Important Dates

March 28 - Parent/Teacher Day Conferences, Early Dismissal, 10:45 am & Evening Conferences, 5-8 pm

March 29 -  PTA Family Fun Night, 6-8 pm

April 2-3 -  NYS ELA Assessment Testing, Grade 3 & 4

April 11 -  Kindergarten Concert, Parent Performance, 8:45 am

April 11 -  Harlem Wizards basketball team, CHHS Gym, 7-9 pm  

April 15-22 -  Spring Recess,  school closed

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CET Newsletter March 22, 2019

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

Message from the Principal, Mrs. Kelly Maloney

Dear CET Families,

Our Second Annual “Around the World with CET: Cultural Night” was a huge success!  Thanks to the families, faculty members, and CHHS students who volunteered and set up “booths” that gave us some insight into the various cultures of 21 countries! There was food tastings, game playing, face painting, and dancing.   If you were here that evening you may have traveled to Peru, Australia, Gambia, France, Switzerland, Ukraine, Lebanon, or Greece, to name a few! The evening ended with a fashion show. Not only is this event fun and educational, it provides an opportunity to get to know one another a little bit better. Thank you as always to our CET PTA for purchasing the passports, stamps, and flags. And of course, a huge thank you to our music teacher, Ms. Peters for having this vision!

Our third-grade students recently completed a “Hand in Hand” project that immersed them even more into culture supporting their study of  “Communities Around the World”. Students were asked to decorate a paper hand/arm with pictures and text that represent their family’s culture or cultural background.  Afterwards, each child selected one image or symbol from their hand to write about and explain why it is important or relevant to them. The completed hand projects are on display in the third-grade hallway. I encourage you to take a look when you come in for your Parent-Teacher conferences.

I sent home a letter today informing you that we have hired a music teacher who will take over for Ms. Peters who will be out for the remainder of the year. Mr. Paul Connors will begin on Monday, March 25. In his role as music teacher, Mr. Connors will be responsible for coordinating and directing the first-grade show and the fourth grade Broadway Kids performance.  He will also teach fourth-grade chorus. Those students should plan on resuming chorus on Tuesday, March 26.

I am excited about our kindergarten show that will be happening soon! Thanks to our PE teachers, Mr. Duchin and Ms. Leslie who willingly took on coordinating and directing this performance, and to our kindergarten teachers and aides who have offered to assist them in this endeavor! It should be a really fun performance with many great acts!

Speaking of Physical Education, students began a new unit this week...golf!  Perfect timing as many of our local golf courses opened this week.

Looking for something to do this weekend? You may want to consider attending PVC’s performance of Willy Wonka Junior . Showtimes are Friday and Saturday night at 7:30 pm at the high school.

Have a great weekend whatever you choose to do!

Warmly,

Kelly

News from the Assistant Principal, Mrs. Kerri Bianchi 

A Close look at the NYS ELA Exam

This year the 3 ^rd and 4 ^th grade NYS ELA (English Language Arts) tests will be administered on Tuesday, April 2nd and Wednesday, April 3rd.  The tests will take place each morning over the 2 days.  Day 1 is comprised of 24 multiple-choice questions based on 4 reading passages, Day 2 consists of 6 short response questions and 1 extended response question based on 3 passages. This year 3 ^rd grade will be participating in Computer Based Testing (CBT) and 4 ^th grade will participate in Paper Based Testing (PBT). The 2018-2019 ELA test is untimed again this year.  Below are some of the skills that students have acquired in order to successfully answer questions.

In answering short responses, students need to…

• Read the question carefully and in their minds, rephrase the question and put it in their own words what the question is asking them.
• Know how to give specific and relevant examples and a lot of details from text.
• Identify the genre and think about possible questions. For example, if the text is informational, look for the main idea, argument and supporting details. If the text is narrative, pay attention to characters, setting, and plot.
• Make sure their response matches the question. Look for clues to help answer the question, if the question is inferential.
• Identify the question and determine what they need to do to answer it. Students should restate the prompt and need to answer the question with text-based details.

In answering extended responses, students need to…

• Clearly introduce a topic
• Develop the topic with relevant details throughout the essay
• Group related information together
• Connect ideas with linking words and phrases
• Make inferences based on evidence from the text
• Provide concluding statements
• Demonstrate grade appropriate command of conventions

Parents can help their child succeed by providing time for your child to read every day (increase the volume of their reading), reading Time for Kids or any other age-appropriate articles.  Give your child time to think out loud about these articles. Provide discussion time and encourage your child to read all different types of genres. Read aloud short stories, letters, interviews, and non-fiction articles. The reading strategies your child is learning can be applied to most genres.

Actual sample questions from last year’s test can be found on www.EngageNY.org   

News from Christine Martins, School Nurse

Spring (…I mean allergy…) Season is Here!  

Happy spring everybody!  While this winter wasn’t quite as rough as previous years, it was still a welcome sight to see the daffodils and crocuses start to peek up through last year’s mulch and leaves.  Apart from enjoying the fresh spring air, the blooming flowers, and the overall awakening of the woods behind my house, what I really like is that my boys will be spending more time playing outside and less time making a mess inside!  A sentiment that I’m sure is shared by most of you! 

