Ashburn Inquirer

December 1 8:05am gr. 3-5 Citizenship December 2 8:05am K-2 Citizenship 9am & 10am Assembly – Fabulous Chinese Acrobats 6:00pm PTO Movie Night December 7 PTO Afterschool Enrichment winter enrollment ends December 16 6:00pm – 9:00pm Parents Night Out December 19 1:00pm Holiday Sing Along with Farmwell Station MS December 22 – January 2 Winter break January 3 School resumes

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 December 1, 2016 Mrs. Michelle Walthour – Principal Ms. Abby Sacco– Assistant Principal Ms. Joy Maloney – School Board Representative

Dear Ashburn Elementary Families, Thank you to everyone who joined us during American Education Week. We welcomed over 510 visitors throughout the week. The students and staff were delighted to share in the many activities from the turkeys in Kindergarten, the math games in first and third grade, the STEM activity in second and fourth grade, and Kahoot in fifth grade! At Ashburn Elementary we have much to be proud of and thankful for this holiday season. A very special “thank you” to our kindergarten students and their families for their generous donations of food. We collected enough food to feed many families in the surrounding community. This was the culmination of their unit on families and communities. What a wonderful way for students to connect with others and extend their learning beyond the classroom. Parents will have another opportunity to see other One to the World culmination projects with our school wide exhibition on January 19th. In the past, we focused on science experiments with our science showcase, but this year we are taking it to the next level with our One to the World Exhibition! More information will be sent home closer to the date. Take the holiday reading challenge! As the holiday time approaches and the weather gets cooler, thoughts of curling up with a good book come to mind. This is an ideal time to establish or reaffirm a nightly reading time in your home. We are challenging all Ashburn students to spend some time reading during the holidays. The holiday reading challenge details will be sent home with all students before the winter break. You may have noticed this week that cones are now located in the parking lot next to the “No stopping or standing” sign. The cones are there to remind drivers not to park and walk across the parking lot to pick up students. It is very dangerous to walk students across the parking lot and creates a blind spot for parents exiting the car line. Following the rules helps everyone to stay safe. Thank you in advance for your cooperation. The Ashburn Elementary School Staff wishes you and your family a joyous and safe holiday. Our last day of school will be Wednesday, December 21, 2016. We will welcome everyone back on Tuesday, January 3, 2017, feeling well rested, energized and excited about the New Year. Happy Holidays, Mrs. Walthour

What’s Happening?

Library News December Library News The time is almost here for a December Ashburn tradition! On Wednesday, December 14 Mrs. Larson will read The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School by Laura Murray. In years past, when Mrs. Larson reads the story, the Gingerbread Man on her bulletin board wakes up, jumps off the bulletin board and runs around the school! The only way our students can catch him is if they “READ, READ! As much as they can!” Information about our fun Winter Reading Challenge will be coming home in Thursday folders on Thursday, December 15 when our Winter Reading Challenge officially begins. Students should get some good reading material and get ready to chase that Gingerbread Man! Mrs. Larson Library Specialist

FOLLOW US! Ashburn Elementary Library @ashburneslibrary

@ashburnreads

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 our 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 Notes Save The Date: We will have our annual holiday sing along at Ashburn Elementary School on Monday, December 19th at 1:00 featuring our wonderful musicians from Farmwell Station Middle School. Families and friends are welcome to attend!

Chorus begins in January! All 4th and 5th grade students who LOVE to SING are invited to join. Rehearsals will be held in the morning before school from 7:30 – 8:00. Fourth grade will meet on Tuesday mornings, and 5th grade will meet on Thursday mornings. Information/permission slips will be sent home in December.

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.

We’ve had an amazing response with over 18students participating in our NFL Fuel Up To Play 60 program. We have 2 ambassadorswho have earned over 20,000 points by com-pleting the different

challenges.

What is Fuel

Up To Play 60? Fuel Up To Play 60 is a web-site that helps you stay healthy and fit. Signing up and earing points might earn you prizes like attending NFL team prac-tices, games and other events with your favorite NFL team.

It’s also a fun way to stay healthy and active.

How do I sign up?Signing up is very easy. All you have to do is go on to your computer and type in http://www.fueluptoplay60.com, next when you are on the home page press “I am a stu-dent”, when you have done that then you press “sign up”. After you have filled out all of the information to sign up you also have to make your own username and password to log in with every time. Finally after you have done all of that you are all signed up and will have

your own dashboard. Connect and join the Ashburn Elementary School team by searching for the school using the zip code 20147. You are now ready to start earing points for yourself and our team!

