The Tiger Times

Dear Amazing Tiger Families and Community,

As we continue celebrating Gratitude as our Character Word of the Month, I'm deeply moved by the words of Oprah Winfrey: "Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough." This powerful reminder encourages us to focus on our blessings—our loving families, our supportive community, our dedicated teachers, and the precious opportunity to learn and grow together. When we lead with gratitude, abundance follows.

📸 Picture Retake Day - November 20th!

Calling all Tigers who need a picture do-over! If your student missed Picture Day or their photo didn't turn out quite right, now's your perfect chance to request a retake!

Important Details:

• Date: Wednesday, November 20th

• Who: ONLY students who sign up in advance will have their pictures taken on Retake Day

• Action Required: Complete the Sign-Up Genius form to submit your retake request

👉 Sign Up Here: Picture Retake Sign-Up

Don't miss this opportunity to capture your Tiger's beautiful smile!

🐯 CRITICAL: Morning Drop-Off Safety Procedures 🐯

Student safety is our absolute top priority, and we need your continued partnership to ensure every scholar arrives safely each morning. Your cooperation with these procedures protects not just your child, but every single Tiger in our community.

🚗 Essential Safety Reminders:

Show love and gratitude for our Tiger community through mindful safety practices:

✅ Drive slowly and carefully on school grounds—our children's lives depend on your attention
✅ Follow car line procedures and staff instructions without exception
✅ Never drop students in the roundabout—this creates extremely dangerous situations
✅ Treat all community members with kindness and respect—model the behavior we want our Tigers to demonstrate

🚨 CRITICAL MORNING DROP-OFF GUIDELINES:

6:30 AM - 7:15 AM: The drop-off lane is reserved exclusively for students enrolled in Morning Enrichment ONLY. Students not enrolled in Morning Enrichment should not be dropped off during this time.

Safety Cone Placement: Cones will be strategically placed in front of drop-off lanes daily to prevent vehicles from pulling forward prematurely. These cones ensure a safe environment for our scholars as they exit their vehicles. Please respect the cone placement and wait for staff direction.

7:25 AM Drop-Off Protocol:

• DO NOT have your child exit the car if a staff member is not present at 7:25 AM

• Students not enrolled in Morning Enrichment should not exit vehicles before 7:25 AM for their safety

• Wait for clear instructions from staff members before allowing students to exit

🚨 Compliance Requirement:

Early drop-offs outside of Morning Enrichment and vehicles pulling away while students are exiting compromise the safety of ALL students. These actions put our Tigers at serious risk.

We will contact repeat offenders individually to ensure full compliance with our safety procedures. Your cooperation is not optional—it is essential to protecting every child in our care.

Remember: These aren't just rules—they're lifelines. When we follow safety procedures with patience and care, we demonstrate gratitude for the precious lives entrusted to us each day.

🎄 Holiday Angel Program - Now Open!

Our Holiday Angel Program is now underway! Visit the front office to select a paw from our holiday tree and help spread joy to Tiger families in need this season.

Program Details:

• When: November 17 - December 15th

• Where: CMIT South ES Front Office

• Return: UNWRAPPED gifts and wrapping paper to the designated drop-off station

Your generosity embodies the spirit of gratitude—recognizing our blessings and sharing them with others!

🌟 Living Gratitude Through Our Actions

As Oprah Winfrey reminds us, when we focus on what we have rather than what we lack, we discover abundance all around us. This week, let's practice gratitude through our actions:

Be thankful for:

• The safety procedures that protect our children

• The staff members who arrive early to ensure a safe drop-off

• The community that works together to keep all Tigers secure

• The opportunity to partner in creating a safe, nurturing environment

Show gratitude by:

• Following all safety procedures with patience and care

• Arriving at appropriate times for drop-off

• Respecting staff instructions and guidance

• Modeling responsibility and community care for our children

Thank you for being partners who value safety, respect protocols, and demonstrate gratitude through your actions. Together, we protect what matters most—our Tigers.

Remember: We are Leveling Up the STEMTastic Way! Let's make every day count by leading with gratitude, prioritizing safety, and showing appreciation for the community that makes our school exceptional.

