The Cape St. Claire Gazette

Dear Cape St. Claire Elementary  Families,

As we move into May, it's hard to believe that the school year is beginning to wind down! This is always an exciting and busy time filled with celebrations, reflection, and lots of special events.

First, I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to our amazing PTO, volunteers, and community members for making our Escape the Cape 5K and 1 Mile Fun Run such a wonderful success! It was so special to see so many families come together for a day of fun, fitness, and community spirit. We are grateful for your support and energy!

The week of May 5th  is Teacher Appreciation Week, and I want to take a moment to recognize and thank our incredible teachers. Their dedication, passion, and care for our students make a lasting impact each and every day. I hope you’ll join me in celebrating them and showing our appreciation for all that they do!

As we look ahead, please be sure to read the important information about Field Day later in this newsletter. Field Day is scheduled for May 29th, and we can’t wait to celebrate a day full of teamwork, sportsmanship, and fun with all our students! The communication also includes information about volunteer requirements and signup, so be sure to read it carefully. 

Finally, information about this year’s class picnics will be shared in the upcoming weeks. The information will be sent by teachers and posted in Rooms. We are happy to continue this fun Cape tradition!

Thank you for your continued partnership. It’s a joy to work together to make these last weeks of school memorable and meaningful for our children.

Wishing you a wonderful May!

Educationally Yours,

Tamara Kelly-Molock-Principal
Rochelle Barrett- Assistant Principal

The School Counselor’s Corner

Classroom Counseling Lessons: Career Exploration!

We are in the final marking period of the year, and that means we will be talking about careers!

For our K-2 students, we have a fun and interactive game in Xello that introduces them to a variety of careers. In this game, the kids will work to solve the mystery of where the villain has taken all the community workers. Each part of the game provides clues, and by the end, they’ll have cracked the case and learned about different jobs along the way!

For our upper-grade students, we’ll be diving deeper into career exploration. Students will create their own career profiles, identify their interests and skills, and complete a series of missions. These include:

• Why People Work

• School Subjects and Career Connections

• Tools for Success

• Goal Setting

• Facing Big Challenges

In addition, students will be able to explore various careers through the Career Tab in Xello. This tool provides essential information, such as job details, salaries, and the path to get started in each career. Whether it’s on-the-job training, a 2- or 4-year college program, or even more specialized education, students will get a clear picture of how to reach their career goals.

Conflict Resolution:

There have been a lot of self-referrals to counseling for peer relationships in the past month.  Last month, the children in grades 1-5 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: 

I have started meeting with each 5th grader to talk about Middle School.  In this session with me, the children will look at their grades, talk about fears and excitements for middle school, as well as ask me anything they want to 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!

· 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 April 29, 2025) 95.5%

PreK 95.8%

Kindergarten. 96.1%

1st Grade 95.7%

2nd Grade 95.1%

3rd Grade 96.4%

4th Grade 96.4%

5th Grade 93.2%

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-Bee Friends

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- May 9th!

• With the warming weather, we are eager to take some of our project work outside. If you have any connections to any of the project topics listed, let us know!

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

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

The students are to wear white tops and black pants/skirts for the daytime and evening performances. Chorus will perform at 7:00 pm. 

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.

Second Grade is going to the Annapolis Symphony on Wednesday, May 8th. 

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. Abbott

Media

Students will be reading books and participating in collaborative projects to make a difference in the community. We would greatly appreciate any yarn donations for upcoming projects. Yarn can be dropped off to Mrs. Crocker and Mrs. Smith in the media center. We will continue to code, inquiry-based learning through research.

Mrs. Crocker and Mrs. Smith

Art

Mrs. Morris’ Art Classes

PK - Horizontal/Vertical Lines

K - Koinobori Windsocks

1 - Recycled Masterpieces

2 - Spring Textured Animals

3 - Paper Sculpture Chameleons

4 - Coil Pots

5 - Wampum Belt Weavings/Clay Boomboxes

Ms. Howe’s Art Classes

K - Koinobori Windsocks

1 - Primary Color Wet Shaking Dogs

2 - Faith Ringgold Story Quilts

3 - Paper Sculpture Chameleons

4 - Ming Dynasty Vases

Mrs. Morris and Ms. Howe

P.E.

Cape Saint Claire Elementary Field Day

Our Field Day event will occur on Thursday May 29, 2025 (rain date is Thursday June 5). Field day is a fun event for the students and could not be possible without volunteers helping to run the stations. If you can help with the events for the day, please use the link below to complete the Field Day Volunteer Form by May 10.

The Volunteer Orientation and the background check (links are found on the “Field Day Form”) are required if you would like to volunteer for field day. This process can take a few weeks for approval, so please complete these items ASAP if you have not done so already.

Field Day Volunteer Form

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely, 

Mr. Gillette and Mrs. Venturella

Pre-Kindergarten

In May, Pre-K’s theme will remain the concept of “Growing”. We will continue to learn about how plants, animals, food, and people grow. We will learn how food transforms and travels from seeds to our tables! As we grow our own beans, flowers and herbs in class, we will compare the differences in the plants. We will even get to take them home!

