Dear CES SHARKS & Friends,

Due to all the activity in our final days of school, I thought it would be best to send an early edition of this week's SHARK Alert.

Tomorrow, Friday, June 14th is a BIG day at CES! We have Step Up Day for students in Grades K-3 and the 4th Grade Celebration taking place as well. 4th graders should be prepared for the sun (hat, sunscreen) and bring a bathing suit, towel, and change of clothes for their event. See below for more details.

Friday is also the final day for 3rd and 4th grade families to sign their student up to join the CES Staff in our 4th of July Parade Float. Please see below for more details.

Monday is the final full day of the school year with a regular dismissal at 2:14 pm.

Tuesday there will be an 11am dismissal. At 10:45, we will begin our annual 4th Grade Clap Out. Families and friends who wish to join the fun in celebrating our retirees and 4th graders as they make their final trip through the halls of CES are asked to arrive and set up between 10:30 and 10:45. Details about the event are below.

Please read on in this newsletter to find out more information about the upcoming events, our summer learning challenge, and changes to staffing for the upcoming year. You will also find several video links and lots of community notices! A final SHARK Alert will be released next week.

In the meantime, enjoy the glorious weather and on behalf of the students and staff at CES, I wish a very Happy Father's Day to all of the dads and father-figures in our community.

Be well,

Dr. Kelly

On Friday, June 14th, families of our 4th grade students are invited to join our annual Fourth Grade Celebration. Beginning at 11:15 at CES, students and families will view a memory video. At the conclusion of the video, the group will travel to the Chatham Recreation Center for an afternoon of food and games.

While the 4th Grade is away at play on Friday, June 14th, our students in Grades K-3 will have their own celebration. Step Up Day is when students will meet their teacher and classmates for the 2024-2025 school year. Students meet their new teacher and learn about the expectations and fun in store for them in the coming school year. K-3 Step Up takes place during the afternoon on Friday, June 14th.

Tuesday, June 18th is the final day of school this year. Please note there is an 11:00 am dismissal for all students.

At CES we celebrate our 4th-Graders and retiring staff members on their last walk through our halls. Beginning at 10:45 am the Grade 4 students will be led by Mrs. King and Ms. Bonnie Karras through the halls of CES to the cheers and applause of our entire community. The "parade" exits the building by the playground and continues to the front of the school. Families are invited line up along the front pathway of CES to join us in clapping out the retirees and 4th-graders. 4th graders can be dismissed by their families at that time or can return into the building if they are taking the bus or going to an after-school program. If planning on attending, we recommend arriving and setting up between 10:30 and 10:40 am.

"Summer slide" is a phrase coined by educators and researchers to explain the loss of learning that takes places over the summer vacation months.

Here are some statistics about summer slide:

• Kids in grades 3 to 5 lose about 20% of their school year gains in reading and 27% of their gains in math. (Source: Scholastic)
• Students lose about a month’s worth of learning on average over the summer. (Source: Sage Journals)
• The more kids learn during the school year, the more they’re likely to lose over the summer. (Source: Kappan)

At CES, we would like to ensure that our students are as successful as possible. We can combat the dreaded summer slide with short, but consistent practice (20-30 minutes, 3-5 times a week). Our incredible interventionists have put together a menu of activities for students in Grades K-3. Please visit the links below for games, activities, books, and suggestions on how to practice those important academic skills this summer.

Math Suggestions & Links

Reading Suggestions & Links

Grade K-3 students will receive a copy of a Summer of Learning calendar with their report cards. For this challenge, students are asked to record math and reading practice in 15-minute increments. For each day your SHARK completes 15 minutes of math practice, place an "M" on the calendar day. The same goes for reading, for every 15 minutes of reading practice, place an "R" on the calendar day. Students who log at least 6 hours of practice this summer will be eligible for a wide range of prizes and invited to a special breakfast in September.

So let's keep those skills sharp and log those minutes of practice this summer. We can't wait to see our SHARKS' completed calendars and celebrate their summer SUCCESS in September!!

• Friday, June 14th - Grades K-3 Step Up Day 1:00 pm
• Friday, June 14th - Grade 4 Celebration
• Tuesday, June 18th - 1/2 Day and Final Day of School - Dismissal 11 am
• Tuesday, June 18th - 10:45 am 4th Grade Clap Out

HAVE A GREAT SUMMER VACATION!!

• Wednesday, August 28th - Teachers Return to Work
• Wednesday, August 28th - CES Ice Cream Social 5:00 pm
• Tuesday, September 3rd - Grades 1-12 First Day of School
• Thursday, September 5th - Kindergarten First Day of School

Thank you Ms. Stephanie Coles for applying (and winning) the grant to install a communication board on the CES playground!!

Thank you to Ms. Turco and her class for an incredible presentation on Marine Life this past Tuesday!

Thank you to Mr. Anglim, Mr. Gessner, and their students for an incredible States Fair on Thursday!!

Thank you to all the parent visitors and volunteers who have assisted on field trips, special events, and participated in student showcases. We couldn't hold these great learning events without your support!!

Thank you to all the fourth grade ticket counters (Isabella G, Sadie B, Delmary K, Katherine V, Liam S, Jacob D, Markayla J, Aiden N, Aria B, Grace T). These super SHARKS donated their recess time every Friday over the course of the year to collect and count tickets so their peers could win prizes! And congratulations to next year's ticket masters: Dylan M, Eleanor M, and Kally G!