With Grateful Tiger Pride and Endless Gratitude,

📢 Important Notice: Upcoming Personal Safety Lessons

Dear CMIT South Elementary Parents and Guardians,

Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) requires all schools to provide age-appropriate lessons on personal safety for students in Kindergarten, 2nd grade, and 5th grade each school year. These lessons are designed to help students recognize unsafe situations, build confidence in setting boundaries, and understand how to seek help from trusted adults.

Over the next few weeks, our school counselor will begin delivering these lessons starting with Kindergarten, followed by 2nd and 5th grade. Each grade level’s lesson will be developmentally appropriate and presented in a sensitive, supportive way that empowers students without causing fear.

Topics may include:

• Understanding personal boundaries
  

• Identifying safe vs. unsafe situations
  

• Knowing trusted adults
  

• Learning how to advocate for themselves
  
  

Please know that these lessons are aligned with PGCPS guidelines and school counseling standards to ensure student safety and well-being.

If you have any questions about the lesson content or schedule, please feel free to contact me directly. Thank you for your continued support in helping us keep all students safe and informed.

From the Reading Specialist’s Desk 📚✨

i-Ready Family Information Session

This session is designed to help families engage with i-Ready to support their students at home. Families will deepen their understanding of i-Ready and its core components, and they will further develop an understanding of how the Diagnostic works and how their students will engage with the assessment. We will take families through an exploration of the resources that are available to them to support their students during the Diagnostic and beyond.

Grade Level Blurb:

On Nov. 21 Kindergarten students will be allowed to dress down in school appropriate PJ’s for our grade level “Camp In”. School appropriate means no shoulders showing and shorts/pants that go down to the knees at least. During this “Camp In” students will need a sleeping bag or blanket to camp in the classroom. They can also bring one stuffed animal, if they wish. In the morning, classes will be doing fall arts and crafts and then in the afternoon students will be “camping out” in the classrooms.

Our field trip to the Baltimore Aquarium for Dec. 5th has been approved. On Monday the permission slips will be going home for the December 5, field trip. They will need to be returned by November 21. Payment will be accepted only through MySchool bucks. The permission slip will have the QR Code, please only use the QR code or payment link (that will be provided) to pay. The cost will be $26.85 per person. This cost is the same for chaperones. Only chaperones that have signed up and are cleared through the PGCPS system and have received the email stating that they are cleared will be able to attend.

Students are losing their personal belongings. Please label all items, sweaters and jackets especially, so that students will know what belongs to them. Please use simple reminders to help students learn to become and stay responsible for their own items. Also please continue to practice tying shoes and turning sleeves of jackets from inside out to the correct way with your scholars. When your child has been absent please communicate to the teacher and complete the online document submission form, because we are not taking paper notes:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1lp2fJsfDLjWNINllvX10OKjiGDn443yAB8Hq8BMBa-E/viewform

IMPORTANT KINDERGARTEN DATES-

NOVEMBER 19- Dollars & Decisions: Telephone Town Hall

NOVEMBER 20- Picture Retake Day

NOVEMBER 21- Fall Camp In

NOVEMBER 21- Field Trip Money Collection Stops

NOVEMBER 21- Family Tree Project Due

NOVEMBER 26-28- Fall Break

DECEMBER 5- National Baltimore Aquarium

DECEMBER 19- 3 hour early dismissal

DECEMBER 22-31 Winter Break

Reading Updates:

UNIT 2- Week 3: Do We Need This?

Essential Question: How do some living things make what they need?

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

Blend and Segment: Onset and Rime

• Phonics: Consonants Hh and Ll

• High-frequency words: one, two, three

• Spelling words found in weekly readings: food, water, shelter

• Unit Vocabulary: grow, need, share, depend

Learning Goals:

• Identify the main idea to understand informational text

• Find the Main Idea and Supporting Details

• Ask and answer questions about text structure

• Learn what animals need

• Making a place to live

• Adjectives and Articles

• Rhyming Sort

Math Updates:

Topic 6: Understanding Addition

Essential Understanding: What types of situations involve addition?

