From All of Us at NCC

2001-2002, Issue 4

Date:  September 28, 2001

What’s Attached this Week

FLES Registration Forms

October 2001 School & PTA Activities Calendar

Math and Writing Reference Book Order Forms

Recycle Rewards Program

Letter from our First Lady, Mrs. Bush

NCCPTA Membership & Volunteer Form

Next 2 Weeks

Saturday, September 29

ï Walk FAR for NAAR – at Montgomery County Fairgrounds

Monday, October 1

ï FLES begins

Tuesday, October 2

ï Walk to School Day

ï PTA Meeting, 7:45 p.m. – Helping Your Child Cope After a Traumatic Event

Wednesday, October 3

ï FLES

Thursday, October 4

ï Hearing/Vision re-screening

Friday, October 5

ï Sally Foster Orders Due!

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Monday, October 8

ï FLES

Tuesday, October 9

ï Ms. Taylor’s SS Class to American History Museum, 9:30 – 12:30

Wednesday, October 10

ï NO School – Professional Day

Thursday, October 11

ï Teachers & Parents as Readers, NCC Book Club, 12:35 p.m.

Principal’s Post – By Mrs. Denise Greene

Parents, in light of recent events, it's important I share the following information.

Emergency Closing of Schools

All-day closing - Radio and TV stations are notified no later than 6:00 a.m.

Delayed opening of schools - Schools may be delayed an hour or more so that buses can operate under safer conditions and pupils will not be a part of the morning rush hour.  Delayed opening announcements will be given to all radio and TV stations no later than 6:00 a.m.

Early afternoon dismissal of schools - When early dismissal of students is necessary, the dismissal plans A or B will be announced over radio and TV usually by 11:00 a.m.

Plan A: Schools usually will dismiss one hour early.  All afternoon and evening activities are automatically cancelled.

Plan B: There may be occasions when students must be dismissed more or less than one hour before the regular dismissal time because of unusual circumstances.  In this case, the time differential will be announced on radio and TV.  The announcement will include instructions regarding the lunch program.

Parents are urged not to call the school about emergency closing information; this ties up phone lines when they may be needed for emergency school business. 

All emergency closings, delayed openings, or early dismissals are announced promptly and regularly on radio and TV stations.  The radio stations to listen to are:

·    WRC (980 AM)

·    WMAL (630 AM)

·    WINX (1600 AM)

You may call Montgomery County Public Schools information line at (301) 279-3673.

Important—Parents should make childcare arrangements if early dismissal occurs and no one is home to receive students.

An email alert program is available through www.schools-out.com.  If you register your email address, you will automatically be sent a notice when there is a school emergency closing.  (Note that subscribers to the email network, nccnet, automatically receive schools-out notices via email.)

PTA Co-Prez Message – By Diana Ditto & Amanda Manheim

Dear Parents and NCC Staff,

We are excited about two events that we will be participating in next week.  On Tuesday morning all of our students will be participating in the Walk To School Day program that has become a countywide event.  Our cluster coordinators, Sam Hoxie and Charlotte Fremaux, have arranged for all of our bus riders to also have an opportunity to participate in this safety awareness program. Special thanks to Sam (301-942-0743), Charlotte (301-589-6908), Mrs. Greene, our school staff, Chevy Chase Supermarket and our parent volunteers who are helping to walk all the children to NCC from Chevy Chase Supermarket.

Our first PTA meeting will begin at 7:45 p.m. on Tuesday evening.  Our meetings are held in the Media Center.  Our topic for the evening is "How to Help Children Cope and Understand the Recent Tragic Events."  We are pleased that Dr. Frederic Solomon, a privately practicing child and adolescent psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, will be available to guide the discussion.  Dr. Solomon is also the Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at George Washington University Medical School.  Dr. Solomon will be joined by the school counselor who will discuss how the school has been handling, discussing and assisting students in the aftermath.  This is a topic that we are all concerned with and there will be ample time allocated for your questions.  Babysitting is provided by the PTA. We will be serving refreshments and look forward to seeing you.

HARVEST DINNERS!!  Many, many thanks to Lisa Johnstone (301-652-6312), who has agreed to be the coordinator of our fall parties.  Amanda and I will be co-hosting a party and we suggest that others may want to consider doing this as well.  Please call Lisa if you would like to help or host a party.

At Back To School Night many of you had an opportunity to see and order the reference handbooks that our students use in their classrooms.  Published by the Great Source Company, these reference books cover math content areas and writing. Teachers have asked us to facilitate the ordering of these books for home use if families wish to have them.  We have attached another order form in this issue of the FAOU in case you did not have an opportunity to do this at Back to School Night.  Call Diana if you have any questions, 301-949-3446.   Please have all orders in by October 5.  Thanks!

