Cheetah Chat

Dear Champion Cheetah Families,

We are thrilled to begin with our December Spirit Days as we count down to winter break! We invite your children to join in celebrating one of the most exciting times of the school year. Please see the calendar below for additional details. The expectation is for the students and staff to have fun. 😊

In addition, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our amazing PTO for their support with recognizing Kindness Week. Although expressions of kind words, interactions, and conversations are the way everyone supports one another at Cedar Point Elementary, it was wonderful seeing the joy of smiling faces of appreciation.

We sincerely thank all families who responded to our Advisory Council survey! Our faculty and staff are committed to continuing to provide our community with exemplarily customer service. Our Advisory organizational committee read every comment and we look forward to our collaborative partnership.

May you all enjoy the holiday season.

Warmly,

Aerica A. Williams, M.Ed., Acting Principal

Laura A. Crawford, Assistant Principal

Our annual Holiday Giving Tree is back! We are happy to share that we have our annual Giving Tree displayed in our main office with wish-list items to help support some of our Cedar Point families in need this holiday season. If you are willing to purchase an item to donate, you can take a card off the tree with a wish-list item and bring your donation to the front office before Friday, Dec. 13.

The Holiday Giving Tree will also be displayed during the PTO Holiday Shoppe on Dec. 9-11.

See our complete school calendar on our website.

Dec. 9 - PTO Holiday Shoppe (4 - 6:30 p.m.) in CPES room 131

Dec. 10 - PTO Holiday Shoppe (3:30 - 7:30 p.m.) in CPES room 131
Dec. 10 - Cheetah Chorus concert (6:30 p.m.)
*Chorus students please report at 6 p.m. wearing black pants and a red, green, blue or white shirt.

Dec. 11 - PTO Holiday Shoppe (4 - 6:30 p.m.) in CPES room 131

Dec. 12 - PTO Spirit Night at Panera, Bristow (4 - 8 p.m.)

Dec. 13 - Last day to turn in unwrapped Holiday Giving Tree donations in the main office

Dec. 23 - Jan. 3 - Schools Closed for Winter Break

Our K-5 students created projects in Book Creator to celebrate our veterans ahead of our Veterans Day assembly in November. Check out our patriotic collection of projects here!

If your child will miss school for any reason, please contact the office to let us know. We can be reached by phone through our 24-hour attendance line at 703-365-2002 or by email at confroll@pwcs.edu.

Attendance matters are communicated by the county through daily attendance notifications for unverified absences and letters that are generated based on student attendance records. Attendance letters received by families are sent directly from Prince William County Public Schools, not from Cedar Point.

County attendance letters are sent to parents for the following reasons:

• Truancy status – Sent when students accrue three or more unexcused absences. A second letter will be sent when students accrue five or more unexcused absences.
• Excessive excused absences – Sent when students accrue five or more excused absences. A second letter will be sent when students accrue ten or more excused absences.
• Chronic absentee status – Sent when students are absent 10% of their current enrollment.

If you have questions or concerns regarding your child’s attendance, please contact Laura Confroy at 703-365-0963 / confroll@pwcs.edu.

At Cedar Point, we are very grateful for and appreciative of all of our wonderful parent volunteers who come in to help, whether it be as a classroom or cafeteria helper, or as a field trip chaperone.

As part of PWCS Regulation 511-10, we require signed volunteer training before a parent can volunteer with students in or outside of the building. We also require all parent volunteers or visitors to sign in with a valid photo ID in the front office.

In addition to reading the "Guidelines for Volunteering in Prince William County Public Schools" and signing the volunteer acknowledgment, we will soon also be offering a brief in-person video training that can be viewed upon arriving to school prior to chaperoning a field trip, or at any of the designated times during the year (more information will be sent out closer to the available dates).

If you have any questions, please contact our Parent Liaison, Grace Riley, at rileygp@pwcs.edu.

Has your child mentioned Cheetah Vision? Maybe they're a 5th grade news anchor on our daily Cedar Point morning show or maybe they had their name drawn from our weekly purple paw drawing and were featured one morning. If so, you can watch recordings of past episodes here!

Also, special thanks to the first Advisory Cheetah Vision News Crew from Mrs. Boyle's 5th grade class. Students were awarded certificates for their hard work and dedication to the school news.

On Nov. 16, our Robotic Cheetahs competed at the Regional FIRST LEGO League Competition at Osbourn Park High School. Our Cedar Point team made us very proud, displaying core values as they completed four missions in the “submerged” challenge. Way to go, Robotic Cheetahs!

SPRING ROBOTICS
Due to some ongoing family health issues, our Cedar Point Robotics coach is going to be taking some time to focus on family. This will delay our application process. Stay tuned for more information about robotics in 2025!

VOLUNTEER(S) NEEDED

If we have any parent volunteers who would be willing to step up to help with our Robotic Cheetahs in the new year, please contact Mrs. Bennett at BennetBA@pwcs.edu for more information.

Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd graders visited Cedar Point's Tech Lab in November to solve problems as scientists and engineers.

Kindergarten project - Kindergarteners were introduced to the lab and the engineering design process (EDP) for the first time. They practiced the EDP to help Ormie the pig get to the cookie jar on top of the refrigerator.

1st grade project - First grade focused on animal habitats and adaptations. Students created animals with specific appendages and body coverings that are essential to survival.

2nd grade project - Students were challenged to work in teams as part of an animal rescue group that recently saved an animal because its ecosystem was destroyed. Then they designed and built a habitat for the animal that makes it feel at home.

