Remember the SPARKS Community Service Group will have it's first meeting on Tuesday, October 23rd from 3:00pm - 4:00 pm in Mrs. Derfler's room (169). It is open to all grades. Invite your friends and Spark a change in your school, community and the world. You can sign up at the following link. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0E4DABA823ABFC1-sparks

Amy Derfler

Dear Parents/Guardians, We had a great week with the younger grades, K-2, going back to Locomotor movement and learning about jumping and landing. They had two stations where they got to display how high they could jump and another showing how many safe sized obstacles they could jump over. The older grades, 3-5, started their fitness testing this week and will continue to do so for the next few weeks. We defined what fitness is and what are some things that we can do to maintain a healthy fitness level. Each student will be tested on curl ups ( formerly sit-ups ), push ups, and flexibility reach. It is similar to the Presidential Fitness Test that all of us parents and had to endure in our hay day. Arrivals and Dismissals: Arrivals - Just a reminder to all parents who drop their students off in the morning that the front entrance drive way ( that leads to the back drop off area ) will be coned off strictly at 8 am. This allows the line of remaining cars that arrive before 8 to be entered into the school. There is a 5 minute window between 8 am and 8:05 to get your child in through the office. Tardy slips will be written for children after the 8:05 deadline every day ( unless we are provided proof that there is heavier than normal traffic or an accident ). Dismissals - Very soon the Pikmykid app will have what is called a "geo-barrier" that will only allow each parent/guardian to announce themselves as present for pick-up within a certain radius around the school. Despite the rare error messages, the Pikmykid app has almost cut our dismissal time in half just in the past week it has been implemented. If you don't have the application on your phone, I kindly ask that you join our improvement team and make the lines move even faster ! The NEW deadline to pick up your child in the afternoons will be changed to 2:45pm every day. The dismissal staff and all CMIT South staff are only contracted to work until 2:55 daily. This allows us to compose our belongings and leave on time every day. THANK YOU for all your cooperation in this matter.

Garrett Loomer P.E. Teacher - Department Chair CMIT South Elementary

Be it student/staff talent show & live performances, helping to decorate/setup, do please encourage others to be involved in any way they wish. Know that we are happy to reserve space for any of our PTO groups or student/parent led clubs/activities that showcase our community's STEAM culture! This is for all our schools & the families served to socialize without any competition component. We hope this fosters comradery among sister school students as much as the parent groups we rely on, too. Here's our newest update on Twitter (yesterday): ChesapeakeLighthouse‏ @CLF_CLF Oct 15 FALL DECORATIONS NEEDED PLEASE! Drop off to: Chesapeake Lighthouse Foundation (c/o CLF PR 6151 Chevy Chase Dr. Laurel, MD 20707) CLF is seeking decorations to help convert our STEAM campus into the FALL THEME decor needed for our (6) schoolwide upcoming CutlureFEST! ChesapeakeLighthouse‏ @CLF_CLF Oct 15 #SchoolOfRock CLF CultureFEST is pleased to host the School of Rock House Band, including LIVE PERFORMANCES & also rocking tunes for us throughout the day will be General Manager & our VIP Guest DJ, SOR's very own, Cody Carr!!!! ChesapeakeLighthouse‏ @CLF_CLF Oct 15 What's better than one #TheGameTruck? Two of course! HDTVs & TWO long couches to beckon you and your friends to come relax & start gaming. With 85+ age-appropriate video game titles; Certified GameCoaches, Latest Consoles incl.: XBox One, PlayStation 4, Wii-U, and Nintendo Switch The following local businesses, vendors, PTO/SGAs, entertainers & artisans will also join us at CultureFEST! CLF Student Performances Comfort Systems USA Maryland Department of Transportation Performances by Dance and Body Works Face Painting by Fairy Jennabelle Henna Tattoos by Handan Sultan Artist and Craftsman Specialty Art Supplies Kamora’s Spectacular Slimes The African Memory Game Arts and Crafts Jewelry from Paparazzi Accessories Illustration and comics workshops hosted by Art Way Alliance The Powder Mill Bath and Body Co. soaps and care products Comics and pop culture memorabilia from Third Eye Comics Chick-Fil-A Chicken Sandwiches served by CSP MS Student Council Waffle Station by CSP PTSO Chili & Brat Bar by CMIT- ES PTO Getting involved at CultureFEST is EASY! All you need to do is fill out the CultureFEST Registration form to share your talents with the community. https://goo.gl/forms/tti7vjWky2fpJCRx1 Volunteering is another fun way to create a philanthropic culture! Complete the Volunteer Registration form to help build your CultureFEST! https://goo.gl/forms/BLPTbCVtQ6KA4gk42 TEACHERS-PARENTS-STUDENTS & all that make our culture #STEAMazing: you're invited! We so greatly appreciate all our students & parent leaders & community supporters. We hope as many of our students and families from Chesapeake Science Point and all five Chesapeake Math & IT Academies come out to your annual CultureFEST on Saturday, Nov. 3rd to enjoy the day, no matter how you wish to be a part of this growing STEAMazing culture! However we can support your groups needs to be successful, please let us know. Cihan Bicer Mark Sutherland Dennis Johnson For more info visit https://www.clfadvancedstudies.org/culturefest

