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. 

Cape St. Claire Elementary Spirit 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 School Year-To-Date Attendance (As of April 24, 2026) 95.6%

PreK 95.8%

Kindergarten 94.8%

1st Grade 95.4%

2nd Grade 95.3%

3rd Grade 95.6%

4th Grade 95.5%

5th Grade 96.4%

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:

Mrs. Morris’ Art Classes:

PK - Pattern Caterpillars

K - Crab Weavings

1 - Roller Coaster Sculptures

2 - Van Gogh Sunflowers

3 - Paper Sculpture Chameleons

4 - Paper-mache Art Materials 

5 - Clay Boomboxes

Ms. Howe’s Art Classes:

K - Koinobori Windsocks

1 - Spring Flowers

2 - Scientist Portraits 

3 - Clay Koi Ponds

4 - Rope Baskets

Mrs. Morris and Ms. Howe

Triple E: STEM

Our 4th quarter projects are in full swing! See the chart below for grade-level project titles. 

Pre-K - Pattern Parade

K - Bee Kind to Insects

1 - Pigeon Perch

2 - Make Way for Ducklings

3 - Water Harvesters

4 - Secret Signal Society

5 - Robo Rovers

Mrs. Ulery’s class had the opportunity to spread kindness using our 3D printer! They created unique gifts for staff throughout the building for Teacher Appreciation Week. We look forward to incorporating 3D printing into future projects throughout the grade levels. 

If you’d like to support our 3D printing endeavors, we’d love to receive donations of filament. Thank you so much to all of the parents who have purchased filament for us so far! 

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.:

April was another great month in PE. The majority of the month was focused on throwing and catching skills. Students in Pre-K - 2nd grade focused on the form for throwing as they participated in a variety of games/ activities that focused on throwing for distance and/or accuracy. Students in 3rd - 5th grade used throwing and catching skills in dynamic situations while traveling. These students also participated in our wall ball challenge, in which the students try to progress through varying throwing and catching challenges.

This year’s Field Day event will occur on Thursday, May 28, 2026 (rain date is Thursday, June 4). Field day is a fun event for the students and could not be possible without volunteers helping to run the stations. If you are interested in volunteering, please use the link below to sign up. Thank you for your support!

Field Day 2026 Volunteer Form

Mr. Gillette and Mrs. Venturella

Media: 

During the month of May, students will focus on Makerspace Projects. Each grade will have an arts-integrated project that connects to a specific book we will be reading. As we are approaching the end of the year, please continue to look for any missing books at home. Thank you for your assistance in the book return! 🙂 

Mrs. Crocker and Mrs. Smith

General Music:

The Strings Concert is Tuesday, May 12th, at Magothy River Middle School.

The Band and Chorus concert is on Thursday, May 14th, at Cape St. Claire Elementary School.

Students in Kindergarten through Second Grade will be reviewing all the musical concepts they have learned throughout the year by singing, moving, and playing instruments. 

Third Grade will be reviewing all the musical concepts learned throughout the year and playing the soprano recorder while working on their fingerings, note names, and rhythm skills.

Fourth Grade will be performing on recorders to earn their black belt in Recorder Karate. They will also be reviewing musical concepts learned throughout the year by singing and playing.

Fifth grade will be working on reviewing musical concepts in past units, styles of music, and performing on the ukulele by playing chords. 

Ms. Harrison and Mrs. Rossell

Pre-Kindergarten

Happy May!

We are towards the end of Unit 5: Growing Our Garden unit, and we have been having so much fun.

We have planted grass that we are trimming ourselves, bean seeds, and have been having fun being outside and finding the nature we have been learning about!

For letters and sounds, we are now reviewing the entire alphabet and will continue to focus on 3 letters a week. Your children have been loving making silly rhymes. Try at home to give them a letter sound to change all beginning sounds in a song. For example, have them change all words in Old McDonald all to begin with the /m/ sound. "Mold McDonald Mad a Marm.. Me Mi Me Mi Mo". 

We are continuing to work on adding numbers together through stories and working on stretching out our own words during writing time. 

As we finish this unit, we will spend the rest of May circling back to our favorite games and lessons from this year with our new skills and knowledge. 

Kindergarten

Happy May! We are looking forward to seeing everyone for Parent-teacher conferences on Thursday, May 21st, and Friday, May 22nd. Remember that only pre-k and kindergarten students do not have school on those two days. Please see the reminders for the month of May.

