CMIT South Elementary School

Administration

Dear CMIT South Elementary Tiger Families,

As we reflect on the week of March 4-8, 2024, it's been a remarkable time of growth, celebration, and community engagement here at our school.

First and foremost, let us take a moment to celebrate Women's History Month and National Literacy Month. We extend our heartfelt appreciation to all the volunteers who have generously dedicated their time to read to our students. Your commitment to fostering a love for literacy is truly commendable, and we are grateful for your positive impact on our students' learning journey.

A special shout-out to Mr. Hughes, who will be hosting a virtual book club throughout March, featuring the thought-provoking book, "The Other Wes Moore." We encourage all interested parents and staff to join this enriching literary experience.

Upcoming Events and Dates:

MISA Testing for 5th Grade Students: March 12-15 at 8:45 AM. This Science Assessment is district-wide for all 5th and 8th-grade students. We look forward to our students continuing to set the bar high as district leaders in STEM. We appreciate your support in ensuring our students are prepared for this important assessment and arrive on time to school each day ready to demonstrate their knowledge.

Dress Down Day: March 15 for students who attend the PTO meeting on March 13 in person. Your participation is valuable, and we look forward to seeing you there.

2nd Quarter Honor Roll Assembly: March 19, 2024. Let's come together to celebrate the academic achievements of our outstanding students. 2nd and 3rd grade will be honored together and 4th and 5th grade students will be honored together. Professional School Counselor Ms Chandler will share more details this upcoming week.

Spring Break: March 25-April 1. Wishing everyone a restful and enjoyable break. Know that the school will be closed during those dates.

Half Day Asynchronous Learning: April 2. A reminder for students to engage in asynchronous learning activities at home students will be provided with the expectation of work before Spring Break.

MCAP Data Night: April 3, 2024, for 3rd-5th-grade families. Join us for an informative session on understanding and interpreting MCAP data for the upcoming MCAP during the weeks of April 15- May 3, 2024.

Parent Support for Academics:

This past Monday during our Professional Development Day staff was able to conduct learning walks and provided feedback to one another and administration. As we continue to improve our professional practice we need your involvement in supporting our students' academic success. We want to bring attention to specific areas where your support at home can make a significant impact:

5th Grade: Encourage your scholar to complete the submission of classwork and independent activities (homework and project). Recognize and celebrate their efforts in completing tasks.

4th Grade: Support students in submitting their assignments, and acknowledge the effort they put into their work. For those with specific needs, rest assured that the Student Intervention Team is actively involved.

3rd Grade: Encourage your scholar’s responsibility and autonomy. Practice with them executing multi-step tasks and directions. Review independent assignments often.

2nd Grade: Emphasize the importance of work completion and address any low assessment scores promptly. Reach out to your scholar’s classroom teacher to see how you can support their assessment improvement.

Kindergarten and 1st Grade: Tardy Issues, provide clear and consistent expectations regarding routines at home to make sure your arrival time is before 8 am to minimize tardy and absence issues.

Celebrating the Life of Dr. Victor Kennedy

It is with a heavy heart that we share the news of the passing of Dr. Victor Kennedy, a long-term substitute at CMIT South Elementary. Dr. Kennedy made significant contributions to our school community, leaving a lasting impact on both staff and students.

In solidarity, we extend our deepest condolences to the Kennedy family. If you would like to support the family during this challenging time, an official GoFundMe has been set up at [https://gofund.me/9f6c1c8a](https://gofund.me/9f6c1c8a).

Thank you for your continued support and commitment to the success of our students. Together, we make CMIT South Elementary a place of excellence and community strength.

Educationally Yours,

Mr. Ronald A. Miller, Jr.

Principal

Chesapeake Math & IT Academy South Elementary

Prince George’s County Public Schools

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.

Upcoming Dates to Remember:

March 14th: Leprechaun traps due

March 25th- April 1st: Spring Break

April 2nd: Asynchronous Day

April 25th: Tentative date for the Natural History Museum field trip

Reading Updates:

Traditional Stories- The Best Story (revisit for clarity and continued support)

This week we will continue to:

• Compare and contrast stories

• Ask and Answer Questions

• Discuss the Author’s Purpose

• Make and confirm predictions

• Manipulate syllables within a multisyllabic word.

• Identify and match the common sounds that letters represent.

• Identify and read common high-frequency words by sight.

• Phonological Awareness: Syllables; Words with /a/ and /ā/; Rhyming Words

• Phonics: Short Aa /a/ and Long Aa /ā/

• High-Frequency Words: away, give, little

Math Updates:

Composing and Decomposing Numbers 11-19

This topic builds a foundation for understanding place value by focusing on the composition and decomposition of numbers 11 to 19 into one group of 10 and some further ones. The operations of composition and decomposition are visualized with objects, drawings, and equations. Students compose and decompose teen numbers using ten frames or bars of ten objects to develop this foundational place-value concept. We will also focus on finding parts of the numbers 11-19 when one part is 10.

