Carroll Creek Communicator

Dear CCMPCS Community,

Here at CCMPCS we are so fortunate to have the support of parents and volun-teers from our small community. This support is evident in the excellent Mon-tessori and Spanish language education-al program our students receive. Our

volunteers are here, on a daily basis supporting our chil-dren and teachers to reach our vision. We do have a unit-ed vision, one which we can be very proud of. Many ac-tions have been taken in the past month or so by so many people toward achieving that vision. I would never be able to name everyone. Instead, I just want to send out a grandiose “Thank You!” to those who have supported in one way or another! With this being said, On Wednesday, February 27th at 6:00pm at the Board of Education Meet-ing room on 191 S. East St. in Frederick, our school lead-ership team will be presenting our Mid-Year report to the Frederick County Board of Education. We plan on sharing the progress we have made as a school and community. We have so much to celebrate and be proud of, and this is our chance to share it with FCPS and the greater Freder-ick community. As members of the CCMPCS community, you are welcome to attend and we sincerely hope you can show your support for CCMPCS.

School News:

In an effort to improve the safety for our children during drop-off, please continue to utilize the car line or our front entrance. When using the front entrance, please re-member to escort your child into the main office area. You are always welcome to bring your child directly to the classroom prior to 9:00am. After 9:00am, parents are not allowed to escort children to classrooms, as this caus-es a disruption to the learning environment. Our office staff is always available to assist.

Concerns have also been presented regarding our pre-kindergarten pick-up/dismissal. Please remember this pick-up varies from our normal car-line dismissal. Per zoning agreement, our playground area must be barricad-ed during the day. This requires our parents to park and walk in to pick-up children at the playground or at the

CALENDAR February 21 Group and class photos

March 1 Student mid-term reports issued

March 4-11 MSA testing for 3rd graders

March 14 Late opening (1:00); no pre-k Evening parent-teacher conferences as scheduled by teachers

March 15 Early dismissal (12:15) Parent-teacher conferences as scheduled by teachers

March 19, 6:30 pm Lottery at CCMPCS for 2013-2014

Continued on page 2

CCMPCS 7915 Corporate Court, Frederick, MD 21705 http://education.fcps.org/ccmpcs February 21, 2013

Principal’s News

I had the pleasure of attending a govern-

ance workshop in Hanover, MD earlier

this month with members from our gov-

erning council, Monocacy Valley's gov-

erning council and the MMCI Board of

Trustees. There were representatives

there from many of the charter schools

in Maryland. It was so exciting to see

what other schools are doing, learn more

about charter governance, and to bounce

ideas off of the representatives there of

this MMCI community. I learned many

things, one being that the state, in evalu-

ating how well a charter school is doing,

looks at the amount of volunteer hours

invested by the families that school

serves and the percentage of families

who contribute to/support the non profit

who oversees the school, among other

things. I, for one, have been terrible

about logging my volunteer hours. See-

ing how important it is, I am doing bet-

ter. MMCI is the non profit which holds

Continued on page 3

rear door when the tot lot cannot be used. Please practice patience during this time. It is also best not to leave small siblings in vehicles while waiting for your pre-k child. Please feel free to bring siblings up with you when pick-ing up your three and four year olds.

With the recent wet weath-er, we have made the deci-sion to keep our pre-kindergarten children in-doors during many of our recess opportunities. Due to the very muddy conditions, we have found the tot-lot to be unsafe in the wet weather. We are commit-ted to its use when the area is dry enough for safe play. Thanks for your patience. We are working toward raising funds to improve this area. Please see below for more information.

Our Lower Elementary students will have the opportunity to complete science projects in class. These will be shared on site during our

spring parent education night. Students are not required to complete projects. In the true spirit of Montessori education, students will be allowed to choose if they wish to partici-pate. With parental support, and a collaborative decision

between parent and students, students who complete a project can enter it into the county fair. Please contact your Lower elementary teacher for more details.

Our students will be invited to participate in a local Read-A-Thon during, Read Across America Week from March 4 through March 8. Students will be able to make their own read-ing goals and track progress. We will also have a “Read-In” on Thursday, March 7th. We hope to culminate the week with a special assembly. Stay tuned!!!!

Please also remember that every Friday is Li-brary Day at CCMPCS. Students will be able to

Continued from Principal’s News, page 1 check out new books, only if they have re-turned a book previously checked out. Try and teach your child to pack the backpack with the previous book on Thursday night. This is another great way to teach children independence.

Here is another very important reminder that our 3rd graders will take the MSA test on March 4th and 5th in reading and on March 7th and 8th in math. Tests will be held in the morning. Please be sure to be on time and present during this test window.

We have some new upcoming fundraising op-portunities (you will receive more infor-mation soon), these are: Chuck E. Cheese: March 20th 3:00pm-9:00pm and Scholastic Book fair: April 22-26. Our goal is to utilize the collected money at these events to im-proving our tot-lot.

Please consider volunteering for this new exciting oppor-tunity for our children, The CCMPCS 4H Club which is planned to be for 1st graders and older right here at our

school. 4H is a club that is led by our children! That's right! They are the leaders of this group. They learn to manage meetings, choose topics of interest, participate in public speak-ing and take on statewide and national events within 4H. 4H is a great fit for a Montessori child as they can find an interest in arts, shooting sports, animals, household activities and more.

This club cannot run without parents. If you are interested in having your child join 4H, you must be a volunteer with 4H. We will need around 6-12 parents to become volun-teers through 4H, then we will create a mis-sion with our children, a schedule of events for our opening year 2014 and meet once a month to have fun!

If you are interested in becoming a 4H volun-teer and enrolling your child in 4H, contact Julie Clark, 301-305-8181 or Jclarkad@yahoo. com. Here is some information about 4H.

