October is my favorite month of the year! The landscape is beautiful and after being in school for a month, we are on our way to a rainbow of possibilities.

I know my newsletters can be lengthy at times, but it is my way of making sure you have all the information that you need to help us have a successful school year. We have a lot of great things happening here at North and we want you to know how important our families are to us. Please don't forget to write down the important dates indicated below.

Every week students are reviewing character traits that are embedded throughout the day. These weekly lessons are reinforced during morning announcements, in the classroom, in the cafeteria, at recess, on the bus, and during discussions, we have with students who come down to the office.

This is what we have covered so far:

Greeting others

Accepting others/showing tolerance

Being punctual and prepared for class

Following instructions

Active listening

Appropriately gaining teacher’s attention

Over the next 3 weeks, we will be reviewing:

Disagreeing appropriately

Being kind to others

Appropriately managing feelings

Please continue to help us by reinforcing and continuing these conversations at home. These traits connect to the social-emotional competencies that are students need as they move through their educational careers and more importantly when they move on from school.

Thank you so much to those of you who have completed the Back To School Gateway! If you have not, please follow the instructions that Mrs. Fogg sent out yesterday in an email. If you are having trouble, please do not hesitate to call Mrs. Fogg at 508-324-3170 and she can help. In addition to having all of the emergency contacts up to date, if your student is in a quarantine situation or has tested positive for Covid and has to stay home, they are not allowed to bring home a Chromebook unless you have signed the technology agreement that is included in the "Back To School Gateway" paperwork.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/174dToCQqvibQuKtoj3wOStDN_K8lTAGq/view?usp=sharing

Please please please when you have a moment, complete the Gateway. It will make Mrs. Fogg very happy!!!!!

Please enjoy the month of October and stay healthy!!

October 11th - No School

October 18th-Pumpkin Patch and Hayride

October 22nd- Trunk and Treat PTO Event by sign-up

October 25th-29th - Fun , Freaky and Creative Spirit Week

October 27th- Early Release 12:30 (bag lunch to be provided)

October 29th- November 10th- Boosterthon Fundraiser

Monday, October 25th - Freaky-Fun Face Mask Day (Not Scary or Gory. Please remember to follow face-covering guidelines - No Gaters or bandanas)

Tuesday, October 26th- Freaky Socks Day

Wednesday, October 27th- Orange and Black Day

Thursday, October 28th - Freaky Hair Day

Friday, October 29th- Dress like your favorite Story-Book Character. Please no weapons, masks, or scary costumes.

Check out the pictures throughout the newsletter as we showed off the colors of the rainbow as we highlighted our TiGER PRIDE.

Monday Red Day- Wear red for Perseverance

• We can push ourselves to work through challenges

Tuesday Orange Day- Wear orange for Respect

• We care enough to consider how words and actions impact others

Wednesday Green Day- Wear green for Independence

• We can feel motivated to set and work towards meaningful goals, make responsible decisions and connect with others who support us in our work

Thursday Blue Day- Wear Blue Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

• We believe that our individual, unique perspectives and backgrounds are valued equally and make our school a better place

Friday Purple Day- Wear Purple for Empathy

• We can work to understand how someone else is feeling and show compassion towards others

Here are some little creatures and their habitats our students have been observing around the outside of building.

Get Ready!!!!!

We are excited to kick off our North Elementary Fun Run on 10/29. Our goal is to raise $17,000 for enrichment programs, field trips, and social-emotional learning and to strengthen our school community.

Here’s what all students can get excited about:

• Fun, engaging character development lessons

• A high-energy event to give our school a much-needed boost of fun!

Registration to help our school opens up NEXT WEEK on 10/15. Go to mybooster.com in order to register. Be on the lookout for more details.

Thank you for supporting North Elementary through the North Elementary Fun Run.

WE NEED SPONSORS!!!!!

Each year, North T-Shirts are provided by our PTO for all students and staff to wear throughout the year. Sponsors help pay for them. If you have a business or want to make a donation to help subsidize the cost, send it in by Tuesday. Sponsors will be written on the back of the shirts. Forms went home this week.