• Show numbers in many way
• Express smaller parts of a bigger number with actions
• Represent addition as putting two or more numbers together
• Practice using an addition equation

Vocabulary: plus, addition, equal sign, altogether, in all, patterns

Science Updates:

TOPIC 3: Needs of Living Things

Experience 3: Where Plants and Animals Live

• Review living vs non-living things
• Inquiry about the relationship between plants and animals and where they live.
• Demonstrate the relationship between the needs of plants and animals and the places they live, which together make up a system.
• Describe habitat relationships using relational language and simple adjectives.

Vocabulary: environment, system, model

Social Studies Updates:

CHAPTER 2 LESSON 3- Symbols of our Country

Essential Question- What are the important symbols of America?

• Recognize the American Flag, what it looks like, and what it represents
• Identify important national symbols that represent the U.S.
• Recognize different songs important to our nation

Vocabulary: pledge, landmark, flag, capital

Health Updates:

NOVEMBER TOPIC: Healthful Foods

Lesson 3:Healthful Food Comes in Many Forms

• Identify how family and culture influences food choices
• Describes how healthful foods come in a variety of forms
• Identify goals for healthful eating routines and food preparation.
• Compare and contrast the needs of living things.

Grade Level Blurb:

• In second grade we are preparing to celebrate our scholars with a pizza party. Please check in with your child’s teacher to get more information on how to donate.

• We are also preparing for our field trips to begin in January 2026. If you have not already, please complete the necessary steps for volunteering if you would like to chaperone any of our field trips. You can find more information about volunteering in Class Dojo in the School Story feed.

• Please remember to check your child’s folder each day for updates and important papers. Reach out to your child’s teacher with any questions on concerns via email or Class Dojo.

Reading Updates:

Remember to read each night for at least 15 minutes.

Math Updates:

We are finishing up our topic on measurement in math. We will take our measurement assessment next week.

Science Updates:

Continue to work on STEM Fair projects. If you have not already, please submit STEM Fair Questions, Hypothesis, Materials, Procedures, and Variables to classroom teachers. Please check in with your child’s classroom teacher for submission details.

Social Studies Updates:

We are still discussing family history. Engage in conversation about family members and the different generations who are present and no longer present in your lives.

Health Updates:

We are working on the brain. Engage in discussion about the different functions of the brain and how it controls our body.

Grade Level Blurb:

Team Third Grade would like to thank our parents who took time to meet with us during conferences. That time is truly valuable as we collaborate to progress your child’s academic endeavors. We are excited to welcome the Science Guys this upcoming week for a few special activities centered around electricity and magnetism. We had a fun and productive week full of hands-on learning and creativity. Here’s what we’ve been working on!

Reading Updates:

Ms. Madison

This week, students studied words with r-controlled vowels (ar, or, oar, and ore). We also continued to read informational text, specifically about unlikely relationships between different animals!

Ms. Howard

This week, our class focused on informational text and practiced using text evidence to support answers, a major skill for 3rd grade!

Social Studies Updates:

Ms. Madison:

In social studies, we started Chapter 2, which addressed economics! Specifically, we started learning about goods, services, producers, and consumers.

Ms. Howard:

In Social Studies, we are learning about communities and how people work together.

Science Updates:

Ms. Hendy:

In Science, we explored magnetism and how magnets can be used to solve everyday problems. Students designed their own “Magnetic Helper”—a creative tool that uses magnetism to help solve a problem at school, outside, or at home. Their ideas were thoughtful, inventive, and fun to see come to life!

Mrs. Flores:

The students took their final application assessment for electricity and magnetism. We kicked-off our new unit on Life Cycles and Traits.

Health Updates:

Ms. Hendy:

This week in Health, students worked on a MyPlate assignment. They practiced identifying and categorizing different foods into the four major food groups: Fruits, Vegetables, Grains, and Proteins. We had great discussions about what a balanced meal looks like and how to make healthy choices.

Mrs. Flores:

The students explored reading food labels to determine the various nutrients/ingredients and their quantities in the food we eat. We learned that not all those ingredients are good for us.

Math Updates:

Ms. Hendy:

In Math, students continued learning about telling time. They practiced writing time in three different ways:

• Digital form

• Analog form

• In words (e.g., “three o’clock”)

They are getting more confident in reading clocks and expressing time accurately.

