STUDENT SUBMISSION DEADLINE is JANUARY 25, 2019! Submit POSTERS and HARD COPY of ESSAYS to: Chesapeake Lighthouse Foundation c/o CLF PR Office 6151 Chevy Chase Dr. Laurel, MD 20707 Polished student essay files can be emailed to CLFPR@CLFMD.org We encourage all students K-12 to work with their TEACHERS, especially polishing drafts with your English teachers, asking History questions, Artistic insight, and all STEM departments to develop the most polished essays and/or posters celebrating this "student's choice" theme for Black History Month! Please complete entry by close of Business Day on January 25th! Files can be sent to CLFPR@CLFMD.ORG. FINALISTS and WINNERS....TBA. ALL CLF K-12 STUDENTS that submit by the deadline are eligible for competition, including prizes, and finalists and their parents will be invited to BHM Month Award Reception scheduled in FEB 2019.

CLF Community Partnerships

SAVE THE DATE Saturday, February 9th, 2019

Dennis Johnson

PGCPS - Attendance Policy AP 5113 page 2 and 3 and says: D. Lawful Absence 1. Death in the immediate family – immediate family means a parent or guardian, brother, sister, or grandparent. a) Four school days shall be considered excused upon the death of an immediate family member. b) The principal may grant extra days for extenuating circumstances. 2. Illness of the student. The principal may require a physician’s certificate from the parent/guardian of a student that is reported absent for illness at least three school days. 3. Pregnancy and parenting related conditions: a) Absences due to labor, delivery, recovery, prenatal and post-natal medical appointments b) Absences due to an illness or medical appointment of the student’s child. After four days of such absences during a school year, a physician’s note may be required. c) A parenting student is allowed a minimum of 10 days excused after the birth of the child. d) Absences due to legal appointments related to family law proceedings, including adoption, custody, and visitation. 4. Court Summons. 5. Hazardous weather conditions that would endanger the health or safety of the student when in transit to and from school. 6. Work approved or sponsored by the school, the local school system, or the Maryland State Department of Education, accepted by the Chief Executive Officer or the school principal, or their designee, as reasons for excusing the student. 7. Observance of a religious holiday 8. State emergency 9. Suspension 10. Lack of authorized transportation. This shall not include students denied authorized transportation for disciplinary reasons. 11. Health exclusion 12. Other emergency or set of circumstances which, in the judgment of the Chief Executive Officer or designee, constitutes a good and sufficient cause for absence from school. https://www1.pgcps.org/uploadedFiles/Schools_and_Centers/High_Schools/Bladensburg/English%20Attendance%20Booklet%20NEW.pdf

L. Watkis (Assistant Principal)

The end of the 2nd quarter is fast approaching. Please speak to your child to ensure that are completing their assignments, studying for their assessments, and working hard on their long term projects.

Patrice Harrell-Carter
Principal

During the month of May, students will be invited to showcase an invention or their science fair project. Click here to see past MakerFest videos: https://www.clfadvancedstudies.org/makerfest

Patrice Harrell-Carter
Principal

Announcement – CLF invites parent members to serve on its CLF Board of Directors The CLF Board will appoint two parent members from Prince George’s County to its Board of Directors. Interested parent candidates wishing to join are required to submit their resume along with a cover letter of intent to the board of directors by January 31. Cover letter items should include various ways the parent candidate believes they will best represent CLF’s public charter schools by contributing to the CLF board. Potential candidates are also asked to indicate how many children they have attending CMIT schools and how many years they have been involved with CMIT schools in their cover letter. Please e-mail your resume and cover letter to: awilson@clfmd.org with the subject line: “CLF Board Parent Candidate.” The Board Executive committee will review resume submissions and select five candidates prior to the board meeting. The board will vote to elect two out of these five parent candidates recommended by the executive committee at the February 21, 2019, CLF Board Meeting. The parent board members selected will serve a one-year term and may serve for three consecutive terms if re-appointed by a majority board vote at the end of each annual term. Click here to complete the application: http://clfmd.org/clf-is-recruiting-parent-board-members/

Patrice Harrell-Carter
Principal

The Chesapeake Lighthouse Foundation (CLF) has asked us to host the Black History Month Reception on February 26, 2019 (time to be determined). This reception is to acknowledge the winners of the Black History Month Essay & Poster Contest for all of our schools. Parents of the students who are acknowledged with be invited to celebrate and embrace their achievement. This is all the more reason why every student at CMIT South Elementary should submit a poster in this contest. As the newest school, we need to set a precedence of achievement among our sister schools that we are indeed the jewel of the south. The posters must be submitted to CLF no later than the close of business on January 25, 2019. The entries can be mailed at the following address: Chesapeake Lighthouse Foundation c/o CLF PR Office 6151 Chevy Chase Dr. Laurel, MD 20707 Ms. Davis, our Professional School Counselor, has also agree that if she receives the posters by January 24, 2019, your child and drop their artwork in her office during the school day and she will personally take them to CLF. Let us make it happen!