Our PTA has also agreed to participate in the Recycle Rewards program.  The Recycling Rewards Program is an educational and environmental partnership designed to make fundraising simple and ecological.  Participating schools collect empty laser cartridges from students, parents or any business.  For every cartridge that is turned in our PTA will get money.  Trash for Cash!  We have attached a list of all the cartridges that can be recycled in this program.  If you, your office or business uses any of these, please consider dropping them in the plastic bin in the front hall. Thank you!

Have a great weekend.

Your PTA CO-Presidents,

 Diana Ditto

Amanda Manheim

 301-949-3446

301-907-9177 

 DITTOGDJTB@aol.com

babhr@aol.com

Academic Announcements

From the Fifth Grade Team

If you did not receive the information that was passed out at Back-To-School Night please contact your child's homeroom teacher.

We have several upcoming fieldtrips and special events.  Permission slips for the fieldtrips will be forthcoming.  Please ask your child if he/she has received it and return them timely.  All checks for fieldtrips should be made out to North Chevy Chase Elementary School.  For all fieldtrips students will need to bring a bag lunch and drink.  School lunches will not be provided.

October 9, 2001 Taylor's social studies class to the American History Museum

October 15, 2001 Museum of Family History at North Chevy Chase - all fifth graders - 10:30 a.m. -12:00 noon - parents are welcome

October 16, 2001 Ackley's social studies class to the American History Museum

October 17, 2001 Kouwenberg's social studies class to the American History Museum

October 22, 2001 All fifth grades science classes to the National Building Museum

MacDonald’s Megabytes – Computer Lab Happenings!

All of the grades have gotten off to a great start this year.  Here’s a recap of what has been happening in each of the grade levels:

·    3rd graders are working on word processing and will utilize their computer lab time to enter writing samples from their Language Arts classes.  We will also be doing keyboarding practice. 

·    4th grade is working with Odell Down Under, to learn more about ecosystems and the food chains.  They are working to find out which adaptations are most beneficial. 

·    5th graders are very busy with the artifact papers, as well as creating spreadsheets to analyze science data. 

·    6th graders have completed the creation of their book databases, and should be recording this information on their paper copies in their notebooks.  We will periodically update our electronic versions.  They have also worked with spreadsheets and will be deciding the best graphs to display their data.

Instrumental Music

Instrumental Music begins next week for all students. The schedule is posted in each homeroom. Have your child find their name on it so that they will know the day and time of their lesson.  Please feel free to contact Mr. Charlie Bowling at the school or via email, Charles_Bowling@fc.mcps.k12.md.us if you have any questions.

Enrichment Program at Montgomery College

Montgomery College is offering Enrichment Programs for students in K-8.  These programs are open to students of all abilities.  Some of the following courses will be held:

·            Another Time and Another Place (grades 6-8)

·            Cartooning (grades 6-8)

·            Creative Writing Workshop (grades 6-8)

·     Fantastic! Poetic! Working and Playing with Words (grades 6-8)

·            Introduction to Ceramics (grades 3-5)

·            Keyboarding and Basic Windows (grades 6-8)

·            Color, Color, Color! (grades K-3)

If you have any questions, please contact Lorraine Hughes at (301) 251-7917.

PTA Extras

Sally Foster Deadline Extended

It's not too late!  Keep those orders coming for our Sally Foster fundraiser.  The deadline has been extended until Friday, October 5.  Don't forget that you can shop online at www.SallyFoster.com.  Need another form?  Questions?  Call Mary Kay Lyddane 301-986-1960, Isabelle Koenig 301-656-1092 or Molly Walpuck 301-907-8974. Let's make this the most successful year ever!

Help NCC in Under 30 Minutes

Grocery Store Signup – Giant (NCC Code 651) and Safeway (NCC Code is 0794)

Chevy Chase Supermarket – save those receipts and bring them in!

Boxtops for Education – bring in those boxtops

Campbells Soup Can Labels – bring in those labels

Schoolpop and Schoolcash Internet shopping – start e-shopping at these sites

Recycle Rewards – bring in your old printer cartridges

FLES Begins on Monday, October 1!

FLES (Foreign Language in Elementary Schools) begins its after-school language program October 1.  Sponsored by the PTA, FLES provides one of the finest enrichment programs in Montgomery County schools.  Both French and Spanish languages are taught.  Again this year Levels I, II, and III/IV will be offered.  The half-hour lessons are held Monday & Wednesdays beginning at 3:30 pm.  Students may wait before and/or after their class in the Media Center until 5:00 pm under supervision of an adult monitor.  The FLES fee for the year, including the Media Center monitor, will be $135.  For more information, as well as to register for FLES, please look for the information and registration sheets attached to this newsletter.  For questions or more information, call the FLES Coordinator, Tracie Felker (301-588-2333).

