Important Dates

December 24-January 1 - Holiday Recess,  school closed

January 10 - Principal's Coffee, 9:30 am

January 18 -  3rd Grade Concert Parent Performance, 8:45 am

January 21 -  Martin Luther King, Jr. Day,  school closed

January 25 - Report Cards available

February 11-15 - Kindergarten Registration Week

February 18-22 - Winter Recess -  school closed

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CET Newsletter December 14, 2018

http://www.chufsd.org/schools/carrie_e_tompkins_es

Message from the Principal, Mrs. Kelly Maloney

Dear CET Families,

We had our Winter Concert this morning showcasing our band, chorus, and orchestra.  As always, I am impressed with the number of students who participate in our before school music programs as well as their talent!  We have over 100 students in grades 1-4 learning how to play the violin, viola, or cello; and 65 of them started this year! Our band and chorus consists of fourth grade students and we have 50-60 students participating in each of those programs.  As I mentioned at the concert this morning, we are fortunate to be able to offer these programs before school. In many districts, instrumental lessons and chorus takes place during the school day which makes it challenging to schedule, and often times students miss academics or have to choose between band or chorus. Thank you to our Board of Education and district administration for supporting our before school music programs.  

If you follow #CETelementary on Twitter, you might have noticed that our chorus recently performed at the Westchester Winter Wonderland at Kensico Dam. It was a great opportunity for students to perform for a live audience!

We held a Principal’s Coffee last week on the topic of the school day. The purpose of the Coffee was to provide parents with insight into what their child does during the school day. How do we balance academics, play, nutrition, and social emotional learning?  Mrs. Bianchi specifically spoke on the new recess time (10 minutes was added this year) and on the plans for a district-wide lunch program. Our presentation was videotaped and is accessible on our CET homepage. The next PTA Principal’s Coffee is on the topic of Social Emotional Learning.  

Speaking of our CET homepage, your child can easily access all of the digital learning resources under the link “Digital Links/Tools”.  I encourage you to have your child practice their keyboarding skills using the program, Type to Learn .  Students in grades 1-4 have access to this program.  

I want to thank Mrs. Lynch, our AIS and Enhancement Math teacher, for contributing articles to our biweekly newsletter. Please be sure to read about the strategies that are being taught, and how you can support your child at home.  

As this is our last newsletter for 2018, I want to wish you all a very Happy New Year!  

Warmly,

Kelly

PS Thank you to all of you who supported the PTA fundraiser, the Holiday Hop Around Town , by participating and purchasing raffle tickets!  I have enjoyed popping in on the activities that faculty members arranged for those lucky winners! Additionally, it was great to see so many of you at the Winter Craft Night that the PTA sponsored.

News from the Assistant Principal, Mrs. Kerri Bianchi 

  What’s for lunch?  Well, next year at CET we anticipate having a new answer to that question.  Starting in the 2019-2020 school year the district plans to participate in the National School Lunch Program.  Over the summer a new food serving line will be constructed at CET and our lunches will be provided by a Food Service Management Company.  A kitchen will be built at PVC that will prepare lunches for CET and the high school. The district-wide School Lunch Committee has been meeting regularly since early last year.  After the Capital Reserve Fund vote passed last spring, the committee has received input from faculty members, students, administration, community members and a consulting group in order to arrive at these decisions for next year.  The committee continues to meet to discuss environmental sustainability in regard to our new lunch program and to review menu ideas. The benefits of moving to the National School Lunch Program is that we can ensure that all of our students’ needs are being met.   We can provide nutritious food options to all of students at a reasonable price. There are additional decisions to be made before next year and we will continue to include both the community and the district in our discussion. We are hopeful that this new program will benefit the district in many ways.  Stay tuned for updated information in the future. Our next meeting will be January 8th at 7:00 pm in the Croton High School Community Room.