**$500 Sponsors will also get their logos printed on a 3’ x 6’ banner that will hang in the gym through November 2022. (Cost of the banner is not included in the sponsor fee)**

All Sponsors must be in by this Tuesday (October 12th).

HAPPY OCTOBER!

Health Office guidelines only permit 1 student at a time. Your child may report having had to wait to see the School Nurse. Be assured that your child’s teacher has contacted me and I have taken the highest priority students first. Triaging students in a pandemic has made some common childhood events a low priority. Bloody noses, minor abrasions, and lost teeth are often handled in the classroom. My focus is keeping healthy students away from sick students, and these students are still considered healthy. Exposing them to unnecessary germs increases their likelihood of getting an illness.

If your child is experiencing any of the following, please do not send them to school and contact the Health Office:

*Fever 100F or higher *Nausea/Vomiting/Diarrhea(with another

*Difficulty breathing symptom)

*Chills, shaking chills *Nasal Congestion (with another symptom)

*Muscle aches/body aches *Headache (with another symptom)

*Cough *Sore throat (with another symptom)

*Loss of taste/smell *Fatigue (with another symptom)

All students who are out of school with Covid like symptoms have 3 options for being cleared to return to school. They are:

1. Remain out of school for 10 day duration in the event their symptoms are Covid related OR

2. Have pediatrician evaluation and present a note with an alternative diagnosis for symptoms OR

3. A negative PCR Covid-19 test

**All test results must be forward to the nurse before your child can be cleared to return to school**

If your child has been exposed to Covid-19 and is a designated close contact they will need to remain out of school. Each quarantine period is different so please contact the Health Office right away to determine the safest and quickest way to return your child to school.

I am beginning the process of screenings on our students. If your child wears glasses, please remember to send them to school with them. Vision screens should be done while the student is wearing their corrective lenses. Grades 1 and Grades 4 will have BMI screenings and Grade 5 will be screened for scoliosis in addition to hearing/vision. BMI and scoliosis screenings can be opted out. Please provide a written request either via note or email if you would like to opt your child out .

We are diving deep into our Tree Study. Students are enjoying hands-on activities to explore all parts of trees, animals that live in trees, and how trees change. For centers, students are working on sensory activities to help learn the Lively Letters of the week as well as creating arts and crafts related to our Tree Study.

We are having fun playing and learning. We are listening to seasonal stories. We are learning about trees and exploring autumn leaves. We are learning how to use materials like crayons, markers, bingo markers, and scissors. Most of all we are learning how to be a friend, share, and be a great listener.

The Insights I class has had an exciting start to the month of October. Students have enjoyed the start of Fall and the changes we are seeing outside. We have started our unit on "Animals in Their Homes", focusing on different habitats and the animals that call them home. Students also participated in our North spirit week, wearing different colors each day to represent perseverance, respect, independence, diversity, and empathy. During the month of October, we will also focus on the life cycle of pumpkins. Students will get a first-hand look at the parts of a pumpkin and the process of picking the perfect pumpkin.

In kindergarten, we have been focusing on getting to know one another and learning our classroom rules and routines. During ELA, we have been reading stories about school and completing fun hands-on activities. The students have been working very hard at identifying and writing their names with one uppercase letter and the rest lowercase. In math, we have been exploring our math manipulatives and identifying two-dimensional shapes. We are practicing how to identify, describe, draw and sort squares, triangles, circles, rectangles, and hexagons. In science, we have begun to talk about and explore the changes that occur in weather and the seasons.

