CMIT South Elementary School

Dear CMIT South Elementary Families,

As we approach the final stretch of our school year with only 8 more instructional days remaining in our school year! I want to take a moment to recognize the incredible dedication and hard work you and your children have shown throughout this journey. Your commitment to education and your unwavering support of your child's learning have been truly inspiring to witness.

To our amazing students: you have faced every challenge with courage and determination. Your growth this year has been remarkable, and we are so proud of how you've persevered through both the exciting moments and the difficult ones.

As Winston Churchill once said, "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." Your perseverance this year has shown us all what true courage looks like.

Important Reminder for This Week: Please ensure your child carefully follows their designated B-Week/Week schedule for all Creative Arts (CARTS) classes this week. These final CARTS sessions are important opportunities for students to showcase their artistic growth and celebrate their creative achievements from this school year.

Career Day Success! Our Career Day was another huge success! A special thank you to Ms. Chandler, our Professional School Counselor, for organizing this inspiring day. We're grateful to our wonderful parent volunteers who took time to share their amazing careers with our students - your presentations sparked curiosity and opened young minds to endless possibilities. The highlight for many was getting the chance to explore a real fire truck! What an incredible way to help our students dream big about their futures.

Celebrating Our Field Day Success! What an incredible Field Day we had! The energy, excitement, and pure joy on our students' faces made it clear that this event was a tremendous success. Our school community truly came together to create magical memories that our children will treasure.

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to our AMaZing PTO members who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to organize every detail of this spectacular day. Your planning, coordination, and dedication made it possible for our students to experience such joy and camaraderie.

To our Dynamite parent chaperones and volunteers who stepped up to help throughout the day, you were absolutely phenomenal! Your enthusiasm, support, and willingness to jump in wherever needed helped ensure every activity ran smoothly and safely. Our students felt so special having you there cheering them on.

And to our incredible CMIT South staff members - we simply couldn't have pulled off such a successful event without every one of you. Your flexibility, teamwork, and commitment to making this day special for our students exemplify why our school community is so extraordinary.

Field Day perfectly captured what makes our school special: a community that comes together to celebrate our children and create lasting memories. Thank you all for making it unforgettable!

Celebrating Our Students' Achievements

Kindergarten Moving-Up Ceremonies - Thursday, June 12, 2025. We are equally excited to celebrate our kindergarteners as they reach this important milestone! These ceremonies will recognize their tremendous growth and preparation for first grade:

• 8:30 AM: Dr. Hughes' & Ms. Lewis' classes

• 10:00 AM: Ms. Herbert's & Ms. Windsor's classes

5th Grade Moving-Up Ceremony - Friday, June 13, 2025, at 9:00 AM Our 5th graders will be honored as they prepare to transition to middle school, celebrating their elementary school journey and the bright futures ahead of them.

Important Information for All Moving-Up Ceremonies: Each grade level has sent detailed information about their specific ceremony. Please review and follow the guidelines provided by your child's teacher.

Parking Instructions for Ceremony Attendees:

• Primary parking: Use the rear parking lot, backing into available spaces until all spaces are filled

• Overflow parking: If the rear lot is full, please use satellite parking at CMIT South Middle High School and walk over to the elementary building

• Please arrive early to allow time for parking and seating

We are looking forward to these successful and joyous occasions as we celebrate the remarkable achievements of our kindergarten and 5th-grade students. These ceremonies represent not just academic progress, but personal growth, friendships formed, and memories created during their time with us.

Safety Reminders - Your Cooperation is Essential

Morning Drop-Off Safety Alert:

• Students must remain in vehicles until staff are visibly present outside

• Staff supervision begins at 7:25 AM

• Students should never be left unattended outside the building

• This policy protects all students from potential safety hazards

How You Can Support at Home

We encourage meaningful conversations with your child about:

• Appropriate ways to interact with classmates

• The importance of respecting others' personal space

• Good sportsmanship and teamwork during Field Day activities

As we look ahead to the final weeks of school, remember that the STEM Journey Begins Here at CMIT South Elementary! It’s not over yet, let's continue to fill this school year with exciting learning opportunities, personal growth, and impressive achievements for all our scholars. Every day brings new opportunities for growth and your partnership in education makes a profound difference in our students' success. We thank you for making CMIT South Elementary a vibrant and supportive learning community. Together, we're creating meaningful experiences for our scholars! Remember, we can't continue this STEM journey without you!