Fuel Up To Play 60

1. Specific, realistic

goals work best

2. It takes time forchange to become

a habit

3. Repeating a goal

makes it stick

4. Find the desire from

within

5. Roadblocks don’t

mean failure

New Year Resolutions &

Setting Goals

Physical

Education

December Academic

Content

Fitness

Gymnastics

Basketball

FUELING UP THE BODY

MEAL IDEAS Breakfast: Oatmeal with raisins, 1 banana, 1 slice of whole wheat toast spread

with peanut butter, and low

fat milk

Lunch: Turkey sandwich on whole wheat roll with lettuce, sliced tomato and carrot sticks, plain low-fat

yogurt with fresh

strawberries, 1 apple, water

Snack: piece of fruit and

water

Dinner: Fish, or chicken, steamed broccoli, green leaf salad, light dressing and wa-

ter

Mr. Husadzinovic Mr. Lanham

November Citizens of the Month

Kindergarten Hank Tilghman Shelby Young Anna Parker David Colon-Oliveras Gabriella Smith Drake Bhide Rayyan Ahmed Reetaj Elbarwdy Aislynn Chatterton Ariyana Shahalemi Jacob Krasilovsky Ella Gruntman Patrick Segura

First Grade Fariha Rima Ahsan Owen Mouw Parisa Paquin Aryan Kothari Aya Aloui William Daniel Higgins Hayden Pursel Akshaya Bathineni Emma Isic Dayana Escobar Elle Butler Hanish Dudam Jonathan Arvind Lillian Gallagher Connor Stefanac

Second Grade

Maximilian Smith Lya Gonzalez Oscategui Malak Alaoui Alexis Mensah Thomas White Ashleigh Whitehead Emaan Raza Pilar Delellis Cayden Hertzler Andrew Nugent Keylyn Portillo Vibha Sangameswaran Elyse Colon Oliveras Sergio Revollo Micah Adkins Joseph Magliocca Audrey Tilghman Mahika Sharma

Third Grade Logan Canet Lola Jackson Madeline Korin Gabrielle Arthur Amir Diglisic Ayesha Zia Ryan Bernat Samhita Kotamraju Jaslyn Daniela So Xiomi Weiss de la Cruz Ceridwen Thomas Sahr Nyandemoh Quentin Greenhill Adriana Jenkins Adam Krell Jacob Schleiden

Fourth Grade Beatriz Do Amaral Gouvea Eileen Benitez William Townsend Tenny-Ola Akinotcho Brayden Lee Hailey Coy Aaron Clarkson Isabel Ayoub Vicky Melendez-Rivas Marwan Siaf Addison McCarthy Aaron Pantall Liberty Clark Victoria Russell Kayla Nester Ryan Yeddanapalli

Fifth Grade Grace Breeden Ashley Mosqueira Patrick Timbers Layla Dunn Krish Jain Davan Desmond Mukhwaak Singh Mehrsa Aramideh Giovanni Deavers Alexandra Kasper Harper Osman Sean Bernat Alessa Caforio-Jimenez Aidan Holtz Farhan Khalid Tarek Benlamkaddem Lexi Akuetteh Ruhi Krishna

We hope that everyone enjoyed time with family and friends over the

Thanksgiving Break. Can you believe winter break is around the corner?

December is here and as we look ahead to the Holiday Season, we would

like to take the time to tell you how appreciative we are of all the

students, parents, staff and volunteers at AES!

We also want to wish you and your families a very wonderful, fun and

relaxing Holiday Season. Looking forward to even more fun things in 2017!

All Our Best,

Anissa & Geoff Willis

Stay Connected & Reach Out: HAPPENINGS, QUESTIONS, & THOUGHTS

• Visit the AES PTO Website

• Join our AES PTO Facebook Page

• President Anissa & Geoff Willis

• VP Academics Susan Adams

• VP Fundraising Keith Korin

• Treasurer Anna Russell

• Secretary Recording Zoe Byer

• Secretary Corresponding Ashley Brody

Join In on the Fun AT THESE UPCOMING ACTIVITIES:

DECEMBER 2016

• 2ND

| Fabulous Chinese Acrobats

• 2ND

| Movie Night- Zootopia, 6p

• 7TH

| After School Enrichment Program

winter enrollment ends

• 16th|Parent Night Out- 5th Grade Prom

• 22ND

| Winter Holiday; return on 3 Jan

JANUARY 2017

• 3RD

| Back to School in the New Year!