Mrs. Flores:

The students are discovering the relationship between multiplication and division. They are using equal groups, repeated addition and subtraction, and the commutative property.

We hope our students and families have a wonderful weekend!

Ms. Hendy's Class

Greetings Team 4Ward,

I hope this message finds you well. It’s a joy to partner with you as we support your child’s learning. We are grateful for the care and effort you bring to our classroom community every day. We will have our virtual field trip with the Howard B. Owens Science Center this week. Please ensure that your scholar brings a pair of headphones. The school is not providing headphones this year and we included headphones on the school supply list. This is the time to check in with your scholar about their school supplies. Students need pencils, coloring materials, scissors, and glue each and every day. Speak with your scholar about the supplies they still need in order to be successful for the year.

Many class activities use online tools. A charged computer ensures your child can fully participate in lessons and complete assignments. Students who arrive on time are better prepared for learning and reduce classroom disruptions. Please plan to have your child at school a few minutes early each day. A healthy breakfast helps students focus and have energy for learning. School breakfast is available daily until 8:00 when students arrive in the morning.

As your scholar grows older this is now the time to start setting routines for your child to follow independently. A suggestion could be a checklist of tasks your scholar must do before bed or when they wake up in the morning. Create incentives and other rewards for your scholar when they are able to complete their tasks independently or without reminders.

In our classrooms, we will be working on a variety of assignments and projects designed to challenge and inspire them. I encourage you to check in regularly with your scholar about what they are learning.Your support at home is greatly appreciated and makes a significant difference in their academic success.

Thank you for your ongoing support in your child’s learning journey. We are grateful for the partnership between home and school — together we help every student thrive.

Looking forward to the weeks ahead and to seeing many of you at conferences.

Educationally Yours,

Team 4Ward

Important Upcoming Dates:

• Virtual Field Trip Tuesday November 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 Information:

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. This program will be available all summer for students to continue to utilize in both reading and math. Please help your child complete at least 45 minutes of math and reading to grow their abilities.

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 complete the CMIT South ES Absence Google Form within 3 days of your scholar returning back to school. https://forms.gle/euXzCpDvNGbLwb8U6 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.

It is imperative that work is complete and turned in on time in order to receive full credit. Our district has set policies regarding assignment completion and make-up assignments. Only students that have an excused absence will be given an opportunity to receive and complete missing assignments.

Reading Updates:

We are moving into Volume 2 of our textbooks Unit 4: Impacts. Within this unit students will explore diverse literature styles from all over the world.This year writing is a main focus within our school. As we enter the second quarter scholars' writing will increase in frequency and length. We are expecting them to write at least 8 sentences per essay. How they organize and how clearly they share their points and ideas will also be important in scoring their writing.

This Week:

We began Unit 4 Impacts. In this unit students will seek to answer the question: How do our stories shape our world, while reading diverse literature. This week's text is a collection of traditional tales from around the world “Can You Guess My Name?” In this collection of tales students read about characters that make bargains with other characters but end up tricking them. Students monitored their inner conversations while reading these diverse tales closely. Also scholars described the characters given within each tale and compared and contrasted the themes across the different texts. The word study for this week will be Greek and Latin prefixes auto-, anti-, trans-, and amphi-. Students will also learn the elements of an opinion essay and begin to prewrite their opinion essays.

Next Week:

The text of the week is a collection of traditional tales from around the world “Can You Guess My Name?” In this collection of tales students will read about characters that make bargains with other characters but end up tricking them. Students will continue to read the text closely in order to describe the characters and determine how these traits lead to the events that happened in the story. Students will compose an opinion essay this week in which they will explain which one of the characters from the text was the easiest to trick. We will also have our Word Study Assessment for this week on Greek and Latin prefixes auto-, anti-, trans-, and amphi-. Students will also learn the elements of an opinion essay and begin to prewrite their opinion essays.

Math Updates:

In Math, our scholars are continuing their work in Topic 2: Fluently Add and Subtract Multi-Digit Numbers. This unit focuses on applying mental math, regrouping across zeros, and using addition properties to check accuracy. Many students are developing confidence in their computational fluency, but still benefit from extra practice.

