Dear CMIT South Elementary Families,

Welcome to 2025! As we embrace this new year together, I am filled with optimism about the incredible opportunities that lie ahead for our school community. Your continued partnership and dedication to our students' success make our school community truly special.

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy, schools will be closed on Monday, January 20th. We encourage our CMIT South ES families to use this day not simply as time off, but as Dr. King intended - a day of service to our community. Consider discussing Dr. King's message of equality and justice with your children and finding ways to give back to others. There are many local service opportunities available, from food banks to community clean-up events. By participating in acts of service, we help keep Dr. King's dream alive for future generations.

As we settle into the new year, I want to share some important updates and upcoming events:

Schedule Information:

• This is an A-Week/Week 1, so please ensure your child follows their schedule for Creative Arts (CARTS) classes.

Staffing Updates: We're delighted to announce several changes to our outstanding team:

• Please join me in welcoming Mrs. Mitchell, our new 5th-grade RELA/Social Studies teacher

• Mrs. Gilbert has graciously stepped in as our interim Technology teacher while our newly selected candidate completes the final stages of the hiring process. We appreciate her flexibility in ensuring our students' technology education continues without interruption during this transition period.

• A dedicated support team made of available staff to assist with the shortage in our special education department

Important Events and Initiatives:

Student Code of Conduct: We will be holding our 2nd semester Student Rights and Responsibilities Assemblies from January 21-24, 2025, to reinforce our community expectations.

Digital Citizenship: Recently, we've observed some concerning online behavior among students in group chats outside of school hours. While we're implementing additional digital citizenship lessons in all classrooms, we need your partnership in this effort. Please actively monitor your children's online activities and have ongoing conversations about responsible digital behavior.

Winter Coat Drive: Please spread the word

• Collection Period: now- January -31

• Distribution Event: Saturday, February 1, 2025, 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

• We welcome donations of new and gently used coats

• All community members in need are welcome to receive a coat

Assessment Schedule: We're entering an important assessment period to measure student growth:

DIBELS Winter Assessment:

• K-1st grade: January 21-24

• 2nd-3rd grade: January 27-30

NWEA MAP Growth Assessment:

• 2nd-5th grade: January 22-24

• K-1st grade: January 28-29

Additionally, our students have completed their iReady Diagnostics last week.

Safety Update: We will conduct a Shelter in Place drill on January 23, 2025, as part of our ongoing commitment to school safety.

As always, remember that the STEM Journey Begins Here at CMIT South Elementary! Let's continue to fill this school year with exciting learning opportunities, personal growth, and impressive achievements for all our scholars. Your partnership in education makes a profound difference in our students' success and we thank you for making CMIT South Elementary a vibrant and supportive learning community. Together, we're creating meaningful experiences for our scholars! Remember, we can't continue this STEM journey without you! Let's make this year a roaring success! 🦁📚

Wishing you all a 🐾 PawwRific 🐾 day and see you all Tuesday, January 21, 2025!

With Tiger Pride,

Ms. Tauheedah N. Simmons-Lewis

Acting Principal

Chesapeake Math & IT Academy Elementary South (CMIT)

Grade Level Blurb:

It was great to see and learn about all the different STEM Careers that our scholars researched. Students started testing this week on i-Ready. Testing will continue for the next two weeks. This upcoming week, Dibels testing will take place for our Kindergarten scholars, so please read the schedule to know when your scholar’s class is going to be tested. Our hope is to have your scholar be well rested and have a good breakfast in the morning. Ms. Windsor’s Class will be tested on Tuesday. Dr. Hughes’s Class will be tested on Wednesday. Ms. Herbert’s Class will be tested on Thursday. Ms. Lewis’s Class will be tested on Friday. The week after that will be MAP testing. With three weeks of back to back testing going on homework packets will not be given this upcoming week. Instead, please have your scholar utilize the online resource of Clever. Through Clever you can access other resources such as IXL, Lexia and i-Ready to help your scholar further their understanding of topics taught in class.

Important Dates:

January 20: No School

January 21-24: Dibels Testing

January 24: End of 2nd Quarter & Payment through myschoolbucks for the Field Trip due

January 27: 3hr early Dismissal

January 28-29: MAP Testing

February 7: MD Science Center Field trip

February 14: Make up snow day: School Open

Reading Updates:

UNIT 2- Week 5: Run, Jump and Swim

Essential Question: How do some living things make what they need?