• 16TH

| Martin Luther King Holiday

• 17TH

| Raise Resilient Kids Assembly @7p

• 20TH

| PTO Meeting @715a

• 26TH

| End of the 2ND

Grading Period

Thank You, Volunteers… BY ZOE BYER

We sincerely thank our wonderful volunteers for helping with the events we’ve held so far this year. We are so appreciative of your time, effort, and talents! - Bingo Night: Angela Wells, Stephanie Byers, Sue Adams, Keith Korin

- Picture Day(s): Cindy Harrison, Jennifer Payne, Heidi Ryan, Mihaela Antonescu, Gabriella Bohnett, Jen Pantall

- Book Fair: Cindy Harrison, Lindsey Reid, Jodi Atkinson, Gabriella Bohnett, Lynda Clarkson, Jen Pantall, Carolyn

Vazquez, Mihaela Antonescu, Maria Eisert, Jamie Palay, Nichole James, Jenny Gates, Jennifer Payne, Marian Arcelay

Feel Great This Holiday Season BY THE PTO WELNESS COMMITTEE

Come through the holidays feeling great: eat well, keep moving & get your zzzs!

- Add more fruits and veggies with festive appetizers or pumpkin soup; cut sugar and fat with homemade cranberry

sauce and an apple crisp instead of pie a-la-mode (ideas at: www.superhealthykids.com and

www.eatingwell.com)

- Sign up for a family friendly run/walk, play football or basketball while the turkey cooks, or go for an after-dinner walk

Sleep keeps illness away, provides energy for sticking to exercise plans, & enables attention at school and work

Fabulous Acrobats at AES BY KATHLEEN WEBBER

On December 2nd, The Fabulous Chinese Acrobats will be visiting Ashburn Elementary. This will be a cultural event not to be missed by students or their families! For more information, visit the PTO’s assembly webpage.

Holiday Groceries = AES Dollars! BY STEPHANIE BYERS

This holiday season, remember to check for those little Box Tops; remember, put your child’s teacher’s name on your baggie for credit towards an ice cream party.

• AES PTO needs volunteers; see what opening is right for you.

• Watch D.O.G.S Sign-Up; help at AES and be a role model for our AES kids

• Earn money while shopping: check out Amazon Smile, Shutterly, Tiny Prints

& Goodshop; link your grocery savings cards for Giant and Harris Teeter.

© 2016 Resources for Educators, a division of CCH Incorporated

December 2016Building Excitement and Success for Young Children

Pairing numbers together to make 5, 10, or 100 will simplify addition for your little math learner. Here’s how.

Flash 5See how quickly

your youngster can put together a match that equals 5. Hold up some fingers on one hand. Have him show you with his fingers what number is missing to equal 5. If you hold up 2 fingers, he should “flash” 3 fingers and say the addition sentence, “2 + 3 = 5.” Take turns, and when he’s got it down, use both hands and create matches to 10.

Fish for 10Play Go Fish with a deck of cards

(face cards and 10s removed, ace = 1). The object is to produce pairs equaling 10, such as 3 and 7. Deal 5 cards to each player, and stack the rest. Take turns asking for what you need. Example: If you have a 2, ask for an 8. If your oppo-nent doesn’t have it, draw a card. Lay

Compute creatively Give your child a few math problems, and

encourage her to use household objects to act them out. Let her be

creative with what she chooses! She might solve 5 – 2 = 3 with pickles or 7 + 4 = 11 with cookie cutters. Using what teachers call manipula-tives (objects you can move around) will boost her understanding because they’re hands-on.

Be a little chemist For an early introduction to chemis-try, suggest that your youngster squish together a few colors of play dough. Now, can he separate them back out? Nope, because he just bound them together. That’s the same thing that happens when elements bond. They become something new—a compound!

Web picksWith a click and a drag, your child

will be able to visualize place value while having fun at learningbox.com/base10/BaseTen.html.

If your youngster has never seen an aye-aye or a regal horned lizard, she could check out those creatures, and more, at kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals.

Q: How can you tell that carrots are good for your eyes?

A: You never see rabbits wearing glasses!

Pair and addTOOLS & TIDBITS

Just for fun

Winter’s on its way As colder weather sets in, encourage your young-

ster to help prepare for winter—and to think about what animals might be doing to prepare.