Thank you to Mrs. Imparato & Ms. Groves for collaborating and sharing the Summer Work resources!

On Wednesday, our entire school community came together for our last SHARK Assembly of the school year. As always, it was a high energy event with lots of presentations and awards!

We learned that our SHARKs earned 29,120 tickets this year. Tickets are earned when students are "caught" exhibiting one of our SHARK expectations (safety, honesty, acceptance, respect, kindness, success). It is truly a staggering amount considering that there are only 151 SHARKS at CES. It speaks to not only how wonderful our students are, but the diligence of our staff in recognizing the students' positive behaviors!

We also took some time to recognize some very special SHARKS. First, we acknowledged the new King of Kindergarten Homework - Felix Lapuc. Felix completed his reading log for EVERY SINGLE day this year and deserved a special shout out! Next, Deputy Chief Clark from the Chatham Fire Department joined us to recognize Wallace Goodwin-Wright. Several weeks ago, thanks to Wallace's quick actions, a peer who was having medical incident received immediate help. Deputy Chief Clark honored Wallace with a special commendation and our friends from the Boston Bruins sent a special gift to Wallace recognizing his bravery and quick thinking! Finally, we took some time to recognize a fixture of CES - Kindergarten teacher Mrs. King. Mrs. King is retiring this year after 34 years of teaching Kindergarten in the Monomoy Schools. Also retiring this year is our incredible Cafeteria Lead, Ms. Bonnie. Both Ms. Bonnie and Mrs. King have made lasting impacts on our school and our hearts. They were both inducted into the CES Sea of Success Hall of Fame. Please see the videos honoring them both below.

Finally, some After School Clubs showcased their work. The Country Line Dancing club performed for us and the Lego Clubs presented their stop-action movie. We wished our Grade 4 students good luck and a fond farewell. SHARK assemblies will return in September!

The end of the school year is bittersweet. We love celebrating our successes and the joyful anticipation of the summer break while at the same time we prepare to say goodbye to students and staff who will be moving on for the following school year. This year, we have several staff members who are retiring or moving on to different roles.

• Mrs. King is retiring. Mrs. Caitlin Imparato has been hired as a K teacher/Reading & Math Interventionist.
• Ms. Bonnie is also retiring. Her position will be filled over the summer.
• Nurse Jaime Staniels is moving on to pursue a further degree in mental health nursing. She will be greatly missed and we wish her the best of luck as she completes her graduate degree! Ms. Heidi French will be replacing Nurse Jaime in the medical office at CES. Nurse French is joining us from the Dennis-Yarmouth school district and is excited to become part of our SHARK community.
• Ms. Stephanie Coles is returning to the Monomoy Regional Middle School to lead one of their severe special needs programs. Ms. Coles has been an amazing addition to CES and we wish her all the best. Ms. Katie Ganshaw will be replacing Ms. Coles as the lead teacher in the SEAL program at CES.
• Mrs. Janet Caron will be moving on from CES as our Special Education Team Chair. Mrs. Erin Cronen will be taking over as the CES Team Chair and the Early Childhood Coordinator for MRSD.
• Ms. Joann Tusia (speech and language) will be moving on from CES. The school is currently interviewing for a replacement.
• Finally, we are thrilled to announce the addition of a PreK classroom to CES. Ms. Shannon Hubbard will be the lead teacher and supported by Mrs. Jen Hart and Ms. Shannon Denehy.

We wish nothing but joy and happiness to our departing staff. They will be missed, but once a SHARK, always a SHARK!

Thanks to a generous grant, CES has recently installed a communication board for our playground area. A communication board is a tool with symbols, pictures ,or photos that a child with communication difficulties will learn to point to, to communicate with those around them. This addition to our playground will benefit our CES SHARKS and any children who come to use our playground area.

The staff at CES are entering a float into this year's Chatham 4th of July Parade and we need student SHARKS to join us. Let's showcase our school pride for the entire community to see!!

Students who are currently in Grade 3 and Grade 4 can sign up to join the staff walk the parade route with our float, "Success at CES - It's a Shore Thing!" We are accepting students until the end of the day on Friday, June 14th. We are limiting participation to our 3rd & 4th graders due to numbers for supervision.

More details will be provided when participants are finalized. The day will start early. The parade officially kicks off at 9:30 am, but students who are participating will need to be dropped off at 7:00 am and pick up will be from the Hitching Post Parking Lot at the school. Please keep this in mind when registering your 3rd or 4th grader to participate.

We look forward to celebrating the 4th of July with our community and showing our school pride. We hope to continue a float entry every year so that every student will eventually have the opportunity to walk in the parade as a 3rd and 4th grader.

Link for Grade 3 & Grade 4 Families to Sign Up their Students is HERE.

Please register by end of the day on Friday, June 14th.

Host families needed for Circus Smirkus youth performers

The Harwich Children's Fund is bringing Circus Smirkus to town this summer, and is in search of host families for the youth circus performers (ages 10-18). The dates are Monday, July 15, through Friday, July 19. If you are interested in learning more about becoming a host family for these 4 nights, please complete the form at this link: https://forms.gle/7F1aMEjXZ8KB42QQ9. If you have questions, contact Sheila House at hitthedunes@gmail.com.

Email: jakelly@monomoy.edu
Website: http://ces.monomoy.edu/
Location: 147 Depot Road, Chatham, MA, USA
Phone: 508-945-5135
Facebook: facebook.com/ChathamElementarySchoolPto
Twitter: @ChathamElemMRSD