Patrice Harrell-Carter
Principal

First Grade had a good week! We started DRA testing, as well as working on inverse relationships in math, geography in social studies, and our research project in ELA! Please ensure that your students bring proper classroom materials to school, and leave other belongings at home. Please also ensure that they have proper uniform shoes, sweaters, and jackets. Enjoy Martin Luther King, Jr. day! Best,

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

Greetings Parents, Students have been working very hard. They have a Social Studies Project due on Jan 23. This is a group project that they have been working on in class with Google Slides. For the remainder of this quarter, READING LOGS will not be turned in as I want kids to be focused on Read yo Succeed. This is a Reading Log that gives students the ability to earn a Free Six Flags ticket for 6 hours of Reading. These forms are due on February 15th and no later. Students received the logs this week. Thank you for all you do and enjoy this long weekend. Mr. Hawkins

Victor Hawkins

In Math we took our Student Learning Objective assessment. Nearly all of 4th grade made improvement, and 61% of the students improved by 20% or greater! We are wrapping up standards NF.5, NF.6, and NF.7 and moving into MD.2 where we will be solving problems involving measurement and conversion of measurements from a larger unit to a smaller unit. In Reading, we began our Reading/Writing Summative assessment. Due to the snow day and multiple 2-hour delays, our time has been dedicated toward the completion of this assessment. Next week we will continue our story The Man Who Named the Clouds, identifying important facts and In Science, we learned about plate tectonics and how they help shape the Earth’s surface. Fossils will be discussed further going into the next week. Next week, we will continue to prepare for our Literacy Task in Social Studies. We will discuss the Harlem Renaissance and its’ impact on our culture. Students are working to determine how various historical events, as mentioned, have shaped American culture and provide evidence to support their answer. In Health, we will be discussing mental and emotional health.

~The 4th Grade Team~

Happy Friday! This week was filled with evaluations and assessments, and that will continue into next week. The quarter ends at the end of next week so if your child has any late assignments to turn in, this would be the time to do so, to get every last point into SchoolMax. A couple of reminders there is no school on Monday Jan 21 (MLK Day) and as it gets colder outside, students will kept inside on days when the windchill is lower than 32 degrees. Please continue to send students to school with warm jackets. That's all for now, thank you for all of your support and all that you do, have a good (extra long) weekend!

-Ms. Libebe

Greetings, As we all know, Music Class is a fun-filled environment where students are given the freedom to express themselves artistically. However, there have been consistent issues across all grades where students take that freedom and abuse it with actions such as running around the room, jumping off chairs, play fighting, etc. To help alleviate this issue, I have now made it clear to every class that unsafe activities such as playing with class furniture will directly lead to contacting parents and a writing assignment. As for hitting, even if it is "play fighting", I will take it seriously and file PS74's for assaulting a student. There have been multiple incidents where students have been seriously hurt as a result of unsafe play. This is a measure that I am taking in order to ensure the safety of every student in the school. While younger students are still learning to respect each other's space, they are still not exempt and will be handled at my discretion. Please continue to reinforce proper school behavior with your children and encourage them to be the best students that they can be. I look forward to having a safe and fun second semester with everyone.

Jared Bailey Music Teacher CMIT South Elementary

As a culminating end of the school year project, we would like to turn this current eye sore into a greenhouse fit for greatness. Our vision will be where our entire school community rallies together to show unity by connecting through science. If you would be interested in such a project, please email pto@cmitsouthes.org and express your interest. Your commitment could be simply contact area landscaping businesses who would be willing to donate plants, if you are a handyman and you would like to assist in modifying the current structure, or if you have some knowledge of heating and ventilation or any expertise no matter how large or small, I encourage you to express your interest. I realize this is a lofty goal but I think we can do it. It would be a great time for our families to work together for a common goal that would benefit our scholars for years to come.

Patrice Harrell-Carter
Principal

Lately in Art class, students have been learning about African American artist, Faith Ringgold. As a group, we watched a video where Ringgold read aloud one of her books, Tar Beach. This book tells a story of a little girl who imagines herself flying over different places in New York City. Through inspiration, students were asked to imagine themselves flying over a significant place in their lives and bringing that image to life. From viewing Ringgold's artwork, students gathered her signature style which is painting and giving those paintings a decorative quilt-like border using fabrics. Second and third grade students have started making their quilt borders and will begin drawing their pictures next week!