In Math, we will focus on the concept of “plus 1” and build addition and subtraction skills using ten frames. To build our pre-reading skills, we will review rhyming, continue making word families, and focus on identifying the final sounds in words. The social skill we will focus on is “standing up for ourselves” (respect for self).

Dates to note: May 9th: Walking Field Trip to Broadneck Library

May 22nd-23rd: Parent/Teacher conferences

Kindergarten

We cannot believe that we are already in the month of May! On Thursday, May 22nd, and Friday, May 23rd of this month, there will be no school for kindergarten and pre-k students. These two days are for parent-teacher conferences. The rest of the students (1st- 12th) still have school on those days. You will receive information regarding your conference from your kindergarten teacher. Also, look for information coming home regarding our field trip to Downs Park on June 3rd.  We will need lots of parental help with this field trip! 

Language Arts: In CKLA Skills, students are finishing up unit 9 and continuing to unit 10.  Unit 10 is a challenging unit that helps kindergarteners be exposed to some of the content for first grade. They will continue to work on decoding and writing words, identifying and reading trick words, reading decodable stories, and answering questions about those stories through writing and multiple choice. Please continue to read the information being sent home and practice these skills with your child at home.  In Knowledge, we will continue our Unit "Taking care of the Earth" and then start our last knowledge unit of the year,  "Presidents and American Symbols."

Math: Kindergarten students are continuing to practice counting to 100 for the first part of May. The goal is to be able to count fluently from any given number and identify what comes before or after a number. Our next unit will swing our focus back to shapes.  Students will examine and compare attributes of shapes and also create shapes by drawing or building with manipulatives. Take time to discuss shapes and attributes of real-world items around your home or community to support our lessons on comparing/contrasting things.

Science/Social Studies: Students will observe and compare images representing the past and present to understand how time and technology have shaped our world. They will explore what technology is, why progress is important, and how it has changed daily life, play, learning, and communication over time. Students will distinguish between past, present, and future and examine how schools have evolved. They will create personal timelines, set goals for the future, and learn about the role of technology in shaping these changes.

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 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. Students will then begin “A New Nation: American Independence” unit. They will hear about when and how our country started. They will be introduced to many important historical figures and events as the story unfolds of how the thirteen colonies were determined and gained their independence from Britain to become the United States of America.

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. 

2nd Grade

For May, we will be moving towards our last several units of second grade. 

In Knowledge, we will begin Unit 10 called Human Body: Building Blocks and Nutrition.  The students will learn about a number of topics regarding the human body such as, concepts of cells and how they form building blocks of life on Earth.  They will also learn about the digestive and excretory systems.  The last part of the domain will focus on the importance of good nutrition and how to make good choices in order to eat a well balanced diet.  

For Skills, we will begin Unit 6, where students will apply all they have learned about 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 to becoming “Researchers”.  In this unit, students learn about ways that researchers gather information, conduct experiments, analyze data, and make conclusions to learn something new to create something new.

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

3rd Grade

After having the chance to rest and refresh over spring break, the third graders are ready to tackle the remainder of the school year!  

The next big event on our schedule is MCAP testing!

• Third grade testing dates are May 7, 9, 12, and 13 (9:10- 11:10 ELA and 2:45 - 2:00 Math)

• Students will need to bring a set of wired headphones from home if they haven't already.

• Please return your words of encouragement card as soon as possible!

• No electronic devices, including smart watches, will be permitted.  If students bring them to school, they must keep them in their backpacks for the day. 

In reading, we will begin our unit on Colonial America.  Students will learn about the early colonies of Roanoke and Jamestown, ending with the Declaration of Independence.  We are excited about the local, historical relevance of this unit!  Students will also write narrative stories, using the writing process to develop characters and plot. 

In social studies, we will finish the year by completing an action project in conjunction with lessons about civic responsibility. 

In science, students will be experimenting with parachutes and studying the effects of canopy shape on drag. 

Lastly, in math, students will complete measurement and data lessons.  We will study mass, time, volume, and graphs.  This is a great opportunity to work on reading an analog clock with your child!

Thank you for your continued support and for encouraging your child to finish the year off strong! 

4th Grade

Math  

We will continue 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.  Following that, we’ll come up with our own criteria for choosing an energy source.  Students will decide what is most important to them when selecting which source of energy is the best. 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 write, publish, and share an original adventure story.

Resources:

Unit 8 Family Letter

5th Grade

Well, we’ve made it to spring.  This is the time of year that can be difficult for many students.  Allergies and warm, beautiful weather make it challenging for some students to stay engaged and to continue to persevere through challenging assignments.  Please reiterate with your child the expectation that we still have a lot of work to do in school to get ready for middle school and that following school rules will help them as they transition to the end of the school year.  We would also like to extend a big thank you to all who chaperoned on our trip to Philadelphia.  It was a huge success, and the students learned a lot about America’s early history.  Our next field trip to Six Flags is coming up on May 9th.  This too is an extended day trip, and more information about this trip will be coming home soon.  In math, students are learning about coordinate planes and geometry.  In science, students are performing an experiment that will require them to engineer a water filter.  In social studies, students continue to learn about the history of our country.  In CKLA, students are learning about Native Americans and will begin our last unit on Matter. 

Our 5th grade Promotion Ceremony will be on Thursday, June 12, 2:30 pm - 4:00 pm.

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