CMIT South Elementary School
From the Desk of Principal Ronald A. Miller, Jr.
Dear CMIT South Elementary Tiger Community,
As we approach the final weeks of this academic year, I am delighted to share some exciting updates and upcoming events that reflect the vibrant and dynamic community we have built together at our school.
Outstanding Field Day Planned by PTO and Ms. Johnson
Our PTO and Physical Education Teacher, Ms. Johnson, have worked tirelessly to bring an extraordinary Field Day to life. They were able to bring to life my vision for a fun, engaging, and inclusive event off campus at Liberty Sports Park. They turned that idea into reality, this past Friday. It was a day full of activities that will leave our students, staff, and families with lasting memories. From relay races to hula hoop obstacle courses, Commander Cheer Squad, and Prince George’s County Police Vehicles allowing students to hit the siren and lights this event highlights the dedication and creativity that Ms. Johnson and the PTO bring to our school. We can't wait to see our students enjoy this fantastic day again next year!
Presentation to the Area 2 Office of PGCPS
I am proud to announce that I had the privilege of presenting our school Data Story to the Area 2 Office of PGCPS. A standout highlight was our impressive 98% attendance rate, with only 2% of our students being chronically absent (missing 10% or more of the school year). This achievement is a testament to the commitment of our students, families, and staff to education and excellence.
5th Grade Camp Schmidt Center Overnight
We are thrilled for our 5th graders who will be participating in a cherished PGCPS rite of passage by attending the Camp Schmidt Center overnight field trip this coming Monday. This experience offers our students a unique opportunity to engage with nature, build teamwork skills, and create memories that will last a lifetime. We look forward to hearing about their adventures and the lessons they will bring back to our school community.
Upcoming Kindergarten and 5th Grade Promotions
Our Kindergarten and 5th-grade promotions are just around the corner, and we are excited to celebrate the achievements of our students as they prepare to transition to the next stages of their academic journeys. These ceremonies mark significant milestones and we are eager to honor the hard work and accomplishments of our students.
Thank You for an Awesome Year!
As we near the end of the school year, I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to all our families for your support and collaboration. Your involvement has been crucial in making this year a success. Remember, students should continue to attend school every day until the last day, June 13th.
Important End-of-Year Reminders
Early Dismissals: June 12th and 13th are three-hour early dismissals. Students will be dismissed at 11:25 am.
No Uniforms: During the last week of school, June 10-13, students will not be required to wear uniforms.
Thank you once again for your partnership and dedication. Let's make these final weeks memorable and continue to finish the school year strong!
Sincerely,
Mr. Ronald A. Miller, Jr.
Principal
Chesapeake Math & IT Academy South Elementary
Prince George’s County Public Schools
Please take a look at these May/June calendar reminders:
- 6/6 Kindergarten Promotion Ceremony
- 6/7 5th grade Moving-Up Ceremony
- 6/12 3hr early dismissal
- 6/13 Last day of school
In November 2020, PGCPS launched an online volunteer application and approval process. Click here for more information on becoming a volunteer and to access the application.
Hazel Health Services Coming to CMIT South Elementary
What is Hazel Health?
Hazel Health has partnered with Prince George's County Public Schools to provide access to quality healthcare services for all students, at no cost to families, this school year. Students can be referred by the school counselor or their parent/guardian. A designated person at the school or a parent/guardian can initiate a video visit with a Hazel health care provider while your child is at school or at home to provide either physical or mental health services. Therapy sessions with Hazel Health are a safe space and are private and confidential.
How can your child receive services?
Waitlists for mental health services for children are sometimes long or sometimes as parents it's tough to find the time to take our children to appointments which makes it difficult for them to receive the immediate support they need. Hazel Health is geared to bridge that gap. Students are able to receive these services free, virtually and while in school. If you have any questions please feel free to visit their website https://www.hazel.co/ or reach out to me.
