Week of May 13th, 2017-18

Reminders for the Week

Emergency Drills - Hardened Shelter Drill

Throughout the year, we do talk to students about what to do in case of fire, or intruder, with the subject matter and terminology adjusted for the grade level. The safety and security of our students is our highest priority, and through preparations in advance, we can ensure that students and staff know what to do in the case of an emergency. Next week we will have our first hardened shelter drill on Sunday, May 13th, 11:00 am. Parents, if you are in school please follow faculty to the designated areas.

Skyward online payment for food services open 

Elementary Parents

We are pleased to announce our Skyward online hot lunch payment system will be open for Kindergarten - Grade 5 students from Sunday, May 13. Parents can pay into your family account for the hot lunch commencing via the CAC cashier’s office in our welcome center. Minimum payment of 500 LE per student is required. 

This new system will give parents and students a more convenient way for their elementary child’s hot lunch.  

Making payment is straightforward and offers you the freedom to pay CAC’s cashier in our welcome centre whenever you are on campus or send the money via your child and the class/grade aide will pay on your behalf and send the receipt to you. Your Skyward secure online food service tab is part of your Skyward account and the link can be found on your parent dashboard. This system will support if you have more than one child in our division as each child has a personalized bracelet which will register who, when and cost of each hot lunch purchased. Parents can view this on their Skyward account. Please see this link for a quick tutorial.

If a student orders hot lunch and the family account does not have funds, the meal will be given to the student and the parent will receive an automated email informing them. Also, when the amount drops to 300 LE the email will request the replenishment of the student’s account balance. At the end of the year if the family account is overdrawn and you have a debit balance, the report card will be held until cleared. If there is a surplus it will be rolled over the following year for returning students, grade five and departing students will be notified by elementary school office and the refund can be collected from the cashier’s office. 

From the student side their class/grade aide will hand out the bracelets to students having hot lunch and collect them after lunch. The food vendor will scan the bracelet and return to the student. 

38 LE meal card  & 45 LE Combo meal/ juice cards are acceptable in lieu of cash for your child’s meal until May 31 which is our last day for hot lunches.  Please hand them to the cashier and receive a payment receipt.

Who do I see if I have a problem?

If you have feedback, questions regarding the Skyward online payment system please contact our technology office, Mr. Fadi Duweni, email: felduweini@cacegypt.org, Ph: 2755-5495

If you have feedback, questions regarding the payment please contact CAC’s cashier Reda Ibrahim, email: ribrahim@cacegypt.org, Ph: 2755-551

If you have feedback, questions regarding the use of the bracelet or general please contact Mrs. Jackson-Jin, email:  jjackson@cacegypt.org, elementary office: 2755-5222

Parent questions so far?

What if my child uses their bracelet to buy a friend’s lunch? Your child will only be permitted to scan for their own lunch and the bracelet.

What if I don’t want my child to buy juice with lunch? We can add it as an alert for the vendor on the system, but please understand that it comes by practice and vendor may miss this sometimes initially.

I would like to thank our lunch committee chair, Sandrine Kachour and development chair Jackie Goodall Riley, for their support in trialling the system and giving us feedback. As we know with any new systems their may be glitches, so we would appreciate your feedback.

Best regards,

Julie Jackson-Jin

Elementary Principal

ES Dismissal - Important message to ES parents

We had two students who left campus without parental permission with a nanny. We have taken steps to ensure this does not happen again and ask for your cooperation in following our handbook guidelines for all Elementary students PreK to Grade 5. Our handbook states, that any change in the usual pattern of dismissal for your child at the end of the school day should be verified by a note or email from the parent or guardian to the classroom teacher. We have added that we need to receive this information before 12 p.m. which will give us the time to make sure all necessary personnel is informed before 2:30 p.m. each day. We appreciate CAC’s security as they have increased vigilance in making sure our students go home safely and with the person/s permitted. Ms. Samah will continue to be at the dismissal gate from 3:00 and Ms. Nadia from 4:00 for our after school activity dismissal time.

How to give permission?

-Write to the classroom teacher informing the dismissal plan change.

-Name the person you are giving permission to and the date/s.

-In the case of a change in driver or nanny, full names and photos are needed.

What will happen if no permission has been given?

If we do not have a written record of a change in dismissal, security will not let the student leave campus. The student will be sent to the office. To avoid disappointment, please make sure to arrange the change in dismissal plans ahead of time.

Our student's safety is a school/home priority and we thank you for your understanding, support and welcome your feedback.

ES Yearbook 2017-2018 Pre-Sales

To our cashier, Mr. Reda in the Welcome Center.

May 13th till May 31st for L.E. 580 ($33)

After May 31st, price increases to L.E. 650 ($37)Please note that for this week only (May 13 - May 17),

the cashier will only be available before 10:00 am and after 2:00 pm.

21st Century Libraries for Parents: CAC Overdrive and ebook collections

Join us on May 23 at the MHS to access the CAC ebook collections. We have lots of options,

and of all of them, Overdrive is our prize collection. Overdrive is an app that allows you to read

ebooks and listen to audiobooks offline, and choose from hundreds of titles in our digital collection.

We will offer this session twice, at 8:15 am and at 2 pm. Both times will be at the MHS library.

Please download the Overdrive app before the workshop. It is available for free at all the app stores.

You will need your CAC single sign on to access the CAC digital collection.

End of year dates for the ES library

May 15 Last day for check out

May 22 Last day for classes; All books are due

May 23 Overdrive and ebooks training - 8:15 am and 2 pm

May 29 Summer check out starts

READING

This week, third grade readers will be reminded that when they get about halfway through their books (or when books are bursting with ideas), it is wise to take some time to organize their thoughts. One way to do this is to sort their Post-it notes into piles of ideas that seem to go together. They read across these Post-its and push themselves to grow a theory. They might say, “This is important because…” or “This makes me realize that…” or “The bigger idea here is that…” At the same time, they will learn that once readers have grown a theory, a big idea, they reread and read on with that theory in hand, looking for information that will change or grow their thinking.

WRITING

We start the week as editorial writers the think about how to conclude their editorial to leave the reader thinking about their letter. A strong conclusion offers the reader a final thought and also reminds the reader of the exact change the writer wants to see/happen.
Later in the week we look at the power of the comma and apostrophes.

Finally we look at how editorials are most convincing when they are clear and easily understood. Appropriate punctuation, correct spelling and proper grammar contribute to this clarity. One way editorialists make sure their editorials are clear and easy to understand is to proofread their pieces. Proofreading means examining your text carefully to find and correct typographical errors and mistakes in grammar, style, and spelling.

MATH

This week our mathematicians will apply their knowledge of shape attributes and measurement to solve word problems involving area and perimeter using all four operations. Throughout the entire week, students will apply a variety of problem solving strategies to one and two-step word problems and follow steps to successfully determine solutions. They will be expected to use the Read, Draw, Write method for problem solving: 

1. Read the problem carefully, determine what you know and need to solve for

2. Draw a diagram or model of the problem 

3. Write an equation, calculate to solve, and write a statement for the solution

4. Assess the solution for reasonableness and accuracy

This continued practice with solving word problems will help prepare our mathematicians for the end of module assessment, which they will take the following week. 

SCIENCE

It has been a fun experience for the kids, observing a habitat, recording their findings and trying to answer their questions. We have had a mix of success and revision. This week we continue with our observations. 

At the end of the week students will review the data they collected  to answer their group's question. They will synthesize their findings by making tables, graphs, photos to draw conclusions about the interaction in the habitat before presenting to class. The group will then decide how they want to present their findings whether it's on a poster or power point. They will reflect on whether they answered the question or not.