Dear Cape St. Claire Families,

As we enter the month of December, I want to extend my heartfelt appreciation for your continued support of our school community. Thank you for participating in November’s Parent-Teacher Conferences and for taking the time to visit during American Education Week. Your presence, partnership, and engagement mean so much to our staff and truly enrich the educational experience of our students.

I am also proud to share that our school has maintained high student attendance rates so far this year. Additionally, our school’s percentage of chronically absent students declined last year. These are reasons to celebrate! This is a direct reflection of your commitment to ensuring your children are present, engaged, and ready to learn each day. Thank you for your dedication—please keep up the great work as regular attendance continues to make a tremendous difference in student success.

During this season of gratitude and celebration, I wish each of you a joyous and peaceful holiday season. May the weeks ahead be filled with rest, togetherness, and moments that bring you happiness.

Thank you for your ongoing partnership and for all you do to support your children and our school. We look forward to a wonderful end to 2025 and an exciting start to the new year.

Warmly,

Tamara Kelly-Molock - Principal

Rochelle Barrett- Assistant Principal

AACPS Cell Phone Policy

Students at Cape St. Claire and all AACPS elementary and middle schools must have their phones off or on silent mode and out of sight throughout the school day, including at lunch and in hallways during transitions between classes.

We would also like to encourage students' smart watches to be set to “school mode”, if possible. It is not required, but it would assist in our efforts.

Smartwatches should be in school mode and on silent mode during the school day. This includes riding to and from school on the bus.  If you need to deliver a message to your child, we ask that you call the school directly at 410-222-1685. Additionally, in the event of illness, our school health staff will contact parents and guardians. Please support optimal learning by reminding your students that texting during school hours on cell phones and smartwatches is prohibited. 

Thank you for your cooperation and partnership. 

To Our Families and Community,

Our school is looking to support our families affected by the furloughs, layoffs, and those in the military. We have identified a few local resources, which you are able to access for support. Additionally, we have local food pantries should the need arise. Below are resources to consider for additional information.

Maryland Resources for Federal Employees

https://response.maryland.gov/federalpublicservants/shutdown

Anne Arundel County Resources for Federal Employees

https://www.aacounty.org/federal-employee-assistance

Broadneck High School offers a food pantry giveaway once a month.

St. Andrew by the Bay offers assistance and has a food pantry in conjunction with St. Vincent de Paul

The St. Vincent de Paul Society is committed to assist those in need on the Broadneck Peninsula. Meetings with Society representatives are kept completely CONFIDENTIAL.

Representatives are available to assist you at the Parish Center on Mondays & Thursdays from 2:30-3:30pm with rent, utility bills and other needs. If you are unable to come during these hours, please contact the office to make special arrangements.

My Brother's Pantry

Emergency food supplies are available on a one-time basis to anyone who asks for help. Continuing monthly assistance is available to eligible community members.

 For details, call 410-757-5190 or email Linda Rzepkowski.

The Caring Cupboard (Pasadena) offers diapers, frozen/cold food, call to make an appointment

8513 Fort Smallwood Rd, Pasadena, MD 21122

Phone: (443) 840-8079

We are pleased to announce the launch of a new Community Resources Landing Page, designed to support AACPS students and their families. This centralized webpage provides easy access to local and school-based services, including food assistance, housing support, mental health resources, and more. The page is organized by category and is available in multiple languages to ensure accessibility for all families. Community Resources Page

The School Counselor’s Corner

Counseling Lessons:

In December, the primary grades will be exploring careers. First and second graders will be exploring Xello.  They can go to Xello at home from their Classlinks page. Primary students will play a game where they explore different jobs in Career Town.

Intermediate students will learn about being safe with medicines and drug abuse prevention:

Third grade: Recognizing prescription vs. non-prescription drugs - safe use, choices, and problem-solving, and an introduction to what opioid drugs are. They will be using a book: Charlie and the Curious Club: Candy or Medicine.

Fourth grade: Learning about the physical effects of drugs, understanding why substance abuse is a problem and what addiction is, and identifying how they can contribute to solving the problem of substance abuse on a community level. They will be working with materials from KidsHealth.com and recent news clips to define the problem and design a PSA, video clip, poster, etc., to address the problem.

Fifth grade: Learning and practicing strategies to deal with peer pressure, using refusal skills to build confidence to deal with situations when they might be asked to do drugs, and recognizing the effects opioids can have on the brain. Students develop strategies and receive a pocket card with strategies and resources on it.

These lessons are important because school provides a safe place where children can learn what to do in unfamiliar or uncomfortable situations. Trusted adults provide students with an opportunity to practice handling situations related to substance abuse, so that the first time a young person is faced with an unsafe situation, he or she knows what to do and has practiced doing it. Students will identify trusted adults, both inside and outside of the school, whom they can go for help.