The “Lost and Found” collection bin is located in the cafeteria. Any found articles (coats, hats, gloves, backpacks, lunch boxes, etc.) are placed in the bin. Found small items (keys, glasses, jewelry) are stored in the Main Office. Students may check the “Lost and Found” for lost items before or after school, or during lunch. All items left unclaimed at the end of each academic quarter are donated to charities or are discarded. Parents are strongly encouraged to label all belongings with first and last names.
Birthdays are so much fun to celebrate with classmates. However, during the school day, the health and safety of each student are important, especially students with food allergies. Students are ONLY permitted to bring in NON-FOOD items to distribute to classmates at the end of the school day. Birthday invitations will not be distributed.
Attendance in school each day is important. Let’s stay in school.
In order for an absence to be considered excused, a written note must accompany the student no later than three (3) days after return to school. The note should include:
- date(s) of absence
- scholar’s name
- Reason for absence
Late or make-up work will not be accepted unless the absence is an excused absence. Please review Administrative Procedure 5113 AP 5113 - Student Attendance, Absence and Truancy for further information.
Students who are absent for ten consecutive days will be withdrawn on the 11th day and will need to re-enroll.
Lawful Absences
Students enrolled in public schools are considered lawfully absent from school for any portion of the day, only under the following conditions:
- Death of a family member
- Illness of the student
- Court appearance
- Work approved or sponsored by a school
- Observance of a religious holiday
- State of emergency
- Suspension from school
- Mental Health (Students may receive as an excused absence one (1) day of absence
- in each semester of each school year for a student’s mental health needs.
- Other emergencies
- Deployment-related absences
Unlawful Absences
Unlawful absence – any time a student does not attend school that does not qualify as the above-listed reasons for a lawful absence.
Tardy
Scholars will be officially tardy if they are not in the building at 8:10 a.m.
If your scholar enters the building after the 8:05 a.m. bell, a parent must escort them into the building and electronically sign them in the late arrival portal. Scholars will be given an orange tardy slip to be permitted to class.
Parents of students who have 10 or more tardies in a semester will be required to meet with the principal/designee to discuss the reasons for the tardies and to develop a plan for improvement.
Health Forms
Please be sure to submit all required health forms! Please note that ALL medications, cough drops included, cannot be administered or consumed without appropriate documentation.
You can access all health forms here for the 2023-2024 school year.
School Meals
2023-24 School Year Meal Prices
Elementary (Pre-K through Grade 5)
Breakfast: $1.60/day
Lunch: $2.75/day
How to Pay
MySchoolBucks, owned and operated by Heartland Payment Systems, is an online payment service that provides parents the ability to securely pay for meals, monitor student cafeteria purchases, make tuition payments for Before and After School Extended Learning programs, and receive email notifications for low-account balances. With MySchoolBucks, payments can be made 24/7 using a Visa, MasterCard, Discover, credit or debit card, and mobile app.
Principal Lunch Account
ALL breakfast,lunch, and Principal lunch payments should be made via www.myschoolbucks.com.
All money comes/goes to 1 account (child's). All that is needed to set up account (if not done) is
students lunch pin or student id.
Free and Reduced-Price Meals
We encourage all families to consider applying for free and reduced-price meals! Visit www.myschoolapps.com/Home/PickDistrict to apply online today!
To apply, you will need:
- The name, school, and grade of your school-age children
- The name of all adults living in the home
- Income information for all adults living in the home
- Student ID Numbers for your school-age children
Applications will also be sent home with students the first week of school. Applications are available at all PGCPS schools and can be submitted at any time.
Grade Level Updates
Grade level blurb:
Hello everyone, our special day is finally upon us. Our Kindergarten promotions will be held on Thursday, June 6, 2024. Dr. Hughes and Ms. Lewis's class will have their ceremony at 8:30a-9:30a and Ms. Windsor and Ms. Herbert’s class will be held at 10a-11a. This will be inside of the gymnasium. Students should dress to impress. There is no specific color that they must wear. We will not have caps and gowns for our scholars, unfortunately. Every family will receive only 4 tickets to the event. We are awaiting ticket distribution from the PTO and will send them home immediately. All guests need a ticket, including the CMIT sibling. Only small (lap-seated) children will not need a ticket and must not sit on a chair alone. We will livestream for other family and loved ones to view. Please feel free to have your scholar dismissed early after the ceremony to celebrate their special day. All students should arrive at school on time (8:00a). Parking will be pretty packed so please leave spaces available for the families who are attending the 1st ceremony. Please also be considerate of exiting in a timely fashion so others coming in for the 2nd ceremony can have adequate parking.
