Ashburn Inquirer

April 6 End of 3rd quarter April 7 Teacher workday No school for students April 10 – 14 Spring Break April 18 PTO Spirit Night @ Manhattan Pizza & Luv’n Berry April 19 Kindergarten field trip to National Building Museum April 20 7pm PTO meeting April 21 6pm Ashburn vs Dominion Trail Volleyball game @ Broad Run HS April 25 8:30am Volunteer Breakfast 9 & 10am Bounce Out Stigma PTO assembly April 26 2nd grade field trip Report Cards go home today April 27 8am 3-5 Citizenship Celebration April 28 8am K-2 Citizenship Celebration Taste of the World April 30 Family Fitness Fun Fair

Ashburn Elementary School ▪ Home of the Golden Dolphins Phone (571) 252-2350 44062 Fincastle Dr. Fax (571) 223-2656 Ashburn, VA 20147 Attendance Line (571) 252-2351 April 6, 2017 Mrs. Michelle Walthour – Principal Ms. Abby Sacco– Assistant Principal Ms. Joy Maloney – School Board Representative

Welcome Springtime! It feels strange to be sending out April’s newsletter before spring break. Everyone is looking forward next week to have an opportunity to relax and recharge. We are almost at the end of the third quarter, which means gearing up to finish strong and beginning to plan for the next school year. Fourth quarter usually means end of the year testing, revisiting student goals to make sure students are on track for making at least a year’s growth in reading and math and many celebrations. We will do the same this year. We will continue to focus on and monitor student achievement through our monthly collaborative team meetings. Students who are at risk for not making a year’s growth might be recommended for summer school. More information will be sent home, if this applies to your child. National Volunteer Appreciation Week begins the week of April 18th. It is the perfect time to say “THANK YOU!” to our many volunteers who give so much of themselves and make a difference for our students and our school. We are truly grateful for the many hours spent at our school each week working with students and staff in various capacities. Our volunteers will be recognized on April 25th, with a celebration breakfast beginning at 8:30 am in the cafeteria. We are looking forward to an outstanding turn out so that we can formally say, “thank you.” As we gear up for the fourth quarter there are a few things that I would like you to keep in mind. Students will bring home their third quarter report cards on Wednesday, April 26th. Please take a few minutes to review the entire report card with your child. If you have questions or concerns about how your child is progressing, please do not hesitate to schedule an appointment with your child’s teacher. You may also continue to monitor your child’s weekly progress in Phoenix, our online electronic gradebook. Thank you for adhering to our guidelines by pulling forward when dropping off and picking up students in the car line. Morning drop off is going well, but we also need parents to follow the same practices in the afternoon. Please do not ask students to meet you in the parking lot, this is unsafe for students and drivers. Rules are in place to keep everyone safe and when they are violated, not only does it place others at risk; it sets a poor example for our students. Your patience and cooperation during drop off and pick up is truly appreciated. Finally, the parent input form for the 2017-2018 school year will be sent home on April 20th and are due back on or before April 28th. Sharing insight into how your child learns best is taken into consideration for classroom placement. Our goal is to match the student’s learning style with the teacher’s teaching style. Sincerely, Mrs. Michelle Walthour

What’s Happening?

Horario de Campanas: Las clases empiezan a las 7:50 am. Las clases terminan a las 2:35 pm. Por favor continué llamando nuestra linea de teléfono (571) 252-2351 cuando su hijo/a este ausente. Esto ayuda para la seguridad del estudiante. Si el estudiante esta marcado como ausente por su maestro/a y los padres no han llamado para reportarlo ausente, nuestra secretaria va a llamar a su casa para ver que pasa con su hijo/a. Puede dejar el mensaje en español.

Bell Schedule: Instruction begins at 7:50 am. Classes end at 2:35 pm. Please continue to call the Absentee hotline number at (571) 252-2351 if your child will be absent. This helps us ensure the safety of our students. If a student is marked absent by her/his teacher and the student’s parent has not called in to report the absence, our secretary will call home to check on your child.

Music News All-County Chorus will be held Friday, April 21st and Saturday, April 22nd. We have three fifth graders that will represent Ashburn Elementary for this special event. The students were chosen through an audition and will come together with other talented fifth graders throughout Loudoun County. They will perform on Saturday, April 22nd at Tuscarora High School in Leesburg at 1:30 p.m. Admission is free to this event. Our three representatives are Sebastian Bohnett, Layla Dunn, and Nicholas Krell. Way to go!! Mrs. Davidson & Mrs. Briscoe Music Specialists

Persons who, due to disability, need assistance to be able to participate meaningfully in any Ashburn Elementary School activity should contact the principal at least 5 working days before the activity.