CultureFEST Team

As of October 18, 2018, if you have not reapplied for free or reduced lunch, your child's status will change. He/she will have to pay $2.75. In order to apply , you need to access https://www.myschoolapps.com/Home/PickDistrict. The turn around period is typically 2 days. Also, the easiest way to keep money on the your child's account is through www.myschoolbucks.com, all you will need is your child's Student ID number and select the school CMITSOUTH SCHOOL.

Cafeteria Staff

Greetings, K-2 grades built a seesaw using building instruction paper and observed if it balances and moves up and down smoothly. 3-5 graders tried to figure out how simple machine’s speed decrease of the rotation. They built a simple machine and observed when they count how many times the handle has to turn for the position marker to turn once. ... The students of Lego Club created and presented their own creations to the class. The students of Math Club studied Geometric Patterns and solved many questions. ... Uptade: The FLL Club will be started for 4th and 5th graders on October 27th at 9 am. Have a wonderful weekend!

Sincerely, Esra Keskin Lego & Robotics Teacher

In our kindergarten classes, students have been learning how to use their voices in different ways. They learned that the four main voices that we use as humans are whisper, talk, shout, and sing. We then explored the voices by playing different games, challenging the students to figure out which voice to use in different settings. Feel free to practice at home and in other settings. I'm sure that you'll enjoy the whisper voice the most. Lastly, we began learning the "Whisper, Talk, Shout, and Sing!" song. Next week, we will begin to work on the hand movements that go along with the song.

Jared Bailey Music Teacher CMIT South Elementary

It is now officially fall and it feels like it. The students are learning about the different seasons of the year and what to wear. Please have your child bring the proper outside attire each day. Remember all the CMIT sweaters and jackets look alike so PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE put your child's name on it. We do have a lost and found in the cafeteria if anyone is looking for something that has been misplaced. RELA We have been moving rapidly in RELA. This past week we have focused on the sight word WE and the letter A. Students have been reading informational text. They are learning what features information text has, including real life pictures. The students have been working in daily centers focusing on word work, writing simple sentences as well as reading. The students have been working in Writer’s Workshop becoming authors, illustrators AND editors. They have been working hard learning how writers work. Math We are still continuing to review the vita skills we have learned, such as counting, cardinality, subitizing, comparing numbers, and now sorting objects based on an attribute (by shape or color). We are using this review to see where are students strengths and weaknesses are and see what topics we need to cover again. We are pleased to see how far our students have come in such a short time! They will continue to use various center activities and interactive worksheets to demonstrate their progress and work towards mastery. Science: This week in science we have continued to focus on weather. We have watched the weather daily tracking it on our individual charts. We have also begun discussing the different types of weather throughout the various seasons. In doing this we have started to create a four seasons book, identifying the differences between various types of weather and creating a wind sock! Our students are really enjoy watching the weather and making sure it is a nice day outside because that always means OUTSIDE RECESS! Social Studies: This week we reviewed all that we have discovered in our first unit My Family, My School. We answered the big question, “How do people best cooperate?” We learned that all citizens have rights and responsibilities. We discovered that good citizens follow rules and laws. We learned about the importance of our country’s symbols and monuments. We cannot wait to see what we will discover in our next unit! Field Trip We are busy working on our first field trip. We are planning for December. We need as many parents to fill out the paperwork to be approved volunteers. Please make this a priority. We will give you more information next week. So stay tuned! Thanks for all your help and support! The Kindergarten Team at CMIT South Ms. Cunningham, Ms. Curtis, Mrs. Derfler & Ms. Lucas

