The Eagle’s Eye
Rock Creek Valley Elementary School
5121 Russett Road, Rockville, MD 20853
(301) 460-2195 Fax (301) 460-2196
October 31, 2014
Catherine Jasperse, Principal
Julia Bialeski, Assistant Principal
Principal’s Message
Each year all school throughout Montgomery
County engage in school improvement
processes that focus the goals and effort for
continuous improvement. This year, our focus
at Rock Creek Valley is on promoting oral
language with all our students. Specifically, our
two instructional goals in this area are:


Students will have daily opportunities
for oral language development in
response to vocabulary, images, stories,
or ideas across all content areas as a
bridge to written responses.
Students will have daily opportunities
to apply critical thinking skills that have
been explicitly modeled be staff
throughout daily interactions and
instruction.
I share this with you so that you are aware of
how we are working to build our students
proficiency, but also so that you can support us
at home in building oral language. We share
weekly and monthly tips with all staff on how to
build oral language, and this week I am sharing
the tip with you.
Tip: Questioning
A simple trip to the grocery story can be
transformed into a learning experience for your
child. Instead of listening to the radio, ask your
child a variety of questions. Questioning your
child allow them to use language and enhances
their thinking skills. You can also play games
such as “I Spy” where your child has to locate
objects you see or letters of the alphabet. Try
to use as many open ended questions as
possible to encourage your child’s creative and
critical thinking skills while building their oral
language.
PTA REFLECTIONS ARTS COMPETITION
All Rock Creek Valley students are invited to
participate in the PTA Reflections Arts
Competition. This year’s theme is “The World
Would be a Better Place If…”
This is a wonderful contest that provides
students the opportunity to explore the arts
and culture, develop creative thinking and
problem-solving skills and recognize themselves
as artists.
Students may enter in: visual arts, writing,
dance, photography, music, or film production.
More information will be coming home in
students’ folders about the contest. Please
encourage your child to participate and submit
their original entry by November 14, 2014 to
the front office. There are rules and restrictions
for each category, please e-mail
[email protected] for more
information.
Auction Fundraiser
Our annual auction fundraiser is coming up in
November. This year’s theme will be fairy
tales. If you feel you have any costumes,
scenery, crafts, or other objects related to fairy
tales (this could be princess items, materials for
a bean stalk, or anything that relates to a
known fairy tale) that you would be willing to
donate or loan to the school to use for
decorations during the auction, please email
Ms. Jasperse or let the front office know. Also,
if any parent has an artistic sense and would
like to donate their time to create a decoration
with a small group of students, please let the
office know. In the near future, we will begin to
have students participate in art activities during
recess to create some of our decorations for
this year’s auction and would welcome parent
volunteers to help with these creations.
I hope that all of you will be able to participate
in these events and thanks in advance for your
donations!
“Under the Sea” Family Dance Night
Enjoy great music, drinks, snacks, door prizes
and more! Lots of fun for the whole family.
Friday November 7th from 7-8:30pm. Tickets
are $2.00 per person or $6.00 per family. Buy
tickets early since the event may sell out.
CHILDREN MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY AN
ADULT. E mail Christine Esch at
[email protected] for more detals.