Weekly update for 5.16.25

Weekly update for May 16, 2025

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Dear Columbia friends and families:

 

It has been another great week at CES! We continue to be so proud of students who completed SOL testing this week. With the Science SOL left to go for 5th graders early next week, we are nearing the end of the testing season. Congrats to all as we look forward to an exciting final few weeks of school.

 

Next week, we will have our class pictures taken on Wednesday, May 21st. Students will take their class pictures with their homeroom teachers and parents will be able to order a copy online if they wish. Stay tuned for more details.

 

Have a wonderful weekend!

 

Take care,

 

Mike Astudillo

Proud Principal

Columbia Elementary School

 

 

PTA News & Notes

ONLY TWO MORE PTA meetings left!

Tuesday, May 20

Tuesday, June 10 – Please attend, we need a quorum! We will be voting for new board members and approving the 2025-2026 proposed PTA budget.

Both meetings will be in the school library. The meeting can also be attended virtually:

Zoom: https://myfcpsk12.zoom.us/j/91903873132

Meeting ID: 919 0387 3132 Phone: 309-205-3325

PTA Needs You!

Our PTA supports students, community and our wonderful school. Come join the team! There are three open positions on the PTA Board; president, vice president of fundraising and treasurer. Self-nominations must be emailed to columbiapta@gmail.com by May 21, 2025.

 

Save the Date – Field Day

Please save Friday, June 6th for field day. We need volunteers to make this fun annual event happen for our kids. Please sign up HERE and help us make field day the best one yet! 

 

Online Spirit wear Store is Live

Students, family and staff can now order spirit wear all year long. You can click HERE to order your gear.  

 

Partnership with Papa Johns

We are excited to announce a new partnership with Papa Johns in Annandale. You can now order pizza ANY THURSDAY from 11AM – 11PM for delivery or carryout (carryout until 10 PM). Families will receive 40 percent off their entire order and 10 percent of their order goes to the PTA. This opportunity will last until the end of the school year. Online code “CES4010” - this code will also be accepted by phone in case of issues with the website.

 

Upcoming

Family Night Out – Five Guys (5/28)

Field day (6/6)

 

The Book Fair is Coming!

 

Our Book Fair will be open from June 2 to June 6. I hope to see you there!

Volunteer schedules will be open soon, please consider helping support the Book Fair!

Check out our Book Fair Page HERE for all the details:

  • Dates  
  • Special Family Times, including after school hours on Monday and Thursday!

Our Book Fair will be cash free this year. Please use the following links to learn how to set up an eWallet or eGift Card for your child.

  • eWallet, a cash-free way for your child to shop at the book fair. Any money you assign to an eWallet remains on your credit/debit card until your child makes a purchase. https://www.bookwormcentral.com/ewallet.php 
  • eGift Card, the perfect gift for students, teachers or friends, redeemable at the book fair or our online bookstore 

https://www.bookwormcentral.com/gift_card/ 

Volunteers are still needed to support our Book Fair! Please see the volunteer times available at https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0F4CA5A92FA4FF2-56867511-spring 

Thank you for supporting our school and encouraging your child's love of reading!  

Happy Reading,

Maura Papas

 

 

Library End of the Year reminders

As the school year is ending, all library books need to be returned by May 28. Each week, students with overdue books will receive reminder notices. If any books are lost or damaged, please reach out to Ms. Papas at mopapas@fcps.edu to find out what to do next.

 

Specialist Spotlight

STEAM and FLES with Srta. Alba

fles

For the fourth quarter, students have been using legos for a variety of projects. Thanks to the Educate Fairfax Grant we received this year, we added more legos and lego kits so that students can build and show what they’ve learned.  The topics for Kindergarten, first graders and second graders have been days of the week and months of the year along with fruits and other foods. In third grade, students learned about Cinco de Mayo.  In fourth grade, students used Tinkercad to show 3D models of fruits and built a plinko board out of legos.  Lastly, fifth grade students learned about conjugating verbs such as ‘ver’ and ‘hablar.’ This experience will help them in the future when they take Spanish in high school or middle school.

 

FCPS Boundary Changes

Phase 2 Community Boundary Review Meetings

Families, staff, and community members can explore and visualize potential boundary scenarios using a customized Boundary Explorer Tool. The tool will be accessible from the FCPS website. You are also invited to participate in another series of community meetings in order to review and reflect on the initial draft scenarios before the start of summer break:

Each meeting will be hybrid, meaning that you may attend in person or via Zoom. Childcare for in-person participants and language interpretation/translation for all participants will be available as needed. Registration links will be shared soon. Another round of community meetings will be held in the fall.