The Fulton Flier

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Good morning Fulton Families,

This week we are celebrating Inclusive Schools Week, December 4-8, with the theme of Draw Me In! FES joins the Inclusive Schools Network during this week to celebrate the progress in supporting quality inclusive education for diverse learners.

A little about the theme from Inclusive Schools Network:

As far back as the days of cave drawings, art has been a way for humans to express themselves. Many children begin to communicate through the language of art even before using words. We’ve often heard, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

Our theme for Inclusive Schools Week 2023 is Draw Me In! Participating in art provides a pathway to self-discovery, and sharing art opens doors to understanding and respecting different ways of thinking.

Warmly,

Dr. Burks, Mrs. Liwosz, & Mrs. Sillers

Phonemic Awareness: Laying the Foundation (Modified by Orton Gillingham Mama)

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate individual sounds in words. It is a critical skill that precedes reading and serves as the foundation for phonics instruction.

Engage your children in various activities to develop phonemic awareness. Check out this video for some ideas to help strengthen phonemic awareness at home using everyday materials, marbles, cotton balls, skittles, etc.

This year, the Howard County Public School System will be administering the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) to all students in 3rd Grade, only.

The CogAT is a group-administered abilities test that measures students’ reasoning abilities, which they develop through in-school and out-of-school experiences. It is not designed to test a student’s academic achievement, but their potential. The test is made of three batteries – Verbal, Quantitative, and Nonverbal. Each battery takes approximately 30 minutes to complete. The CogAT helps educators understand a student’s cognitive strengths and weaknesses and assists with adapting instruction to meet the needs and abilities of each student.

All students in 3rd grade will participate in the testing. The CogAT will be administered on Dec 6, 7, and 8. No special preparation is required. Just send your child to school ready to learn as you do daily.

The Gifted and Talented Education Program will use the data from the CogAT as one criterion for placement into fourth grade Gifted/Talented mathematics classes. Students’ individual scores will be reported to parents in late February/early March.

Please contact Mrs. Liwosz, Meaghan_Liwosz@HCPSS.org or Mrs. Sillers, Justine_Sillers@HCPSS.org if you have any questions about your child’s involvement with the CogAT assessment.

If your FES child is in need of a Gently used bike, please contact Mrs. Bello (FES Longterm School Counselor) at christi_bello@hcpss.org or call Fulton ES at 410-880-5957

Free BIkes 4 Kidz (FB4K) a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization geared toward helping all kids ride into a happier, healthier childhood by providing bikes to those most in need. The public donates gently used bikes, we organize scores of volunteers to clean and refurbish them, and then we give them away to children referred to us by schools, churches, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies. We're one of 17 affiliates of the national Free Bikes 4 Kidz organization. In Maryland we conduct an annual campaign during which we collect bikes until October, refurbish them in ten weeks, and give them away by the holidays.

We live in a world surrounded by technology. And we know that whatever field our students choose to go into as adults, their ability to succeed will increasingly depend on understanding how technology works. We are excited to be kicking off this year's Hour of Code in our schools during the week of December 4-10, marking the 9th annual year of celebrating Hour of Code in HCPSS.

Winter weather is here, so here are some health reminders. Dec 5-11 is National Handwashing Week. Handwashing is one of the best ways to prevent the spread of colds, RSV, flu, covid, and all the other bugs out there. Please help reinforce your children good handwashing skills! Students may have lip balm at school, we see a lot of chapped and bleeding lips! Welcome to winter!

As we are approaching the cold winter weather, we wanted to remind you that students will still be going outside for recess. Please make sure you send your child to school with warm clothes. All clothing needs to be labeled with your child's name to prevent it from being lost.

Below you will find HCPSS criteria we consider when having outdoor activities:

• Temperature and humidity
• Wind chill
• Heat index and air quality
• Age of students
• Length of time outdoors
• Adequacy of the children’s clothing
• Condition of the playground
• Falling precipitation (more than a sprinkle or mist)
• Thunder and lightning

Generally, it is assumed that students will be outside for recess, physical education, or any other outdoor activity when the temperature combined with the wind chill is not less than 20 degrees Fahrenheit or the heat index reading is less than 95.

We appreciate your help to ensure all our students stay healthy and safe! See details at this link.

This week is Inclusive Schools Week! Inclusive Schools Week is an annual international event celebrated the first week in December. It’s a time designated to acknowledge the hard work and commitment of teachers, administrators, students, and parents in making their schools more inclusive and, thereby, significantly contributing to the development of a more inclusive society. The Week offers a significant opportunity for educators, students and parents to engage in dialogue about inclusive education and to plan for the future. It is a time when schools and communities can begin or continue the journey toward providing a quality education to all children regardless of differences in ability, gender, ethnicity, language and health status. Your child will be learning about these topics this week! Enjoy these resources for home!

• How to Introduce Disability to your Child

• Friends of All Kinds Social Story

• What is a Disability

• Disability InfoGraphic

• Virtual Calming Room

We want to hear about what you celebrate in the month of December! Feel free to share using this form. If it is easier to just send Ms. Quinn an email-- that works as well (kaitlyn_i_quinn@hcpss.org)! We look forward to sharing your celebrations with our Fulton Family!

Holiday Shoppe!