You can make arrangements to preview the lessons with Mrs. Bachman, School Counselor, or you can view them on the AACPS  website.  Go to  https://www.aacps.org/documents/services/assistance-for-families/school-counseling/required-elementary-lessons/626222

Volunteering:

Do you want to volunteer at Cape St. Claire? We have lots of opportunities for you to help in the building and at special events!  We need regular volunteers in the Media Center to help students learn sight words and math facts, and we need field trip chaperones!  All volunteers must have a background check and have attended our volunteer orientation.  We received an update from School Security, and they are now requiring that the volunteer orientation be completed every year.  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1UI5_uJK03HdI1eAzzNLjuJRX_Hhb_xdmJnhjeMqPLng/edit?usp=sharing

If you would like me to make an appointment for your child, please let me know by calling me at 410-222-1685 or emailing me at hbachman@aacps.org.  Feel free to contact me about any social, emotional, or academic concerns you have for your student. 

Cape St. Claire Elementary Spirit Days!

• December 12th: Wacky Sweater Day

• January 5th: Pajama Day

• February 13th: Wear Red, Pink, or Purple

• March 13th: Dress like an animal or animal print

• April 10th: Super Hero Day

• May 8th: Mismatch Day

• June 12: Beach Day

   

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 November 24, 2025) 96.5%

PreK 97.4%

Kindergarten 96.5%

1st Grade 96.6%

2nd Grade 96.4%

3rd Grade 96.6%

4th Grade 96.6%

5th Grade 97%

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

Art:

Students are exploring the elements of art and principles of design through the following projects:

Mrs. Morris’ Art Classes:

PK - Shoe Print Necklaces

K - Pinch Pots

1 - Clay Penguins

2 - Baltimore Checkerspot Butterflies 

3 - Thomas Point Lighthouse

4 - Pattern Mittens

5 - Shibori Dyed Pillows

Ms. Howe’s Art Classes:

K - Movement Sailboats

1 - Black Eyed Susan Collage

2 - Baltimore Checkerspot Butterflies

3 - Winter Value Silhouettes

4 - Terrapin Scratch Art

Mrs. Morris and Ms. Howe

Triple E: STEM

Our new STEM program is taking off, and our learners are working hard as engineers in training! Our older students are exploring circuitry, 3D printing, and forces, while our younger students are measuring and investigating the science behind magnets and simple circuits. Check out our projects below!

Current STEM Projects:

Pre-K - Habits of Mind (Pt 1)

K - Magnet Mazes

1 - Kid Robot

2 - Illuminart

3 - Fantastic Contraption

4 - Spin Masters

5 - Operation

Our STEM classroom has received a grant to purchase a 3D printer from The Education Foundation of Anne Arundel County Public Schools! If you’d like to support our 3D printing projects, we’d love to receive donations of filament. Follow this link to check out what we’re looking for: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1IAR6HRB5UWOV?ref_=wl_share. 

Mrs. Bathras & Mrs. Shattuck

P.E.:

November was another great month in PE. We began the month by completing our unit on fitness components (muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, and aerobic endurance). This was followed up by a unit on basketball skills. All grades learned a variety of dribbling, shooting, and passing skills. The fitness components were integrated into this unit as well because basketball can be a lifetime fitness activity.

We are looking forward to a great month of December. Please be mindful of what days your child has PE to ensure that they are wearing athletic shoes. Thank you for your support!

Mr. Gillette and Mrs. Venturella

Media: 

Rolling into the second quarter,  students will begin "The Hour of Code" in December. During our coding lessons, students will utilize technology and problem-solving skills in our coding programs. Kindergarten will practice logging onto our Chromebooks so they can participate in "The Hour of Code" as well.   Reading new books and investigating through research will continue this quarter.

Media would greatly appreciate it if anyone has gently used puzzles or Legos that they would like to part with and donate to our center!

Mrs. Crocker and Mrs. Smith

General Music:

Throughout December, all grades will participate in songs and activities from various holidays celebrated in the month of December. The students will be working on rhythm, melodic contour and various forms while singing and playing instruments. 

The String winter concert is Thursday, Dec. 11th at 6:30 pm. The Band and Chorus winter concert is on Monday, December 15th, at 6:30 pm. 

Ms. Harrison and Mrs. Rossell

Pre-Kindergarten

This month our class will be continuing with the Heggerty Phonological Awareness curriculum, focusing on syllables. The students are currently blending and breaking apart syllables to help build the strong early reading skills needed for future success. You can help support this by playing simple word games at home with your child using similar methods as the class — such as blending syllables in familiar words, identifying ending sounds, and/or listing items that begin with a specific sound.

In addition, we will be beginning Unit 3 of the Connect4Learning curriculum and learning about how different types of tools and structures work using various forms of hands-on experiences.

Science:

Students will learn how objects work and how they move.