Let's make this year a roaring success! 🦁📚

Wishing you all a 🐾 PawwRific 🐾 day and see you all Monday, June 9, 2025!

With Tiger Pride,

Ms. Tauheedah N. Simmons-Lewis

Principal

Grade Level Updates:

Thank you to all the Chaperones and Volunteers that came on Field Day. The students had an amazing time!

We are approaching the end of the year. Here is some information about the upcoming Kindergarten Promotional Ceremonies. The ceremonies will be at 8:30 am and 10 am. The 8: 30 ceremony will have classes of Ms. Lewis and Dr. Hughes.The 10 am ceremony will have the classes of Ms. Herbert and Ms. Windsor. All students have a part if your scholar had a speaking role because continue to practice with them at home. The ceremony is about one hour. Students do not have to stay for the remainder of the day. Please feel free to celebrate with your scholar. Students WILL NOT receive a cap and gown. Students should dress their best. (dresses, suits, etc.)

Promotion Q& A

What should they wear?

-Students should dress their best! (dresses, suits, etc.)

How long is the program?

-Ceremony is about an hour

How many tickets?

~Each student will be getting 4 tickets, but CMIT siblings (Elementary or High) will not need a ticket this year.

Do students have to stay after the Ceremony?

~No, students do not have to stay for the remainder of the day. Please feel free to celebrate with your graduate!

Can we take pictures after the ceremony with the teacher?

~Yes, but please be mindful that there are two ceremonies

How should we park for the ceremony?

~ We strongly encourage families to carpool, whenever possible. Also please be mindful that if you park on the street or try to park in a neighboring business you will be towed. If you can not find a parking space please use the park at CMIT South Middle/High School and walk down the street to our school.

Where do we enter?

~Families will be entering through the gym, at the rear of the building

What time do the doors open?

~ The doors will be opening at 8am for the first ceremony.

Will my family that can not attend in person be able to see?

~ Yes, a link will be provided by administration and shared

Dates to Remember:

June 11: Lewis/Hughes Kindergarten's: End of School Year Party

June 12: Kindergarten Promotion 8:30 am and 10 am

June 13: Windsor/ Herbert Kindergarten's: End of School Year Party

June 18: Last day of school, full day of school

Reading Updates:

UNIT 5- Week 2: A Desert in Bloom

Essential Question: How have people learned to live in bad weather?

• Phonological Awareness: Initial and Final Sounds; Segment and Blend Phonemes

Blend and Segment: Onset and Rime

• Phonics:Vowel sounds - shorts and long

• Review blends and letters Bb and Jj

• High-frequency words: eat, soon, walk

• Story Vocabulary:snow, rainy, windy, weather

• Unit Vocabulary: effect, measure, prepare, and extreme

Learning Goals:

• Learn about how live in places with extreme weather

• Visualize details from a story

• Syllables and compound words

• Read a sentence and illustrate it

• Find details in a text

• Find the theme of the story

• Make inferences

• Match sentences to illustrations

• Capitalization for the beginning of a sentence

• Types of Punctuation, go with different types of sentences

• Prepositions, adjectives, and articles

• Organize the story element: character, setting, plot

Math Updates:

Topic 14: Describe and Compare Measurable Attributes

Essential Understanding: How can objects be described and compared by length, height, capacity and weight?

• compare and contrast the length, height, capacity and weight of different objects

• Analyze how to use nonstandard units of measurement

• Create a nonstandard unit of measurement

Vocabulary: length, height, capacity and weight, attributes, measurements

Science Updates:

TOPIC 6: Environments

Essential Question: What do people need to survive?

• Learn how the relationship between the people and their environments

• Discover how people fulfill their needs depending on the environment

• How can people and animals change the environment

• Explore how to protect the environment

Vocabulary: shelter, forest, plain, desert, ocean, environment, resources, reuse, and recycle

Social Studies Updates:

Chapter 5 : Time and Chronology

Essential Question- How do we track time?

• Understand different that different words tell about time

• Look into measuring time

• How do we make a timeline

• Interpret how to we use a timeline

• Explore sequencing of events

Vocabulary: future, past, calendars, months, week, year, decade, seasons, weather, pattern generation and century

Health Updates:

June Topic: Every Day, Play

• Identify what is play and what is not play

• Explain why it is important to play

• Explore different ways to play and how it could be exercise

• Discover how exercise keeps your body strong.

