Services Quarterly Newsletter.  Please click here to access the Student Services Quarterly Newsletter

We are excited to announce that Rachel Bailey, former ADHD coach, intensive in-home mentor, and psychotherapist for children, adolescents, and adults, will be presenting our next workshop virtually to Rachel Carson families on Friday, December 13th from 9:00-10:00 AM via Zoom.  Please join us to learn more about “Helping Students Manage Anxiety.”  To register for the Zoom link, please click here.  We hope to see you virtually! 


Bookfair

The Book Fair is Coming! 

We are excited to partner with a local business, Bookworm Central, for the 2024 book fair.  All students will come through with their English classes sometime during the week of December 2-6.  

Rather than sending your child to school with cash, consider using Bookworm Central’s eWallet option. eWallet allows you to create a cashless/cardless payment option for your child to use at Carson’s Book Fair, Dec. 2-6. While you set a maximum amount a student may spend, your card will only be charged for the actual amount spent. Your funds will not be rolled over into book fair credits, and you will not lose unspent funds! Click HERE to learn more and to set up your account. Many Carson families used it last year and were really happy with it!

Thank you!!

Librarian @ Carson MS

Fairfax County Public Schools


Book Fair Hours:

Monday, December 2:        7:10AM- 2:30PM

Tuesday, December 3:       7:10AM- 2:30PM

Wednesday, December 4:  7:10AM- 2:30PM

Thursday, December 5:      7:10AM- 2:30PM AND  6:00PM-8:00PM *Family Shopping*

Friday, December 6:           7:10AM-12:45PM

 The library is looking for parents to volunteer to help run the book-fair during the school day. The energy and excitement is contagious!

Please review this Sign-Up Genius to see if you can help Book Fair Volunteer Sign-Up


Librarian

Going Green at Carson

Get2Green leads, Ms. Bickford and Ms. Walsh, are thrilled to announce that Carson MS is starting a food sharing and food scrap collection program to reduce food waste in our cafeteria and to help families with food insecurities in our community. When you are helping students pack their lunches, encourage them to only pack what they need and will eat. If your child buys lunch, encourage them to take part in the food sharing and food scrap collecting process when appropriate. Students who bring their lunch may participate too. The food sharing table and food scrap collection containers are on the right side of the stage. A big “thank you” goes to the PTA who is paying for Composting Crew to pick up our collected food scraps each week. We also want to acknowledge the Going Green Club members who are gathering donated food each lunch and putting it in the fridge each lunch period. Lastly, thanks to Ms. Clark for creating a Sign-Up Genius to organize families to pick up the donated food each Friday and bring it to the Cornerstone food collection warehouse in Sterling each week. A student can earn an hour of service for participating in this food transportation with their parents. Any family in the Carson community can sign up. Detailed directions are on the Sign-Up Genius. Together WE can make a difference. 


TJ Information

The TJ Investigative Science Outreach, a student-led organization at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology will be hosting their 12th annual invitational science fair on April 5th, 2025 and welcome 5th-8th grade students to participate. Admission to the science fair is completely free. 

Participants will complete a research project of their choice and present at the fair in-person on April 5th, 2025. We help students prepare for this fair by holding multiple sessions to teach them important skills in STEM like brainstorming, collecting data, presenting, writing an experiment summary, using statistics, creating an experimental diagram, etc.

Our first interest/brainstorming session is October 11th, 2024 at 6:00 pm. We will be holding this session both in-person at TJHSST and virtually through zoom. During this session we will go over the goals and guidelines of this fair and introduce students to a multitude of project ideas. All interested students should sign up using the form at the link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd0Y0oodU11TzBUfWFnU5lsxoWaqixuX50fxVNv5A5DxcmRvw/viewform?usp=sf_link 

Feel free to also check out our website at tjsciencefair.wordpress.com or email us at tjhsstsciencefair@gmail.com

Sincerely,

TJ Investigative Science Outreach


Attention 8th Grade Parents - Civics Field Trips

Rachel Carson Middle School 8th graders will attend Finance Park in person this year.  We would love to have you come along with us!  We are in need of 25 parent volunteers for each of our six teams. This is a 4.5 hour commitment, and includes an hour of training at the Finance Park facility next to Frost MS before our students arrive. You will help guide students through different phases of the day, which simulate real-world budgeting decisions, spending research, and bill payment. Then you’ll share your own life experiences and help them walk a day in your shoes. You bring the program to life!

Carson MS 8th grade teams are going to Finance Park on the following dates (any snow days will be rescheduled at a later time) –

Monday, December 16th - Dolphins

Tuesday, December 17th - Discovery

Wednesday, December 18th – Explorers

Thursday, December 19th - Voyagers 

Friday, December 20th - Wolves 

If you are able to volunteer with Carson’s Finance Park field trip, please view this link to create a JA account and then sign up for your child’s date to volunteer. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RWoYRLCor3U0XkEsLfIW88RX-2e8mly_/view 

Thank you for donating your time and experience to our students.  If you have any questions, please contact your child’s civics teacher.


Attendance

Parents and caregivers can report up to two consecutive full-day absences using ParentVUE. For absences longer than two days, please contact CarsonMiddle.Attendance@fcps.edu

All Day Absences: The Attendance feature in ParentVUE is the FCPS secure web solution for reporting all day absences.

Partial Absence: To report late arrivals, or to update already submitted attendance, please contact CarsonMiddle.Attendance@fcps.edu

Early Dismissal Procedure

Please do not request early dismissals online or by phone. 

To request an early dismissal please send a note with your child, or complete and print an Early Dismissal Request Form for your child. Your child should bring the note or form to the main office upon arrival to school in order to receive an early dismissal pass for that day. If you forget to send a note, students should still come to the front office to get an early dismissal pass.

All early dismissals must be before 2:00pm.

  • Learn more about attendance reporting through ParentVue

Phones Down, Engagement Up: FCPS Cell Phone Policy and Storage Pilot

Keeping cell phones off during the school day helps students focus and learn. It also boosts positive social behavior. Review FCPS’ cell phone expectations by grade level with your child and help keep our classrooms free of distractions! If you need to reach your child during the school day for emergencies only, please call Rachel Carson Middle School main office - 703-925-3600.


Afterschool Program

No After School Activities this week!

Greetings Panther families!

Click the link for the  Q2 After School ScheduleEach activity is hyperlinked with a description and information about each club. In order for students to participate in our after school program, parents must fill out the After School Registration Form (This form gives your child permission to participate in after school activities, it does not sign them up for specific activities) 

Late bus numbers are different than regular bus numbers. Please check SIS to find your child’s late bus number, it will say RCLR (Rachel Carson Late Run).

If you have questions about our after-school program, please contact  Riley Barrows, rtbarrows1@fcps.edu

After School Program Specialist


Who to Contact

If you have a question or concern, please visit our website for a full listing of  Who to Contact.  This listing includes all of our administrators, our counselors, and who to speak to regarding a specific content area or class. Contact information for all staff members is listed on our website - just click on the name of the person you wish to contact  to be redirected to their email address: RCMS Staff Directory.