• Phonological Awareness: Initial and Final Sounds; Segment and Blend Phonemes

Blend and Segment: Onset and Rime

• Phonics: Short /e/ middle sound and Letters W and Y

• High-frequency words: go, from, yellow

• Spelling words found in weekly readings: swim, push, climb, and carry

• Unit Vocabulary: grow, need, share, depend

Learning Goals:

• Learn what a persuasive text is

• Understand Informational Text Structure

• Find details in a text

• Capitalization for the beginning of a sentence

• Adjectives preposition and Verbs

• Rhyming Sort

Math Updates:

Topic 6: Understanding Addition

Essential Understanding: What types of situations involve addition?

• Show numbers in many way

• Express smaller parts of a bigger number with actions

• Represent addition as putting to or more numbers together

• Practice using an addition equation

Vocabulary: plus, addition, equal sign, altogether, in all, patterns

Science Updates:

TOPIC 3 LESSON 1: The Sun

Essential Question: How can I describe the sun?

• Learn how the sun moves in the sky

• Describe how the sun keeps things/people warm

• Designing structure to keep animals cool and protected

• Observe the sun

Vocabulary: star

Social Studies Updates:

Chapter 3 lesson 1: Why People Work

Essential Question- How have jobs changed over time?

• Understand why people work

• Look into the difference between need and want

• Analyze cost and benefits

Vocabulary: work, job, need, want, cost, benefit

Health Updates:

January Topic: My Body is Special

• Demonstrate respect for different types of bodies

• Encourage self confidence by discovering one’s own special qualities and talents.

• Describe basic routines necessary to keep one’s “special” body healthy and safe.

• Explain why it is important to tell a trusted adult about situations involving personal safety.

Grade Level Blurb:

Testing season is upon us. Scholars will be taking MAP Growth test this week. Please check class dojo to see what day your scholar will be taking their DIBELS Assessment. Thank you for your partnership ensuring that Stem Fair Projects were submitted on time.

Reading Updates:

We are entering week 5 of our second unit this story will be an Informational Text.

Math Updates:

Scholars are finishing up Topic 4 and will be preparing to demonstrate their knowledge on their Topic Assessment.

Social Studies Updates:

Communities and resources will be the next topic covered

Science Updates:

Scholars will be learning about Earth's Surface

Health Updates:

The next unit is health is Growth and Development how the bodies changes.

Grade Level Updates:

It is getting cooler outside. Please make sure your child has at least one outdoor coat for recess and dismissal. Thank you for your understanding!

Reading Updates:

We have started Unit 2, Week 1! This unit addresses fiction and nonfiction text that discusses plants and animals, and this week’s lesson focuses on texts addressing patterns in nature. We also worked on V/CV and VC/V words, and we reviewed concepts from the last week of Unit 1!

Math Updates:

Students have been working on problem solving division with the numbers 0, 1, 2, 5, 9, and 10! Additionally, they have been working on using the properties of multiplication (associative, commutative, and distributive) to problem solve with the numbers 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8!

Science Updates:

Students have been learning about electricity and magnetism! They are learning about how electricity and magnetism are related, as well as the cause and effect relationship between the two!

Social Studies Updates:

Ms. Madison and Mrs. Flores’s classes just finished Chapter 1! Ms. Howard and Ms. Hendy’s classes have started Chapter 2 (economics)!

Health Updates:

Students have been introduced to our unit on the food we eat! Specifically, all classes learned about how food gives us energy, and what counts as healthy eating.

Grade Level Blurb:

Happy New Year Tiger Family,

Welcome back Tigers!! I hope that everyone had a joyous and wonderful holiday break. Also we were fortunate to have our first big snow of the year and we are hopeful that your scholar was able to go out and make memories. Although we were closed for snow the second quarter is quickly being brought to a close. We will have midyear diagnostic testing in i-Ready and MAP in the upcoming weeks. After we conclude all diagnostic testing we will send updated data home to families. Please continue to read to get updates and important information from Fourth Grade.

Thank you for your continuing support and partnership.

Warm regards,

4th Grade Team

i-Ready:

i-Ready is a computer based math and reading program that is available for all of our scholars. Scholars have completed their diagnostics and are working on programs based on their areas of need. If scholars have access to a computer at home, we recommend that your scholar is getting at least 45 minutes of practice a week in both reading and math. Please encourage your child to complete lessons and ensure they complete the lessons independently to accurately improve their skills. i-Ready is accessed through clever.pgcps.org, and scholars will use their PGCPS logins to access the program.

• Important Upcoming Dates:

• January 20 - Martin Luther King Jr. Day – Schools and Offices Closed

• January 22 - PTO meeting 6 p.m.

• January 24 - End of Second Quarter (46 days)

• January 27 - Grading & Reporting Day for Teachers – 3-Hr. Early Dismissal for Student

Mid-Year Diagnostics:

• Winter MAP Growth Diagnostics January 22- January 24, 2025 (Reading, Math, Science)

Uniforms:

We are a uniform school. Students must be in the proper uniform each and every day. Students are expected to have mostly black shoes. They may wear a navy blue or school logo jacket or pullover during class. Students will be asked to remove any jacket or sweater that is not following the uniform policy.

