North Tiger Beat
March 2021
100 Days of School!!!
Happy March
Bus Transportation
There are no longer capacity restrictions on buses. This means that students can share the same seats on the bus. Students are required to wear masks at all times on buses. If your child currently takes the bus on their cohort days, we will keep them as taking the bus 5 days a week. We continue to follow the bus policy of one drop-off and one pick-up location. Please note that due to more students being on the bus, bus routes may take longer which will impact pick-up and drop-off times.
Parent Drop-Off and Pick-Up
Due to more students attending daily, we need parents to continue to be patient and follow procedures to ensure safe drop-off and parent pick-up. To help minimize wait time, please remain in your car and have your child exit from the passenger side. Please drive up as far as you can to allow for additional cars behind you. Please continue to work with students on how to buckle themselves in their own seats or to be independent safely entering and exiting vehicles. We will continue to use the scanner to identify you and your child. Please make sure you have QR code ready to be scanned.
Travel Guidelines
We are still following the Mass.gov travel guidelines. Please report out-of-state travel to our school nurse as this will also help us determine when it is safe to return your child to the building.
Students with Symptoms
Please continue to screen your children prior to coming to school. Cold symptoms mimic Covid symptoms, especially in younger children. If your child is noted to be having one or more symptoms from the Covid list, please keep your child home and contact our school nurse, Stephanie Roy.
Masking
Students and adults on school grounds need to wear masks. Students will be wearing masks at all times, except during lunch or snack time, and during adult-supervised mask breaks. Due to the increased number of students in the building and at recess, students will be asked to wear masks during recess unless during a supervised mask break.
Important Dates
March 24th: Parent-Teacher Conferences by appointment NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS
March 24th: Somerset Middle School Building Forum at 6:00 Zoom link to be sent the day before
March 26th: Somerset Berkley Ed Foundation Trivia Night 7:00 PM Zoom link to be sent the day before
April 2nd: No School
April 9th: PTO BINGO VIRTUAL NIGHT
April 14th: Early Release @ 12:00 (Bag lunch to take home)
April 19th-23rd: Vacation (No School)
April 27th-PTO Meeting 6:00 Zoom link to be sent the day before
April 28th- Early Release @ 12:00 (Bag lunch to take home)
May 31st- Memorial Day No School
June 6th- Early Release @ 12:00 (Bag lunch to take home)
June 15th, June 16th, June 17th - Early Release @ 12:30 (Bag lunch to take home)
Parent Teacher Conferences by Appointment
Culture Week
Superheros
Random Acts of kindness
Read Across America and Dr. Seuss's Birthday
Mrs. Fogg reads a German children's book to our students
Mrs. Fogg age 3, wearing her Lederhosen.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q74xHcdbCnOKU5RJnljGPDkckRyNm4cW/view?usp=drive_web
SPS School Committee Member Mr. Michael McDonald reads to our students
Mr. McDonald third from the left front row during his college days.
From our Tech Team
Dear Parents and Guardians,
We hope this email finds you and your family well. As we move into March and combination (remote and hybrid, conducted simultaneously) learning continues, we wanted to keep the lines of communication open to you all regarding tech support. Please contact us regarding any technology issues, questions or concerns you may have.
We continue to offer Tech Tuesday on the first Tuesday of the month, with June Mitchell at South School and Chris Green at Chace; North parents and students may choose either for help, if needed. The links for the signups are on the school websites - June’s Signup is on the South website, while Chris’ is on the Chace website. This help can be either virtual (via Google Meet) or face to face, with a parent bringing the CB to the school. Please let us know if we can help with any technology questions or concerns. We can also schedule a phone call or Google Meet to resolve technology issues as needed.
As stated in February, we’ve seen an upswing in the number of damaged Chromebooks; we are including a link (CLICK HERE) to help guide parents and students on care and maintenance of your school issued Chromebook. Please pay particular attention to the portion on cleaning your screen - never spray any liquid directly on the screen, and harsh cleaners such as Windex should never be used on a computer screen.
At this point, we are extremely limited on our supply of replacement Chromebooks; we have a working list of students that need to have devices swapped out; due to the critically low number of replacements we have, the only ones we’re able to swap at this point are those that are not functional - either with broken screens or will not turn on. We understand that a growing number of students have CBs that have non-functional cameras, and ask that you continue to use these until we contact you regarding a swap.
If students are using their own (or a family device) to access their schoolwork, please see the link below. We STRONGLY recommend using the Chrome browser to do schoolwork, and this link (CLICK HERE) will provide step-by-step instructions on how to connect your Chromebook to your school account.
CONTACT US:
June Mitchell - june.mitchell@somersetschools.org - 508-324-3180
Chris Green - christopher.green@somersetschools.org - 508-324-3160.
Best regards,
June & Chris
Grade Level Happenings
PreK
1st Grade
The first graders have a busy month ahead! We have come back to planet Earth from outer space and will continue our informative reading and writing activities, this time with seeds and growing as our topic. In mathematics, we will be identifying and using strategies for addition and subtraction. The relationship between these two operations is an important part of early number sense and will carry over to the next math chapter, too. In science, the first graders are working in the area of physical science as we learn about the properties of light and sound. Independent reading practice will have an increased focus for all students and we look forward to discussing ways to increase student reading time with our families at parent teacher conferences later in the month. As we “march” into spring, we feel lucky for our friendships and appreciate all the hard work that everyone is demonstrating.