Brittney Frei

Greetings parents and guardians, The students have told me how much they enjoyed learning about and playing games related to nutrition and eating a balanced diet. Grades K-2 were proud to show off their collection of food groups during the activity to see how balanced their daily diet should be. The older grades enjoyed exploring what food groups were "go foods" and "slow foods" as they played noodle tag in relation to nutrition education. Next week we will start our unit on dance. NEW CLUB - My new club called "Group Fun" will hopefully start on Tuesday finally ( weather permitting ) from 3-4pm in the gymnasium. This club is only for students in grades K-2. If you would like to sign your child up for the club, please email me and I can bring a copy of the club agreement to your child to bring home OR there are copies of the club agreement in the office OR the form is attached to this newsletter ( but must be printed out and brought to me ). NO child is permitted to stay until Mr. Loomer has received a signed copy ( by both students AND parents ) of the agreement. Students are to wait in the cafeteria until Mr. Loomer is done with his dismissal duties and can collect everyone. My email is: gloomer@cmitsouthes.org ARRIVALS AND DISMISSALS - I have been telling parents and relatives NOT to get out of the car either at arrival time OR dismissal. It is a large safety hazard for adults and children alike to be escorted without a CMIT staff member ONLY. We now have 4 staff and 1 parent volunteer at both times and things are moving as quickly as they can so there is no reason to try and rush the process and thus endanger the safety of the children and yourselves. Also, there are posted signs at the front of the drop off lanes stating that the bus lane is for busses ONLY. We need to make sure that lane stays clear for busses to get in and out quickly because they sometimes visit multiple schools to make pick ups and drop offs. It is not an express pick up lane unless a staff member instructs you to go around a waiting car to get out. These problems are few in number, but remain consistent and we do not want them to continue or get worse until someone gets hurt. THANK YOU to those parents who follow procedure. We have come a long way.

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

It has been an exciting week in Kindergarten. Here is what we have been up to: RELA We have finished Unit 4 and we are taking the assessment. This week we have been learning more about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Students have watched videos and also read books about his life. Students have done many hands on activities to help understanding of who and what Martin Luther King Jr. stood for. Students are beginning to understand that they too can make a difference even when they are 5 or 6 years old. Students are still working on sight words, letter recognition as well as sounds. Math We are still reviewing all of our learned topics for the upcoming Unit test! We will continue to use manipulatives to count sets, compare numbers, add and subtract within 10. Please practice these skills at home as well. Practice makes perfect! Science: Students are enjoying all we have been learning about physical science. This week we talked about solids, liquids, and gases. We loved talking about these different things and brainstorming examples of each. It was also a fun learning experience to think about how something can change through the stages of being a solid, liquid and gas...like a snowman! Social Studies: This week we talked about how we can learn about history. We can look at photographs and listen to stories about the past. Take some time this weekend to share stories and photographs about your family’s past. Kindergarten Team Ms. Cunningham, Mrs. Derfler, Ms. Lucas, Ms. Curtis

Ms. Curtis

Hello Kindergarten Parents! A major Social Studies topic in Kindergarten is Community Helpers! These are people with occupations that contribute to and help the community. We are seeking some volunteers to come in and talk about their community jobs with all of Kindergarten during the first full week of February, February 4th-8th from 9-9:30am. We are looking for JUST TEN volunteers. ONE for each of these SPECIFIC JOBS. We know that there will likely be many more than 10 volunteers that want to sign up and donate their time to us, but we are only seeking the FIRST 10 who fit the occupations. This is a FIRST COME FIRST SERVE BASIS. Please do not message your child’s classroom teacher asking for an exception, there will be none made, although we do greatly appreciate that you would have been willing to come in and talk to Kindergarten. The SPECIFIC people we are looking for is ONE: Police Officer Firefighter Doctor or Nurse Veterinarian Sanitation Engineer or Custodian Stay at home parent Engineer Scientist Principal Military If you fit one of these occupations and are willing, please click the link below and sign up to come in, if the slot is open. Please be mindful of the date and time for each position listed in the link. Thank you all in advance, the Kindergarten team and Kindergarten students greatly appreciate this! https://docs.google.com/document/d/114pkjSk6tl8sPKcuFfOloZnIo0nKBy9xFt4_K95viSA/edit?usp=sharing Ms.Lucas, MS.Curtis. Ms. Derfler, Ms. Cunningham

Diana Lucas

Due to the inclement weather, we have rescheduled the final Open House for parents who have applied to the lottery and have shown interest in our school for next year. It will take place on Tuesday, January 22, 2019 from 5:30-6:30 p.m.

