Mark your calendar for our second school book fair! Spring Book Fair: May 27-31, 2019! Parents, we will be soliciting your assistance as volunteers! Stay tuned for more information!

"The" CMIT PTO Board

NEW Two-Hour Early Dismissal on March 11 The Board of Education voted last week to move the two-hour early dismissal day from June 13 to March 11 to allow students and educators to participate in the March for Our Schools in Annapolis. For event details, visit the Maryland State Education Association (MSEA) website. Inclement Weather Days Update This year, the school system has closed two days (January 14 and February 20) for inclement weather and lost 20 hours of instructional time due to delayed openings and early closings. We will use inclement weather make up days and/or change the last day of school to a full day to meet state mandates for instructional days and hours. If there are no other inclement weather closures, June 14 will be the tentative last day for students and June 20 will be the last day for teachers. Official last days for students and teachers will be announced once the threat of wintry weather is over.

Patrice Harrell-Carter
Principal

Greetings Parents and Staff: I just want to take a moment to personally introduce myself. I am your new, permanent, school professional nurse. I have been in the healthcare field for more than 18 years. My range of experience varies from Cardiology, Physical Therapy, Medical Educator, Patient Advocacy, Psychiatric medicine- Mental health, Substance abuse, Wellness and Pediatrics. My role as your Professional School Nurse entails much more than simply providing ice packs and bandages to your student/ child. I am the sole, medical provider, on the campus, daily. I have the responsibility to provide medical care to both, our students and staff. Whether the healthcare need is something as minimal as a paper cut, or emergent as Anaphylactic Shock, all healthcare needs will filter through your School Nurse. A large portion of my job is providing education for various healthcare topics. In this newsletter, I will cover a few topics to address some pertinent information for both, parents and staff. WHEN TO SEND A STUDENT TO THE NURSE: Anytime a student complains of pain, injury, illness, or you actually witnessed an injury occur. Please do not send your students with all of their belongings, expecting the child to be dismissed for the day. I will assess the nature of the student's illness, then decide, based on PGCPS policy, if the student should be excluded from school for the remainder of the day, or treated and sent back to class. Please allow me to dispel a few myths: VOMITING IS NOT AN AUTOMATIC REASON FOR A CHILD TO GO HOME FOR THE REST OF THE DAY, NO MATTER THE GRADE. The ultimate goal is to have the symptomatic child return to their previous state of health. Sometimes a stomach ache may simply be due to gas, or something the child consumed. Sometimes, it may be a stomach flu, requiring more in depth medical response, and exclusion from school. As the school nurse, I will decide which course of treatment is best for the child, after a complete assessment. HISTORY OF A COMMUNICABLE ILLNESS DOES NOT EXCLUDE A CHILD FROM SCHOOL. Students may come in contact with communicable (contagious) infections throughout the school year. The exposure could be community based, or even transmitted within our facility. Either way, once a student has received the proper course of treatment (usually after 24 hours of antibiotic or antiviral medication), it is okay for a student to return to school/class, after clearance from a medical provider. For certain illness/infections, the clearance to return to class MUST be written by a healthcare provider. In most instances, the child is free to return to school once fever has broken, symptoms have resolved, or again, after having 24 hours of antibiotic or antiviral therapy. ***WARNING*** There has been an unusual peak of Influenza in the month of February. Many of our students have been affected by this month's Flu spike. PLEASE ENCOURAGE FREQUENT HAND WASHING, PROPER HAND WASHING TECHNIQUE and OVERALL INFECTION CONTROL PRECAUTIONS. Lets remind ourselves to: wash our hands after restroom use, after sneezing/coughing, use hand sanitizer frequently. Cover our mouths properly while sneezing/coughing. CHANGE OF CLOTHES FOR K-1ST GRADERS: Instructors, please encourage parents of students grades K-1st, to include 1 change of clothes (uniform and UNDER GARMENTS) in their backpacks, cubby or anywhere in their personal belongings. I have experienced numerous toileting accidents, and even a few episodes of vomiting, and the student completely soils their clothing. I have a very limited amount of extra uniforms, provided by parent volunteers, for students to utilize, in the event of an emergency. However, I do not have a change of underwear for the students. If a child is forced to use the school's provided extra uniform, for the remainder of the day, it is very uncomfortable for the child to wear pants without underwear. I have included a few documents as attachments to this blurb. Please review each attachment at your earliest convenience. Feel free to contact me directly for any further questions or clarification in the future: Renada Haley, RN Professional School Nurse nurse@cmitsouthes.org Chesapeake Math & IT Academy South Elementary 9601 Fallard Terrace Upper Marlboro, MD 20772 240-767-4820