Math:

Students will learn to count and identify small amounts of objects without having to count them.

Students will continue to make, extend, and change patterns.

Students will explore how two-dimensional (flat) shapes can be transformed into three-dimensional (solid) shapes.

Literacy:

Students will read and write simple “how-to” texts.

Students will learn about sequences of events.

Students will continue to practice rhyming, beginning sounds, and letters.

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL):

Students will develop an understanding of recognizing their own emotions and the emotions of those around them.

Students will talk about anger and learn alternative strategies to manage it.

Support Your Child at Home:

Observe how objects move—do they roll, slide, or bounce?

When discussing objects use vocabulary related to function, design, materials, straight, and curved.

Help your child understand that some items come in groups of five, ten, etc. — you don’t have to count them all!

Talk to your child about feelings and practice managing them together.

We look forward to a fun filled month of discovery and development!

Ms. White

Kindergarten

The year is flying by! We are looking forward to another fun month of learning in Kindergarten. 

*Please make sure to continue checking your child's folder for information coming home.  

*Please remember to send in a winter change of clothes to keep in your child's locker.

*Over the 2-week winter break, please continue to reinforce the skills below. 

Language Arts: 

In December, students will be working on Skills unit 5.  In Unit 5, students will continue to learn more sounds and a few more tricky words. They are also practicing more with reading and writing short phrases with CVC words in them. Students will spend a lot of time making words and changing words with their own chaining folders in the classroom. Please take some time to read all of the resources and letters sent home by the CKLA curriculum. The information is very helpful in keeping up with what your child is learning at school and helping to reinforce these skills at home.  In CKLA Knowledge, students will be learning about Farms!  They will learn why farms are important, what happens on a farm, and the purpose of different animals.  They will also learn a lot of new vocabulary words along the way.  

Math: 

Students did a great job with sorting and describing attributes in our November math lessons! December math skills will focus on identifying and describing 2 dimensional shapes (square, rectangle, circle, triangle, hexagon).  Students will learn how to distinguish corners and sides and understand what makes it a certain shape and how it remains that shape even when turned around/flipped over. Asking questions such as: "How do you know it is a triangle?"  "How is this shape different from that shape?" will help students be able to explain their thinking. This unit will also talk about position words such as below, above, besides, behind, etc.  This skill is a fun and easy one that can be practiced at home! Remember to keep practicing rote counting and writing numerals.  

Science/SS:

Students are going to be excited about this science unit!  This unit focuses on moving objects (push/pull), changing speed and direction of objects, as well as how objects can be moved safely.  There will be lots of hands-on learning happening for students to experiment with moving objects.  

1st Grade

First grade had a wonderful first marking period full of learning adventures! As we all take time to reflect on things we are grateful for, we want to take the time to say thank you for the support and effort you give towards your child’s daily success. We hope you had a wonderful and relaxing break.

In math, we will be learning strategies to subtract within 20. Students will use tools such as number lines and tens frames, along with strategies such as counting on, counting back, near doubles, and fact families to subtract numbers within 20. A great activity to do at home to help your child with subtraction is to practice fact families using flash cards or fact triangles. 

Our new unit in Knowledge is Early World Civilizations. Students will be introduced to the development of early civilizations by examining the fundamental features, including the advent of farming, establishment of cities and government, and creation of other practices, such as writing and religion. They will explore countries across the world including early Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. Throughout this domain students will focus on informational writing by creating timelines, collaborating with their peers, and comparing key components.

Our new Skills unit will introduce additional vowel sounds and their common spellings. The grammar lessons will focus on verb identification and verb tense. This marking period we will begin weekly spelling lists and assessments. The spelling words are made up of various sound/spelling correspondences that have already been presented and taught for decoding purposes. Please be on the lookout for take-home letters from their activity books, with the list of words that your student is focusing on each week. There are recommended practice activities that you can use as a practice tool at home. 

In Science and Social Studies, students are learning about how traits connect to all living things. They will understand how their own traits are different and unique. Also, how offspring look similar to their parents and siblings, but are not identical. 

It was great meeting with you for conferences and discussing your child’s progress. We are looking forward to the upcoming field trip to the theater!  

2nd Grade

We have a lot of great topics and ideas to learn about in December.

During the Knowledge block, we will be finishing up the Greek Myths unit and moving into the War of 1812. Students will be introduced to an important period in the history of the United States. Students will learn why it is often called the Napoleonic Wars between France and Great Britain. Also, Great Britain's plan to win back the United States. In this unit, the students will be planning, drafting, and presenting a persuasive speech.   

In Skills, we will move through Unit 3 for December, where we will continue to build new spelling trees to understand vowel sounds. The students will continue to read through our decodable “Kids Excel” to practice close reading and answering comprehension questions. We will focus more on writing personal narratives towards the end of the unit.  