Amy Derfler

1st Grade has had a busy week and we have started new material! Math - We have introduced our unit on shapes (specifically learning about vertices and how they make each shape different). ELA - We have begun discussing key details and main ideas in a text, and what elements of text are used to identify them. Science - We have introduced the concept of light vs. dark, and how light is created. We have also introduced the connection between light and color. Social Studies - We have continued learning about how laws are created, and how government contributes to being a good citizen. We have finally finished our DRA testing! We will now be able to start having students work in small groups if necessary, as well as pull students for individual instruction. We would also like to thank all of our students who wore pink on the 16th for Breast Cancer Awareness - everyone looked amazing! Have a wonderful weekend!

Ms. Brown, Ms. Fleet, Ms. Madison, and Ms. McDonagh

Hello Kindergarten families! I hope your kids are still enjoying our club as much as we are! We are starting to get all of our dues in from everyone so we are very excited to soon be able to do really exciting projects! Those friends who have not turned in their dues yet please send in the money by next Tuesday, this is THE LAST DAY to turn in the $10. This week we kept up with the fall theme and made scarecrows, or as some of our friends said scarey crows! We will keep the fall theme going for the rest of October. Ms. Lucas and Ms. Curtis

Diana Lucas

In math this past week we continued to work on word problems, but added steps and various operations to solve them. We quickly revisited area and perimeter, and will review these again next week. Next week we will focus greatly on the standard 4.NBT.B.5 - multiply a whole number of up to four digits by a one-digit whole number, and multiply two two-digit numbers, using strategies based on place value and the properties of operations. Illustrate and explain the calculation by using equations, rectangular arrays, and/or area models. I will have a video uploaded to our class story this week to help aid in understanding. We will continue to work with word problems throughout the year, so please continue to work with your child on how to dissect a word problem. The CUBES method (circle, underline, box, eliminate, solve) is a great way to have students focus on what is important. In Science we are moving at a slow pace, but we are looking into ways that the Earth changes, such as weathering and erosion. We will examine how the Earth's surface has changed over the years due to natural causes. Students also took a short quiz this week about engineering to gauge understanding. If you are thinking about being a chaperone in the future please make sure to begin the steps towards obtaining your fingerprint clearance card. You will also need to pass a Safe Schools activity.

Ms. Girch

Hello Tigers! The weather has changed and we cannot allow student to go out to play without a sweater of a jacket. We want to keep our students safe against the elements. Please ensure that your child has their jacket or seater when you drop them off. We are organizing field trips but still need more volunteers to accommodate both classes. Please let myself or Mrs. Baynham know if you have been fingerprinted. Native American Research projects will go home next weekend and will be due November 26th, the Monday after Thanksgiving. Enjoy your weekend!!!!