Math vocabulary: How much more?

Science Updates:

Needs of Living Things

In this topic, students will begin to explore what plants and animals need to survive. They will also discover that plants and animals grow and change during their lives. They will recognize that there are patterns in the needs of living things; for example, all living things need food and water. They will also recognize that all living things follow patterns in their life cycles. Students will be introduced to science practices, such as making observations, analyzing data, and using models. These will be practiced through hands-on experiences in the topic.

Science vocabulary in this topic is: survive, pattern, gills, shelter, life cycle, change, and hatch.

Social Studies Updates:

Geography of the Neighborhood- Globes and Maps

• Recognize what a globe represents and how to use one.

• Recognize what a map represents and how to use one

• List places we would like to see and visit

• Similarities and differences between maps and globes

For the next several weeks, we will discuss that places, and their relative advantages and disadvantages, can change over time. We will also build backgrounds by asking children what they know about their community and encouraging them to share what they know about where they live.

Social Studies vocabulary in this topic is: globe, land, map, neighborhood

Health Updates:

No Drugs, No Way

Defines the meaning of a drug, identifying dangerous substances at home, school, and on the playground, and being responsible for your great body.

Grade level blurb:

Families,

As we move into new lessons, teachers are also reviewing skills and giving extra practice with ongoing skills. Please continue to provide extra practice for reading at home. March is Women’s Month-we congratulate all women this month. Thanks for always supporting the school.1st graders are inviting parents to come in and read this month; Please communicate with the classroom teacher.

Reading Updates:

Unit 5:

Genre: Persuasive Text

EQ: What are art and music classes important?

Vocabulary: think, learn, remember, concentrate

Sight Words: grow, full, around, find, under

Phonics: Ng; nk words

Spelling ring, bring, pink, sing, song, think, thing, rink, grow, around

Capitalize I and proper names

Math Updates:

Topic 8-Understanding place value

Ongoing skills: counting by 10’s, addition, subtraction, and word problems. Please teach students to tell the time. It is a difficult skill to learn even for ⅔ graders. Teach both ways to write and tell time.

Science Updates:

Living Things- How do people learn from animal and plant parts?

Social Studies Updates:

New Unit: Life today and long ago

Health Updates:

Drugs are Trouble -I take care of my body.

Note: As we wind down into the year, some H/W math packets may have all types of skills across content

Grade level blurb:

Tiger Family,

Many classes are wrapping up various topics. Please look for updates from our classroom teacher.

Some updates and reminders:

1. Please check your scholar's agenda and blue folder nightly.

2. Please check SchoolMax for up-to-date grades, including progress report grades.

3. Please remember to talk with your scholar about the power of KINDNESS. We are spending a lot of time on character education in class, specifically how to treat each other respectfully.

Reading Updates:

We are moving on to Unit 4 in reading! This unit is all about making a difference. Our essential question is “Why is it important to connect with other people?” Students will be reading Biographies and realistic fiction texts.

This week our spelling pattern will focus on closed syllable words. A syllable is closed when the vowel is followed by one or more consonants. A syllable that ends with a consonant usually has a short vowel sound.

Math Updates:

Many classes have begun Topic 9 - Numbers within 1000. Homework packets have been sent home. It is essential that your scholar ONLY completes the homework pages for the lesson that has been taught in school that day. If your student has access to a device at home, please consider continuing to access the materials on CANVAS for review.

Science Updates:

Many classes have or will wrap up Topic 4- Earth's Processes and move on to Topic 5 - Plants and Animals

Social Studies Updates:

Many classes have or will wrap up Topic 3 - Government and move on to Topic 4- People who supply our goods and services.

Health Updates:

We are learning all about babies and how they grow and change over time.

Grade level blurb:

Greetings amazing parents! We had an amazing time at the Black History Month Presentation. Thank you to all the parents who allowed their students to participate and assisted with getting them from practices. Please be sure students turn in their make-up work from in-school practices. Students have been working hard this week. As we begin approaching the end of the quarter, please assist scholars with checking SchoolMax and completing the missing work. Finally, Chromebooks have been collected for school use and will be locked after hours. Please reach out if your child has a special circumstance that requires usage for tutoring.

