Parents and Guardians, Please encourage and support scholars to participate in this learning experience. Researching and creating a project for presentation to an audience cuts across all subjects especially reading. This project, therefore, impacts all subject areas that your child is learning at school. I am looking forward to how we will support their creativity as they 'think outside the box'. REMEMBER:- Even though the size of the poster is set; there is no limit on depth/height. Your support is invaluable. Ms. Watkis

L. Watkis (Assistant Principal)

This week in third grade we welcomed a new member to our team. A big welcome to Ms. Nick! This week, scholars and I will discussed rules, routines and behavior expectations. I look forward to meeting you. I will also have a sign-up available for Parent-Teacher Conferences please check the class story when this becomes available. -- Ms. Nick In math and science students got back into the swing of things with working on commutative, associative and distributive properties of multiplication! Students are really become familiar and understanding these different concepts related to multiplication! In science we reviewed concepts focused around force and motion as we were learning about before the break! It was nice to get back into the swing of things! We are looking forward as this 2020 year in 3rd grade!

Ms. Cunningham and Ms. Nick

Our kindergarten classes are going on a field trip to the Howard B. Owens Science Center (apart of PGCPS) on Friday, January 17. 2020. The trip is free! We only need for you to complete the permission slip. Additionally, we are collecting money for the field trip to Port Discovery. The trip is on Tuesday, January 28 at 8:00. The cost is $14.00 per student/chaperone ($10 for bus, $4 for admission into the museum). We will collect money until Wednesday, January 15. The Kindergarten teachers will begin administering the DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) next week. We will continue until January 22, 2020. Be sure your child eats breakfast and comes to school ready to show all they have learned so far this year. Have a great weekend!

Kindergarten Team

Kindergarten is starting on their houses. Half of them started by cutting out windows and doors from construction paper, the other half made the background for their houses: a nice watercolor landscape! First grade has their cardboard relief sculptures hung up and will start work on their next project! Second grade is on their way to finishing up their torn paper landscapes ( they're coming out so well, I'm so proud!) and third grade is now doing a bigger paper weaving create an imitation Kente cloths. Fourth grade is doing yarn relief sculptures and fifth grade is doing positive/negative portraits of African American figures they most admire! Let's get creative!

Miss James

1st Grade is still working hard! We have worked on the following in our classrooms this week: RELA - We are currently continuing to work on reading comprehension! Specifically parts of a story and retelling a story using key details. For phonics, we are continuing to practice decoding blends, digraphs, vowel teams, and two-syllable words. In writing, we are continuing to practice sentence structure, punctuation, and capitalization. We are specifically focusing on writing narratives and short answers. Please be advised that we are beginning a research project next week! We will ease into actual research, but we will be introducing brainstorming questions using the KWL model (Know, Want to Know, Learned). Our lessons this week addressed the following Common Core State Standards: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.1 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.2 Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.3 Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.7 Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.9 Compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in stories. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3.A Know the spelling-sound correspondences for common consonant digraphs. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3.C Know final -e and common vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3.E Decode two-syllable words following basic patterns by breaking the words into syllables. Math - We have continued working on nonstandard measurement, including measuring height, length, and width. We are also working on telling time to the hour and half hour! To take this further, when students have demonstrated understanding of this, we will introduce telling time up to five-minute increments. This unit will end on January 24th (in two weeks). In addition, we have received questions about reinforcing instruction at home, so we have attached the "Family Letter" that goes along with each unit of the math curriculum so far! The following Common Core State Standards have been addressed this week: CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.MD.A.1 Order three objects by length; compare the lengths of two objects indirectly by using a third object. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.MD.A.2 Express the length of an object as a whole number of length units, by laying multiple copies of a shorter object (the length unit) end to end; understand that the length measurement of an object is the number of same-size length units that span it with no gaps or overlaps. Limit to contexts where the object being measured is spanned by a whole number of length units with no gaps or overlaps. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.MD.B.3 Tell and write time in hours and half-hours using analog and digital clocks. Please be advised that the DRA is being administered through January 24th, and that the MAP-M will be administered later this month. In addition, the STEM project is due by January 22nd. Have a wonderful weekend!

Attachment(s)