Ask her what clothing your family needs for cold weather (coats, boots, gloves). Then, she could help put away her summer clothes and pull out her winter gear.

What about animals? Together, brainstorm ways that animals get ready for winter, and let her illustrate her ideas. Perhaps she’ll draw a picture of a fox growing thick fur, a bear finding a place to sleep, a squirrel stor-ing food, or a bird flying south.

down pairs of 10 as you go. (If you run out of cards, draw 5 more.) When no more pairs can be made, the player with the most pairs wins.

Pass to 100Try “passing” numbers back and forth

to make 100. Start by saying a multiple of 10, like 30. Your child says a number back to you that would add to 100. (With 30, he’d pass back 70.) If he’s right, he “tosses” a number to you. Keep at it until he correctly passes numbers back every time.

Ashburn Elementary School

© 2016 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 22630540-636-4280 • rfecustomer@wolterskluwer.com

www.rfeonline.comISSN 1942-910X

O U R P U R P O S E

December 2016 • Page 2

Shoes. When your youngster gets new shoes, the clerk mea-sures her feet to see what size they are. That helps her find shoes that fit.

● Let your child measure your foot. She might line up Legos or paper clips, end to end, to see how many Legos-long or paper clips-long your foot is.

Produce. At the grocery store, point out the scale you use to

weigh the fruits and vegetables, and explain how you pay for them by the pound.

● Have your youngster help you weigh the grapes or winter squash you’re buying. Ask her to read the numbers on the scale to determine the ounces or pounds.

Why am I measuring?Inches, ounces, and pounds…

does your youngster know why we measure things? Use these ideas to explain.

Babies. Pull out pictures from when your child was a baby. You can tell her how the doctor checked her weight and length regularly to make sure she was growing properly.

● Help her measure and weigh her dolls or stuffed animals. She could compare to see which ones are longer and shorter or heavier and lighter.

Where, oh, where did that little square go? Is it left, right, or in the middle? With this geometry activity, your youngster and a friend will enjoy using shape and position words.

Materials: construction paper, markers

1. Have each person draw a tic-tac-toe board.

2. One player secretly adds a shape (square, circle, triangle, rect-angle) into 3 or 4 spaces on her board.

Glue will keep us together

Amaze your youngster with this engi-neering experiment where a single layer of glue makes two index cards stronger.

You’ll need: 2 plastic cups, ruler, 4 index cards, glue, 30 pennies

Here’s how: Have your child glue 2 index cards together and let them dry. Then, he can turn the cups upside down on a table (about 4 inches apart) and lay the two unglued cards on top, one over the other. Let him put pennies on the cards, counting one by one, until the cards tumble. How many pennies did they hold? Next, he should repeat his experiment with the glued cards.

What happens? The glued cards will hold more pennies.

Why? Gluing the cards together makes them sturdier. This same princi-ple of layering materials together is used to make building materials stronger.

Time after timeIn school, my son Andrew

is learning about telling and writing time. His teacher suggested a fun way to work on this at home.

First, we needed to make a clock. So Andrew drew a circle on cardboard and wrote the numbers 1–12 around it. He used a long crayon as the minute hand and a broken crayon for the hour hand. Then on scrap paper, we wrote times like 3:30, 6:00, and 9:30.

To practice telling time, Andrew chooses 3 papers and moves his crayon “hands” to show those times. Or I show a time on the clock, and then Andrew finds the slip of paper that matches that time.

The more we do this, the better he’s getting at telling time. Now he points at the kitchen clock when it’s at an hour or a half-hour mark and tells me the time!

Putting shapes where they go

SCIENCE LAB PARENT

TO

PARENT

MATHCORNER

3. She gives directions so her friend can match her board. Examples: “I have a square in the top middle space.” “I have a circle in the bottom row on the right.”

4. The other player uses the clues to draw the same shapes in

the same places on his board.

5. When all the direc-tions are given, com-pare boards. Are they the same?

6. Make new boards, and swap roles.

Place Logo Here Name of School

School Calendar

Place important monthly notices and reminders here

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18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Christmas Eve

25 Christmas Day 26 Kwanzaa begins 27 28 29 30 31 New Year's Eve

December 2016Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

9am & 10am Assembly

8:05am Citizendhip 3-5 8:05am Citizendhip K-2

6pm PTO movie night

6-9pm Parents Night Out

Winter Break begins winter break

1:00 Holiday Sing Along

Chanukah winter break winter break winter break winter break winter break

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winter break

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