Library News The library would like to thank all of the patrons who shopped our book fair, and a very special, heartfelt thank you goes out to parents and faculty who volunteered their time and efforts to help make our book fair run smoothly. We would especially like to recognize Leslie Whitenack who spent countless hours helping all week long! We will be participating in Scholastic’s Summer Reading Challenge again this year to defend our title as NUMBER 1 in the state of Virginia. The challenge begins on May 8 and continues throughout the summer. Look for information and directions in your child’s Thursday folder on Thursday, May 4, 2017. The library will be hosting its fifth annual Used Book Sale starting in May. The sale will be held during the school day May 22-June 2. Start your spring cleaning, and bring in those used books! We will begin accepting donations on May 1, 2017.

Don’t forget! Ashburn has its own collection of web based ebooks. You can browse our collection by clicking on the “Mackin Via” widget on the library web page. The username is the student’s lunch number. The password is a four digit number consisting of the student’s birth month and day. (For example April 1st would be 0401) We will be purchasing more ebooks for the 2017-2018 school year in May. Let Mrs. Larson know if there are particular subjects or titles that you would like to the library to purchase.

FOLLOW US!

Ashburn Elementary Library @ashburneslibrary

@ashburnreads

 

AES GOLDEN DOLPHINS vs

DOMININON TRAIL HUSKIES 2017 Volleyball Game 

April 21st @ 6:30pm at Broad Run High School

Get your tickets now!! Order forms were sent home or can be downloaded from our webpage.

Taste of the World A Multi-Cultural Evening hosted by Ashburn Elementary

to You’re Invited!

Friday, April 28th 6:30pm-8:00pm

Important Dates

Fuel Up To Play 60

We currently have 20 Student Ambassadors.

Any student who reaches 30,000 points can become an ambassador for our school.

Ambassadors are chosen to go to field trips and earn Fuel Up To Play 60 goodies.

Physical

Education April 2017

4th quarter

Soccer

Lacrosse

Baseball

Kickball

The Tournament is in full swing.

The Sweet 16 games will take place on the weekend

of March 25-26.

The Final Four games will be on April 1-2

The Championship game will take place April 3

Mr. Husadzinovic Mr. Lanham

April 6 - Staff vs. 4th and 5th grade students soccer game

April 7-16 - SPRING BREAK - Find fun ways of staying active during the week off and enjoy the beautiful weather.

April 16 - RUN CLUB STARTS - Run club will start on Monday, April 17th and will take place every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7:30am

April 21 - Ashburn Elementary vs. Dominion Trail staff Volleyball game at Broad Run High School

May 17 - Staff vs. 5th grade Kickball game @ 1:35pm

May 26 - Miracle Mile for 4th and 5th grade students at 8:05am

June 1 - FIELD DAY

March Citizens of the MonthKindergarten Kristen Gatewood Henry McDermott Mason Orosz Kody Palmer Sasha Veludandi Victoria Boakye Jessica Engle Olivia Hurley Qyrie Johnson Marcus McManus Daniel Paquin Satiana Sabroso Michelle Ventura Thetchanya Vijeshkumar Jonathan Yoo Ariana Adkins Razan Al Jalili Ioannis Efstathiou Kendall Hogan Zahra Peera Antonio Salazar

First Grade Caitlyn Elardo Cooper Fox Liam McFarlin Anand Patel Morgan Shuster Tajveer Bath Lydia Harrison Namay Khnadelwal Kassidy Scully Jordan Aranda Kaelyn Blasius Murilo Do Amaral Gouvea Twisha Juneja Andrew Kelly Nicholas Lamar Sia Nyandemoh Ava Prendergast Piper Rossi Julian Chavez Emmanuella Kyere Benjamin Marsh Shourya Papineni

Second Grade Jacob Clark Hamdi Salem Tala Tareq Sarah Shuaib Layla Adler Kaylee Blowers Ishanth Goli Elizabeth Grotsky Alexis Rotaru Elijah Block Benjamin Jurado Lucas Tremba Jahlia Wilson Raiya Haddad Charles Pettinelli Jonathan Whitenack Ronen Wilson Danny Cifuentes Tommy Kim Amani Negroni Claire Webber Zainab Abdullah Mila Isic Carlos Martinez Beltran