Patrice Harrell-Carter
Principal

Please View our most recent news letter! https://conta.cc/2FJbrZt

"The" CMIT PTO Board

Get Ready for Valentine day by sending a Candy Gram to a Teacher, Friend, Parent, or any special person.

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"The" CMIT PTO Board

Please Consider donating Diapers of Shower Shoes towards our Day of Service.

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"The" CMIT PTO Board

Parents/Guardians, Thank you so much for partnering with us. We appreciate each and every one of you. General Reminders:- Please be reminded of the policy for student attendance at school. Schools are now been rated based on student attendance, and we would like to ensure that CMIT Elementary South is compliant in this area. ATTENDANCE POLICY: All students are expected to attend school regularly in accordance with state laws and regulations. (Board Policy 5113) Each child who resides in Maryland and is 5 years old or older, and under 18 shall attend a public school during the entire school year unless the child is otherwise receiving regular, thorough instruction during the school year in the studies usually taught in public schools to children of the same age, or is exempted by law. If the child is homeschooled, the PGCPS Homeschool Office must be notified and given approval for exemption. 2. Communication. Here at CMIT, we will work conscientiously to keep the lines of communication open. We encourage you to contact your child’s teacher either through email, parent note, phone calls, and class dojo. We would also like to inform you that teachers have up to 48 hours to respond to all communication regardless of the format. Weekend correspondence may not be answered until the weekday. With that said, please be patient as our teachers get the answers to your questions and concerns, and get back to you. Here at CMIT, our goal is to serve you better. 3. Car lanes- Please use the dismissal app-Pikmykid app to signal your arrival as soon as you reach near the school. In addition, please follow the signals from our teachers who are working to ensure student safety. It is NOT necessary to get out of your car. Students will be escorted. 4. PTO- Please become a member of the PTO, and let your voice be heard. Sign up today…$20. Great things are happening, and it will become excellent when you participate. 5. Volunteer:- Please let me know how you can support us here. We need support from parents to work in the AM and PM dismissal times. 6. Reading-please continues to read to our scholars. They share with me how they enjoy reading with you at home. Please support and motivate students to become a member of the library, and read daily. Read ...read ...read! 7. Student Conduct- Thank you so much for supporting positive behavior choices at home and at school. Remind students of rules and the importance of this in life. Be supportive when the teacher calls about student behavior and encourage the dialogue on making the right choices always. 8. Schoolmax-Please check student progress in Schoolmax. If you need help signing up, please let me know. Valuable Websites:- https://www.pgcps.org/student_rights_responsibilities.htm

L. Watkis (Assistant Principal)

Thee CMIT Family Please add the following to your calendar: February 28- Black History Month Program Decades theme! Black History Board/Door Contest displaying the theme reflecting Black contributors in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineers and Math from the following eras: Kindergarten 50s First Grade 60s Second 70s Third 80s Fourth 90s Fifth 2000s Honor Roll Ceremony: 2nd Quarter: February 20th- 2nd & 3rd grade Honor Roll-08:30-09:30 February 21st-4th & 5th grade Honor Roll 08:30-09:30 3rd Quarter: April 11 4 pm (tentative) Promotion Ceremonies: June 7th- Kindergarten Promotion -09:00 am-10:00 am Spring Wear June 7th- 5th Grade Promotion-6p.m-7:30 p.m Navy Blue & White

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

Hello Thee CMIT South Family Hopefully, everyone is safe and warm! This week, although relatively short, I was able to complete permission forms for students who will be participating in a variety of group sessions-parents please check with your students next week as I will be sending them out for signatures. Group session will occur during the student's lunchtime, this will ensure students are not missing instructional time. If you are interested in having your student participate please reach out to me via email! The groups are designed to help students: ¥ Feel Better About Themselves! ¥ Learn to Express Their Feelings ¥ Build Self-Esteem ¥ Learn About Making Decisions and Setting Limits ¥ Academic Progress ¥ Respecting Personal Space ¥ Adjusting to Middle School ¥ Building Team Cohesiveness ¥ Importance of Teamwork ¥ Diversity/Acceptance of Others In an effort to assist in the development of building kinder individuals, several students have signed up to participate in the Kinder Kids Club. Students will receive a certificate of membership. Thanks in advance for your support! Black History Program: In an attempt to create a successful Black History Program on 28 February, your talent, expertise and support are needed! If you are interested please contact Ms Baynham or me via email. Thank you in advance for your support

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