THE LION’S DEN

April 22-May 8

PARCC EOY testing

(Gr. 3, 4, & 5) and

Science MSA

( gr. 5 only)

April 22nd–

ARTS NIGHT

(6:30 pm)

April 24th—

Kindergarten Orienta-

tion (no school for

Kindergarteners)

May 1st—

Kindergarten Orienta-

tion (no school for

Kindergarteners)

A note from Mrs. Seymour… Dear Bethesda Families,

Welcome spring! I hope everyone enjoyed the break and some warmer weather! We have

jumped right into the 4th quarter of the 2014-2015 school year. Our construction project con-

tinues to make great progress and we are on schedule for opening our new addition in August!

This month we have our annual Arts Night coming up on Wednesday, April 22nd as well as

the end of year PARCC assessments for grades 3, 4 & 5 (and Science MSA for grade 5 only).

Please note the testing dates below:

Monday, April 20th- Gr. 3 MATH (AM)

Tuesday, April 21st- Gr. 3 MATH (AM) & Gr. 4 LITERACY (PM)

Friday, April 24th- Gr. 3 LITERACY (AM)

Monday, April 27th- Gr. 5 Science MSA (AM)

Tuesday, April 28th- Gr. 5 Science MSA (AM)

Friday, May 1st- Gr. 5 LITERACY

Monday, May 4th- Gr. 4 MATH (AM)

Tuesday, May 5th- Gr. 4 MATH (AM)

Thursday, May 7th- Gr. 5 MATH (AM)

Friday, May 8th- Gr. 5 MATH (AM)

Lisa Seymour

Bethesda Elementary / Bethesda Elementary PTA Newsletter April 17, 2015

In This Issue

Special Education

Summit

May Fair

Career Day

Google Apps

Buy a BE Brick!!

Leave a legacy for your child(ren) in front of the new addition of Bethesda Elementary School by purchasing an engraved, commemorative brick! Find the order form on the BE PTA web site - http://www.bethesdapta.com/#!news/c1jxv - and download the order form. Return it to school filled out with a check made out to BEPTA.

BE bricks can be engraved to honor your family, your children, or your child’s teacher. These beautiful bricks will be placed at the entrance sidewalk and will be sold on a first-come first-served basis.

There are limited quantities of bricks available. Once sold we are sold out we will NOT have space for more! Order quickly!

4x8" bricks - $80 (3 lines of engraved text with 17 characters per line)

8x8" bricks - $120 (5 lines of engraved text with 17 characters per line)

Money raised through this sale will go towards PTA funded programs, such as teacher/classroom supplies, curriculum enhancements, new books, enrichment programs and SO MUCH MORE!!!

Cultural Arts Corner

The BE PTA Cultural Arts Committee is pleased to announce the start of our biennial silkworm residency for the sec-

ond and third graders with experienced fiber artist Renate Maile-Moskowitz. Her initial presentation for the students

took place on Wednesday, April 15th. Hands-on workshops, held during the second and third grade art classes, will

begin approximately the first week of May, or whenever the silkworm eggs hatch (they have been slightly delayed by

the cold weather!). In these workshops, Ms. Maile-Moskowitz, in collaboration with our own talented art teacher,

Mrs. Calomiris, will teach the students how to unravel the cocoons to produce silk. It is an experience not to be

missed. Parents who would like to help out during these workshops should email Natalie Hansen: hansen-

jcnt@aol.com. No worries if you are not able to help out…you can attend the silkworm workshop with Ms. Maile-

Moskowitz and Mrs. Calomiris during Multicultural Night on the evening of Wednesday, May 6th. Volunteers to assist

in the art room during this workshop are most welcome! We are grateful to the BE PTA for making the silkworm resi-

dency possible.

The 2014-2015 cultural arts program will conclude with a dazzling all-school performance on Thursday, April 30th, at

9:15am in the gym, by the internationally acclaimed professional dance troupe Bowen McCauley Dance. We are pro-

foundly grateful to EagleBank for their generosity in making this performance possible for our school, and a special

thanks to the Rann family for facilitating this funding opportunity. After the performance, and continuing the follow-

ing morning, experienced teaching artists/dancers from Bowen McCauley Dance will hold individual workshops with

the kindergarten and first grades. We are again grateful to the BE PTA for enabling these workshops to take place.

Sincerely,

The BE PTA Cultural Arts Committee Chair, Natalie Hansen (Sophie Hansen—Mrs. Scanlon’s 3rd grade class) hansenjcnt@aol.com

Career Day is Coming!

Who : Bethesda ES students, staff and parents.

What : Career Day is a time for parents and other volunteers to share their work experience with our students.

Where : Bethesda ES classrooms

When : Wednesday, May 27 th from 9:00-11:00am

In preparation for our annual Career Day, I am looking for at least 21 volunteers that are interested in doing a short presentation about their career. Each volunteer will

make three, 30 minute presentations to three different classrooms. During your presentation we ask that you share information about your current or past career.

Feel free to bring in display items or things of interest to share. Students would love to have their parents or relatives speak on this day! Please consider signing up. If

you are interested or know of anyone who might be (relative, neighbor, etc.), please email me at Jessica_L_Nicholson@mcpsmd.org and include your

child’s name, your profession and contact information. Once you have signed up I will be in touch with you about further details and will gladly help you with any plan-

ning needs. Please let me know by Friday, May 1st if you are interested.

Thank you,

Jessica Nicholson School Counselor

Google Apps for Education Student Account Information

Greetings,

You now have a Google Apps for Education (GAFE) account. To log in to your Google Apps for Education account, go to http://www.google.com.

Email: 123456@mcpsmd.net (the number is the same number you use at school to log into computers) Password: same password from school

After logging in, you will be able to access all of the functions of your GAFE account that you would be able to at school.

Here are some features to check out.

1.Google Apps in the upper right-hand corner of your browser window gives you access to your Drive with all your documents and all other apps you have downloaded with your teacher’s permission. 2.Helpful extensions that MCPS has installed. They are found in the upper right hand corner of your Chrome brows-er. (these only work in Chrome browser)* 3.‘Comfy Couch’ - cleans up articles that you are reading, to remove distractions 4.Play button - will read web pages aloud for your 5.Dictionary will look up words for you and pronounce them - can also get to this feature by double clicking on a word on the page *Chrome browser can be downloaded through Google 6.In your Drive, you will have folders set up for each of your ‘classes’ at school. Saving documents in these folders makes it so your teacher can see them and provide you feedback and you can ‘turn’ them in electronically.

5th Grade Meatball Stories with guest author Jean Heilprin Diehl

Fifth grade students had the opportunity to work with a local author, Jean

Heilprin Diehl. She writes for both children and adults and is the author of the

picture books Paloma's Pie, Three Little Beavers and Loon Chase. Ms. Heilprin had

two writing workshops with the students. The first session, students were

taught how to structure their story and were instructed to write a story in any

genre with an unexpected event. Ms. Heilprin edited all stories with many sug-

gestions. The second session, students were instructed on how to revise their

drafts. Students are currently working on their revisions.

Thank you to the PTA for providing this wonderful opportunity for our stu-

dents!