Third Grade Jaylin Cresegiona Madison Lee Shandon Martin Oliver Rhnama Sebastian Andino Rojas Benjamin Dehond Isaac Orellana Angelina Simms Aaron Smith Erica Araujo-Bonilla Gavin Bennett Emily Lehman Jason Weaver Anaan Afzal Denaria Jenkins Colin Kim Logan Baloch Ananya Bhatt Sophia Brody Titan Hamblin

Fourth Grade Joshua Kirk Brian Pearson Patrick Pepin Fatima Ramisha Isabelle Rogers Meley Daniel Joshua Jenson Christopher Simpson Prisca Tetteh-Kwakye Owen Dail Eric Estesham Andre Ortuno Rosales Deepika Ravi Reagan Scott Carla Chavez Sydnee Hale Ginny McGee James Shanker Haley Carabeo Jonathan Chun Akhil Patel Logan Pepin Rudyard Sagilir

Fifth Grade Pamela Byers Brianna Cook Nicole Novakov Samihah Mithi Ali Djebbari Sebastian Chacon Aguirre Jenson Guevara-Jovel Catherine Maranto William Swanson Chloe Thomas Molly Donadoni Jaden Lamar Anna Lombardo Sofia Shepherd Annalise Latimar Vivian Peou Alondra Rosario Alvarado Paola Rosario Alvarado Sebastian Bohnett Ameya Mandhare Kaitlyn Rodriguez Allen Thomas

StayConnected&ReachOut:HAPPENINGS, QUESTIONS, & THOUGHTS

• VisittheAESPTOWebsite• JoinourAESPTOFacebookPage• PresidentAnissa&GeoffWillis• VPAcademicsSusanAdams• VPFundraisingKeithKorin• TreasurerAnnaRussell• SecretaryRecordingVacant• SecretaryCorrespondingAshleyBrody

JoinInontheFunAT THESE UPCOMING ACTIVITIES:

APRIL 2017 • 6TH|EndofGradingPeriod• 7-14TH|StudentHoliday&SpringBreak• 18TH|SpiritNight@ManhattanPizza• 20TH|PTOMtg;7pinTeacher’sLounge• 25TH|BounceOuttheStigmaAssembly• 30TH|FamilyFitnessFunFair MAY 2017 • 1-5TH|TeacherAppreciationWeek• 19TH|MovieNight• 18TH|PTOMtg;7pinTeacher’sLoungewithvotingforopenpositions

• 29TH|MemorialDay

Springisofficiallyhere!Asweshakeoffthewinter,we’reexcitedtoreconnectwiththeoutdoorsandgetactive.ThismonthyoucancomecheerourAESStaffattheAnnualVolleyballgameandevenstretchyourlegsatourAnnualFunRunandFitnessFair.

It’shardtobelievetheendoftheschoolyearisaroundthecorner;but,wearelooking

forwardtocelebratingourfantasticteachersandstaffwithTeacherAppreciationWeekinMayandthenenjoyingsomefavoriteAESevents:FieldDayandtheEndoftheYearParty.

Thisisalsothepointwhenwestartlookingaheadandmakingpreparationsfornextyear.NominationsareopenifyouwanttojointhePTOboardorhelpoutasacommitteechair.

Ifyouhavequestionsabouttheopenpositions,pleasedon’thesitatetoreachout!AllOurBest,Anissa&GeoffWillis

AHeartfeltThanksBY KEITH KORIN

Thankstoyouandyourfamilyandfriends,AESdidremarkablywellintheGiantGroceryBucksfundraiser,earningover$3000fortheschool!Don’tforgettore-registeryourGiantBonusCardwithAESonafter14August.Betweennowandthen,youcanalwayspoint,click,anddonatetotheongoingNoFrillsFundraiser!

FunRunandFitnessFair!BY THE FITNESS COMMITTEE

Our2ndAnnualAESFunRun&FitnessFairisSunday,30April;lookforFunRunregistrationcominghomeinThursdayfoldersandalsoonFacebook.TheFREEFitnessFairimmediatelyfollows,withfunforeveryone;wehopetoseeyouthere!

MakeNextYearMoreRewarding?BY STEPHANIE BYERS

VolunteerforapositiononthePTOexecutiveboardorserveasacommitteechair!Ifyou’reinterestedcontactStephanie@sbyers124@yahoo.comby31April.