During Math, students will use various tools to find sums up to 100, such as base-ten blocks and number lines, to decompose and adjust addends. Students will extend their thinking of regrouping, partial sums, decomposing, and adjusting addends. Towards the end of the month, we will move on to subtraction.  

Lastly, in Science and Social Studies, we will begin our unit “We are Scientists”, where students will work in cooperative groups to describe the properties of objects: color, size, shape, texture, flexibility and luster. We will then use these descriptions to classify items and identify career connections that use classification. The students will create an investigation that determines the absorbency of different types of material. They use the data they collect to determine which material is best for our fun activity called “Desk Mop Challenge”.

We look forward to another exciting month with our second-grade students!

3rd Grade

Students have been busy and thriving in third grade! In reading, we wrapped up our unit on the human body and jumped right into text about the fascinating world of Ancient Rome. In math, students are exploring a variety of multiplication strategies and discovering the connection between multiplication and division. Keep practicing those multiplication facts at home to help build confidence and fluency!

In social studies, we’re learning about our economy and the goods and services available in our local community, while in science, students are getting hands-on experience with forces and motion. 

As a reminder… we’ll continue enjoying outdoor recess as long as we can, even as temperatures drop, so please make sure your child is bundled up and ready for some fresh-air fun!

4th Grade

Math 

Students will multiply by multiples of 10, 100, and 1000, estimate products, use the Distributive Property to multiply,  multiply 2-digit by 1-digit factors,  multiply multi-digit by 1-digit factors, multiply two multiples of 10, and multiply two 2-digit factors.

Resources:  Math Unit Letter is  linked below:

Unit 6 The Unit Letter includes games you can play with your child, as well as strategies that we’ll be using in class.

Math Fact Fluency:  Mastering multiplication facts will be crucial this year.  This is the #1 skill we recommend to help your child with at home.  All students have a First in Math account to practice facts online at home.  Thank you for the support!

Social Studies

December will bring more colonial learning.  We’ll look at the colonies as a whole, and then individually, finally focusing on Maryland.  

We’ll be answering important questions, like: 

How did where people lived affect how they lived?  

How did the pursuit of freedom lead to conflict? 

What causes people to deny freedom to others? 

Science

This month, students will explore “Outrageous Acts of Earth”.  We will analyze maps to determine the locations of earthquakes and volcanoes around the world.  Students will explore what causes these natural disasters and their effects.

CKLA  (Core Knowledge Language Arts)

Students will begin Unit 4, “Eureka, Student Inventor.” They will read a range of informational texts about inventors and inventions. In addition to the readings, students analyze objects and situations in the world around them, identify problems, and create evidence-based solutions.  Students will write informational and opinion pieces.  

Resources:  Unit 4 Family Letter

5th Grade

Hello 5th Grade Families,

Thank you for taking the time to check in with your students' teachers during Parent-Teacher Conferences. We are grateful for your partnership as we work to help your children grow! 

As a reminder, if you are hoping to chaperone for our Water Readiness or extended day field trip in the Spring, you will need to have a fingerprint-supported background check completed through AACPS (call 410-222-5045 to make an appointment).

See below for updates about what we are learning this month:

Math:

5th grade did an incredible job overall with our unit on multiplying whole numbers! This month, we will be building on that knowledge as we multiply decimals. Later, we will transition into division, beginning with a unit on dividing whole numbers. Thank you for your support in encouraging your children to complete their assigned homework (or an i-Ready Math lesson) each night.

Science/Social Studies:

In Science this month, students will learn about the four spheres of Earth (atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere) and how they interact. In Social Studies, we will explore aspects of American history following the War of 1812 and leading up to the Civil War, with a focus on Maryland. 

Knowledge:

We had a great time wrapping up our poetry unit with a Poetry Cafe before Thanksgiving Break! Our poets got to read their favorite original works for their classmates as we celebrated with hot chocolate and treats. Thank you to the PTO for donating the water heater that we used for this special event! During December, we will be reading and analyzing Don Quixote and preparing to write a persuasive piece about whether his intentions justify his actions. Be sure to ask your students for updates about his shenanigans; the kids really enjoy this unit! Also, be on the lookout for take-home pages coming home again with assignment details in your children's agenda books. 

Thank you, families, for your continued support at home! 

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!

Upcoming Important Dates

Tuesday, December 9 - 2-hour early dismissal day, Project Unity Day, and Professional Development

Thursday, December 11 - Strings Winter Concert, 6:30 pm

Monday, December 15 - Band & Chorus Winter Concert, 6:30 pm

Monday, December 22 - Friday, January 2,  Schools & Central Offices Closed for Winter Break

School Hours

8:00 am to 2:25 pm Doors open at 7:45 am

931 Blue Ridge Drive Annapolis, MD 21409

Phone: 410-222-1685

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