We are pleased to announce that all of our sister schools earned a 4 to 5 star rating from the Maryland State Department of Education. School Name Star Ranking Points Earned Percentile Rank CSP High School 5 82 93% CMIT North High 5 75 89% CSP Middle School 5 82 97% CMIT North Middle 5 75 83% CMIT South Middle 4 74 78% CMIT North Elementary 4 69 66% As a new school, we have yet to me rated. However, our sister schools have provided the measuring stick that we will strive to meet or exceed.

Patrice Harrell-Carter
Principal

Parents, Getting your child here to school on time is vitally important. There were 136 students tardy this week. Here is the breakdown: 12/03: 35 12/04: 10 12/05: 16 12/06: 45 12/07: 30 Arriving late to school can also mean that students miss out on activities designed to build connections with their peers, potentially impacting their social interactions and creating a greater sense of alienation from their classmates. Source: https://www.teachermagazine.com.au/articles/the-effect-of-student-tardiness-on-learning Front Office Staff

Stacy Williams, Receptionist swilliams@cmitsouthes.org

Dear Teachers & Students of all CLF Schools, This opportunity is available to any CLF school students. By announcing before the holiday break, we thought this would give our tigers more time to prepare for the 2019 Black History Month Essay & Poster Contest. We did so because this year’s THEME is: STUDENTS’ CHOICE!! That’s right, YOU decide. (Ask your teacher for help if you need guidance). As in year’s past, CLF will invite finalists to represent their school along with their distinguished parent(s)/guardian(s) to our 2019 Black History Month Reception. This year, we are pleased to be hosting the reception in Upper Marlboro, MD at our gorgeous CMIT South Campus. Remember, among the finalists invited, (3) winners from each division will be announced and $50 gift cards awards to each winner. Please reference the 2019 BHM Poster/flyer circulating around your school for more details & scoring rubric. Final drafts will be collected by your language arts teacher on or before January 25th. Warmest regards, Mark J. Sutherland Community Partnerships Director Chesapeake Lighthouse Foundation

Community Partnerships

In Math we will be working on word problems and comparing numbers. The standards are 4.OA.1, 4.OA.2, and 4.OA.3. Please continue to work with your child on fluency in all 4 operations. Many assessment grades have been taken and put into SchoolMax, the next 2 weeks I will be focusing more on classwork and homework assignments. In Reading, we have read the story The Fox and the Tiger. Students have identified the parts of the story. Students were assigned groups based on their opinion of the story and the video. Together each group will construct a persuasive presentation/poster which will be completed and submitted on Monday December 10, 2018. We also continued to identify the parts of speech and practice creating complete sentences through our interactive tool “Build-A-Sentence”. In Science, we are wrapping up our unit about changes to the Earth. The next focus area we will be looking at is fossils. I will be planning hands-on activities and experiments for this unit. Please be on the lookout for materials that could be donated to the classroom to aid in these activities. December 14th STEM projects are due, and the week prior to winter break (17-19) presentations will be given in the classroom. In Social Studies, we have presented our Civil War Projects. We continued to reflect on A New Nation and Immigration, I took notice that the concepts were not comprehended as intended. We will review Chapter 2 in its entirety to properly prepare for Chapter 2 assessment. In Health, we are learning about the not smoking, and will continue to do so next week.

~The 4th Grade Team~

Thank you for another great week here in first grade! This week we have learned: -comparing 2-digit numbers -sound -retelling stories -how we measure time. Thank you to all the parents who turned in field trip money on time. We look forward to seeing you all on the 17th. Also please make sure you turn in a signed Winter Party Permission Slip by December 17th to your child's teacher. See you next week. :)

First Grade Team- Ms. Fleet, Ms. Brown, Ms. Madison, and Ms. McDonagh

This week, 3rd graders were assigned homework to write the proper solfege under each note on "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel" sheet music. I have only received a few student's papers so far. Please advise that the assignment is due on Monday. If your student was not in school that day, please send me a message via Class Dojo.

