The Cape St. Claire Gazette

Dear Cape St. Claire Elementary School Families,

Happy April! We are excited to welcome the new month and enjoy all the learning opportunities it brings. As we head into spring, we want to share some important reminders and updates with you.

On behalf of our entire school community, I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to our PTO for organizing such a fantastic STEM Night last month. The event was incredibly well attended, and it was wonderful to see so many students and families engaged in hands-on learning and exploration. The PTO’s hard work and dedication made the evening both enjoyable and enriching for everyone. We truly appreciate all that our PTO  does to support our school, and we are grateful for the time and effort they put into making events like this so special!

Spring Break will take place from Monday, April 14th through Monday, April 21st. There will be no school during this time. We hope your family enjoys a restful and enjoyable break, and we look forward to seeing students back on April 22nd ready to learn!

As we move into the final months of the school year, we ask for your support in reinforcing our school-wide expectations with your children. At Cape St. Claire, we emphasize:

• Respect for Self

• Respect for Others

• Respect for Property

• Respect for Learning

Please take a moment to remind your child about the importance of these values both in and out of school. By working together, we can ensure a positive and respectful learning environment for all!

Thank you for your continued support and partnership. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us.

Wishing you a wonderful April!

Educationally Yours,

Tamara Kelly-Molock-Principal
Rochelle Barrett- Assistant Principal

The School Counselor’s Corner

Classroom Counseling Lessons:

The classroom lessons focusing on Preventing Child Abuse are complete.  Your children learned about keeping themselves safe from unsafe or uncomfortable situations and stranger safety.  Here is a copy of the Protect Yourself Rules if you would like to review them with your child. Please note that they change slightly for the older students.

Conflict Resolution:

There have been a lot of self-referrals to counseling for peer relationships in the past month.  The children in grades 1-5 recently had lessons on conflict resolution.  They learned that conflicts escalate quickly and things like blaming, eye-rolling, yelling, involving others, and getting defensive are roadblocks to solving the problem. They also learned these strategies to de-escalate the conflict.  Please have your student tell you about the strategies. 

Fifth Grade Parents: 

Course registration for middle school is complete!  If your child is going to a Magnet school, please watch out for their information night for parents.  They will communicate with you directly.  I cannot believe the 5th graders have one more marking period in elementary school!  If any of your children are concerned about middle school, please let me know. 

PBIS: Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports

We are off to a great start this school year! Students are excited about our Soaring Seagull of the Day initiative. It is great to see the smiling, proud faces of the students who earn them daily.

Children can earn individual recognition with a seagull feather for following the school rules. Classrooms can earn pompoms for their Class Respect Jar and earn group recognition. Classroom celebrations are occurring and students remain excited about them. Our quarterly event will occur early next month; it is extra recess. That is always a favorite event with our students.

The PBIS committee oversees spirit days too. We will have spirit days on the second Friday of every month. Here is a list of the spirit days for this school year!

· April 11th: Superhero Day

· May 9th: Mismatch Day

· June 13th: Beach Day

We are excited to promote school spirit and positive behaviors through our PBIS program. Cape St. Claire is truly #TheFlockThatRocks!

Did you know that as many as one in three students in the country miss 10%, or about 18 days, of the school year? Let's work together to make sure all kids show up and participate every day possible. Being in school supports students' social, emotional, and physical well-being and provides students with opportunities to learn and reach for their dreams. Let's show up together and make daily attendance a habit.

Cape St. Claire Overall Year-To-Date Attendance (As of March 21, 2025) 94.3%

PreK 95.2%

Kindergarten 95.8%

1st Grade 96.2%

2nd Grade 96.5%

3rd Grade 96.6%

4th Grade 97%

5th Grade 96.2%

Parents and Guardians—If your student is late to school, please have them bring a note explaining their absence to the office. This can be from you or their medical professional if they were tardy due to an appointment. When they are absent, please submit an electronic attendance note through the Parent Portal, or you can write one.

Cultural Arts

Triple E: Global Studies

PK-Magnet Maze

K-Animal Puppetry

1-Global Grooves

2-International Kite Festival

3-I Spy

4-USA Road Trip

5-Multi-Cultural Amusement Park

Highlights

• 5th Grade Field Trip to Six Flags- Permission Slips due by April 4th!

