Chesterbrook Elementar y School

Dear Chesterbrook Parents and Guardians,

I certainly hope that the weather will decide to be on the warmer side from now on

into April. I guess I am thinking of this since this weekend is when daylight savings

time comes back to us, and we spring forward an hour. I just hope the mild weather

now doesn’t mean cold days in July.

AROUND THE WORLD, at Chesterbrook, March 18, 10am - 2pm

Chesterbrook Fun Fair 2017: Wow, FUN FAIR is almost here! It’s next week-

end –Saturday, March 18, 2017. Our Fun Fair is a wonderful community event and

our school’s largest fundraiser of the year. I have watched the work that goes into

this fundraiser by our parents for many years now, and every year I think it could not

be better. This year’s event is equally great! Our volunteers are amazing and always

do a spectacular job. This year’s team of chairs heading up all of the fun planning are

Rebecca Hunter, Natalie Kennedy, and lots of others. They have already started us

off with a great theme of Around the World. If this is your first time at Chester-

brook’s FUN FAIR, you are in for a wonderful treat! The organization of this event

is incredible, and the smooth operation makes the Fair an enjoyable and safe commu-

nity gathering for all of our neighborhood friends and children of all ages.

For those parents who are new to our school community, our PTA sponsors

many wonderful and fun events that support our school throughout the year. Just in

recent years, the PTA has worked to replace hallway furniture, new cafeteria chairs

and tables, and install new and improved white boards in every classroom. We are

working on our new joint signature project of updating our library, which is the cen-

ter of all learning in our school. The last renovation which doubled our library space,

began in 1998, and was completed around 2001. It is time to think about how our

learning strategies, materials and space requirements has changed in the twenty plus

years. We are finding the need for space for additional laptops, space for small group

discussions, such as STEM or STEAM Labs are needed to support our students.

Our PTA has always been our partner in continuing to update our technology

and repurpose our space efficiency. New functional furniture and materials are con-

stantly added and evaluated to best meet the needs of our students’ academic growth.

Our past updates, since the renovation, include replacing the hanging televisions

hanging projectors, and purchasing Mimio Bars to work on solid surfaces, such as the

FROM TH E PRI N C IPA L

March 9, 2017

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :

Fitness Focus 3

Chinese News 4

Counselors’ Corner 5

PRINCIPAL’S BYLINE

Rober t C . Fuqua, Pr incipal

Upcoming Events:

March 17: Sham Walk to School Day Spirit Day: Wear Green Day! March 18: Fun Fair!!!! 10-2 p.m. March 23: Spring Pictures March 24: Student Holiday March 31: 4th Gr. Colonial Day April 3-7: Jump Rope for Heart Week April 4: Kindergarten Orientation 7-8 p.m. April 10-14: Spring Holiday April 17: Student Holiday

Page 2

new white boards to create an interactive technology opportunity. Our PTA also assisted with the purchase of

the sound fields in instructional spaces that work with microphones. They also assist in keeping this

equipment up to date if new microphones are needed. Please support our wonderful PTA and all of their

projects to keep our school updated with the latest educational learning materials and equipment.

International Night Celebration was held last Fr iday, February 24th in our Cafeter ia from 6:30-8 pm.

We had 23 countries represented this year. If you attended you would have seen unbelievable displays,

authentic costumes, and of course the food was fabulous!! It is a great night to enjoy our cultural diversity of

our community at Chesterbrook, and as always to see and enjoy our community to celebrate the many

different cultures we are honored to serve. A Big Thank You to Susan Mrachek and team who pulled off this

enjoyable event.

Thank you all for your partnership with your neighborhood school to support learning for all.

Sincerely,

Bob

March 9, 2017

2017 MARCH

Fitness focus Eat a Healthy Breakfast March is National Nutrition Month The Morning Meal: Kids need to eat breakfast each day to perform their best. Their growing bodies and developing brains rely heavily on the regular intake of food. When kids skip breakfast, it can cre-ate a lot of physical, intellectual, and behavioral problems for them. By recharging the brain and body, you'll be more efficient in just about everything you do. Interestingly, stud-ies show that kids who skip breakfast are tardy and absent from school more often than children who eat breakfast on a regular basis. Prepar-ing a good breakfast can be as quick and easy as splashing some milk over whole grain cereal. Time invested in breakfast is much more valuable than the few extra minutes of sleep you might get by bypassing the morning meal. If you and your kids seem una-ble to make time for breakfast, consid-er enrolling your children in a school

breakfast program, if possible, or pack a breakfast brown-bag or smoothie the night before that can be eaten on the way to school and work. Skipping meals, especially breakfast, can actually make weight control more difficult. Breakfast skippers tend to eat more food than usual at the next meal or nibble on high-calorie snacks to stave off hunger. Several studies sug-gest that people tend to accumulate more body fat when they eat fewer, larger meals than when they eat the same number of calories in smaller, more frequent meals. It is SO important for parents to edu-cate their kids about the importance of the morning meal and the role it plays in maintaining good health. -Taken from WebMD

Sincerely, Mrs. Sink & Mr. Levesque

WEAR SOMETHING GREEN

C H E ST E R B R O O K E L EM E N T AR Y S C H O O L

PH Y S I C AL E D U C AT I O N

Jump Rope For Heart Is Coming We love supporting the American Heart Association.