How families can help at home:

• Encourage your scholar to practice basic addition and subtraction facts for 10–15 minutes each evening.

• Have them explain their thinking aloud when solving problems. This helps strengthen reasoning skills.

• Use IXL (Skill Code D9R) or short daily drills to practice subtraction with regrouping and properties of addition.

• Invite your scholar to help with real-life math tasks, such as totaling a grocery bill, counting change, or estimating sums. These real-world applications make learning stick!

Science Updates:

In Science, we are continuing Experience 2: Motion, Speed, and Collisions, and expanding our exploration of energy transfer and transformation through electrical circuits. Students are learning how energy moves from one object to another, powering systems and creating observable effects.

How families can help at home:

• Discuss examples of energy transfer around the house, like a toaster heating bread or a fan converting electrical energy to motion.

• Try simple at-home experiments, such as using a flashlight to show how light energy travels or exploring static electricity with a balloon.

• Encourage your scholar to revisit Topic Readers and BrainPop lessons in Canvas to reinforce vocabulary and concepts like collision, energy transfer, sound, and electricity.

Social Studies Updates:

This week, students read Chapter 2, Americans and Their History, focusing on Lesson 1: America and Europe. They learned how the meeting between Europeans and Native Americans changed both cultures forever and responded to text-dependent questions to demonstrate their understanding.

Grade Level Blurb:

We had a great week of learning in 5th grade! Students showed strong effort, curiosity, and teamwork across all subjects. Thank you for your continued support at home—let’s keep the momentum going!

Reading/Writing Updates:

Students are enhancing their informational and narrative writing skills, emphasizing purposeful structure, clear ideas, and well-developed supporting details.

Math Updates:

Topic 1, Lesson 3: Decimals and Place Value

Students are building their understanding of decimals, comparing and ordering decimals, and identifying place value to the thousandths.

Science Updates:

Topic 6 – Experience 3: Matter in Ecosystems

We are exploring how matter moves through ecosystems and how energy flows between producers, consumers, and decomposers.

Social Studies Updates:

Chapter 3, Lesson 3: The Pilgrims and Puritans

We are studying the early settlers, their reasons for coming to America, and how their beliefs influenced colonial life.

Health Updates:

Students are learning about healthy eating and the different food groups that support a balanced diet.

General CARTS Message:

Please remember to check your student's Canvas assignments and Synergy grades regularly!

Art:

This week in Kindergarten art, we reinforced further that everything in the world is made of shapes and lines! We’re going to show that by creating portraits using only cut out geometric and organic shapes. To get warmed up for that, we read My Shape is Sam by Amanda Jackson. Then we watched a video about the creation of a fun character named Mat Man, and talked about what shapes we can use to create all sorts of “mat people”.

Music:

Seasons greetings are already in order. I’d like to update everyone on students’ attire for the winter concert. We want to keep the event festive so I am asking that students NOT wear athletic gear. No tennis shoes or jeans, please. Any dresses or skirts should be knee length unless accompanied by the appropriate tights or leggings. If students are not able to wear the requested attire, please have them wear their formal dress uniform with the white button-down shirt. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me at mduncan@cmitsouthes.org.

Kindergarten - Festive outfits. They can wear antlers, light-up necklaces, etc.

1st Grade - Spring colors - Purple, blue, green, red, orange, yellow, white, pink.

2nd Grade - Festive outfits… to include antlers, light up necklaces, etc.

3rd Grade - Any combination of blue and white.

4th Grade - Church Attire/Sunday’s Best… hats and gloves are permissible.

5th Grade - Any combination of red, black, and white Sunday’s Best.

Media:

This week we continued to work on our collaborative gratitude board!

LEGO:

This Week in LEGO: Building Our Feelings!

This week in LEGO Club, students explored emotions in a creative and hands-on way! Each student built their own LEGO character and chose a facial expression to match how they were feeling. After building, everyone shared their emotions and explained why they felt that way.

This fun activity helped students recognize and express their feelings while connecting creativity with emotional awareness — one LEGO brick at a time!

2025-2026 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

Student Absence Form