Please let your child’s teacher know if you have any questions or concerns.
Grade Level Updates
Grade level blurb:
Dear Families,
Students are reviewing and learning about new concepts next week. Please support students by asking questions and having students share what they learn at school. First graders are still counting down with ABC… Thank you for supporting school-wide activities. Your presence in school-related activities also supports students’ interest and motivation to succeed in their learning.
Over the next week, Summer reading lists will be shared. Please also support academic and social activities offered either through the district or private enterprises, if you can. Ongoing learning will help build memory skills toward the retention of knowledge acquired.
1st Grade Team
Reading Updates:
Week 6; Unit 5 Beyond My World
Reading to comprehend text. Please support students to read and reread to understand the text.
Math Updates:
Topic 12-Measurement
Measurement is a skill that is used outside of school; as students learn these concepts, please provide experiences that will support the acquisition of the skill.
Science Updates:
Topic 6-Offsprings
Students will learn that plant and animal offspring are like their parents, but not exactly alike
Social Studies Updates:
American Heroes-reading and asking questions
Health Updates: Review and extension of health concepts.
Grade level blurb:
We are in the single digits and so close to the finish line! With that being said, we have a few updates and reminders as we finish out the year!
Here are a few updates and reminders as we wrap up the year:
Our final spelling packet will be DUE Thursday, June 6th. There will be no additional math or spelling HOMEWORK given for the year.
Continue to check SchoolMax and your homeroom teachers' weekly agenda book.
As the weather is warming up, please consider sending a reusable water bottle and ensuring your scholar is dressed for the weather.
There seems to be a stomach bug circulating. Please listen to your scholars when they say they do not feel well. Students should be symptom/fever-free for 24 hours before returning to school. We are doing the best we can to keep our classroom safe and healthy, but we need your help!
Some of the second-grade classes will be participating in an End of Year Luau celebration to celebrate our hard work this year! To make this event a success we need YOUR help! We are asking for parent donations from our Amazon Wishlist from now until June 1st. You could also donate food on the day of our event June 7th using our sign-up genius. Thank you! We look forward to your continued partnership!
Please refer to the PGCPS sick policy for additional information:
https://www.pgcps.org/offices/school-health/when-to-keep-your-child-home-fromschool
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/VEN7KOFJQXOB?ref_=wl_share
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C094DACA92AA7FEC07-49554877-endofyear#/
Reading Updates:
Continuation...
We will be reading more informational texts about our Incredible Earth!
The phonics pattern will focus on double consonants- A word with a double consonant has two consonants (the same letter) next to each other in a word. ex. kitten
Math Updates:
We will be moving on to shapes and their attributes to finish out the year!
Science Updates:
We are working through our final topic on Animal Habitats and we are learning where animals live and how they survive in those environments.
Social Studies Updates:
We are finishing up Topic 5, Making a Difference. In this Topic, we are focusing on the essential question, “What can we do to make a difference?” Students are exploring what makes a hero and who some famous heroes are!
Health Updates:
We are wrapping up our topic on germs and what makes us sick!
Grade Level Updates
Grade level blurb:
Greetings Amazing Parents! This week has been nothing short of amazing. Score reports will be shared shortly. Thank you to all of the parents who gave a helping hand during field day. Students had a blast! As we go into the final weeks of school teachers will engage students in fun learning activities. Please continue to encourage students to follow school and classroom expectations even during the less structured time of the year.