• Create the rules that keep playing safe

Vocabulary: heart, lungs, muscles, exercise, play

Grade Level Updates:

Field Day was amazing!

A huge thank you to all the chaperones and volunteers who helped make it such a fun and successful event—we truly appreciate you. Please be sure to check in with your scholar’s teacher for details about our upcoming end-of-the-year celebration. The last day of school is June 18th 2025. REMINDER this is a full day of school. Scholars will have access to iReady and IXL throughout the summer!!

Important dates:

June 13,2025 End of tt6he year celebration.

June 16,20225 - Full day of School

June 17,2025 - Full day of School

June 18, Last day of school

We’ve officially entered the final full week of school! As the year winds down, we’ll be wrapping up all content areas and reflecting on the learning and growth that has taken place. This week will include review activities, celebrations of progress, and time to enjoy our classroom community. Thank you for your continued support as we finish the year strong!

Reading Updates:

Your scholar will be diving into a drama! Through this engaging genre, students will explore storytelling through dialogue, stage directions, and character interactions. Our focus will be on understanding how plays are structured and how emotions and themes are conveyed through performance-style writing. Encourage your scholar to share what they’re reading and discuss the characters and plot at home!

Grade Level Blurb:

Greetings Tiger Family,

I hope this message finds you well. We had an amazing time at Field Day this past Friday. Special thanks to the PTO for yet another amazing day here at CMIT South. We truly have the best PTO in the county. Also a special shout out to all the parents that joined us in the hot sun and supported the classes on Field Day. This is our last full week of school for this year. We look forward to our Weeklong Celebration that we are having this week. Please look over the information below to be prepared for our week of fun!

4th Grade Celebration Permission

4th Grade Sign Up

Weeklong Celebration Events

Monday:

Students may dress down in clothes they don't mind getting tye dye ink on. Please make sure your scholar brings their white t-shirt. If possible please put your scholar's name on the collar of the shirt.

Tuesday:

Students are dressing down in sports and other athletic wear. If you can donate a board or card game that can be used that day. Please put your scholar's name on the game and it will go home with them at the end of day.

Wednesday:

Inside Out Day. Students will dress to show their feelings for the end of the school year. We will make memory books and other items for the rising 4th Graders.

Thursday:

Craft Day. Students are asked to dress as the career they might want to have one day. Students will decorate food and make other crafts to keep.

Friday:

Picnic Day. Students may bring blankets or even chairs to sit in. Students are asked to wear their tye dye shirts. We will have pizza, snacks, blow bubbles, and have other closing activities.

We ask that you continue to talk with your student nightly about “glows and grows” from their day at school. We are helping students to be more reflective about their days and ways they can make improvements. This is the last quarter of Fourth Grade and our scholars have made great progress and are beginning their preparations to become the building leaders next year.

The character trait of the month of June is Integrity. I tell my students this means doing the right thing even when no one is watching. This month share with your scholar a time in which you showed integrity. Explain to them the feeling that you had from doing the right thing. Please continue to read to get updates and important information from Fourth Grade.

Thank you for your continuing support and partnership.

Warm regards,

4th Grade Team

Important Upcoming Dates:

• Fourth Grade Finale Monday June 9- Friday 13, 2025

• Last Day of School Wednesday June 18, 2025

Uniforms:

We are a uniform school. Students must be in the proper uniform each and every day. Students are expected to have mostly black shoes. They may wear a navy blue or school logo jacket or pullover during class. Students will be asked to remove any jacket or sweater that is not following the uniform policy.

Fourth Grade Reminders:

i-Ready:

i-Ready is a computer based math and reading program that is available for all of our scholars. Scholars have completed their diagnostics and are working on programs based on their areas of need. If scholars have access to a computer at home, we recommend that your scholar is getting at least 45 minutes of practice a week in both reading and math. Please encourage your child to complete lessons and ensure they complete the lessons independently to accurately improve their skills. i-Ready is accessed through clever.pgcps.org, and scholars will use their PGCPS logins to access the program.

Absences:

This is a friendly reminder that late work is only accepted if a student has an excused absence! If a scholar is absent and does not bring a note they will earn a 0 on the assignment that was missed. Please read the reminders to ensure that you are partnering with your scholars to make them successful for school. If a scholar leaves early or arrives late to school and it is not excused they will earn a 0 for all work that is not completed.