Fourth Grade Reminders:

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 for school. If a scholar leaves early or arrives late to school and it is not excused they will earn a 0 for all work that is not completed.

If your scholar is absent, please share a note with the homeroom teacher and attendance managers within 3 days of your scholar returning back to school. In order for students to receive make-up work you must provide a note stating; the student’s name, the date of absence, and reason for absence. Work is provided to students upon their return to school with an absence note.

Communications:

Students must bring their agenda book each day. Teachers will note the agenda book and it should be signed nightly by the adult at home.

Please allow up to 48 business hours for all responses to emails and Classdojo messages. Teachers are not actively monitoring their emails during the day because we are engaged in instruction. Emails are not monitored over the weekend or in the evening hours when teachers have gone home. If the message sent relates to dismissal changes please call the school directly to leave a message with the front office.

Grading:

Please check Synergy 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 Synergy are those that will be used to calculate progress reports and report cards.

Parent Teacher Conferences:

Conferences with teachers are available with families as needed. Please reach out to the homeroom teacher about scheduling a parent teacher conference.

Scholastic Book Club Ordering:

This year, our class is reading with Scholastic Book Clubs! You’ll have access to expertly curated, affordable books that help boost your child’s reading skills, build your home library, and maybe even create moments of quality time you can share together.

Plus place an order of $25 or more and you can pick a FREE $5 book (use code READS at checkout).

Family Order Due Date: 01/27/2025

Shop Our Class Page: https://orders.scholastic.com/MF27J

Shop Flyers: https://clubs.scholastic.com/all-flyers

Invite relatives and friends to help your child discover the joy of reading when you share our class page link. Every order benefits our classroom, helping me earn FREE books and resources that every child can enjoy.

Thanks so much for your support!

Reading Updates:

This Week: We are still exploring Unit 2 “Adaptations” by reading a collection of poems and prose called “Butterfly Eyes.” In these collected works students will learn about how different living things depend on one another along a meadow. As students are reading this text they will continue to monitor their inner conversations to gather deeper meaning about the poems that they read. Poetry tends to use a lot of figurative language and sensory details to help the reader create a picture in their minds. Students also created their own free verse poem.

Next Week: We will work on the skill of synthesizing by reading two texts about two different animals that live in Australia. Synthesizing is where we combine information that was learned from two different texts to support one main idea. As students are reading the text we will work on the skill determining the main idea across two different texts. Students will

Math Updates:

This week we will completed the Winter I-Ready diagnostic test. This week we also began exploring Topic 3, Topic 3 will focus on the Use of strategies and properties to multiply by 1-digit numbers. By the end of the Topic students should be able to multiply whole numbers by multiples of 10, 100, 1,000.

Please check Synergy ParentVue and Canvas with your scholar to ensure the completion of assignments.

Science Updates:

This week students submitted their STEM FAIR Projects board and video. Students began presenting their STEM FAIR presentations.

Please check Synergy ParentVue and Canvas with your scholar to ensure completion of assignments

Social Studies Updates:

This week: Students analyzed and explained how the United States emerged as one of the world's most powerful nations following the Civil War, focusing on key factors such as economic growth, industrialization, political changes, and the expansion of American influence both domestically and internationally.

Next week: Students will read about the continuity and changes that the United States faces in the 21st century, and be able to explain the key factors contributing to these changes while identifying aspects of continuity that persist in various aspects of American society, politics, and economy.

Health Updates:

In health we are learning about our Mouths and keeping our Teeth Healthy and clean.

Maker’s Lab

This week in our Makers Lab, students conducted an exciting experiment to explore how Alka-Seltzer affects water. Using a test tube and a mason jar, they observed the reaction of the Alka-Seltzer tablet as it dissolved in water. In the test tube, the reaction occurred quickly, creating bubbles and causing the water to bubble up due to the release of gas. In contrast, when the same reaction was performed in the mason jar, the larger volume of water allowed the gas to disperse more slowly, and the bubbles were more contained, creating a different visual effect. Students compared and contrasted these reactions, noting how the size and shape of the container influenced the speed and intensity of the reaction. It was a fun and informative hands-on experience that encouraged scientific observation and inquiry.

2024-2025 School Calendar

School Meals

School Violence Resources and Support

PGCPS TV

CMIT South ES Enrichment Program

Vendor Managed Child Care

Parent Handbook

Students’ Rights and Responsibilities Handbook.

Synergy ParentVUE Support for Parents and Guardians