Ms. Scott and Mrs. Plitt started working with students in grades 2-5 on Virginia Wizard. Virginia Wizard teaches students about career clusters and helps them start thinking about what jobs they may want to do when they grow up.

Student Ambassadors assisted with greeting our guests at the Veterans Day assembly. They did a wonderful job, and we appreciate their help!

In December, we plan to discuss digital citizenship and personal boundaries in our lessons!

Seasonal sadness and depression can increase during the cold winter months. Here are just a few ideas to help encourage connections and activity during this season:

• “Snow painting”—combine a few drops of food coloring with water; shake and pour into a spray bottle. Spray paint designs in the snow!
• Family s’mores roast: Toast marshmallows over a firepit or fireplace (with adult supervision!) and make s’mores with marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers.
• Help a neighbor—pick up mail, help shovel snow to clear a sidewalk, or take a cup of hot chocolate to a neighbor who might not be able to easily leave their home.
• Board game night—each family member votes on a favorite board game to play. Have a tournament with friends too!

Our morning and afternoon Pre-K classes have been having so much fall fun in class! Students have enjoyed exploring the Learning Lab with friends, building peg skyscrapers, and painting and dissecting pumpkins!

Before the Thanksgiving break, Kindergarten had "Turkey Rotations" in each classroom. They had fun participating in different types of STEAM activities. In December, we are looking forward to learning about characters, setting, and events through reading different gingerbread stories.

Do you know what color a giraffe's tongue is? Ask a first grader! We've been busy exploring non-fiction text features and learning all about giraffes during our animal research writing unit. We are all giraffe experts!

First graders also had the opportunity to research patriotic symbols of Virginia. They created posters about a Virginia symbol and shared them with their classmates. Check out our displays in the first-grade hallway! (Pictured below.) We also had the opportunity to visit Cedar Point's Tech Lab to learn more about animal habitats and their needs.

Every year, we look forward to 2nd grade's Merchant Day! The Merchant Day project in November allowed children the opportunity to experience many of the economic fundamentals they were taught as they developed a business plan to create either a good or service. The purpose of Merchant Day is for students to have the opportunity to create, advertise and sell a product or service.

Merchant Day covers 10 SOL objectives, ranging from public speaking, counting money and planning to producing a product...all while having fun! Students (and staff!) had a great time shopping the unique and creative products and services created by all of our 2nd graders!

To see more Merchant Day photos, please check out the post on our Cedar Point Facebook page!

Third grade is beginning our ecosystem unit this month. We have been busy exploring the ecosystem in our own backyard. From sketching trees, to labeling living and non-living things, to creating our own food chains, we have been super busy soaking up the knowledge. The next time you see a third grader ask them what provides the energy for a food chain. I bet our super scientists can answer that question really fast!

Reading: We just finished our Unit 3 and will begin Unit 4 "Heroic Feats" throughout December. We will focus on Text and Graphic Features, Visualizing, Point of View, Theme, and Elements of Drama.

Writing: We have been busy working on our Opinion Writing Unit. Our next unit is called Story Writing.

Science: Students have been learning all about weather and we are finishing up the unit with our assessments the week of Dec. 2 - 6. The classes loved making the four types of clouds out of cotton balls and getting to use their cloud finders. Our next unit is Living Systems and Processes.

VA History: We will be spending the month of December learning about the American Revolution.

Last month, our fifth graders had a lot of fun doing science labs exploring rock formation and erosion using sugar cubes, graham crackers and frosting. In December, we are looking forward to continuing our unit on the rock cycle and starting electricity!

In speech this month, the students learned the core vocabulary words on and off using LAMP Words for Life.

Here are pictures of some of our students putting on fun dress up items and performing in the Veterans Day assembly with the Cheetah Chorus.

"The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention" - Oscar Wilde

- Kids Holiday Shoppe: Dec. 9 & 11, 4 - 6:30 p.m. and Dec. 10, 3:30 - 7:30 p.m.

The Cedar Point PTO’s annual Holiday Shoppe is a great opportunity for students to shop for and purchase holiday gifts for family members, friends...even pets! Students love being able to pick out gifts on their own as a surprise! Student will make a parent-approved list of gift recipients and is then able to shop, with the assistance of one of our volunteer elves. All shopping students must be accompanied by an adult (parents will wait outside the shopping room).

- Panera Spirit Night: 4 - 8 p.m. | 10401 Bristow Center Drive, Bristow, VA

Come out to Panera for a stress-free dinner and to support our school! A portion of the sales will be provided back to the PTO to support our teacher appreciation and community events

- Volunteer Opportunity
December Teacher Appreciation - seeking donations: Cedar Point: Hot Cocoa & Cookie Bar for All Cedar Point Staff

- Winter SEPs are open for registration - Art Club, Cheetah Cheer and Science Club
Sessions start in January and spaces are limited: Student Enrichment Programs (SEPs) – Cedar Point PTO

Main Office - 703-365-0963

Attendance Line (call to report your child's absence) - 703-863-2002

For attendance questions or concerns, please email Laura Confroy at confroll@pwcs.edu.

For general school-related questions, please call the main office or email our School Parent Liaison, Grace Riley at rileygp@pwcs.edu.

For complete staff directory, please visit https://cedarpointes.pwcs.edu/directory

Website: https://cedarpointes.pwcs.edu

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com