This year we hope to beat our own record and raise

$29,000. Get excited to support our students in this im-

portant experience. If you have any questions or would

like to volunteer, please contact Jay Levesque.

Chesterbrook Elementary School LTC Chinese Newsletter March, 2017

Nĭ hǎo! 你好！ Welcome to LTC Chinese!

How to practice Chinese on Blackboard

(Log in to Blackboard 24/7 -> Chesterbrook specialist 2016-2017 -> Chinese LTC) Blackboard is a great learning tool for children to review what they learn in class. On blackboard, each grade levels have their own folders. Children can click on the folder to find the topic that they are learning right now. Besides, there are many learning resources links, songs, videos and games. Please check out the LTC-Chinese on blackboard! If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us!

谢 E

xièA AE谢 E

xièA! Thank you for supporting the Chinese program!

Pik Kei (Peggy) Leung (1st, 2nd, 5th & 6th grades) Yina Chang (3rd & 4th grades)

1st grade: We talked about “My Pet” and learned how to say I love my dog (gǒu) 狗, cat (māo)猫, bird (niǎo)鸟, rabbit (tù zǐ)兔子, fish (yú) 鱼, and hamster(cāng shǔ)仓鼠. We will also write big (dà) 大 and small (xiǎo) 小 in Chinese characters. We learned a new song color song 颜色歌. Check out the blackboard to review what we learned.

2nd grade: Students already learned to describe their popsicle in shapes, colors, size, and flavors. We are now going to prepare for the presentation. Students will verbally present their favorite popsicles in Chinese

0B3rd grade: We talked about cycles (循环, xún huán) and period (周期, zhōu qī) and discussed examples of cycles in our everyday life. One of this unit’s focuses is one example of cycles: day and night. Students learned to write the characters of day (白天) and night (晚上) and talk about what they do during the day and at night using simple Chinese sentences.

4th grade: Students are learning to talk about weather and season using simple Chinese sentences. The information included in the sentences are the specific type of weather, cold (冷, lěng)/hot (热, rè)/warm(暖和, nuǎn huo)/cool (凉快, liáng kuài), temperature (温度, wēn dù), season. We have been using real life weather forecast maps to practice both speaking and writing.

5th grade: We talked about three ocean zones:

sunlight 阳光地带, twilight 模糊地带, and midnight

zone 午夜地带. We also learned about the sea

creatures: lobster 龙虾, sea turtle 海龟, starfish 海星,

octopus 章鱼, anglerfish 琵琶鱼, orca 鲸鱼 and

seaweed 海草.

6th grade: We start a new topic which students learn how to protect the environment. They will learn what we can use less 少用 shao yong to protect the environment. We use less electricity 电 diàn，water 水 shuǐ，and paper 纸 zhǐ. Check out the blackboard to learn how to say and write.

Chinese Children Song "Fruit Song" 儿歌-水果歌 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnGAFc4Z4bk&list=RD3mvESVi4juc&index=3

Spring is here!

chūn tiān lái le

Counselor’s Corner Chesterbrook’s Counselors

Sue King Grades K, 2, 4 & 6 Sue.king@fcps.edu (703)714-8215 Sarah deKramer Grades 1, 3, & 5

shdekramer@fcps.edu (703)714-8229 Contact us anytime! We’re here to help!

EXECUTIVE FUNCTION SKILLS

THROUGH THE YEARS

6-12 Years

Working Memory: Working memory is

developed enough for more complex

tasks, such as remembering which toy a

child seeks as the child looks in different

rooms.

Impulse Control: Impulse control evolves

rapidly between the ages of 5-8. By 7

years old, children can ignore irrelevant

visual information, like a crayon squiggle

on a book page, in the same way as an

adult can.

Thinking Skills: There is a critical period

of change between 7-9 years old as chil-

dren develop flexible thinking, allowing

them to set goals and change tactics as

needed. Between 10-12 years old, chil-

dren can adapt to changing rules, such as

yelling on the playground, being quiet in

the classroom, and knowing that during

theater rehearsals it may go either way.

March 2017

March Lesson Forecast Lessons for March include a range of topics:

Kindergarten—Kelso’s Choices for Conflict Resolution

First Grade—Career Exploration

Second Grade– Conflict Resolution

Third Grade—Career Exploration

Fourth Grade—Boundaries

Fifth Grade—Differences/Tolerance

Sixth Grade—Conflict Resolution

Please contact Sue or Sarah with any questions you have

about the School Counseling Curriculum.

6th graders visit Longfellow

On March 30, our 6th graders will visit Longfel-

low Middle School to take a tour; hear from the

principal and counselors; ask questions of a

panel of current Longfellow students; and lis-

ten to a performance by a Longfellow group.

There’s still time to sign up for FCPS Special Education Conference 2017! Sat., April 1, 2017 8:00 am—3:00 pm

Hayfield Secondary School

7630 Telegraph Rd, Alexandria, VA 22315

View Keynote and

Breakout information and register at:

https://www.fcps.edu/node/33238

(Hold Ctrl and click on the link)