Ms. Michelle Phillips

Happy Friday! Mr. Hawkins and I have continued to notice a lot of negativity from the fifth grade class. This week we put some things in place to encourage students to remain positive in their conversations and activities. Please continue to encourage your children to practice the rules of respect that are in each classroom. This week students reinforced their skills in dividing decimals, and multiplying decimals and we will continue to do this next week. The rubric for their Earth Systems project was sent home on Thursday this week, the project is due next Friday Oct, 26. As it gets colder outside please send your child with a jacket to school. Thank you for all that you do and the support that you give!

-Ms. Libebe

Kindergarten and 1st grade students have been learning about patterns! First, we discussed what makes a pattern a pattern and talked about the different ways to create one. We then looked at the story "Only One You" by Linda Kranz. From inspiration, students created patterns for their own fish, similar to the ones in the story. They learned that everyone is different and special in their own way - and so were their fish designs. Looking ahead, students will create underwater environments for their unique fish! Visit the link below to hear the story by Linda Kranz. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu9capmEY5I

Brittney Frei

Greetings Parents/ Guardians, This week students’ assignments are from 10/22 – 10/26 Assignment for K-1 graders: Computer Fundamentals: Mouse, Select, Drag, and Double-click - In this engaging and interactive digital lesson, the learners receive direct instruction and practice using a mouse to select, drag, and double-click as they select items using the pointer and mouse button, move objects on the screen, and double-click to open objects.  www.learning.com Assignment for 2-3 graders: Computer Fundamentals: Processors, Input and Output Devices - The learners receive direct instruction and practice identifying and caring for basic computer components such as the processor, keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, printer, and to classify the component as either an input or output device in this engaging and interactive digital lesson.  www.learning.com Assignment for 4-5 graders: Hardware Fundamentals: Printer Hardware Fundamentals: Scanner - During this engaging and interactive digital lesson, the learners will receive direct instruction and practice using a scanner for images or objects, saving a scanned image as a file, identifying components such as the scanning surface and scanning beam, and understanding how a scanner works. - The learners will receive direct instruction and practice using a printer, previewing and printing entire documents or selected pages, and troubleshooting common printer problems in this engaging and interactive digital lesson. www.learning.com Grading Assignments will be graded based on participation, following the instructions from the assignment, turning in the assignment on time and effort during the class assignments. Also, the system automatically will grade each assignment. Thank you, Mrs. AK

Attachment(s)

Mrs. Ak

Parents/Guardians, New Dismissal Time Ends :- 2:45 PM Since September, we have been studying the flow of traffic to determine the rate of time at which we dismiss, as well, as the number of cars/vans over a specified time. In addition, we have been trained and using Pikmykid to speed up the dismissal process. Your time means a lot to us, and we are happy that dismissal has improved. These past weeks our teachers had given up time to monitor and dismiss students. Now we are ready to end dismissal at 2:45 -this was the intended time. Please make every effort to get her on time. Continue using the Pikmykid app to announce your arrival, drive in and you are ready to do. Follow the instructions of the supervisors on duty, arrive before 2:45, and you are good to go. Thank you for partnering with school. Lesma Watkis