We hope everyone has been having so much fun! See below for the volunteer link and details if your student hasn’t gone yet.

The link for sign up is :

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0D4EAFAA2CA1F5CE9-45953423-holiday

(Some parents prefer to volunteer during a different time slot than their student shoppers)

When:

During their class’s pre-assigned day, during RECESS, students can go inside to shop.

What:

An in-school store to give students a chance to independently shop for members of their families (and/or themselves).

There is a large assortment of small gifts, each conveniently priced at 💲2. (This also is a fundraiser!)

Important:

If you want your student to participate, please send MONEY in an envelope LABELED with your student’s name, staff will keep track of the money during the day, until they shop. This is essential to make sure they are called to go shop instead of go to recess.

Favorite Things!

Attention room parents - should you wish to collect funds to purchase a holiday gift for your teacher, please feel free to use this document to look-up some of their favorite things!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lNr9RpT5wW1Dt-8QHMwoBnKypi3qOOPL2twi2uAph4Y/edit#gid=418399895

For a complete list of dates and events visit https://fes.hcpss.org/calendar.

December

• 12.6-12.8: 3rd Grade CoGAT (See above for more information)
• 12.13: Schools close 3 hours early
• 12.19 1st Grade Gingerbread Houses
• 12.20 3rd Grade Cookie Decorating
• 12.21 1st Grade Winter Party
• 12.22 5th Grade Winter Party

The HCPSS Black Student Achievement Program Saturday Math Academy Fall Session is approaching!

This year, the BSAP Saturday Math Academy will offer an in-person enrichment program for Howard County Public School System students in all levels of math for grades 3-12 based on course availability. Registration will take place online Saturday, January 6, 2024 from 9:00 a.m.- until capacity is reached. Class space is limited. Families can register by accessing the HCPSS Connect Website

For more information, please visit: https://news.hcpss.org/news-posts/2023/12/black-student-achievement-program-bsap-saturday-math-academy-spring-2024-program/

Flyers for distribution:

BSAP SMA Spring 2024 Flyer (English)

BSAP SMA Spring 2024 Flyer (Spanish)

BSAP SMA Spring 2024 Flyer (Chinese)

BSAP SMA Spring 2024 Flyer (Korean)

Toys for Tots is a holiday toy drive where children can receive up the three age appropriate gifts for the holidays. This program is designed to help children in families who may need financial assistance to provide a joyful holiday experience. If you are interested in your child receiving gifts from this program please read this completely and then use this registration form. HSES is only permitted a certain number of registrations. When we meet our limit we will close this form.

Families must be available to pick up toys on Saturday, December 16, 2023 from 9am-3pm at the Ascend One Building, located at 8930 Stanford Blvd, Columbia MD. This will be a drive through event. Upon arrival, each family will give their registration number to a Recreation and Parks volunteer and the volunteer will deliver the toys to the family.

You may register any child in your immediate family.

TFT provides age-appropriate toys for children up to 14 years of age. The staff at TFT select the toys for the child, TFT is not able to fill requests.

You may register children up to 17 years old, however, we cannot guarantee an age-appropriate toy for them but we do our very best.

Closer to the event the school will contact you with your registration number. You MUST have that number in order to pick up your toys. Additionally, the registering parent must be present. Use this link: https://www.toysfortots.org/request-a-toy/

At our first PTA meeting, admin shared where we were as a school in terms of demographics, student achievement, etc. and asked parents/guardians to help partner with us to help all students' be successful. To support this endeavor, we will be sharing strategies in our newsletter on how to support your child at home. Check out Fulton's Math in Our World!

Welcome to Math in our World! We hope this will help your child think mathematically outside of the classroom. When you go shopping or to a restaurant, think about ways you can engage in your child in math.

Try this out to help make percentages come to life!

Going to get a hair cut this week or in the near future? Look at prices for haircuts in the local paper, on-line, or call a local salon.

• Identify the cost of a basic haircut. You want to tip the stylist 10% of the cost of the hair cut. How much tip should you give the stylist? What was your total cost including the tip?

• What would the cost be if you and your sibling both got a basic haircut? What would be the cost of the tip for you and your sibling?

• What is the least expensive service they offer, and how much does it cost?

• Write a problem that someone else in your family can solve.

• Write an explanation to explain how you would figure out 15% of the total cost of your haircut. How about 20%?

Helpful Hints

• Find the equivalent decimal for the percent (example 10%=10/100 10/100 is the same as 10 divided by 100 or .10). Multiply the decimal by the cost of the haircut. For example if a haircut is $18.00, you would multiply this by .10. See if your children can discover that you just move the decimal over to the left one space. Then see if they can explain why the tip is $1.80. Ask them: Can you use this to figure out 15% and 20%?

Picture Retake Day is coming! Thursday, November 30. Students who were absent will take their picture on this day or students who need to retake their picture. Students should return their original package on Picture Retake Day. Information will be sent home on 11/16.

Nothing Bundt Cakes, located at 10730 Little Patuxent Parkway in Columbia, is offering a special incentive for students. “Books and Bundts” is a youth reading program through which students can earn a free Bundtlet and an award certificate for each month they read 400+ minutes. Students should track their progress on the attached form below and bring the completed tracker to the store to receive their sweet treat. Happy reading!