4-H Mission: 4-H empowers youth to reach their full potential, working and learning in partnership with caring adults.

4-H Vision: A world in which youth and adults learn, grow and work together as catalysts for positive change.

The 4-Hs: Head, Heart, Hands, and Health are the four Hs in 4-H, and they are the four values members work on through fun and engaging programs.

Head - Managing, Thinking

Heart - Relating, Caring

Hands - Giving, Working

Health - Being, Living

MMCI News:

Save the date for MMCI’s annual fundraiser and fellowship event, The MMCI Auction. The date is May 10, 2013 and the event will be lo-cated at the Talley Recreation Center. Materi-als and information will be sent home soon.

FCPS News:

On March 19, FCPS will be holding a STEM Community Night in which FCPS representa-tives will share the vision for our system in STEM Education and how STEM Education supports Common Core and College and Ca-reer Readiness. A keynote speaker from BNBI will be present. This community night is one in a series of community nights that FCPS has been holding monthly. (Flier attached)

Upcoming Events:

February 22-Primary In House-Field Trip (Frederick Historical Society-Black History Month Event)

March 1- Lower Elementary Field Trip (Frederick Historical Society-Black History Month Event)

March 1-Women’s History Month begins

March 4-8-Read Across America Week

March 10-Daylight Savings Time Begins (Spring ahead and move the clocks up 1 hour)

March 19th-Lottery at CCMPCS for next school year. 6:30pm

March 19th-Stem Community Night (See Attached Flier)

March 20-Chuck-E-Cheese Fundraiser (3:00pm-9:00pm)

March 28-No School-Teacher Work Day

March 29-April 3-School Closed-Spring Break

April 4-Return from Spring Break

Yours in teaching and learning,

Giuseppe Di Monte Principal Carroll Creek Montessori Public Charter School Follow me on Twitter: @ccmpcsppal

the charter of our school and our sister school,

Monocacy Valley. Our school would not exist

had it not been for the investment MMCI has

made and continues to make in us. Even $5 from

each family would help us reach our goal of

showing the state that our school has a 100%

support of our non profit. Would you consider

helping us reach that goal? Donations can be

made through paypal at mmci2001@yahoo.com

or filling out a pledge form. MMCI is a 501 (c)

(3) non-profit entity and all donations are com-

pletely tax deductible. In addition, multiple Car-

roll Creek families are involved with planning

the annual MMCI Art Auction at the Talley Cen-

ter on Friday May 10th. It is really shaping up to

be quite a fun event. Please mark your calendars!

I would also like to take a brief moment to thank

everyone who has invested time and energy in

the primary task force. The ratios for students in

the primary classrooms will remain at 10:10:10

for the 2013-2014 school year, with no reduction

in numbers. The primary task force is in the pro-

cess of restructuring and will continue its re-

search through this year and beyond. I will send

more information out in the near future.

Michael Beth Edwards

CCMPCS Governing Council Chair

Continued from GC News, page 1

Counseling Corner

Hi CCMPCS Families,

From the very beginning of CCMPCS's history, the vision of our school culture was one of re-spect for all and responsibility in educating the whole child. Dr. Robyn Silverman, a well-known and often-published child develop-ment specialist, created a quick list of ten tips in teaching our kids to be respectful.

When adults encourage a respectful, tolerant attitude in children, talk about their values

and model the behavior they would like to see by treating others well, kids will follow in their footsteps. Teaching respect takes pa-tience, time and a willingness to do as you preach. It takes years to rear a respectful child and only moments to fill one with anger and disrespect.

Excellent resources:

http://www.drrobynsilverman.com/parenting-tips/10-tips-on-teaching-respect-to-children-you-cant-get-it-if-you-dont-give-it/

http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/talk/tolerance.html

Deb Herbaugh

Counselor, CCMPCS

1) Model it: If you want them to do it, you have to do it too!

2) Expect it: When your expectations are reasonably high, children rise to the occasion.

3) Teach it: Give children the tools they need to show you respect.

4) Praise it: When you see or hear your children using respectful language and making respectful choices, recognize it and praise them for making positive choices.

5) Discuss it: Point out times when you see other children using respectful language and behavior and discuss it with your children.

6) Correct it: Be strong, firm and direct when teaching respect. At the same time, be sure you are being respectful when teaching your child about it!

7) Acknowledge it: Don't just let things slide! Be sure to notice when your kids are being respectful and call them on their disrespectful choices!

8) Understand it: Your children are growing and learning everyday. De-velopmentally they may not have the correct words or tools to express their thoughts and feelings appropriately.

9) Reinforce it: Remind kids of their good decisions so they remember how it felt to be respectful to others and even themselves.

10) Reward it: Respectful behavior is something that children should want to do without overindulgent rewards, but recognition, extra responsibil-ity and privileges are a way to honor respectful, responsible behavior.

Painting with Love, Light and Color I found I could say things with color that I couldn't

say any other way—things I had no words for.

~ Georgia O’Keeffe

Last week, in the Lower Elementary art classes, our compassionate children shared their hearts as they created artwork for their friend, Morgan, and her family.

As we move into the third quarter, the children are being introduced to painting through lessons on the vocabulary, science, symbolism and emotion of color. This week, all classes practiced mixing primary, secondary and tertiary colors. In celebration of Dia de la Amistad, the children made paintings of hearts using analogous colors and inspired by the work of Pop Artist, Jim Dine. Our Lower Elementary classes are also writing favorite color poems to be used as inspiration for mono-chromatic paintings after the children learn to mix tints and shades. And our Primary classes are mixing secondary colors to create color wheels and rainbows.

To view the children’s artwork, please visit: http://artccmpcs.blogspot.com/