Jared Bailey Music Teacher CMIT South Elementary

Field Trip (12/17) The field trip is around the corner. Please make sure you let your teachers know if you need a lunch from the cafeteria on the day of the field trip. Caperones, please make sure you have all paperwork and training documentation turned into the office before the field trip. STEM Fair Continue working on the STEM projects. They are due 12/14. RELA This week we focused on the letter N. We also worked with our new sight word AND. Students are working hard focusing on rhyme, syllables, blends, and writing sentences. We have been working in small groups and focusing on individual needs and seeing wonderful growth. Science This week in science we collaborated in small groups to let our knowledge about force and motion shine! Students worked together to plan and design their own ramps. After designing their ramps, they will be testing them out using various objects! Students certainly enjoy creating their ramps and making things go fast using force and motion! Math This week we started to learn addition in a new way! We are practicing part-part-whole. This is an important strategy that will be used in the following grades. We do not expect mastery, but we are laying the foundation for students to grasp this skills and master it in first grade! Social Studies This week we finished our study on culture and traditions. It has been a great unit learning about the our families’ traditions and how they are alike and different from other cultures. Our favorite part of the unit was learning about American folk heroes such as Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, and John Henry.

Ms. Curtis

Greeting Parents, We have been hard at work in our novels as well as our online applications. Students have been working on many online assignments. These applications are Readworks, cK-12, Duolingo, and Google Classroom. Please be aware that students are graded on many of these assignments and they are given on an independent basis. Students are tasked to work on these in class and at home if it is available. It is imperative that students keep up with these assignments. They can pile up and create a mountain of due assignments. Please check in with students weekly to make sure they have completed their online assignments. Our next Test will be on December 18th. It will be a Reading Test for our novels. Students are given novels to read in class. They are given a 10 minute Silent Independent Reading time. They are also given time after their reading group meeting to read independently. As of right now students are not allowed to take novels home. However, there are many resources online that can help you with these novels. If you want to know your student's specific novel, I can send that information by request. As always, thank you for all you do and the support given to our scholars. Upcoming Events in Reading Read to Succeed Spelling Bee

Victor Hawkins

Greetings Parents/Guardians, There has been some work being done to the gym floor this week. We are having a company paint basketball lines as well as other games onto the gymnasium floor. This will allow us to host basketball games and other fun filled activities for the rest of the year and those to come. In addition to basketball, there are now two 4-square courts on the floor along with 3 hopscotch courts in order to practice hopping. Don't forget to show up to our first CMIT South open house next Friday, December 14 from 6-9 pm. There will be a chili cook-off in the cafeteria, a 3-on-3 basketball tournament in the gym for parents and kids ( along with 4 square tournament ) and other activities in the media center. We have commitments from about 60+ parents so far, but we can get more ! Arrivals and dismissals: For arrivals, the staff will begin to get students out of cars starting at 7:35am ( when breakfast is served ) instead of 7:30 and having them wait in the cold on the ramp to get inside. I have to remind all parents that they are NOT to get out of the vehicle at arrival or dismissal. It is for safety reasons and it also disrupts the speed of traffic when parents get out and walk kids in. Parents are also encouraged to not park along the sides of the lanes which creates more traffic problems. The staff and I appreciate your continued cooperation.

Garrett Loomer P.E. Teacher - Department Chair CMIT South Elementary gloomer@cmitsouthes.org

Happy Friday! This week we continued to talking about Adding and Subtracting Fractions and students benefited greatly from working in smaller groups to level up their skills! In Science we wrapped up our unit on ecosystem, and just a reminder that the STEM Fair Project is due next Friday with presentations happening for the first part of the following week. Its about that time in the year when students start to loose all of the pencils they started the school year with. We are experiencing a bit of a shortage and if you would help the fifth grade out by sending some with a student we would really appreciate it! Thank you for all of your support!

-Ms. Libebe

Make-up pictures will take place on December 11th. All students that were absent on the original day of pictures or are unhappy with their pictures can sit for make-up pictures. If you were unhappy with the pictures please return the envelope with the pictures included.