Reading Updates:
Mathews/Madison: This week students finished several parts of the DIBELS Assessment. On Monday they will finish the last portion. Also, students had student-teacher conferences with Mrs. Mathews to discuss their advancement and areas of growth based on their most recent test performance. Students were very excited to discuss the ways that they’ve grown in the area of Reading.
Fleet/ Lewis: This week we have taken a pause from studying the text structure of a play by reading the play Grandma and Grace. The story explored Asian immigrants migrating to the USA. Our focus this week has been completing both iReady and DIBELS testing. Scores should be available soon.
Math Updates:
Fleet/ Lewis: We have wrapped up the last few lessons of Topic 14. To close out the school year, students will be completing an in-class project. This will help them review concepts they have learned this year through a real-world situation.
Science Updates:
Fleet/ Lewis: We have completed the final lesson of Topic 7. Next week we will complete the review activities. Please be on the lookout for the topic assessment date and study guide.
Social Studies Updates:
Mathews/Madison: This week, students read an informational article on Antarctica. Students practiced identifying the main idea and key details within the text.
Fleet/ Lewis: his week we have started to cover Chapter 6 lessons 2 and 3 discussing “A New Home in America” and “New Ways to Communicate.” Next week we will continue the rest of Chapter 6.
Health Updates:
June’s topic is “All About Bones.” Students will examine the functions of the skeletal system, how our joints helps us move, the benefits of exercise, the different types of exercise that are fun, and safe rules for exercise
Grade Level Updates
Grade level blurb:
Hello Tiger Family,
We are in the final countdown to the end of the school year. We only have 9 more days of school left. All testing and make-ups have been concluded for the school year. Students will be given a copy of their results to share with their grown-ups this week. During the week of June 10, students will be able to dress down as we close out the school year.
The last day to accept make-up work is June 6, 2024. Make-up work is only provided when a scholar has an excused absence! Make-up work is required to be turned in within the amount of time that the scholar was absent!
We had an amazing time at the Liberty Sports Park for Field Day. We thank the PTO and all the volunteers who supported and donated material for us. Our scholars got a chance to compete against one another and showed great sportsmanship.
K & 5th Grade Promotions:
If you have a scholar that is being promoted in Kindergarten or the Fifth grade your 4th grade scholar may attend the celebration. If a scholar attends a Promotion it is an excused absence. Please ensure that you share a note with your scholar’s homeroom teacher to have the absence excused.
Important Upcoming Dates:
Thursday, June 6, 2024 Kindergarten Promotion
Friday, June 7, 2024, Fifth Grade Promotion
Wednesday, June 12, 2024- 3 Hour Early Release for students
Thursday, June 13, 2024- Last Day of School for students 3 Hour early release
This is a friendly reminder that late work is only accepted if a student has an excused absence! If a scholar is absent and does not bring a note they will earn a 0 on the assignment that was missed. Please read the reminders to ensure that you are partnering with your scholars to make them successful in school.
Please check SchoolMax weekly to see scholar’s updated grades. Canvas is a Learning Management System in which scholars utilize to complete assignments and get access to materials. The grades provided in SchoolMax are those that will be used to calculate progress reports and report cards.
If your scholar is absent, please share a note with the homeroom teacher within 3 days of your scholar returning to school. For students to receive make-up work you must provide a note stating; the student’s name, the date of absence, and the reason for absence. Work is provided to students upon their return to school with an absence note.
Reading Updates:
This Week: We continued in our Novel Study “The Hero Two Doors Down.” Students were able to compare and contrast the setting of the novel to the setting of today. Students focused on the period of how the country was at this time. We also identified cause and effect relationships shown by the main character Steve. Finally, students got a chance to make a connection to the main character.
Next Week: Students will continue to read our Novel Study and practice the reading skills we have been covering all year. We will identify the use of the author's craft and explain why the author uses it and how it helps the reader. Finally, students will get a chance to summarize the events of a chapter using four sentences.
Math Updates:
This week we are continuing our Fractions unit with a review of Adding and Subtracting Fractions. How can we use various math strategies to convert and solve multi-step fractions?