Reading Updates:

Mathews/ Madison

This week students finished up Unit 2 lesson 5. We will begin unit 3 with a Historical Fiction text called Below Deck. Students have a writing task for homework this week that will allow them to practice responding to questions that require them to state and defend their opinions. Students should use the sentence stems from the previous opinion writing lesson, the list of transition words (ones for adding additional information), and the rubric. We will make additions to this in class next week.

Fleet/ Lewis:

We also finished discussing Historical Fiction while comparing and contrasting two different texts “Little House On The Pierre” and “By the Shores of Silver Lake.” In our comparing and contrasting we were able to discover and discuss the theme of the story and understand not only do Author’s right purposes but also to send and deliver messages to the readers.

Math Updates:

Fleet/Lewis:

Topic 8 and 9 Parent Letter.pdf

We are moving through Topic 8 exploring properties and strategies to add and subtract. We will be combining Topics 8 and 9 and focusing on the most important lessons. This week we have talked about rounding whole numbers and using estimation to add and subtract.

Mathews/Madison: We are starting Topic 9!

Science Updates:

Fleet/Lewis:

Adaptations and Survival Parent Letter.pdf

Topic 6 is focusing on Adaptations and Survival. Our essential question is: What happens to living things when their environments change?

Social Studies Updates:

Mathews/ Madison

Our Big Question is How does our past affect our present? This week students finished Chapter 3 Lesson 1. We will be moving on to lesson 2 Early Spanish Explorers. Students are being given additional class time to complete assignments since they did not have access to the Chromebooks when they were collected.

Fleet/ Lewis:

This week we were able to complete our Chapter 3 Social Studies assessment and began talking about how our Government was formed and the different branches of government. This weekend I challenged them to come home and find out how many Representatives Maryland has represented in Congress for 10 extra Dojo points.

Health Updates:

The theme for March is “Say No to Smoking, Drinking, and Drugs.” Students will focus on describing the importance of saying no to smoking, drinking, drugs, drugs, and the law, understanding addiction, and setting goals for drug-free living.

Grade level blurb:

Hello Tiger Family,

I hope that everyone is doing well. We have completed our seventh week of the third quarter. I cannot believe we are almost at the end of the quarter and Spring Break! Please note that next month MCAP testing will begin. As we complete the final training of the staff we will announce testing dates for our 4th graders.

We are sad to announce the passing of Dr. Kennedy, he subbed for our school for many years. All students in this building have been in a class with him at some point during their time at CMIT. We are asking you to speak with your children about his passing and answer any questions they may have. Our students are older and will speak to each other about his passing. We are ensuring as a school that we are supporting students during this time. There are also mental health resources that can be accessed through Prince George's County Public Schools. If you need any support in assisting your child during this time please reach out to our Professional School Counselor Ms. Chandler.

The end of the 3rd quarter is quickly approaching. The final day for the 3rd quarter is Friday, March 22, 2024. This is also the final day before we begin Spring Break. Please speak directly with your scholar’s teachers to see about making up the missing work. Prince George's County Administrative Procedure 5121 deals with grading and reporting. Please take some time to familiarize yourself with the policy. As students matriculate to middle and high school the policy will change at each level.

We are now in Women’s History Month and students will receive lessons about amazing women who have made a difference in the world. Spend time with your scholar discussing some of the women in your life and family who have done great things!

Smithsonian Natural History Museum Field Trip

We are excited to announce that fourth graders will be taking their first field trip of the year to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. Permission slips have been sent home with students. We request that all slips and money be returned to the homeroom teacher by Monday, March 11, 2024. Be sure that you check the box on the permission slip if your scholar will need a school lunch.

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.

Fourth Grade Reminders:

Please check Schoolmax weekly to see the scholar’s updated grades. Canvas is a Learning Management System that 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.

Each week we suggest checking your scholar's browser history and YouTube history. This is to make sure that your scholar isn’t going to a site or watching videos that you would not approve of. Teachers are limited to only seeing activity on your scholar’s screen when they are in class. We utilize a system called Hapara that allows us to prevent access to certain sites. We are asking that you check your scholar's computer history weekly.

Reading Updates:

We are glad to have Autumn back in class. Today I am reading the story that we began in class with Autumn. I am hoping to get the two reading activities we completed this week done today. I am also giving her the spelling quiz today. Over the weekend Autumn will need to finish two Social Studies assignments.

Social Studies Assignments:

1. Tuesday, March 5, Levels of Government Sort- Posted on the Reading Canvas.

2. Personal Flag- This assignment is on paper with directions provided.

This Week: Students began reading a realistic fiction called “Mama’s Window.” In this story, we read about a boy named Sugar who is sent to live with his uncle after his mother passes away. While reading this week students were able to month their inner conversations to see how Sugar grew and changed in the story. Students were able to plot the most important events that happened in the story. Students are seeking to answer the question of how our experiences help us see the world differently.

