Five years! Can you believe it has been five years? So much has happened as our Montessori community has grown these past five years: - Successfully had our Charter renewed for four years - Hosted Montessori Certification Residency Courses - Secured an exceptional staff - Developed a process with MMCI to assist teachers with Montessori Certification expenses - Started the AMS Accreditation process - Received a “Certificate of Achievement” from The Center for Psychology in Schools and Education and the Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education for Promoting Student Motivation (this required writing and documentation of whole school strategies) - Grown from 140 students with 18 staff members to 276 students and 30 staff members - Expanded from needing half of the lower level of the building where we are located to occupying the entire lower level space Any one of those accomplishments in such a short amount of time should be celebrated, but all of it in just five short years! WOW! We ARE going to celebrate! Put May 7th at 3:00 in the afternoon on your calendar. Our GC will be hosting a 5 year “Walk Around the Sun” for our school! This will also be an open house of sorts so families can visit the new areas of our school that have been added in the expansion. Stay tuned for more information in the near future. Your support and dedication to our school has been vital to this growth—please come and celebrate with us! Our staff were very busy the month of February! We have been working on the AMS accreditation document which is a very intense reflective process that touches every aspect of our school. Lots of “critical conversations” and writing and re-writing by all staff members. We had a consultant share Positive Discipline strategies with us and have been reading accompanying materials. And we have enjoyed all the learning with the great “snow day free” time with our students! The Lottery closes Monday, March 6th—please sign up siblings and share with families you think might be interested!

CCMPCS's mission is to build a community in which students, parents and staff work together

to educate the "whole child," the sum of the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual parts.

We will implement a Montessori based curriculum to give students the hands-on tools they

need to be active learners both in and outside the classroom. By offering English with Spanish

enrichment or dual-language Spanish instruction to all students, we will provide a unique

opportunity for students to learn a second language at an early age and develop multicultural

awareness.

3-2-17 Volume 3 Issue 7

Carroll Creek Communicator

3-3 Yearbook Order Deadline

3-3 6:00 Talent Show @ MVM

3-4 11:00-2:00 FCPS World Language Day @ THS

3-4 3:00-5:00 Youth Art Month at the Delaplaine

3-6 Lottery Closes

3-9 UE Classes to Weinburg Center

3-13 10:45 Start time—Delay Day

3-13 7:00 Governing Council Meeting

3-14 thru 3-17

MISA Science Assessment—Fifth Grade

3-17 &

3-20

5th Grade Outdoor School

3-21 7:00 Lottery @ MVM

3-22 7:00 MMCI Meeting @ CCM

3-23 Spring Pictures

3-29 Kindergarten to Weinburg Center

3-30 End of the third Quarter

3-31 No School—Teacher Work Day

Carroll Creek Montessori Public Charter School Mission

Save The Date!

What a crazy, short month it has been! This uncharacteristically warm weather has brought some early spring fever for us all. Despite the short month, I had the pleasure of visiting with some classes for a lesson. Whether it was a lesson on kindness (primary), perspective-taking and feelings (lower el), or strategies for dealing with conflict (upper el), great discussions were had. Our students are truly looking for answers on how they can improve their relationships. Reading was a component of almost every lesson. Reading stories and discussing themes and strategies are a great way to work through many issues. If you find your child is struggling with a particular behavior, situation, or feeling, there are many books out there to help lead a discussion in it. This strategy is not just for the "little guys"; books are a great to understand and process the world- from pre-K to middle school. If you're struggling to find an appropriate book, let me know and I might be able to suggest one. Below are a couple suggestions for "hot topics": Accountability and Responsibility: “What If Everybody Did That?”; “But It's Not My Fault”; “What Were You Thinking?” Mindfulness: “Mindful Monkey, Happy Panda”; “Moody Cow Meditates” Anger/Crankiness: “Crankenstein”; “Alexander and Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” Perseverance: “The Most Magnificent Thing”; “Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type”; “Amazing Grace” Empathy: “Each Kindness”; “Those Shoes” Have a great month!

Mandi Kearney, School Counselor Carroll Creek Montessori Public Charter School

301-663-7710

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Carroll Creek Communicator

Counselor’s Corner

Physical Education

Hello Parents, We have been enjoying this beautiful weather the past few weeks that February has brought us and have had most of our classes outside. We have been playing small group games outside and taking advantage of our new basketball hoops as we have been working on proper form for shooting a basketball with the students. With our older kids we have worked our way up to playing half court games and learning offensive and defensive strategies. We have had a few choice days outside as well where students are allowed to bring out equipment for a small group or individual game for them to participate in. Some students have even created games of their own outside that I have added into the curriculum for other classes to play. As it continues to warm-up we will be moving into our kickball, football, and track and field unit in the next months to come. Mr. Dixon