Language Arts:  In May, we will complete Skills Unit 9 and begin Skills Unit 10. Students are making great progress as they work on decoding longer words and learning more challenging, tricky words. We will also focus more on written response questions to help students demonstrate their understanding of stories.  It is important to continue practicing and reinforcing these skills at home. Mastering these foundational reading and comprehension skills will help ensure students are prepared for success in first grade. In Knowledge, we will be finishing our unit "Taking Care of the Earth" and beginning our research unit "Art and the World Around us."

Math:  We have had a great time comparing 2D & 3D shapes over the past few weeks!  The final project of sorting fun snack shapes was amazing!  Thank you to everyone who helped support this real-world activity.  Using the correct vocabulary to describe shapes has been a challenge, but we know that with practice and more exposure, they will master it! Our next unit will return the focus to counting up to 100.  Students will work on counting by 1's & 10's to 50 without missing any numbers.  Then we will work on counting on from any number to 100.  Have fun counting collections, steps on a walk, or cool things you find on your travels!

Social Studies: In Social Studies, we will be working on the unit entitled "Where We Live".  We will locate our school, describe local environmental resources, and identify local land features. Students will also be able to explain how location makes their community special. We will practice locating Maryland using cardinal directions (north, south, east, and west) on maps, globes, and Google Earth.

1st Grade

While the end of the school year is approaching, first grade will continue to explore new skills and concepts. Please continue to check your child’s take-home folders for curriculum activities and family letters. These documents provide opportunities to reinforce important skills and concepts at home.  

The first-grade mathematicians will be moving into our measurement and data unit. Students will learn about how to measure lengths, tell time to the nearest hour and half hour, and display and interpret data. We will then move into our equal shares unit. We will learn how to identify and draw halves and fourths.

During our science and social studies blocks, we will be exploring the differences between needs and wants and how they are met. Students will identify goods and services. They will discuss how goods are produced and get to the market. Then we will discover how people invent things to overcome challenges. 

During our knowledge block, students are finishing up the Animals and Habitats unit and are gathering ideas for their habitat creations. Then, we will start a unit on fairy tales. Students will be introduced to fairy tales that have been favorites with children for generations. They will learn about the elements of fairy tales that distinguish them as a unique type of fiction that still has the elements of character, plot, and setting. 

In Literacy Skills, students will continue to learn about spelling alternatives for consonant sounds and then learn about the spelling alternatives for vowel sounds. They will continue to work with two-syllable words and expand their sight word and tricky word vocabulary. Students will learn about the use of conjunctions, commas, and noun-verb agreement in sentences. They will begin to read the decodable book, “Kay and Martez”. It focuses on a young girl, Kay, and her friendship with a boy named Martez. The stories include history and geography topics from the Core Knowledge curriculum. 

Please continue to encourage reading at home, along with practicing sight words and spelling words.

2nd Grade

In Knowledge, we will continue in Unit 11 Immigration, where we will learn about the United States being a country of immigrants.  Students will learn about the biggest wave of immigration to the United States, which occurred between 1880 and 1920. They will also learn why immigrants settled in particular cities and regions upon arrival. Students will practice collecting and synthesizing by using note-taking tools such as charts and graphic organizers.  

For Skills, we will begin Unit 6, where students will apply all they have learned with grammar and spelling. We will focus on tricky spellings that are now a part of a spelling pattern we have discussed in prior units. Our decodable this unit is called The War of 1812. We will revisit what we have learned in our Knowledge unit and discuss many important vocabulary words to help us decode those words and understand their meaning as we find them in the text. The students will be introduced to expository writing or report writing towards the end of the unit. 

In Math, we will begin Unit 11: Data Analysis. Students will gather, organize, and analyze data throughout this unit. They will build an understanding of how to represent data shown in a tally chart in different ways. New representations will be introduced, including picture graphs, bar graphs, and line plots. Students will use the representations to analyze and draw conclusions about the data. 

Lastly, in Science and Social Studies, the students will continue the unit on becoming “Researchers”.  In this unit, students learn about ways that researchers gather information, conduct experiments, analyze data, and make conclusions to learn something new and create something new.

We look forward to a fun month of learning and hopefully great weather, too!  

3rd Grade

After a well-deserved spring break, our third graders have returned refreshed and ready to take on the rest of the school year!

In April, students had their first experience with MCAP testing. We are so proud of their focus, perseverance, and effort during the Language Arts assessment. We look forward to seeing them continue to shine as they complete the Math portion on May 4–8.