2nd Grade
March is here!!! This month is certainly coming in like a lion with many events and activities to celebrate. We marked the 100th day of second grade on our 1st day of March. Second graders are showing how they are 100 days wiser through various Literacy, Math and STEM activities!! The beginning of March also brought in Read Across America and Culture week. We have celebrated by sharing wonderful stories and discussions about how we can all learn and love how different we all are!!
In Reading, exploring informational texts has connected to our Writing of Informational Reports. Our students have been engaged as they use text features to learn about the world! Understanding that illustrations and specific features from informational texts can better help them understand what they are reading. Using a variety of topics, the classes will read articles closely, while going back into the text to find evidence. This text evidence helps to form clear and concise answers to questions. As writers, your child has been writing lengthier pieces of informational reports containing an introduction, main idea, and conclusion paragraph.
Get ready for 2 digit and 3 digit addition and subtraction in our next few Math chapters. Students will be looking at many strategies to working on multi-digit addition and subtraction. Continuing to practice math facts in the Reflex program will help with this multi-digit math.
Please take some time to enjoy the outdoors as the weather begins to warm up! Fresh air and outdoor play contributes to a healthy mind!
Have a great March!
3rd Grade
We are so excited to see our third graders are marching into spring! In math students are learning about fractions greater than a whole and will move into learning about fractions of a group. In ELA we are wrapping up our study of non-fiction text, focusing on how text features help readers better understand what they are reading. Next, in writing, we are continuing our practice of informational writing and will be jumping into learning how to write opinion pieces soon. The American Revolution is our focus in social studies, and in science children are completing their exploration of motion and matter. We are looking forward to welcoming everyone coming back to in-person learning five days a week very soon!
4th Grade
Hello, 4th-grade families! It is hard to believe that spring is just around the corner. We are all looking forward to the longer days and warmer weather! During the month of March, students will be continuing to learn about fractions in math. Once students have mastered how to create equivalent fractions and compare them, they will then begin to apply these skills to addition and subtraction of fractions. Please continue to encourage your child to get their green light regularly on Reflex to help practice and master their multiplication facts. Science classes will be continuing to learn about energy this month. They will be focusing on magnetism, different forms of energy, energy transfer, and the conservation of energy. In reading and writing, students will continue to work with expository text. They will be reading different types of expository text and learning about the different organizational structures used in this genre. They will also continue to learn strategies to create their own expository writing pieces. Students will continue working on grammar skills as well as reading strategies to apply to both their reading and responding to text. All students should continue to get their Lexia minutes in each week, which will further reinforce the language art skills they are learning in the classroom. Finally, in social studies, students will be focusing on the midwestern region of North America. Students will learn about the history, climate, landscape, economy, natural resources, landmarks, and culture of this region.
5th Grade
Senior Capstone Project Leading a Helping Hand!!!
- Donation box for ER nurses (Capstone Projects from SBRHS Sr.). We are collecting one more week. Please send in any donations by March 23rd.
Ms. Wilson's Art Corner
We all continue to be impressed by our North Elementary artists! We are looking forward to the spring season which will inspire many of our art lessons.
We can’t wait to see everyone back in school! As many of us will be coming to school 5 days per week, it is very important that students bring in their own art materials on days they have art, as we cannot share supplies. Please see Art supply lists from the beginning of the school year.
Kindergarten
First Grade
Second Grade
Third Grade and Fourth Grade
Fifth Grade
Nurse Stephanie
Happy March!!
As our community Covid numbers decrease, this reflects in our pediatric population as well. We have seen a significant decline in the number of Covid positive students and close contacts in our school.
If your student was exposed to someone with Covid-19, please notify the School Nurse as soon as possible. This will help us determine when your child can return to school safely. All protected health information will remain confidential.
We are still following the Mass.gov travel guidelines. Please report out-of-state travel as this will also help us determine when it is safe to return your child to the building.
Please continue to screen your children prior to in person learning. Cold symptoms mimic Covid symptoms, especially in younger children. If your child is noted to be having one or more symptoms from the Covid list, they will be placed into immediate isolation and asked to be dismissed from school. They will need to remain out of school for 10 days or provide a negative Covid screen to return prior. Until we can determine if your child’s symptoms are in fact, not Covid related, it places the population of our school in jeopardy.
If your child has had a recent physical, please send along a copy for their medical records.
The Department of Public Health has waived our screenings this year. If your student’s teacher, or yourself, are having concerns about their vision or hearing, please contact their primary pediatrician for evaluation. We will also not be conducting BMI and postural screens.
Somerset Berkley Education Foundation is hosting a TRIVIA NIGHT!!! FRIDAY, March 26th at 7:00PM
http://somersetberkleyeducationfoundation.org/
https://www.facebook.com/SomersetBerkleyEducationFoundation/