Emerick E.S. Newsletter
1st Quarter 2024
Principals Message
As we find ourselves nine weeks into the school year, the falling leaves and the whispers of possible snowfall signal one of my favorite times of the year. The changing colors and the crisp air are a delightful reminder to enjoy the outdoors. I hope you all are savoring these days too.
Special Thank You: A heartfelt thanks to everyone who decorated their trunks for Trunk or Treat night at Emrick. Your creativity shone brightly, and it was wonderful to see so many of you come out to celebrate together. Being a part of such a warm and vibrant community is truly special.
Veteran's Day Breakfast: On November 11th, our students will be singing patriotic songs to honor our local Veterans and any family members that are are in the military, or served in the military. This event gives the students a unique opportunity to ask questions and learn right from the source. We are proud supporters of our Veterans and hold them in the highest regard.
Free Breakfast and Lunch Forms: If you qualified for free or reduced lunch last year and believe you still qualify, please remember to file again this year. Please know, you can apply for free breakfast and lunch at anytime.
Turkey of the Year: Keep up the great work reading with your children at home. We’re down to ten staff members competing for "Turkey of the Year." If your child needs a new form, they can pick one up at the office or ask their teacher. Let’s all get involved in reading together.
Special Thank You to our PTO for sponsoring the Fun Run at Emrick this year. It’s not too late to send in your support. This fundraiser is our largest fundraiser and this helps fund numerous activities, including assemblies, musicals, movie nights, Trunk or Treat, and much more.
Missing a jacket or two? If your child is missing a jacket, check at Emerick—we have over 60 unclaimed jackets. These will be displayed during American Education Week. Mrs. Jenkins has already returned any labeled items to their owners. Remember to label your child's belongings to help us return lost items.
American Education Week: November 18-22, we will celebrate American Education Week. Your child’s teacher will reach out with details for classroom activities. We invite you to join us and enjoy lunch with your child. Time flies, and these moments are precious.
Wishing you all the best for the upcoming holidays!
Sincerely, Mrs. Haddock
Emerick, Principal
Family Liaison
My name is Tiffany Mussmon and I am your Family Liaison at Emerick Elementary. My role is to help increase communication between school and home. I am here to help you obtain the information and support you may need to help your child be successful in school, both academically and socially. I can help connect you with community resources and assist with any concerns that you may have.
The holidays are quickly approaching and if you are in need of assistance or would be interested in making a donation to help a family in need, please contact me at Tiffany.Mussmon@lcps.org or call me at 703-887-3555.
Reading and Writing
What a wonderful start to the school year! We were excited to see how many students participated in summer reading! Such a testament to your commitment to literacy! We also loved the snapshots of our students reading and writing everywhere on our Emerick Reads (and Writes!) Facebook Page!
Let’s keep the reading energy going with our students at school and in our homes. We’re starting this new quarter with Our Turkey of the Year Reading incentive. Just a few more weeks to read, read, read and earn tickets to vote for this year’s Turkey.
As we move into December, we hope students will add some books to their holiday lists and bring them along on travels and visits. Books always travel well!
Here are a few helpful tips for working with your reader at home:
READ ALOUD!
Read aloud at every age and stage! Read aloud often. Read many different kinds of texts.
Find the BIG IDEA
As you share stories, always search for the big idea. What is the moral or lesson? Why is it an important topic to learn about?
USE, SHARE, EXPLAIN NEW WORDS
Provide a kid-friendly explanation of a new word (ex: “Enormous means that something is really big.”) and then use that word active and relevant in your house (ex: “Wow! We really did pick and enormous watermelon.”)
MAKE CONNECTIONS
Ask, what does this make you think of or remind you of? How can we relate to this? How does the character feel? Have you ever felt like that before? How does this story make you feel? Why?
THINK about the PROBLEM and SOLUTION
In fiction, characters face problems or conflicts and their reaction, approach and resolution shares a lesson or big idea. Ask your child how they might react or how they might solve the problem. Even in nonfiction, there are problems and solutions.
Susan Lyons, Reading Specialist
Technology
We spent a lot of time in the 1st Quarter working on Digital Citizenship skills. Students in grades K through 5 discussed the importance of caring for your Chromebook properly and being aware of the information about ourselves that we share over the internet. More information for parents can be found at https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ and your children can play digital citizenship games at https://beinternetawesome.withgoogle.com/en_us/interland. We also worked on some of the computer science equipment and educational technology tools. Ask your child what digital tool they worked with this Quarter.
In the next quarter, we will focus on coding and critical thinking skills through the MakerSpace. Computer Science Education Week is December 9th through the 15th, but students will be working on Computer Science activities all month.