L. Watkis (Assistant Principal)

Hello again CMIT Family..This week have been very enlightening as we continue to learn and grow. This week I would like to address the home environment and its effect on student's academic performance. In today's culture parents are responsible to wear several hats, often time creating a structured, healthy and nurturing home environment becomes, more challenging. There are days saying hello, how are you doing in the mornings, checking homework, cooking dinner, is all a parent have left to give prior to getting some rest. The academic performance of any student cannot be separated from the home environment in which the child lives, healthy home environment offers emotional security to a child. Education has one of its basic task as to train young people to become useful members of the society. This training begins at home in the informal way. The home of the child is the first place he/she enters as he/she is born into the world by his or her parents. Children are motivated to work on activities and learn new information and skills when their environments are rich in interesting activities that arouse their curiosity and offer moderate challenges. The same can be said about home environment , unfortunately there is much variability in motivational influences in homes, some homes have many activities that stimulate children thinking as well as computer, books, puzzles and parents who may be heavily interested in their children cognitive development and spent time with them on learning. Much of the variability in the relation between family income and children’s intellectual development comes from the family provision of a stimulating home environment (Young, Linver & Brooks, 2002). Children intellectual development is most strongly influenced by the home environment during infancy and early childhood. When they are under the direct influence of parents. As children mature, schools and peers also begin to play a role in their intellectual socialization. There is much evidence supporting the hypothesis that the quality of a child’s early learning in the home environment relate positively to the development of intelligent and reading skills, (Meece, 2002, Sene Chai & Lefevre 2002), and parental involvement in schooling also predict achievement (Luckner, Whaley & Egeland, 2004) (https://nairaproject.com/projects/2192.html) Various homes factors have been shown to be important, mother’s responsiveness, discipline style and involvement with the child, organization of the environment, availability appropriate of learning materials, opportunities for daily stimulation. Parents, who provide a warm, responsive and supporting environment, encourage exploration, stimulate curiosity and provide play and learning materials accelerate their children’s intellectual development (Meece, 2006). Which on the long run increases academic performance? (https://nairaproject.com/projects/2192.html0. Within the home environment we must examine both the roles of mothers and fathers because differentiate parent behaviour has often been implicated as a variable affecting children’s development. Some of the potential parental behaviour that can influence children motivational beliefs are: Attributions for the child’s school performance Perception of the task difficulty of school work Value for school work Expectation and confidence in children’s abilities The home environment provide the foundation for learning and is an element of the student life that can affect grades. Providing opportunities to learn outside the school help facilitate student success in the school environment, as reported by the university of Minnesota extension. According to experts the mother’s educational level had the single most important impact on a young child’s academic performance (https://nairaproject.com/projects/2192.html). The school cannot single handedly provide the continuation of the home environment, but the can play estimate role in laying foundation of the child in learning how to read and write however, this influence is characterized by various factors such as the parents educational attainment and cultural issues. Over the years the society recorded a persisted increase in the poor performance in the various school examination such as the senior school exam (S.S.C.E) comments from educator have shown that the blame for poor performance has been as a result of neglect and care free attitude toward academic work by students and parents. It is against this background that researcher has decided to investigate academic performance on child. There are innumerable factors that affect the child academic performance as stated above. It is obvious that a child academic performance is directly related to his or her environment as well as learning facilities and socio cultural issues. Every child is born with certain level of intellectual ability and capability but a good conducive environment with adequate learning facility will help boost intellectual and academic capability of the child. Parent from good learned environment will; always have good attitude toward education any provide learning materials such as the television, instructive videos, books and toys (creative toys) etc that facilitate the learning process if they are provided (https://nairaproject.com/projects/2192.html). Educated parents will always believe that it is important to help a child with his or her homework and revise the school work that the child had done but this is the opposite if a child is from a poor home environment to a large extent he or she is deprived of the opportunities and he or she struggle with the teaching and learning process. Statement of Problem Good education does not happen by chance. It is a product of effective teaching and learning coupled with the effort of the teacher, the school, the students, parents and their various home environments. Often at times the blames on the poor performance of students in school are shifted to the teachers and the school authorities. Most families in our society seem not to give adequate attention to the education of their children. It appears some of the parents have erroneous notion about the performance of their children, they do not know and seem to fulfill their role of guidance and encouragement in the child’s performance in schools. Some people also have the notion that the mass failure or success in schools could be traced back to the teachers and the school authorities. While other people see socio-economic status of the family as an influence to the child’s academic performance (https://nairaproject.com/projects/2192.html). Additional Links: https://www.iiste.org/Journals/index.php/JEP/article/viewFile/6806/6920 https://www.livestrong.com/article/151892-what-are-the-effects-of-the-home-environment-on-learning/ https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/cc61/804f584ab253a660439d1d506e052398c7ea.pdf https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1081221.pdf http://www.researchersworld.com/vol9/issue1/Paper_17.pdf

DM Davis, Professional School Counselor, CMIT South ES, ddavis@cmitsouthes.org