The First Grade Team

January 10, 2019 Dear Parent or Guardian: Our school will be administering the Measures of Academic Progress™ (MAP) Growth Assessment in Reading in this week. MAP Growth Reading is taken on a computer and is used to determine each student’s instructional level. The assessment will also allow schools to measure individual academic growth in reading. The winter testing window closes on January 24, 2020. Your child will take the winter MAP Growth Assessment on January 14 and. The other testing window for this assessment will be in the spring (May 11-June 5, 2020). MAP Growth is a computer-adaptive assessment that adapts to your child’s level of learning and measures specific areas of reading such as Literature, Informational Text, Vocabulary Acquisition and Use in Grades 2-10. MAP Growth Assessments can be shorter than traditional standardized tests and use less class time, yet still provide detailed, accurate information about your child’s growth. Since the test takes less time, it may be administered in one or two class periods, depending on the test schedule at our school. In order to obtain a valid Reading/Language Usage score, no portion of the test may be read to a student, including English Language Learners (ELL) and students with an Individual Education Plan (IEP). There is no extra preparation required for your student to take the assessment. The goal of this assessment is to help improve literacy and reading in the Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) system. MAP Growth scores can be obtained from our school by parents upon request. A “Frequently Asked Questions” document can be found on the PGCPS Department of Testing, Research, and Evaluation website located at: http://www.pgcps.org/testing/. We are truly excited to begin a new era that focuses on every child’s individual growth and achievement. Partnering to help all children learn, parents/guardians and teachers can have a profound positive effect on the lives of our students. If you are interested in additional information about the MAP Reading Assessment, please download the Parent Toolkit at the following link: https://www.nwea.org/parent-toolkit/. Sincerely, School Testing Coordinator Fatih Metin

Fatih Metin Program Coordinator & Testing Coordinator

Lerrether, better known as Ms. ReRe, is a devoted and loving member of the CMIT South Elementary family. Every day she could be seen smiling or laughing as she served lunch to the students. Ms. ReRe is also a part of the after school enrichment team. Just a few days after Christmas, Ms. ReRe suffered a stroke and an aneurysm. Sadly, this ailment has left her in a vegetative state. For the next couple of weeks, Ms.ReRe will remain in the hospital until she can be placed in a nursing home. We would like to do what we can in an effort to help support her and her family during this potentially long recovery process. If you would like to support Ms. ReRe please use the following link to make your donation. https://www.gofundme.com/f/helping-hand-for-lerrether-smith?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-3 No amount is too small or too large, all donations are greatly appreciated. On behalf of the Smith family, we would like to thank you for your contributions as well as your thoughts and prayers during Ms. ReRe's recovery.

Tyra Robinson

Essay Requirements (Grades 6-12 ONLY): At least 250 words, but shall not exceed 500 words • Typed and double-spaced • Original work only • Be sure to properly cite your sources. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/ • Due on Friday, January 24th Scoring Rubric Comprehension (20 points) How well does the essay reflect a thorough comprehension of the essay topic? Does the essay provide supported reasons for the student’s topic selection? Organization (20 points) Does the argument/discussion follow a logical and easily understood progression? Does any outside evidence contained in the essay support the essay’s main points? Conclusions (20 points) Do the conclusions follow logically from the main body of the essay and reflect what the student has learned from research? How compelling are the conclusions? Creativity (20 points) Use of diverse resources, language &/or style, unique angle? Writing (20 points) Correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure. Poster Requirements (Elementary ONLY): • Poster MUST be 18x14 inches • Illustrates & supports a significant African American • Illustrates the contribution clearly and with artistic energy • Is it Colorful? Creative? Innovative? Legible? Different? Finished? • Poster should have a caption of at least three sentences, but no more than 10 to include who, what, and how the person contributed to shaping history. • Poster should mention at least one NEW thing the student learned during this contest? (E.g. arts in STEAM, African American role models, about oneself, society, African American history &/or culture, etc.) CLF will have 3 winners from each division who will receive a $50 gift card. Student winners and their parents will be invited to an awards reception hosted by CLF. One honorary mention from each school/division will be asked to read their essay or present their poster submission. Refreshments will be served and community leaders, special guests, fellow students, teachers, school officials, and board members will be in attendance.

CLF Community Partnerships

Hello and Happy New Year, I hope everyone enjoyed their break! As we enter the new year my classroom visits will focus on goal setting. What is a goal? long term? short term?, are some of the question the students will be able to answer. Creating a plan is essential in achieving success. The students will create a goal they will like to focus on for the remainder of the school year, they will have 2020 VISION. I will continue completing the Personal Education Plan (PEPs) with the 1st and 4th graders. The PEP is an electronic tool that will follow them to high school to help students plan, with the school counselor, for high school graduation and college and career readiness. Students will be meeting with me one on one to complete the form. This will be on going with the 1st and 4th graders until they are all complete. Best,

Deidra Chandler Professional School Counselor

Session Goals and Objectives SESSION GOAL: To empower students how to communicate effectively MAJOR OBJECTIVES: * Define communication * Discuss verbal and non-verbal communication * Define misunderstand(s) * Discuss how misunderstandings develop * Discuss how misunderstandings can be avoided VOCABULARY: * communication * interpersonal * message * response * effective * verbal * non-verbal * misunderstanding * ambiguous * paraphrase Realizing there are only two (2 major forms of communication, which are verbal and nonverbal. Te er ways of communication under either heading. We are primarily "social" beings in that we spend most of our lives with other people. Therefore, it is important to learn how to get along with others and function in social situations. Certain communication skills help us deal more effectively in interpersonal relationships Sincerely Dr. Sullivan-Williams (aka Dr. BB Senior Certified Life-Skills/Character Education Instructor

Deidra Chandler Professional School Counselor