If your scholar is absent, please share a note with the homeroom teacher and attendance managers within 3 days of your scholar returning back to school. In order for students to receive make-up work you must provide a note stating; the student’s name, the date of absence, and reason for absence. Work is provided to students upon their return to school with an absence note.

Communications:

Students must bring their agenda book each day. Teachers will note the agenda book and it should be signed nightly by the adult at home.

Please allow up to 48 business hours for all responses to emails and Classdojo messages. Teachers are not actively monitoring their emails during the day because we are engaged in instruction. Emails are not monitored over the weekend or in the evening hours when teachers have gone home. If the message sent relates to dismissal changes please call the school directly to leave a message with the front office.

Grading:

Please check Synergy weekly to see scholar’s updated grades. Canvas is a Learning Management System in which scholars utilize to complete assignments and get access to materials.The grades provided in Synergy are those that will be used to calculate progress reports and report cards.

Reading Updates:

This Week:

This week students continued to read our novel “The Hero Two Doors Down.” This week we had the opportunity to read four chapters. Students explored how a miscommunication between the two families led to the families growing even closer. Students were also able to summarize the events of a chapter. Students also were able to make connections to the choices the character of Steve made and how they would react to the same situation.

Next Week:

Students will bring a close to the novel “The Hero Two Doors Down.” In this story we learned about the real life friendship of a Jewish boy named Steve and Jackie Robinson. Students have been exploring the theme of friendship and noticing how characters grow and change throughout the story. This week students will reflect on the theme or lesson that could be learned from this story. Students will also have a chance to write about the changes that the main character of Steve experienced and what caused his changes.

Math Updates:

This week we are wrapping our topic focus on Fractions!! Topics 8-10 will focus on comparing, adding, subtracting, and multiplying fractions.Our Essential Question for these upcoming topics are; “Extend Understanding of Fraction Concepts including Equivalence and Ordering.” Workbook Volume 1 has been sent home.

This week will be our final week of homework. At home, please continue practicing with basic math facts focused on multiplication and division to support math fluency and the computation strategies for this topic.

Science Updates:

This week we closed our Science Units for the year! We will review our skills for the year.

Please check Synergy ParentVue and Canvas with your scholar to ensure completion of assignments

Social Studies Updates:

This Week: Students analyzed and reflected on their performance during the business project presentation and evaluated their learning experiences from career day.

Next Week: Next week, students will reflect on their 4th grade year by creating a special memory book. This activity will give them a chance to look back on their favorite moments, proudest achievements, and lessons learned as they wrap up an amazing school year.

🎓Countdown to Promotion!

Dear Families,

Field Day was AMAZING! Our students had a blast showing their school spirit, teamwork, and energy—thank you to all who helped make the day such a success!

Now, we’re heading into our last full week of school and our final Spirit Week in elementary school! Let’s make it memorable as we count down to promotion. 🎈

🗓 Spirit Week Schedule:

See the flyer for details about each themed day! Here’s a quick snapshot:

• Monday: Nerdy vs. Preppy

• Tuesday: Crocs & Stanleys
  

• Wednesday: 5th Grade Grad Bash (wear bright colors!)
  

• Thursday: Comfy & Cool Day
  

• Friday: Promotion Ceremony (black and white attire)

🙋‍♀️ We Need You!

We are still looking for parent volunteers to help with Wednesday’s Block Party.
Please contact your child’s homeroom teacher if you’re available to help with:

• Set-up/clean-up
  

• Game stations
  

• Food (Every helping hand counts!)

📚 End-of-Year Reminders:

Encourage your scholar to finish strong! These last few days are important for reflection, responsibility, and celebration. Let’s end the year on a high note!

Thank you for your continued support!

Warmly,
The 5th Grade Team

General CARTS Message:

Please continue to check your students’ work/grades on both Canvas and Synergy for CARTS classes!

Legos and Robotics

This week in Legos and Robotics, grades 3-5 will have 3 critical thinking questions to solve as a small group. All ideas will be discussed as a whole group activity. Grades K-2 will be completing a sorting activity and playing timed sorting games.

2024-2025 School Calendar

School Meals

School Violence Resources and Support

PGCPS TV

CMIT South ES Enrichment Program

Vendor Managed Child Care

Parent Handbook

Students’ Rights and Responsibilities Handbook.

Synergy ParentVUE Support for Parents and Guardians