Jessica Baynham

Hi kindergarten families! Just checking in to show you the crafts we worked on this week. They will appear at the PTO winter carnival Friday the 14th so please go check it out and see their beautiful work! Ms. Lucas and Ms. Curtis

Diana Lucas

Parents/Guardians, Reminders - STEM Fair Projects are due on December 14. Please collaborate with your child's teacher if you have questions and/or concerns. Please use this link to the packet:- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZUCIPLiZQYrzoNOwGTdCgpR9Ju4ORm1Af68spDPBQAU/edit?ts=59e1017b You may also Google samples and information to get more clarity for STEM Fair Projects at the elementary level. The projects are due on Friday, December 14. Students will present in their class and the winners will compete at the School-Wide Fair in January.

L. Watkis (Assistant Principal)

Hello parents! Many thanks to those of you who have donated wash cloths to the art room. It was a huge help this week with cleaning up. I am also looking for any parents who can provide Clorox wipes, hand sanitizer and tissues. Thank you in advance! As students are beginning to experiment with more and more new art materials, things can start to get messy. Please, try to send your child to school with the darker color uniform shirts the day they have art. Thanks to a generous parent donation we have aprons for students to wear however, accidents do tend to happen.

Brittney Frei

The Election for our PTO will be held on 9 January 2019 at our next PTO meeting. If you are interested in filling this position, please submit your name and a brief Bio before January 4, 2019 to PTO@cmitsouthes.org. Please review our bylaws for more information on filling the Vice President Position. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_4LrLujE0c0gqu6l9LCf9zVXcyIhfKR2JPLgE9C0mtE/edit?usp=sharing

"The" CMIT PTO Board

Bring the Family out to our Winter Carnival!

"The" CMIT PTO Board

Read Our Newsletter here! https://conta.cc/2El3tWC

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"The" CMIT PTO Board

Hello Thee CMIT South ES Family hol·i·day sea·son /ˈhäləˌdā ˈsēzən/ noun the period of time from Thanksgiving until New Year, including such festivals as Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa. Hopefully everyone had a great week and a good holiday season: In respect to everyone who may or may not celebrate the holiday season, I hope everyone will have the opportunity to take a moment to relax, take a knee and enjoy time with family and friends. In preparation for having your scholars home, below are a few suggestive ideas of fun activities: Things to Do With Your Scholars this Holiday Season: While having your kids home for the holidays can be fun, it can also be hard to find things that will keep them occupied for the duration of their vacation. Most parents will go into vacation with confidence when it comes to keeping their kids busy, but kids can burn through activities faster than you think. Below you’ll find a few activities to do to keep your kids busy during their holiday vacation! Find Activities in Your Community During the holidays, there are usually many different things going on in your community that you and your family can take part of. If you’re looking for activities to take your kids to, you can check your local papers or community centers to check out all the fun events going on. Public libraries can also be a great source of entertainment. Not only can you use the library as a resource to find events, there are also many events that happen at the library itself, along with computers and small reading areas. Libraries also often have storytimes for toddlers and young children, which can give parents a breather. Staying at Home For families who will be enjoying time staying at home with your scholar and find fun ways to entertain them that way, here are a few ideas you could try out: Read, Read, Read: Reading is an adventure! Pick their favorite book out from the bookshelf and cuddle up with some blankets the fireplace or windowsill. Better yet, make some hot cocoa or tea to enjoy while you read. Have your scholars break away from the electronics. Get Cooking: find a recipe that all the kids will like and agree on, and make it with them! You can buy the ingredients beforehand (or take them shopping with you) and have them help you make the meal with you! This can inspire them to eat new things, and will also get them helping you in the kitchen. Play Dress Up: this is also a great way to clean out any old and unwanted clothes you don’t wear anymore. Your kids look up to you, and will enjoy getting to dress up in your clothes, even if you don’t want them anymore. Put on a Puppet Show: create your own puppets out of socks and write their own play, and they can even dress up and use props from around the house. If you have a camera, you can even record it for memories that will last a lifetime (https://www.oceanstatemontessori.org/blog/things-to-do-with-your-kids-this-holiday-season). Additional Ideas: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/engaging-and-motivating-students-holiday-break-ben-johnson

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