• 1st Grade learned the Hukalei dance from a guest artist in March!

• Kindergarten will participate in a Puppetry Workshop with Blue Sky Puppet Theatre on April 10th!

Ask your student how they are learning to be a better communicator, collaborator, and critical thinker in the Triple E classroom!

Mrs. Bathras and Mrs. Shattuck

tmbathras@aacps.org jshattuck@aacps.org 

Music:

Chorus News:

The Chorus, String, and Band Spring Concert is May 15th at Cape St. Claire Elementary.

General Music News:

April is Jazz Month. The students will listen to and perform some Jazz music. They will learn about some famous Jazz musicians.

Earth Day is April 22nd. The students will be performing some Earth Day songs that week. 

Kindergarten through second grade is focusing on tone color, melody, harmony, rhythm and texture through singing, moving, listening to music and playing instruments. 

Second grade will be going to the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra on May 8th at Maryland Hall. They are learning about the instrument families and names of instruments to prepare for the symphony field trip. 

Third grade is performing songs on the recorder with the notes B, A, and G by reading the treble clef and using the correct fingering. They will perform songs in different tempos, and perform some rounds and harmony.

Fourth grade is working on “Recorder Karate” and earning ribbons for each song they perform correctly. They will perform some syncopated rhythms, and learn about the history of Jazz and Ragtime.

Fifth grade is focusing on harmony, styles of music, and music of different cultures by singing and playing instruments. The students are reading notes on the treble clef and playing chords on the ukulele.

Ms. Harrison and Mrs. Abbott

Media: 

Happy spring from the media center!

Intermediate grades will vote on their favorite Black Eyed-Susan nominated books. Students will continue research and will gather facts to make a video. 

Primary grades will vote on their favorite Black Eyed-Susan nominated books.  Students will practice research strategies to gather important facts using digital tools and databases.  

Mrs. Crocker and Mrs. Smith

Art:

Thank you so much to everyone who participated in our Art To Remember fundraiser! If you choose to have your order sent to our school, your order is due to arrive the week of April 7th. Once received, your student will receive their order during their scheduled art time. If you would prefer to have items placed in the office for pickup, please email Mrs. Morris at semorris@aacps.org. Still interested in ordering? There’s still time! Place your order before April 11th to have your order benefit our fundraiser at the full percentage amount!

Wishlist: Brown Paper Grocery Bags with Handles

Mrs. Morris’ Art Classes:

March Lions/Lambs

K - Woven Crabs

1 - Rousseau’s Jungles

2 - Van Gogh Sunflowers

3 - Paper Sculpture Chameleons

4 - Geometric Gemstone Ring Pops

5 - Wampum Belt Weavings

Ms. Howe’s Art Classes:

K - Koi Fish Windsocks

1 - Cave Art

2 - Faith Ringgold Story Quilts

3 - Clay Koi Fish Pinch Pot Ponds

4 - Gem/Crystal Value Paintings

Mrs. Morris and Ms. Howe

P.E.:

April was another great month in Physical Education. We started the month with a unit on fine motor skills by utilizing the Speed Stacks equipment. The students learned a variety of stacking patterns as well as creating their own patterns. Throughout this unit, we also incorporated health related fitness components. After that, we spent a week focusing on the health related fitness components through different stations including the climbing wall. We finished off the month using the scooters to focus on balance, force production, and muscular strength/endurance.

Looking ahead, our field day event will be on Thursday, May 29th. Additional information will be sent home in April. We will be asking for parent volunteers to help run the stations during this school-wide event. Thank you for your support!

Mr. Gillette and Mrs. Venturella

Pre-Kindergarten

In April, Pre-K’s theme will be Growing. We will learn about how plants, animals, food, and people grow. We will read books about plants and gardens and use the Scientific Method and nonstandard measurement as we grow different plants in the classroom. We will even get to use our five senses with different herbs such as dill, peppermint, oregano, basil, etc.

Besides nonstandard measurement, in Math, we will work on greater than, less than, and equal to, play missing number games, and introduce the concept of “plus 1”. To build our pre-reading skills, we will learn about word families and focus on identifying initial sounds in words. The social skill we will focus on is expanding our vocabulary when it comes to emotions.