In reading, we are beginning an exciting unit on ecology. Students will explore how living organisms within an ecosystem depend on one another and how both natural events and human actions can impact the environment.

In social studies, students will learn about civic responsibility and the importance of taking action within a community. They will also apply their knowledge of economics by planning and running their own business—an activity they always enjoy!

In science, we will dive into the study of fossils and discover what they can teach us about Earth’s history.

In math, students will wrap up their work with measurement and data. We will focus on mass, time, volume, and graphing. This is a great time to practice reading an analog clock at home!

Thank you, as always, for your continued support and for encouraging your child to finish the school year strong!

4th Grade

Math  

We are working on Unit 13, Measurement and Data. In this unit, the students 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.

We will move into Unit 14, Geometric Figures. In this unit, the students will build on and formalize their understanding of geometric figures (points, lines, line segments, rays, angles) and shapes. Students will describe key features of 2D figures and use these key features to classify them in more complex ways. Students will use geometric vocabulary to describe lines of symmetry in 2D figures. 

Resources:

Unit 13 Family Letter

Unit 14 Family Letter

Social Studies 

Fourth grade will explore the perspectives of different Marylanders during the American Revolution.  Why were some people in support of the war and some against it?  How did women, the enslaved, and Indigenous Americans feel about a war in which they could not officially participate, but would affect their lives greatly?

Science 

We will finish researching different energy sources that are available to generate electricity.  After that, we’ll develop our own criteria for choosing an energy source.  Students will decide what is most important to them when selecting the best energy source. We will begin studying the engineering/design process by designing and testing tsunami-proof houses! 

CKLA  (Core Knowledge Language Arts)

We will continue Unit 8 reading Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.  Reading lessons will focus on character development, setting, plot, and literary devices.  In the writing lessons, students will engage in an extended writing project while continuing to practice the various stages of the writing process. They will begin by drafting a character sketch and then will write, publish, and share an original adventure story.

Resources:

Unit 8 Family Letter

5th Grade

Hello 5th Grade Families,

Your students’ last quarter of elementary school is underway! As we approach the end of the year, please take a moment to review school expectations with your children, especially the need to try their best and treat people respectfully. Be sure to look through the papers they are bringing home weekly, as well, as we have many exciting events coming up and will send updates home in their folders as well as through Rooms and Canvas announcements.

The Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP) for Math will be on May 11th, 12th, 13th, and 15th. To best set your students up for success, please ensure they are arriving at school on time, feeling well-rested, and having been fed. They should bring their headphones to school on these testing days, as well.

This month, we will have our special 5th-grade field trip to DC on May 21st! We will be taking charter buses, going on a walking tour, and making connections to our learning this year as we explore various museums. Students need to arrive by 7:00 A.M. for this trip, and while we plan to be back in time for our normal dismissal, parents will need to look out for communication from the school that afternoon in the event we encounter an unexpected delay. Chaperones must have fingerprint-supported background checks through AACPS in addition to having completed the volunteer orientation and will be notified the first week of May once we have collected permission slips. Please reach out to the 5th-grade team with any questions!

Coming up in June, we will celebrate our 5th graders with a promotion ceremony on June 15th from 5:30-7:30 P.M. at the school, and class picnic details will be announced shortly, as well. Please be on the lookout for more information coming home soon about these events!

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

Math:

This month, we will complete Unit 12: Measurement and Data as well as Unit 13: Geometry. Students will also take MCAP the week of May 11th and will not have Math class on those testing days. Please continue to encourage your student to complete their assigned homework or an i-Ready Math lesson each night.

Science/Social Studies:

Students will end the year exploring engineering design in Science, with a focus on conserving Earth’s resources (especially water). They will use Engineering Design Principles to design, test, and optimize water filtration systems. They will continue to learn about the challenges of American economic, political, and civil life from the 1900s to the present in Social Studies, with emphasis on identifying and exploring people’s rights.

Knowledge:

This month, we will finish our unit on Chemical Matter and begin our final research unit, Beyond Juneteenth, 1865-Present. Please continue to encourage students to complete their homework each night- it will continue to vary, with the assignment being either to read for 20 minutes or complete a take-home page from the curriculum.  Thank you to the PTO for the supplies you have donated for our end-of-unit celebrations this year. The students (and teachers) have really enjoyed them!

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

Monday & Tuesday, May 21 & 22 - Pre-K and Kindergarten conferences - no school for these students only

Monday, May 25 - Schools & Central Offices closed - Memorial Day

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