BounceOuttheStigmaAssemblyBY KATHLEEN WEBBER

OnApril25th,formerHarlemWizard’sStar,“MightyMike”SimmonswilldazzleAESstudentswithbasketballtrickswhileteachingaboutovercomingadversityandworkinghardtoachievegoals.Mikeknowsthislessonwellduetohislifelongstrugglewithepilepsy,whichledtohimconstantlybeingtoldhewasn’tcapable;however,hebelievedinhimselfandbecameabasketballsensation.Pleasejoinusat9awithK-2or10awith3-5grades.LearnmoreatthePTOAssemblywebpage.

• AESPTOneedsvolunteers;seewhatopeningisrightforyou.• WatchD.O.G.SSign-Up;helpatAESandbearolemodelforourAESkids• Earnmoneywhileshopping:checkoutAmazonSmile,Shutterly,TinyPrints

&Goodshop;linkyourgrocerysavingscardsforGiantandHarrisTeeter.

© 2017 Resources for Educators, a division of CCH Incorporated

April 2017Building Excitement and Success for Young Children

Shapes are the building blocks of our world and of your youngster’s understand-ing of geometry. These activi-ties will let him explore flat, or 2-D, shapes.

Name that shapeThis shape-making activity

is ideal for a group. Tie a long piece of yarn or string into a circle. Two people should hold opposite sides and stretch the circle to make a straight line. Now a third person pulls out the middle of one side to make a tri-angle. Keep adding people, and turn the yarn into a square (4 sides), a pentagon (5 sides), a hexagon (6 sides), a hepta-gon (7 sides), an octagon (8), a nonagon (9), and a decagon (10). With each move, have your child announce the shape formed.

Count the sidesGet your family moving with shape-

inspired exercise. First, let your youngster draw shapes (squares, triangles, rectan-gles, pentagons) on separate scraps of paper. Stack them facedown. Then, take turns naming an exercise (jumping jacks,

True or false? Spark your child’s math thinking with this

game. Give her an equation with a right answer or a wrong answer. If it’s correct (7 – 2 = 5), she says, “True.” If it’s wrong (say, 7 – 2 = 3), she says, “False” and corrects it. Take turns so she gets to test you, too. Tip: Let her use small items (buttons, paper clips) to work out the problems.

Learning about leversWith a piece of wood, a nail, and a hammer, your youngster can explore

a lever—a type of simple machine that uses force to move or lift an object. Hammer a nail into the wood,

and ask him to try to remove it with his fingers. Then, show him how to carefully use the claw end of the ham-mer to remove the nail. He’ll see that a lever makes the job easier.

Web picks At smartygames.com, your child

can do puzzles and mazes or try math games with pirates, Martians, and more.

Enjoy dozens of science activities at peepandthebigwideworld.com about animals, plants, light, and the way things move.

Q: How long should a horse’s legs be?

A: Long enough to reach the ground!

Let’s play with shapesTOOLS & TIDBITS

Just for fun

This diet’s for the birds!Here’s a fun way to discover how different types of

beaks help determine what birds eat.

Find “beaks.” Together, look at pictures of birds in books or online. Then, gather materials to represent the beaks. Your child might use a straw for a hummingbird beak, a toothpick for a heron, a spoon for a pelican, and tweezers for a house finch.

Eat like a bird. Set out juice, gummy fish in a bowl of water, and sunflower seeds. Your youngster can try each “beak” to see which works best. She’ll find the hum-mingbird’s beak helps it suck up liquid. A heron’s beak is perfect for spearing fish, while the pelican’s scoops up the fish. And a house finch’s beak lets it pick up and crack open seeds.

squats) and picking a shape from the pile. Count the shape’s sides out loud, and everyone does that number of exercises. Example: Choose a square (4 sides), and do 4 jumping jacks.

Make and findEncourage your child to use crayons,

pretzel sticks, or craft sticks to create his own shapes. How many sticks will he need to form a pentagon? (It takes 5, or the total number of sides.) What about 1 pentagon and 1 square? (There would be 9 sticks, since 5 + 4 = 9.) Suggest that he uses shoelaces to make circles. Then, challenge him to find all those shapes around the house. He might locate a triangular wedge of cheese or a round clock face.

