The CMIT South Elementary School would like to welcome Dr. G. Washington to our school.

L. Watkis (Assistant Principal)

Fourth Grade Parents, In Math we are finishing up Measurement and Data (conversions), and will begin fractions starting next week. STEM Posters will be graded and sent home next week, and students who have scored in the top 4 for each class will be kept and displayed on February 12th. Students are learning about what energy is and will move into understanding how energy is transferred and how collisions show energy. Students will take a quiz on Tuesday, February 4th, about what energy is. In Reading, we have uncovered the elements of poetry and the various types of poems. Students will be tested on this information on Tuesday. In Social Studies, we have begun discussing the Civil Rights Movement. Next week we will continue discussing this topic and will be introduced to Womens’ Suffrage.

~The 4th Grade Team~

The CMIT South Elementary School would like to welcome Dr. G. Washington to our school.

L. Watkis (Assistant Principal)

Fourth Grade Parents, In Math we are finishing up Measurement and Data (conversions), and will begin fractions starting next week. STEM Posters will be graded and sent home next week, and students who have scored in the top 4 for each class will be kept and displayed on February 12th. Students are learning about what energy is and will move into understanding how energy is transferred and how collisions show energy. Students will take a quiz on Tuesday, February 4th, about what energy is. In Reading, we have uncovered the elements of poetry and the various types of poems. Students will be tested on this information on Tuesday. In Social Studies, we have begun discussing the Civil Rights Movement. Next week we will continue discussing this topic and will be introduced to Womens’ Suffrage.

4th Grade Team

Dear Parents and Guardians, This week in P.E. we started our dance unit for all grades. The younger grades ( K-3 ) were focused on being able to follow along with a teacher-led dance, noticing patterns and sequences in dance and recognizing locomotor and non-locomotor movements. The older grades ( 4-5 ) are starting their dance project. I am alerting the classes to the weight of this project and that it carries a project grade. It falls under the realm of an assessment, but because it will most likely take 2-3 weeks to complete, it is labeled as a project. Students have begun to form their original dance moves to music and will be graded on 4 key elements; sync with music, sync with group, original moves, 4 dance moves. GROUP FUN CLUB: This club will meet every Tuesday from 2:55 - 3:55pm and will dismiss to the cafeteria when finished. The club is designed for grades K-2 ONLY and will expand on what is already placed in the curriculum to learn, but with added lessons and activities never played before ! The focus is to encourage the younger students to move outside of the "me" thinking and work together with others on a team to support the "we" idea of thinking. This is a skill used in older grades at centers, sports teams, and future job endeavors. Students will also learn about communicating more effectively to others which is an every-day skill to be utilized.  All parents and students must both sign a written agreement to join the club stating that students will behave based on the rules and consequences of P.E. class. Parents are signing the agreement that they will arrive on time at 3:55 and have reliable transportation.  The CMIT uniform for P.E. clothes and sneakers applies or equivalent clothing, but sneakers and comfortable clothes are a necessity to play. Water fountains are located in the gymnasium, the first 5-10 minutes of club will be spent eating snack in the cafeteria and going to the bathroom before the club starts.  Positions in the club are on a first come first serve basis so please make sure you get the agreement to me ASAP. The agreement is attached along with my e-mail. gloomer@cmitsouthes.org

Attachment(s)

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

As I walk the hallways and see bulletin boards with student work, it validates the following:- 1. teacher and student interactions are taking place on standards. 2. parent-school communication/connection on learning experiences 3. teachers' dedication to motivating students and highlighting their achievement. 4.student pride in completing quality work. Excellent work teachers as you work daily to ensure that our students are learning and parents are staying connected during the process. This is worth celebrating.

L. Watkis (Assistant Principal)

First Grade is starting off the 3rd Quarter on a good note! We have worked on the following in each subject this week: ELA - We are finishing up our in-class research project on animals! Students are also continuing to practice sentence structure, spelling, vocabulary, and retelling a story using key details. We will continue this next week. The following CCSS standards have been addressed: 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.W.1.7 Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., explore a number of "how-to" books on a given topic and use them to write a sequence of instructions). Math - We have started Unit 6! Unit 6 addresses word problems and equations with a part unknown (a missing part)! For example, our entry task asked students complete a three-read of a story problem - reading the problem three times and looking for the units being measured, the quantity measured, etc. - and solve the equation 8 + ___ = 13 by showing their work in a math drawing! The following CCSS standards have been addressed: CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.OA.A.1 Use addition and subtraction within 20 to solve word problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing, with unknowns in all positions, e.g., by using objects, drawings, and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.NBT.B.2 Understand that the two digits of a two-digit number represent amounts of tens and ones. Understand the following as special cases: CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.NBT.B.2.A 10 can be thought of as a bundle of ten ones — called a "ten." CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.NBT.B.2.B The numbers from 11 to 19 are composed of a ten and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, or nine ones. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.NBT.B.2.C The numbers 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 refer to one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, or nine tens (and 0 ones). Science - We are still addressing Physical Science by learning about how humans can communicate over long distances using light and sound! This includes what tools can be invented (i.e. a stop light to control traffic), as well as what objects can be used to communicate by themselves (i.e. clapping your hands for applause). The following NGSS standards have been addressed: K-2-ETS1-1 Engineering Design Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool. PS4.B: Electromagnetic Radiation Objects can be seen if light is available to illuminate them or if they give off their own light. PS4.A: Wave Properties Sound can make matter vibrate, and vibrating matter can make sound. PS4.C: Information Technologies and Instrumentation People also use a variety of devices to communicate (send and receive information) over long distances. Social Studies - We have introduced our Unit on Geography! We have mainly discussed different uses for maps (i.e. towns, countries, landforms, etc.), the characteristics of maps and globes, and "direction words and phrases" such as behind, in front of, nxt to, left, right, above, and below. The following CCSS and Maryland Social Studies Standards have been addressed: A. Using Geographic Tools 1. Use geographic tools to locate and describe places on Earth a. Locate the continents and oceans using maps and a globe. b. Use photographs and pictures to describe a place. c. Identify a place using bird’s eye view. d. Define map elements as parts of a map that make it easy to use. e. Describe where places are located on a map using relative distance and direction, such as near-far, above-below and cardinal directions (north, south, east, and west). Feel free to see each student's final STEM project before February's next PTO meeting - they are being displayed in the Blue Hallway! The Black History Month door competition is underway. Please contact your classroom teacher if you would like to help! Have a wonderful weekend.

The First Grade Team