News from Lauren Fitzgerald, School Psychologist 

A Respectful and Caring Spirit

When understanding a child’s developmental process, one may forget that children do not always inherit the understanding of different ways to be caring and respectful. During the holiday season, there is usually an emphasis on giving and generosity. Why not practice caring and respectful behavior as well? These two behaviors go hand in hand with a generous spirit. Some different ways that you can model respectful behavior for your children include: 

• Apologizing to your child when you know you’ve done something wrong. This allows your child to know that you too are human and you make mistakes from time to time. It also models for your child the value of apologizing to others.
• Use phrases like, “Thank You”, “Please”, and “Excuse Me.” This models respectful behavior for your child to practice in their social interactions.
• Be kind in daily requests. The example you set for your child can make a huge impact. Your child will also start to notice that you care about other’s feelings and well-being by your respectful social interactions.
• Show approval when your child uses empathetic and caring behaviors. This validates your child’s behavior and also helps them feel good for engaging in these behaviors making it more likely that they will continue to behave in this way. In this situation, you also should point out the specific behavior of which you are approving so that your child explicitly learns that they are being respectful of others. 

Learning to behave in a respectful and caring manner is something that should be taught in a meaningful way so that children are able to develop into adults that are not only intellectually capable but also well-rounded social beings.

 News from Patricia Lynch, Math Teacher

C.E.T. Loves Math! 

Becoming efficient, flexible, and accurate in math requires repeated practice in problem solving.  At C.E.T., we help your child develop problem solving efficiency, flexibility and accuracy through in-depth strategy discussions and practice. 

Math strategies, by nature, are individually developed and need to be tested repeatedly to build number sense, confidence and reasoning.  Reading the problem, identifying what is being asked, drawing a model, solving and writing an answer statement span the grades at C.E.T.

You have probably seen these model drawings on your child’s work.  Three examples are: tape diagrams, number bonds, and the arrow method.  Each help students to conceptualize.  Different problems lend themselves to different models.

Here are some examples:

Arrow→ Method:

212 + 106

Think . . . 212 + 100 + 6

or 212→(plus 100) is 312 + 6 = 318

Number Bonds:

90 + 40

Think . . . 90 needs 10 to get to 100.

Decompose 40 into 10 and 30

Add 10 to 90 and now you have 100 + 30 = 130

Tape Diagrams:

When completing an application problem (+, -, X, ÷) draw a rectangle to represent parts or the whole.  Extend and divide the rectangle to compare amounts.  This can be a visual representation of a product, quotient, area, perimeter, sum, difference, etc.

Remember : Just like time spent reading outside of school is extremely important, children need lots of practice using math strategies.  Practice helps to internalize concepts and builds a strong number sense.  In addition, their efficiency, flexibility and accuracy improve too!    You can always find out more about your child’s math curriculum and expectations on our C.E.T. Math Lab site linked to our homepage.  

News from CET PTA

As we near the end of the calendar year, we are deeply heartened by the boundless  strength of our school community. Through the efforts of parents, teachers and administrators, we have been able to contribute to our children’s education in many tangible ways. We’ve stocked classrooms with inspiring books, served hundreds of lunches with warm smiles, and sent students on exciting field trips - to name but a few. But perhaps our must immeasurable impact will be showing the children of CET that their community will come together, not just to enjoy each other’s company, but to roll up our sleeves and do the hard work it takes to give students the tools they need to build a bright future. 

CHANGES IN YOUR CHILD'S DISMISSAL

When emailing your child's teacher regarding a change to your child's dismissal, please include the Welcome Center, Laura Sherry at laura.sherry@chufsd.org.

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Updating You and Your Child’s Information in the K12 Alerts System 

To be sure we have the most up-to-date information for you and your child, you may access K12 Alerts by either logging on to the CET Homepage where you will find “Parent Portal/K12Alerts” or by accessing the Croton-Harmon School District’s Homepage and clicking on “Parent and Resident Portal/K12Alerts”. Once you log in to the K-12 Alert System, you will be able to make any necessary changes to your or your child’s information.

If you have any questions please contact Denise Cuomo, 914-271-4793, ext. 4200.