Thanks to our Friday Morning FAOU Xeroxers

Margaret McBurney (our From All of Us distribution coordinator) has lined up the following generous individuals to help with the Friday morning Xeroxing.  Our thanks to you all for taking time to help in this effort!

·   Nancy Alexander

·   Laura Anthony

·   Melissa Beckwith

·   Mary Cobbett

·   Elizabeth Fernandez

And also thanks to the teachers and staff for limiting their Xerox use on Friday mornings so that the FAOU may be swiftly copied and distributed!

Cluster Corner – by Charlotte Fremaux and Sam Hoxie

Walk to School Day:  NEXT Tuesday, October 2, 2001

Next Tuesday, October 2, 2001, as part of an international and nationwide effort, the staff and students of NCC will observe International Walk To School Day-USA.  Walk to School Day (http://www.walktoschool-usa.org) was conceived as a special day for communities to come together to demonstrate the importance of safe, walkable neighborhoods, and for community members to share their concerns for pedestrian accessibility to school, work, shopping and recreation.  

We have enlisted the support of Police, Department of Public Works, and community businesses to make sure that NCC kids have a safe experience practicing pedestrian safety.  On October 2, your children's busses will be diverted to the Manor Road shopping center where the children will be let off next to Chevy Chase Market.  Mrs. Greene, with staff members, student safety patrols, and parent volunteers will escort the children to school by walking on the sidewalk on Manor Road and crossing at the traffic light at Manor and Jones Bridge Roads.

Many thanks in advance to the following individuals for helping out: Mary Cobbett, Bonnie Muheim, Jenny Elliott, Diana Ditto, Linda Wolpert, Margaret McBurney, Amanda Manheim, Marilyn Mark, Cal Leonard, Jana Coe, Terry Valencia, Patti Murphy, Mary Kay Lyddane.  Contact Charlotte or Sam to volunteer, or just feel free to show up on Tuesday morning!  We will need parents at the supermarket from approximately 8:30 until 9:15 a.m. to help walk groups of students from the supermarket to the school. Please park at the school and walk to the shopping center, or park on the street outside of the shopping center.  Thank you!

General Announcements

It's Recess Time!

Wouldn't you like an opportunity to "go out to recess" again?  Enjoy spending an occasional lunch hour on the playground?  If so, please consider becoming a Recess Monitor at NCC.  It's a great opportunity to be involved with the children at school.  More eyes and ears on the playground help keep the children safe. 

You could volunteer for one 30-minute recess shift, or two - once a week or as often as you are able.  Please call Ms. Stacy Robinson (NCC Counselor) to volunteer, or if you have any questions.  Thanks!

Teachers and Parents as Readers NCC Book Club

Please join us for our October book club meeting on Thursday, October 11, 2001 at 12:35 p.m. in Ms. London’s room.  Our book this month will be “Woman, An Intimate Geography,” by Natalie Angier.  This book was a National Book Award finalist – “a seminal work that will endure as an essential read for anyone interested in how biology affects who we are – as women, as men, and as human beings.”  Bring your lunch and any books you would like to suggest for future reads - and join us!  Newcomers welcome!

Walk FAR for NAAR:

Reminder to all those participating -- the location of the walk has been changed.  The walk is now taking place at the Montgomery County  Fairgrounds in Gaithersburg, MD.   Please wear a NCC t-shirt/sweat shirt/hat.  Any vintage is fine!  We will all gather in one central location (look for Mr. Ehlman) so that we may walk together.  Before we begin the walk we will notify you of the time and location of our "free" team photo.  Bring any monies you have collected with you.  See you Saturday, September 29, 2001.  A special thank you to Mrs. Ellen Crandall for making a banner that the NCC Walkers will carry! 

Important From All of Us Info

The deadline for each From All of Us will be the Wednesday before the Friday publication date.   Submit articles to samhoxie@megapathdsl.net, FirstClass to Sam Hoxie or leave in the FAOU box in the front office.  Attachments (flyers, notices, etc.) must be in the FAOU box by Friday, before school (only one copy is needed), or given to me by the deadline.  Please let me know by Wednesday if you are planning an attachment.  Note that many attachments may require prior authorization from Mrs. Greene.  A monthly calendar will be published each month beginning October 2001.  Please be sure you have updated important dates on the master calendar in the office, or have contacted me to have items included.  Calendar information will also be updated on the new web calendar at http://www.localendar.com/public/nccpta

-- Sam Hoxie