Kindergarten

March seemed to fly by with lots of fun activities in Kindergarten! The students had so much fun with our Kings and Queens ball. Please read the curriculum updates below so that you can continue to reinforce important skills and concepts at home.  

Language Arts: The students have been doing a wonderful job learning the double letter teams and decoding increasingly difficult words. In April, we will finish up Skills 8 and move onto Skills 9. In Skills 9 students will work on capital letters, decoding sentences and phrases, and 15 new Trick words! Remember the trick words are words that are not completely decodable because all of the letters in the words don’t follow the rules, so students are encouraged to practice and memorize them. Another big change in Skills 9 is students are going to start answering story questions by completing the worksheets in addition to the regular comprehension discussions.  In Knowledge, we will be continuing the Columbus and Pilgrims unit and then moving on to Domain 11: Taking care of the Earth. 

Math: We have finished recognizing, counting, and breaking down teen numbers in class for now.  We would love for our students to continue counting and writing the teen numbers correctly at home when they can.  Our new unit will focus on comparing 2D & 3D shapes.  We will examine attributes of shapes and ask students to describe the corners, faces, and edges.  They will be able to name the shapes based on the descriptions.  This is a great opportunity to make connections at home since there are so many solid figures/3D shapes in our houses.  Have fun going on shape hunts or sorting shapes at home!  Towards the end of the month, we will move back to counting.  Students will work towards a goal of counting to 100 fluently, without skipping numbers and being able to count on from a given number.

Social Studies:  We will be starting our new economics unit called “Making Choices”. The purpose of this Kindergarten economics unit is to introduce students to the foundational concepts of economics by exploring how people make choices due to limited resources. Students will learn why they cannot have everything they want, how natural and human resources are used in schools, and why resources are limited. They will understand the role of incentives in decision-making, recognize that choices have future consequences, and discover barter as a form of trade. Additionally, students will explore jobs and careers in their community, identifying the personal characteristics and interests needed for various roles. This unit aims to foster an early understanding of how people make decisions, trade, and contribute to their community through economic choices.

1st Grade

Spring has arrived and first grade students are excited to be enjoying more time outside for recess. We are working on planning a field trip for spring. Please be on the lookout for more information to come.

The first-grade mathematicians will continue to work on addition and subtraction. We will focus on solving comparison word problems. Students will also work on subtracting within 100. 

During our science and social studies blocks we will be exploring bubbles. Students will focus on being perceptive and persistent when noticing patterns that bubbles make. They will also work on creating the best mixture for bubbles.

During our knowledge block, students will be learning about animals and habitats. We will be asking the students to use what they have learned about habitats to create a diorama. There will be a letter coming home at the beginning of the unit asking for students to start collecting some materials for this fun project. 

In Literacy Skills, we will continue to apply decoding strategies when reading one and two syllable words. Students will identify the different ways to make the /s/, /z/, /m/, /n/, /ng/, /w/ sounds. Please review the spelling patterns introduced in the spelling lists that are sent home. Students will also work on expanding sentences by adding prepositions. They will begin reading the decodable reader, Grace. The book will be about a girl named Grace who lives on a farm in the Midwest. Students will end our unit by writing their own personal narratives. Students will plan, draft and edit during the writing process. 

2nd Grade

We have a lot of exciting lessons and activities coming up in April, to start our 4th marking period. 

In Knowledge, we will be finishing our Insect unit and then moving on to the U.S. Civil War unit! In the new unit, the students will be introduced to another important period in U.S. history.  They will learn about the controversy over slavery between the North and the South, which eventually led to the Civil War.  The students will learn about significant people during this time, including Harriet Tubman, Abraham Lincoln, Clara Barton, Robert E. Lee, and Ulysses S. Grant.

During Skills, we will continue our unit 5 as students continue to be introduced to and familiar with spelling alternatives for vowel sounds. They will continue to read the chapters in the decodable book called “Sir Gus” and learn about the serendipitous undertakings of Sir Gus, one of King Alfred’s knights. Towards the end of the month, we will move on to Unit 6 where students will work in a new decodable and learn about expository writing.  