However, the advent of spring isn’t all sunshine and butterflies.  It’s also the start of itchy, watery eyes, runny noses, coughs, sneezes, post-nasal drips…  Time to open up those medicine cabinets and brush the dust off the allergy medicines, eye drops, and nose sprays! 

If your child suffers from seasonal allergies, you may want to consider keeping allergy remedies here in the nurse’ office.  Any medicine or over-the-counter (OTC) remedy must be hand-delivered to me by a parent and must have a doctor’s order.  Have your child’s doctor fill out this form for any medicines/remedies you will be keeping in the Health Office: 

https://cetschoolnurse.weebly.com/uploads/4/3/7/2/43725439/x_medication_form_-_md_orders_fillable_revised_9-10-2015.pdf

It is sometimes difficult to tell whether somebody is suffering from an illness such as a cold or from allergies.  According to www.HealthyChildren.org , these are some “common clues” that can point to seasonal allergies:

• Repeated or chronic cold-like symptoms that last more than a week or two, or that develop at about the same time every year:

-Runny nose

-Nasal stuffiness

-Sneezing

-Throat clearing

-Nose rubbing

-Sniffling

-Snorting

-Sneezing

-Itchy, runny eyes

• Itching or tingling sensations in the mouth and throat
• Eczema
• Coughing, wheezing, difficulty breathing, and other respiratory symptoms

If your child suffers from asthma, please notify me.  Also, inform me of any asthma triggers you are aware of (pollen, exercise, dust…).  Provide me with your child’s asthma medicines and doctor’s order so I can treat your child appropriately in the event of an asthma attack.

Check out these sites (English and Spanish) to read up some more on seasonal allergies and asthma:

https://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions/allergies-asthma/Pages/Seasonal-Allergies-in-Children.aspx

https://www.healthychildren.org/spanish/health-issues/conditions/allergies-asthma/paginas/seasonal-allergies-in-children.aspx

https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/seasonal-allergies.html?ref=search

https://kidshealth.org/es/parents/seasonal-allergies-esp.html?WT.ac=pairedLink

 News from Patricia Lynch, Math Teacher

C.E.T. Loves Math!

Problem Solving

If you were going to estimate the total height of 8 adult giraffes and 2 newborn giraffes to the closest meter, what information would be helpful to know?

-Their cloven hooves are 6 inches in diameter.

-Giraffes weigh .5 to 2 tons.

-Giraffes bend their legs to sit.

-The average height of an adult giraffe is 5 meters.

-0.5 meters is 50 centimeters and .5 tons is 1000 lbs.

-Newborn giraffes are near 2 meters tall.

-People once believed giraffes were a cross between a leopard and a camel. 

Yikes!  That is a lot to think about!  Students envision and estimate, activate prior knowledge and read carefully to pull out the necessary information to decide how to solve. The Read, Draw, Write (RDW) method becomes more complex as students move through the grades here at C.E.T.  Multi-step problems might involve basic math operations (+, -, x, or ÷) but knowing which operations to choose gets tricky, especially when the problem includes information that is not needed to solve.    

Problem-solving requires critical thinking but how do you teach a child to do this? We encourage reading closely, rereading, marking important information, rewriting the question as an answer statement, thinking about who or what the problem is about, drawing a model, solving and double-checking. We ask, "Does that make sense? How do you know?"  At times, another layer is added to our work when researching is needed to solve.  For example: How long would it take to drive from Croton to Albany at 55 miles per hour?  What percent of NASA launches have been postponed in the last twenty years due to weather?  What is the difference in the price of a gallon of milk from the year you were born until now? 

C.E.T. teachers know that spending time discussing and practicing the intricacies of problem-solving is time well spent.  If you don’t believe it, click this link to see how 32 eighth graders solved this problem: “There are 125 sheep and 5 dogs in a flock.  How old is the shepherd?”  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kibaFBgaPx4

CET PTA

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MEMORY BOOK

The deadline for submitting ads to 2018-2019 Memory Book is fast approaching. We must have your ads by FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2019. Please remember that the ads help us provide a free Memory Book for everyone at CET. 

Thank you for your help!

Jean Flandreau & Kara Shilling
Memory Book Advisors

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  Experience Science 2019

Sign up NOW for the  2019 Experience Science Technology and Innovation Fair! 

This event takes place on Thursday, May 2nd from 5:30-7:30 pm in the Croton-Harmon High School Auxiliary Gym. All K-12 students are eligible to participate.

For more info, visit our Experience Science website

Students can sign up right now. Use this simple student sign up form 

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

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High School Homework Help

for Grades 1-6

Drop into the Croton Library on Wednesdays for homework help, run by high school students who want to help younger friends. It takes place from 3:15-5:00 pm in the Small Program Room.

For more information, contact criedel@wlsmail.org

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NYS Senate Earth Day Celebration

To celebrate Earth Day this year, the NYS Senate is sponsoring a poster celebration for children in grades K-6. The theme is: REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE. 

Please photograph and submit your entries electronically, in jpeg or pdf format, via www.harckam.nysenate.gov. Submissions must be uploaded to the website by April 17, 2019.

If you have any questions, please contact the coordinator for this event, Cynthia Thomas Greenstein, 518-455-2520 or cthomas@nysenate.gov