Kevin Heenan
Emerick Elementary IFT
Guidance
Counseling Corner
Mrs. Nole and Mrs. Collins
We are very excited to start another great year here at Emerick Elementary School. We are fortunate to have a Unified Mental Health Team (UMHT) that is eager to assist with any social and emotional needs that your child or family might have. The team members are:
Jenny Collins (school counselor, grades 1, 3, 5) jennifer.collins@lcps.org
Amy Nole (school counselor, grades K, 2, 4) amy.nole@lcps.org
Sami Kappler (school social worker) samantha.kappler@lcps.org
Jenny Cumiskey (school psychologist) jenny.cumiskey@lcps.org
Dawn Haddock (Principal) Dawn.haddock@lcps.org
Dave Cramer (Asst. Principal) David.cramer@lcps.org
October is Bully Prevention Month. In counseling class, your child has been working hard to learn about bully prevention. Our goal is to help ensure our school is a safe, respectful place where everyone can learn. We are utilizing the Second Step Bullying Prevention Program to help prevent bullying. In the lessons, your child is learning specific skills to help stop bullying. Students learn how to:
•Recognize when bullying is happening
•Report bullying to a caring adult
•Refuse to let bullying happen to themselves or others
•Be a bystander who stands up and is part of the solution to bullying
Students have been working to understand the difference between conflicts and bullying. The definition of bullying is when someone keeps being mean to someone else on purpose. The person it’s happening to hasn’t been able to make it stop. It is unfair and one-sided.
Music
On November 11th, all grade levels will perform one song for our Honored Guests for Veterans Day.
Ask your student to sing their song for you at home!
KINDERGARTEN: Of all the Kindergartners I’ve had in my 14 years of teaching elementary music, this group here at Emerick may be my favorite. They are a wonderful group of singers and I am so excited to start them on their musical journey. Their song for our Veterans Breakfast is “Veterans March” and will be performing it for our Veterans next Monday. We started the year off learning about steady beat and its importance in music, as well as the four voices (speaking, whispering, calling, and singing). We will continue to work on these skills as we head into November and December. Please save the date for April 30th at 6pm for our Kindergarten Musical, Bugz. More information will come your way as we get closer to the date.
FIRST GRADE: 1st graders will be singing the song “America the Beautiful” with accompanying sign language for our Veterans Breakfast. Ask your student to perform it for you at home! Along with singing, we have been working on Rhythm by using sticks and percussion instruments. I have been very impressed with our 1st grader’s musical skills and I am excited to continue working with them this year!
SECOND GRADE: 2nd Graders have been hard at work on their Veterans Day song, “Thankful for the USA” and are sounding great. This is a great group of singers and I’m excited to see them grow as musicians. We have been working on rhythm reading skills and recently have begun transferring these skills to instrument playing (drums, xylophone, and piano). Please save the date for our 2nd grade performance later this year - it will be on March 19th at 6pm. More details and information to come after Winter Break.
THIRD GRADE: 3rd graders have been learning all about how to read and identify notes on the treble clef staff during the 1st quarter. We will continue to hone these skills as well as rhythm reading skills to prepare them for an upcoming recorder unit. More details on where and how to purchase a recorder will be coming home soon.
On Thursday, 11/21, all third grade students will be embarking on a field trip to the Kennedy Center to see a special performance of Finn as a part of their young audiences series. To see more details and to allow your student to attend this trip, please fill out the permission click here: https://permission.click/ZQejg/int
FOURTH GRADE: Our 4th-grade chorus has been working hard preparing for our upcoming Chorus Concert on Thursday, December 12th at 600pm. Please make sure your student has a white shirt/top and black pants/skirt with dark shoes for the event. If your student does not have these items and you need assistance in getting them, please contact dawn.haddock@lcps.org. The students sound wonderful and I look forward to sharing our hard work with you all.
Fourth graders have also been hard at work learning how to read and identify notes on the treble clef staff during the 1st quarter. We will continue to hone these skills as well as rhythm reading skills to prepare them for an upcoming recorder unit. More details on where and how to purchase a recorder will be coming home soon!
FIFTH GRADE: Save the date! Our musical will be at Loudoun Valley on February 7th at 6pm. Once we finish learning the music, we will start to rehearse in the cafeteria where we will do blocking and choreography. I recently sent home an email to all 5th grade families with more details about the event. If you haven’t already read it, please make sure to take a look!
Our 5th-grade song for the Veterans Day concert is titled “On Veterans Day”. The 5th graders sound wonderful and it will be a wonderful addition to our program.