Next Week: Students continue to read “Mama’s Window” closely as they make inferences about the character of Sugar and identify how he grew and changed throughout the story. Character traits ask students to describe a character using what they do and say and how they react to other characters. Students will also get an opportunity to compose an essay that explores how Sugar grew and changed in the story and what caused him to change.

Math Updates:

This week, students continued working on Topic 5, 4.NBT.B.6. Our focus this week, was how to interpret remainders and different strategies to solve division equations. Next week we'll be diving deeper into the various strategies for solving division problems including, partial quotients and area models for division problems! Learning this skill will require an understanding of estimating quotients and of remainders, and of connecting models and symbols. You can expect to see work that provides practice in dividing whole numbers by one-digit divisors using strategies other than the standard algorithm and checking that the answer is reasonable using estimation.

Students were also assigned a Pick-a-Project for Topic 5. This project will count as an assessment grade and be due on 3/20/24. No late assignments will be accepted for this project.

Please check Schoolmax and Canvas with your scholar to ensure completion of assignments.

Science Updates:

In Science this week, students dove deeper into Topic 2, exploring nonrenewable and renewable resources and how humans use them in everyday life. The conversations were rich with examples!

Please check Schoolmax and Canvas with your scholar to ensure completion of assignments.

Social Studies Updates:

This week: Students read Lesson 3: Our Rights and Responsibilities and explained how citizens in a democracy have both rights and responsibilities by identifying the rights and responsibilities of citizens on a graphic organizer.

Next Week: Students will write a letter to a local official to convince or persuade the officials to help address an issue in the community. They will also read “The Nation's Economy” and explain why economies exist to satisfy people’s needs and wants.

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 blurb:

Hi everyone! We are in the new month of March, and we are focusing on our character trait, courage! We want to show courage in any way we can! We are also celebrating Women’s History Month this month so we are learning about influential women throughout history!

We also want to welcome Mrs. Jones on board our 5th-grade team! We are so happy to have her with us for the remainder of the year taking over Mr. Rowland’s spot! She is such an amazing educator and we want to all give her a warm welcome!

We are getting prepared to plan our trip to Camp Schmidt at the end of the year for our 5th grade students and we are so excited! We are going to need lots of parent volunteers, both men and women, so if you are interested in coming, please reach out to Ms. McDonagh. The date will be June 3-4, so stay tuned for further info!

Our 5th-grade promotion ceremony is planned for Friday, June 7 at 9:00 am. We will have lots of information coming out about this soon, but we are so excited to honor and celebrate our hardworking scholars! Please keep this date available!

REPORT CARDS are coming soon! The last day to turn in any late work is Friday, March 15. Please check the assignment calendar on our Google site to see what upcoming assignments students may have. 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.

The temperature is low, and students MUST have a winter coat to be allowed outside for recess. The CMIT fleeces are no longer warm enough for recess. If the temperature drops below 32 degrees or is wet outside, we will have indoor recess!

Reading Updates:

We finished unit 3 week 2 this week and we are starting on unit 3 week 3 our section is about legends and dramas. We also have our new spelling words for this section!

Math Updates:

Students are in unit 9 of Math which is about dividing fractions. Homework will be posted on the assignment calendar as we get started so keep an eye out!

Science Updates:

Students are working on unit 5 of Science, about the human impact on Earth’s systems. Homework will be posted on the assignment calendar as we get started so keep an eye out! Students are also preparing for their MISA assessments next week! These will take place on Tuesday and Thursday next week. Make sure students are well-rested and on time!

Social Studies Updates:

We are working on chapter 5 now about the American Revolution. We are finishing Chapter 5 lesson 2 this week about the events leading up to the revolution!

CARTS Updates

Updates from the Art Room!

Our 4th-grade artists have new vocabulary words:

Value (in art)- the lightness or darkness of a color

Tones- adding grey to a color to make it neutral

Tints- adding white to a color to make it lighter

Shades- adding black to a color to make it darker

Here’s a video of Ms. Crusoe’s class remembering it through song!

Maker’s Lab:

Build a Boat Challenge: we move into Trial 2. Each class is in the Evaluate and Redesign phase after Trial 1. We look at our previous design and take a close look at what we can improve on so that each boat can reach a goal of holding 100 marbles before sinking.

PE:

Hello,

This week in PE we learned the underhand pattern. This included underhand throwing, tossing, and rolling. Students enjoyed practicing with partners to strengthen their skill set. Next week we will move on to learning how to overhand throw.

Lego:

This week in Legos and Robotics, we finally completed our Lego Wonderland Display! The students are so excited to share!

2023-2024 School Calendar

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