Attachment(s)

Nurse CMIT-S-ES

Happy Friday! This week in Math students continued with their Directed Study program and most are continuing to understand the Order of Operations. Today the fifth grade participated in a draft for the Multiplication Tournament the students were very excited about it and the competition is rising! Please encourage the students to continue to practice their multiplication at home. Next week they will be paired up with a fourth grade student to compete. Students should already know 0's 1's 2's 5's 10's and 11's everything else should be studied and rehearsed this weekend and over this next week. May the best win! In science we have continued to talk about Life Science and have started to prep and review for the MISA standardized test. As always Parents can assist at home by continuing to have students complete Prodigy and Khan Academy at home to deepen understanding and increase math fluency. Thank you for all that you do!

-Ms. Libebe

Hello parents! Lately in Kindergarten and 1st grade art, students have been finishing up their Mosaic Heart projects. We learned all about Mosaics and how they are made. Students also discussed the different characteristics of mosaics, for example, how they are made up of tiny pieces put together like puzzles. Students noticed some patterns found on mosaics as well. From this information, students were able to trace and cut out their own heart shape. Once they finished this step, they began cutting tiny shapes of paper to glue onto their hearts!

Brittney Frei

Greetings All, Thank you for all of the faculty and staff members who came out to celebrate and embrace the hard work it took to plan and execute a phenomenal Black History Month Program. A special thanks to Ms. Baynham and Ms. Davis for without them (and those who supported them by responding to the call for acts/presentations), it would not have been possible. Thank you to Mr. Deniz who organized the stage and chair delivery. We are grateful for Mr. Holloway for seeing a need and responding to it without prompting. When one works for a school community, one must embrace that community, even outside of the school hours. Thank you all for extending yourselves, as many of us have many of our own commitments outside of school but you saw fit to be here and I am grateful and appreciative of your powerful presence. To the parents, we thank you for filling our cafeteria with such a positive synergy---the smiles, tears of joy, encouraging comments and are further grateful for the money you may have spent to make your children shine on this day, we thank you! Shouts Outs: All the students ,and parents who participated/attended in the event! Faculty/Staff in Attendance Lucas (and family) Cunningham (and friend) Herbert ( and he wonderful children who make us look good:) Hill Madison Brown (beautiful 1st grade African Dance ) Fleet (beautiful 1st grade African Dance ) McDonagh Matthews (puzzle pieces thanking Dr. King) Phillips (I am Black History presentation--2nd grade) Young Ak Keskin Garrett Bailey (and the wonderful musical performance) Whiting (and the enrichment staff--singing & timeline) Abdella (providing tech support) Maria (cleaning--our one person cleaning crew) PTO Board (EVERYTHING) I hope that I am not forgetting anyone. If so, please charge it to my head and not my heart:) Extending a huge heartfelt thank you, Carter

Patrice Harrell-Carter
Principal

Happy Friday Parents! Progress Reports have been published and are scheduled to be released Friday March 8, 2019. Please view SchoolMAx if there are any inquiries in regards to current grades or missing assignments. Keep in mind that late work is only accepted from students with excused absences. Ms. Young will accept work for partial credit on the Friday of the week the work was assigned. Because the 4th grade team post all homework assignments, please refer to ClassDojo and Edmodo messages to identify missing or incomplete assignments. Keep in mind there is a 48 hour response window for all emails and messages. In Reading, we will begin a new novel that has been provided by the school. The books are a class set so it is imperative that students take care of and properly handle the books assigned to them. With that being said, please review the student contract thoroughly. Ensure that it is signed by both students and parents, and returned with students on Monday March 4, 2019. Please provide students with a new journal for this novel. We will begin using them on Tuesday March 5, 2019. If you are unable to purchase a journal in time, please reach out to us and we will make provisions. Remember our field trip to the Baltimore Aquarium is Monday March 4, 2019. Ensure students and chaperones arrive on time - at the start of school- and have lunches prepared for those who will be bringing their own lunch. We will begin to load onto the bus immediately after attendance is taken. Finally, thank you and awesome job to the fourth grade students who participated in Black History Month Showcase. Everyone did an amazing job!