Physical Education
During the first nine weeks in Physical Education students have been working on their throwing and catching skills, soccer skills, and locomotor skills (ways to move from one place to another). In the second nine weeks students will be working on cup stacking, jump roping, floor hockey, and basketball. Cup stacking is a competition where students try to stack cups in a variety of sequences. During our jump rope unit, students will learn a variety of jumps with both long and short ropes. One of our favorite units is floor hockey where students will learn how to dribble, pass, and shoot a puck. We usually end our hockey unit with a hockey tournament. During the basketball unit, students will learn the basic skills of basketball and learn a variety of shooting games.
Our jogging club is going very well. We usually have about 30 to 50 students jogging every morning. We will have jogging club this winter as long as the temperature is above 32 degrees when I arrive to school. Remind your runners to keep their fingers and ears covered with gloves and hats. We do pass out one foot token for every 8 laps they run at the end of each month. One last thing, please remind your students they must have the correct shoes on (tennis shoes) in order to participate in both jogging club and physical education.
Library
Library
First quarter went by so quickly! Classes in all grades have been working on identifying the different sections in the library, book care, library expectations, and checking out books. Students in 2nd through 5th grade have begun working on research skills and learning how to use the databases available to help support their research. Students in Kindergarten and 1st grade have been reviewing the parts of a book and retelling stories.
Accelerated Reader Reminder
By this time in the year, some students have already reached the yearly goal ( see below for grade level goals ) to earn their ticket to our end of year AR celebration. To check your child’s point levels in Accelerated Reader, ask them to log into their account and look at their “progress” link in the upper right-hand corner.
Year End Goal to earn your way in:
2nd graders must earn 50 points
3rd graders must earn 65 points
4th graders must earn 75 points
5th graders must earn 85 points
Please note: Students in grades 2 - 5 may take AR tests from 7:40-2:45 Monday through Friday at school only.
Book Fair
The Scholastic Book Fair is coming to Emerick! We are so excited to host a Scholastic Book Fair this year. Our Book Fair will be here November 18th - November 22nd, during American Education Week. More information will be coming home in Thursday folders so please be on the lookout for it! If you would like to volunteer to help with the Book Fair, please email Mrs. Allder at erica.allder@lcps.org.
Erica Allder
School Librarian
Gifted Education
Emerick Families: Exciting News in Gifted Education!
Welcome Back, Mrs. Harrop!
We're thrilled to have Mrs. Harrop back at school with a brand-new knee! Now she can zip around even faster, helping all our amazing students.
What's Happening in Gifted Ed?
- SEARCH Program (K-3): Calling all young thinkers! Mrs. Harrop has been holding monthly classes packed with fun activities to boost your child's creativity and critical thinking skills. These skills will come in handy throughout the school day! Third graders, get ready for even more exciting challenges! Talented development lessons are coming soon to prepare you for winter portfolio lessons.
- FUSION Program: Buckle up, innovators! This year, the FUSION program is all about exploring the world of invention. Right now, students are designing amazing balloons for a Macy's Day parade-style event. Can you imagine coding robots to pilot them down the route? That's the plan.
Questions? Mrs. Harrop's Here to Help!
Mrs. Harrop is eager to answer any questions you may have about gifted education. Feel free to reach out to her at jennifer.harrop@lcps.org.
Let's make this a fantastic year for our students!
Jenny Harrop / Emerick Elementary School- Gifted Resource Teacher
Art
Here’s the latest from the Art Room:
The first quarter went so fast! This month all classes turned themselves into a minion and displayed them in the hallway. Alma Thomas, Yayoi Kusama and Gustav Klimt were some of our featured artists. This upcoming month we will learn about some new artists, try some new art mediums and creating art inspired by other cultures around the world!
Kindergarten will be learning about symmetry and shapes as they create their ghost and turkey artwork.
1st grade is learning about patterns and lines as they create their printmaking projects and cut paper designs.
2nd grade is learning about color blending with different art materials as they create an artwork that looks 3 dimensional.
3rd grade will learn how to map out the face with lines to help them create a self-portrait that is half human and half monster.
4th grade will learn how to use value to make their art look 3 dimensional and be inspired by other cultures.
5th grade will be applying advanced art skills to create a zentangle design mask and draw a landscape painting inspired by Heather Galler. They’ll be adding details and symbols from their imagination to make this watercolor and wax resist artwork.
As always, all the artworks will be displayed around the school and out front by the main office/art room. This is a busy month with lots of fun art in store!
Artfully yours,
Mrs. Merlo
Art Teacher | Emerick Elementary