Ashburn Elementary School

© 2017 Resources for Educators, a division of CCH Incorporated

To provide busy parents with practical ways to promote their children’s math and science skills.

Resources for Educators, a division of CCH Incorporated

128 N. Royal Avenue • Front Royal, VA 22630800-394-5052 • rfecustomer@wolterskluwer.com

www.rfeonline.comISSN 1942-910X

O U R P U R P O S E

April 2017 • Page 2

Swings. Let your child practice skip counting with each back-and-forth swing. She’ll count 2, 4, 6, and so on for each swing forward and back. See if she can swing, and skip count, all the way to 100!

Slide. How many children are ahead of her at the slide? How

many steps are on the ladder? How many times did she slide

down? Encourage your youngster to count everything she can about the slide.

Idea: On the way home, suggest that your child make up a story about your trip to the playground—in numbers. She might say, “The 2 of us walked to the playground. It is 3 blocks from our house. I saw 7 other kids playing.”

A counting playground

Your child can climb, swing, and play her way to better counting skills at your local playground. Try these ideas.

Monkey bars. Have your young-ster count each rung she touches as she moves across the monkey bars (1, 2, 3…). When she turns around and goes back, she could count backward from her last number (6, 5, 4…).

With this clever version of charades,

your child will learn and remember math vocabulary words.

1. Help your youngster write about a dozen math terms (add, subtract, multiply, pattern, sphere, less than) on separate index cards. Shuffle the cards, and stack them facedown.

2. One player draws a card and acts out the word—no talking allowed. For pattern, he might do this:

Make a (science) note of that

When my son Caleb came home excited about the science experiments his class was doing, I asked his teacher, Ms. Fletcher, how to encourage his interest. She suggested that Caleb keep a science journal.

We got a notebook, and Caleb put together a bag with colored pen-cils, a magnifying glass, a ruler, and a timer. Now we go on regular science expeditions—with Caleb’s journal in hand. He has found great stuff to exam-ine and write about.

One day in the forest, we spotted some mushrooms. Caleb studied them with his magnifying glass and sketched what he saw. When we went back a week later to inspect them again, he drew how they had changed.

We’ve had fun measuring shadows, timing how long it takes a snail to move a foot, and more. Caleb has recorded it all! And the best part is that we’re learn-ing about science together.

Stay dryWhy wear a raincoat? So you stay

dry, of course. This experiment will show your youngster what else keeps water away.

You’ll need: construction paper, pencil, scraps of materials (tissue paper, aluminum foil, plastic wrap, and wrapping paper), spray bottle of water

Here’s how: Let your child draw a big raincoat on con-struction paper and lay the scraps all over it. Have her predict which materials will be waterproof. To test, she can spray each one with water. She should remove the materials, then observe where the paper raincoat got wet or stayed dry.

What happens? Areas covered by waterproof materials like aluminum foil stayed dry. Items that were not waterproof, such as wrapping paper, allowed water to seep through.

Why? Water beads up and rolls off waterproof materials, while materials that aren’t waterproof absorb water. Idea: Ask your youngster what she would wrap a sandwich in to keep it dry.

Guess my math word

SCIENCE LAB

PARENTTO

PARENT

MATHCORNER jump, clap, jump, clap. Or if he gets less

than, he could put two groups of objects on the floor and shape his body into a less-than sign (<) pointing toward the smaller amount.

3. The first person to cor-rectly guess his word keeps the card.

4. Take turns picking cards and acting out the terms. When all the cards have been used, the player with the most cards wins.

Place Logo Here Name of School

School Calendar

Place important monthly notices and reminders here

1 April Fool's Day

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9 10 11 12 13 14 15

16 17 18 19 20 21 Earth Day

at Broad Run HS

23 24 25 26 Admin Assist Day 27 28 29

30

http://www.vertex42.com/calendars/

© 2015 Vertex42 LLC. Free to print.

Family Fitness Fun Fair

6:30pm

Taste of the World

PTO assembly 9 & 10 am

2nd grade fiedl trip 8am 3-5 Citizenship 8am K-2 Citizenship

Breakfast

Berry 6pm Volleyball game

report cards go home

8:30am Volunteer

Manhattan Pizza & Luv'n

PTO Spriit Night Kindergarten field trip

PTO meeting 7pm

Spring Break Spring Break Spring Break Spring Break Spring Break

1:45 & 6:30 No school for students

2nd grade musical End of 3rd quarter Teacher workday

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