Polar Bear Plunge

Hello Parents/Guardians,

As I'm sure you've probably seen on the Y-ties information letter that went home a few weeks ago, I am co-chairing the "Shiver in the River" committee this year at Neal. This committee plans and organizes events to raise awareness for Maryland Special Olympics. One way we do this is by participating in the Maryland State Police's Annual Polar Bear Plunge. Since I'm co-chairing this committee, I also plan to participate in the event. Each participant is required to raise at least $50 for the event. Although the fundraisers we are planning at the school will probably cover the $50 for each participant, it would be great to raise more money for such a great cause. If you would like to help sponsor me in participating in the plunge, please visit my website at http://plungemd.kintera.org/vansickle Thanks for your help with such a great cause!

Ms. Van Sickle

Weekly Reminders!

Well, we're finally having a full week this week! We've got lots of things to do in preparation for Thanksgiving Break next week. Tomorrow, November 17, from 9-9:30 is "Poems for Parents." Please sign in at the main office and go to the cafeteria if you RSVP'ed to this event. We will be having our monthly town meeting with Mrs. Leveillee, Mrs. Manzano-Lee, and Mrs. Cavanaugh in the cafeteria on Wednesday, November 18. At these meetings, we discuss many important things going on in the school. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to e-mail me at lvansickle@ccboe.com.

Spirit Day #2- Country/Western Day

This was our second spirit day of the year. Students and staff were encouraged to dress like a cowboy or cowgirl in their country/western gear. Many students came equipped with cowboy hats, boots, pigtails, and fringe. Yee-haw!

Gingerbread Cookie Arrays

In Math class today, we put our knowledge of multiplication to the test! We started learning about arrays yesterday, which are rows and columns of dots that help us to learn different multiplication facts. Today we were given a sheet of 24 gingerbread men pictures and this challenge: "Ms. Van Sickle has to bake 24 cookies. She wants to arrange them on a cookie sheet. What are the different ways that the cookies could be arranged on the sheet in rows and columns? Arrange your cookies in as many different ways that have equal columns or rows."

This student found that she could arrange them in a 2 x 12 formation.

This student is working on the 4 x 6 formation.

We were challenged through trial and error. Not every formation ended in equal amounts of rows and columns.

Weekly Reminders!

Just a reminder that there is no school on Wednesday, November 11 in observance of Veteran's Day. On Tuesday, November 10, our school will be holding its annual American Freedom Day. If you would like to come watch the celebration, please sign into the office at 1:00 pm and you will be directed where to go. Also, this Friday, November 13, is School Spirit Day. Send your children in their best Country/Western wear to show their school spirit! Hee-haw!

Making Adinkra Cloths

In Reading, we read a story called "The Talking Cloth." This story discusses adinkra cloths that come from Ghana, Africa. Adinkra cloths are filled with symbols that tell about the people wearing them. After finishing the story, we made our own adinkra cloths and decorated them with symbols that describe us.
Here are some students using their symbol guides to create their cloths.

Here is an example of a symbol guide. We first planned which symbol we wanted to use on our cloths. Then we used the symbol guide to help us plan out our cloth's design.

This student is creating a red and yellow "R," which means she likes the Redskins. (YAY!)

These students are hard at work!

Neal Night at California Tortilla and Cold Stone

Here are some teachers singing some songs at Cold Stone. We were a little off, but we had fun!
Luckily we had Mr. Welfle accompany us on the guitar.

Ms. Vaino and Mrs. Lorman working behind the counter, scooping ice cream.

Even Ms. Van Sickle joined in the singing.

Fall Festival Party- 10/30/09

Before the party, we had Estimation Stations in math. This is Mr. Chandler helping the students estimate how many pieces of candy corn were in a jar. Then they made groups of 10 and counted to find the actual answer.
Mr. Wallace helped the students at another station complete a graphing activity.

Ms. Amaya helped the students measure the length and width of different pumpkins. They were then able to decorate the pumpkins and describe the pumpkins using adjectives.

Mrs. Peacock helped the students doing a "blowing ghost" activity. The students blew a tissue paper ghost with a hair dryer. They estimated how far the ghost traveled and then used a yardstick to measure the actual distance.

Mrs. Ijaz helped the students with a weighing activity. The students had to weigh themselves, then weigh themselves again holding a pumpkin. To find the actual weight of the pumpkin, they had to subtract their original weight from the greater weight.

WOW! Look at all that yummy food for the party!

FINALLY... the part we've been waiting for; eating the food!

Table 3 eating some yummy snacks!

Table 1

Table 2

We had such a great time at our Fall Party! Thanks to all the parents who came and helped! :)