In Math, we will continue Unit 9, strategies to add 3-digit numbers.  Students will build upon their understanding of adding 2-digit numbers. They will extend their understanding of the following strategies: decomposing addends, partial sums, adjusting addends, and the use of pictorial representations with math manipulatives.  Next, in Unit 10 Strategies to Subtract 3-Digit Numbers where they will be representing numbers in base-ten blocks, then taking away the lesser number, students will visually see how 3-digit subtraction results in the difference.

Lastly, in Science and Social Studies, the students will begin the new unit, “We are Time Travelers”.  Students will generate questions about individuals or groups that have shaped history. The topic students explore for the entire unit is museums, which allow all people to visit and learn about the past.  We will then move on to becoming “Researchers”.  

We are looking forward to a great month of learning and fun in April!!

3rd Grade

Spring is here and we cannot believe it is already the 4th marking period!  

In reading, we will be learning about the early explorers of North America.  Students will be keeping exploration logs for Columbus, Ponce de Leon, and Hernando de Soto to form an opinion of who they feel was the most successful explorer.

In math, students will be learning about perimeter and measurement.  These are fun and interactive units that provide many opportunities for real-life application.  We encourage you to have your child apply these skills at home whenever possible!

During April, we will focus mostly on science.  Students will continue to learn about inherited traits.  We will discuss the effects of environmental change on plants/animals and discover how fossils are formed.  

MCAP testing and the end of the school year are approaching quickly!  Please continue to remind your child to remain focused and exhibit respect for self, others, property, and learning.  We appreciate your support!

4th Grade

Math  

In unit 12, Decimal Fractions, your child will learn how to represent tenths and hundredths using decimals, comparing decimals, and adding fractions. In Unit 13, Units of Measurement and Data, your child will learn how to convert larger units of measurement to smaller units. Your child will also learn how to display and interpret data on line plots.

Resources:

Unit 12 Family Letter

Unit 13 Family Letter

Social Studies 

We will continue to focus on the American Revolution.  Our enduring understanding for this unit is that when governments do not meet the needs or wants of the governed, people revolt.  While quarter 3 focused on the events leading to the American Revolution, quarter 4 will focus on the revolution itself.  We’ll start at Lexington and Concord and end with the Articles of Confederation.  In between, we’ll be exploring whether or not the revolution truly achieved life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all.  

Science 

In April, we will begin Unit 6: Fuel and the Environment.  This unit focuses on obtaining and combining information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and their uses affect the environment. Students will explore different sources of energy, determine their origin, how they address human energy needs, and discuss their positive and negative impacts on the environment. This unit culminates with students synthesizing their learning to make decisions on how to power a town given budget and environmental concerns. This unit includes the study of the following renewable and non-renewable energy sources: fossil fuels, solar, wind, and hydroelectric (water). 

CKLA  (Core Knowledge Language Arts)

Unit 8 examines the fiction genre through a classic novel, Treasure Island. Students will focus on character development, setting, and plot, as well as literary devices, while reading an abridged version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s popular adventure story. In addition, this text presents an opportunity for students to learn about the adventure story as a unique subgenre of fiction. Students will also be exposed to other relevant aspects of the text, such as geography, pirates, and sailing.

Resources:

Unit 8 Family Letter

5th Grade

We are finally in the 4th marking period and the end of the year is fast approaching.  We are looking forward to our field trip to Philly on April 9th.  This is an out-of-state, extended-day field trip.  For us to be on time to meet our tour guides in Philadelphia, we will need to start boarding the buses at 6:45 am.  We will pull out of Cape St. Claire parking lot at 7:00 am.  We will be traveling during peak hours so we cannot wait for late arrivals.  Please make any necessary arrangements so that all students who have paid for the trip do not miss the bus. MCAP is scheduled for April 30th, May 2nd, May 5th, and May 6th.  Please make sure your child gets a good night’s sleep the night before and eats a good breakfast the morning of.  In our next unit in math, we will be exploring measurement and data.  In CKLA we will be learning about Native Americans.  You can view newsletters for both of these units in Rooms.  We continue learning about our country’s history post-Civil War in social studies and we will be going into the unit on engineering and design in science.

Cape Families - Please keep in mind that domestic pets, such as dogs and cats, are not permitted on school grounds. Thank you for working with us to keep all students safe!

When visiting the school, please remember to bring your government issued photo ID