Please check SchoolMax and Canvas with your scholar to ensure completion of assignments.
Science Updates:
As we wrap up our school year we will be studying the Earth! Our Earth science unit discusses Earth’s Features and Natural Hazards. Students will be learning to understand how natural forces have continuously altered the features of the Earth.
Please check SchoolMax and Canvas with your scholar to ensure completion of assignments
Social Studies Updates:
This week: Students will read “Resources in the Northeast” and explain how natural resources make many products.
Next week: Students will read “Growth and Change in the Northeast” and explain how immigrants and growing industries brought change to the Northeast.
Health Updates:
In health, we are learning about our Digestive Systems! How does our digestive system contribute to the overall function of our bodies? What can we do to promote a healthy digestive system?
Grade Level Updates
Grade level blurb:
Hi everyone! We are in May, and we are focusing on our character trait, perseverance! We want to persevere in any way we can, especially in wrapping up Q4!
Our Camp Schmidt trip is here!! Thank you SO MUCH to all of our volunteer chaperones who will be coming on the trip! We appreciate you! On Monday, we will leave around 9:00 am so chaperones please be in the cafeteria in the morning! We will return on Tuesday around 1:00 pm. Please have everything packed that students and chaperones need and send them to school with their bags on Monday. Please see the image for what to pack!
Promotion Ceremony
Friday, June 7, 2024 | 9:00 AM
Gym
The attire is black and white. Scholars may wear a combination of each color or one color. Scholars should dress to impress. Please ensure no jeans or athletic clothing are worn, by the PGCPS Dress Code Policy -AP 5152 - System-Wide Student Dress Code.
Each student will receive only two (2) tickets to the event. Very small children who will be sitting on an adult's lap do not need a ticket. Siblings who attend CMIT South Elementary DO NOT need a ticket for the promotion. Tickets will be distributed on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. If guests do not have their tickets, they will not be permitted to the ceremony. The gymnasium door near the ramp will open at 8:30 a.m. All guests for the 5th grade Moving-Up Ceremony please park in the rear parking lot by backing into an available space until all spaces have been filled. If no spaces are available you can use the satellite parking at the CMIT South Middle High School and walk over.
We will livestream for other family and loved ones to view. The scholars are allowed to leave after the ceremony to celebrate their special day. I hope this can help your family plan accordingly! We are so excited to honor and celebrate our hardworking scholars!
We have been having tests, quizzes, and homework, so we want to make sure students are keeping up with their work. Students should click on their homeroom teacher’s name to see their assignments. Here is the link to the 5th-grade website for those who need it: https://sites.google.com/pgcps.org/5thgradeclasssite/home
A reminder that we are happy to have volunteers come in to assist us with different things throughout the year, so if you are interested, please make sure your volunteer requirements are completed. We would love it if people wanted to come in and volunteer during lunch times for students, so let us know if you are interested.
Our last round of MAP assessments was last week! Scores were sent home. Congrats to our scholars for finishing up testing for the year!!
Additionally, please see the following message from PTO about upcoming dates/deadlines:
Promotion Ceremony Baby Pictures
The 5th grade team is collecting baby photos of all graduates. We are still missing some! Submit your photos ASAP!
Reading Updates:
We are working on finishing up different sections and wrapping up our year! We took our last test and quiz this week!
Math Updates:
We are working on wrapping up our year going over different topics and making sure assignments are turned in!
Science Updates:
We are working on wrapping up our year going over different topics and making sure assignments are turned in!
Social Studies Updates:
We are working on wrapping up our year going over different topics and making sure assignments are turned in! We took our last test and quiz this week!
CHESAPEAKE MATH AND IT SOUTH ELEMENTARY
• Hours: 8:00 a.m to 2:25 p.m
• Grades: K-5
• Uniform: Yes
• Before After School Enrichment: Yes
http://clfmd.org/enrichment-2/
• School Colors: Hunter Green, Navy Blue
• School Mascot: Tigers
• School Website: http://www.cmitsouthes.org
For more information