Kindergarten music classes have continued to practice using the solfeggio hand signs in their greeting song as well as practicing the signs for the major scale. Our Spanish valentine song, Te Quiero, worked students’ alternating hand skills as they begin learning movements for playing maracas in later years. We did have cold weather in February, perfect for our “Hace Mucho Frio” chant yearning for spring (I think it worked!) We used tone bars to accompany the Chinese New Year song, Gung Hay Fat Choy using a whole note pattern. The Brush Your Teeth song got a lot of giggles as we played shakers to emulate the sound of a tooth brush in honor of Dental Health Month. We say good bye to our “Sillies” and “Freeze” dances as February comes to a close. Lower Elementary classes used the tone bars as well to accompany another Chinese New Year song, “Ring in the New Year” in the pentatonic scale. We also started the call and response piece, “Woke Up This Morning” a popular civil rights song that allows small groups and soloists to lead the song in various sections. Our fishing story dances continue to grow in creativity regarding chants and movements accompanying the drum rhythms. Classes continue to “sight-read” hand signs in more difficult interval skipping exercises of solfeggio. Upper Elementary recorder study has branched into accompanying the Dar th Vader theme, “Imperial March,” from Star Wars in addition to refinement of our three part songs. The big project of the year is underway as students create a visual listening map using one of the listening selections studied this year. The projects demonstrate a picture version of the form of the piece with some students opting for a three dimensional version.

Middle school students are revisiting the organization of the keyboard, its relationship to the grand staff (treble and bass), and the concept of sharps and flats. Students have also started guitar study, with the basics of positioning, string names, fret arrangement, and fingering. With some students already having some prior experience, classes will group into proficiency levels for further lessons. Students are welcome to bring guitars from home with parent permission; classes are on Tuesdays. Performing Ensembles’ spring concert will be on May 18; this is a change due to the county Honors Chorus. We have also been asked to perform at the 5 year anniversary celebration scheduled for May 7.

Details will be forthcoming. Page 3

Volume 3 Issue 7

From the Art Room

Music Notes

Mrs. Reynolds

"Beauty both promotes concentration of thought and offers refreshment to the tired spirit" Maria Montessori

Primary ar tists are finishing their rainbow flowers and building on their exploration of color by using tints and shades to create the illusion of space in water color paintings. Our Lower Elementary children are exploring Aboriginal art by practicing dot and x-ray painting, and hand printing techniques. As they are completed, animals of Africa paintings and circular

weavings are coming home. Upper Elementary ar tists are developing their accordion books. Also, they are represented at FCPS’s Youth Art Month at the Delaplaine by three collaborative, mixed media works. The opening reception will be held on Saturday, March 4, 3-5 pm. Our Middle School students are developing drawings that illustrate the elements and principles of art for their accordion books. Gratefully, Lisa Reed

CCMPCS GC News

Tidbits from our GC

Thank you Carroll Creek Montessori Parents!

Because of you, we have raised $13,882.45 during the 2016-2017 school year. This year MMCI, our governing body, has allowed all funds WE raise through our Annual Fund to go directly to Carroll Creek! We’re aiming for 100% participation this year. Take a moment to go to carrollcreek.org to make a donation. No amount is too small!

ANNUAL GOAL: $30,000

END DATE: July 1, 2017

TOTAL NEEDED TO REACH GOAL: $16,117.55

WHY ARE WE ASKING

FOR MONEY? Because, let’s be honest, cash is very handy. While we are publicly funded, like all public schools, we could do more with more, and need funds to: •Build out our Middle School and begin saving for our FUTURE SCHOOL

•Reimburse our teachers for very spe-cific and expensive Montessori train-ing (Over $90k in the next three years) •Buy all those amazing instructional materials that we all secretly wish we could use Every dollar …every penny…we raise is important and will go to bene-fit the children! We hope you all en-joyed the MMCI Community Gather-ing activity held at Skate Frederick on February 21st. This month, parent volunteers have been working hard to coordinate a Talent Show for everyone in the Monocacy Montessori Communities to enjoy. You can donate at the entrance table with a credit card or write a check to the Annual Fund. Also, the buildout is coming along swiftly! However, more funds are needed to purchase tables and chairs for these new classrooms. We accept checks payable to MMCI. We’re so excited to have this new space and new furniture for our teachers and students. Looking ahead, the Spring Book Fair will be here the week of April 6 – 12th. All funds raised go directly into the School Activity Fund (SAF). Stay tuned for details about some

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fun activities that are being planned in conjunction with the Book Fair. This is the first year that my two daughters have been students at Carroll Creek Montessori and what privilege it has been. Great things are ahead for our school! Regards, Desiree Mortenson CCM Governing Council Fundraising & Grants Committee Chair gcchair@carrollcreekmontessori.org

Attendance

We are coming very close to falling UNDER the collaboratively set benchmark for attendance. We can not go under 95% for the year overall. I would like to also share that 56 students have missed five days or less and 42 students have missed three days or less this school year. 14 of our students have not missed a day of school! Please do not sent your child to school if they are ill, but especially from now to the end of the year attendance is of the upmost importance!