4th Grade Team

Please email them to pictures@cmitsouthes.org.

Patrice Harrell-Carter
Principal

Dear Parents/Guardians, This week in P.E., all grades learned about spatial awareness. They learned the definitions and differences between personal and general space before engaging in activities to promote both fields. STAFF vs. PARENTS BASKETBALL GAME !!!!! I am still looking for a few more parents to sign up to play against the CMIT staff. The game is on Thursday, March 7 with warm-up starting from 3-4pm and the game from 4-5 in the gymnasium. Please wear athletic clothes/shoes and bring only drinks, no outside food please. Only members of your immediate family ( children, spouses ) may attend the event due to lack of space in the gym for spectating. So far, we only have 8 players for the parents team. I would like to see 10-15 by next Thursday. Spots are available on a first-come, first-serve basis so please email Mr. Loomer if you are interested at: gloomer@cmitsouthes.org

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

Mark your calendars to join us for an evening of Fun at Chuck E. Cheese, Friday, March 22, 2019! More information is to come!

"The" CMIT PTO Board

Parents/Guardian, Thanks for attending the two events for the Black History Program here at CMIT. The first event recognized our winners for the Poster/Essay contest, and the second event showcased the talents of our scholars. Thanks to Ms. Davis and her team, as well as our PTO for an excellent job, Well Done! This week I will focus on Getting it Done. Reinforce consistent patterns of behavior for students to start and complete assigned tasks before the due date. Encourage and support daily, and you will see positive results. This skill can go beyond academics; students should also be getting general tasks at home done to completion so that this will carry over into school-related activities. Thanks for partnering with our school. 3. Getting it Done Explain that this is the part when kids will be finishing up the job. Talk about things like copying work neatly and asking a parent to read it over to help find any mistakes. Coach your child to take those important final steps: putting his or her name on the report, placing it in a report cover, putting the report in the correct school folder, and putting the folder in the backpack so it's ready to be turned in. https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/child-organized.html

L. Watkis (Assistant Principal)

Hello Team CMIT THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Thank you for your scholars' participation in the Black History Program! Parents, please take a moment to congratulate the winners of the Black History Board/Door Contest! Winners of the Door/Board prize are: Kindergarten Ms Curtis 1st Grade Ms Brown 2nd Grade Ms Baynham 3rd Grade Ms Pavignano 4th Grade Ms Girch 5th Grade Mr Hawkins CARTS Ms Frei

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

Hello Thee CMIT Family While driving in this morning I learned of the Momo Challenge, as I do not have small children, I often learn of these challenges late. Parents, there are so many challenges today in ensuring your scholars remain safe from predators and mean individuals who are attempting to bring him/her arm. Please take a moment to review the information below: Momo Challenge: The Momo Challenge is a social media game that makes contact with children through Facebook and WhatsApp, a smartphone messaging application. It also appears in Kids YouTube videos. The “challenge” features an avatar named Momo that makes contact with children from an unknown name or number. For the challenge, the avatar requests children to participate in bizarre and potentially harmful tasks and upload evidence that they have been completed. On the final day of the challenge, children are encouraged to win the game by committing suicide. As a precaution, families are encouraged to monitor their children’s social media accounts and online activities and install parental controls and/or filters. Students should be reminded not to accept invitations from unknown sources to play games or take part in online “challenges.” We encourage families to work with educators to address this online threat and take measures to protect students by making them aware and putting measures in place to protect them from harm. Parents encourage your students to notify an adult if they encounter any threatening situations online, in their schools or in their communities. Additional Articles: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/momo-challenge-nearly-deadly-for-family-california-mother-says/ https://www.today.com/video/-momo-challenge-how-to-protect-kids-from-disturbing-internet-game-1449768003504 https://www.wsmv.com/news/momo-challenge-returns-on-unexpected-videos/video_c5a22a1b-7ea3-5b8a-a4c0-5faa3bdfee95.html

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