The first graders have settled in nicely and are working hard to remember and model the expectations for both academics and behavior. This is especially challenging as the students have just returned to the classroom. Responsive Classroom components are being incorporated daily. Our math and reading work is well underway. We have already practiced making models to represent math story problems as well as writing addition sentences for those problems. All classes have begun to do the same for subtraction. The students will also be closely listening for the math language that helps to identify which operation to use. In reading, we will begin Umbrella 3, The Importance of Friendship. All of our texts will focus on the value and importance of good friends. Our writing focus for the month is opinion pieces. The first-grade standard is to state an opinion, provide at least two reasons for the opinion, and write an ending. The first graders will also begin their first science unit, Sky Watchers. The holidays of Columbus Day and Halloween will also be integrated into our school activities. While we reluctantly say goodbye to summer, we fall forward with spirit and excitement!

Second graders have been building their classroom communities! Over the past month, routines have been established, friendships made, and we have developed a “growth mindset”! That means we all can do challenging things to make our brains stronger.

Moving forward, October brings the crisp, fall air and an opportunity to grow in our independence. Students will now be involved in completing routines in small groups and independently. Responsibility and working towards a “personal best” will be encouraged.

The curriculum will lead second graders into reading and listening to many stories involving interesting characters, story elements such as setting, problem and solution, and growing their reading stamina! In math, we’ll examine place value through 1,000 and think critically about solving problems. Offering multiple solutions and discussing these outcomes leads to a collaborative math community! Speaking of communities, second graders are now aware of urban, suburban and rural community characteristics! These terms will be used throughout the year to help build our social studies vocabulary. Our writer’s are busy learning how to express their opinions. This writing unit will continue throughout the trimester. Please support your second grader by encouraging independence with their nightly homework routines.

Happy October! We continue to work on establishing rituals and routines to meet third-grade expectations in the classrooms. In math, students will start to gather and use data in meaningful ways. In science, we will continue our investigations with water and climate. In writing, we are learning how to write a paragraph using all three parts which will lead into our first genre of writing called Narrative Writing. In reading, we are reading books by one author and illustrator and noticing how certain authors use similar characteristics throughout the different books they write or illustrate. In social studies, we will be learning how to locate and describe places in New England and Massachusetts using map skills and other natural features.

Please remember to sign your child’s agenda nightly as a sign of continued communication between home and school.

Our fourth graders have done a great job adapting to our classroom routines and procedures over the last month. They are also working hard on our Beginning-of-Year benchmarks which we will be wrapping up during the first week of October.

In Math, we are moving into Chapter 2: Multiply by 1- digit numbers. It is very important that students know their multiplication facts through the 12’s table in order to be successful with fourth grade Math. Please encourage them to practice using flashcards and/or Reflex.

We are continuing to investigate soil,rocks, and landforms in science. The students are enjoying many hands-on activities involving chemical and physical weathering.

Fourth grade readers and writers are spending time on independent reading, small group guided reading, and narrative writing.

Fall has arrived and with it a flurry of new learning in 5th grade. Our science investigations have taken us outside and all the way to outer space to discover how the movement of the Earth affects days, years, and even seasons. In history we will continue to explore the colonization of North America, traveling the eastern coastline from Georgia to Maine. We will focus on the reasons and effects of colonization. We are also continuing our learning with multiplication and division this month. These essential skills will be the foundation of many of the new skills we encounter throughout the year. Because of this, please work with your child at home to ensure that they are fluent in their multiplication facts. Finally, in English language arts we will be working on narrative writing and examine the many different genres of literature.

Throughout September and October, all students were assessed and screened to help identify goals for the year in reading, writing, and math. This information will be reviewed by the intervention department and classroom teachers during the week of October 11th. Intervention groups will be starting on October 18th. During the daily grade level thirty-minute WIN/RTI (what I need/response to intervention) block, all students will be working on their individual goals. Your child may receive intervention inside of their classroom with their classroom teacher or they may see an interventionist outside of the classroom. If your child receives services from the intervention department, parents will be receiving a letter. If you receive a letter, please sign and return it by October 29th. This is a data-driven process and your child's teacher will continue to work on helping all students meet their goals this year. We hope you have a safe and happy October!

Students in grades 2nd-5th received an email from Mrs. Rausch and Mrs. Lafontaine about an opportunity to participate in a performing arts program during their recess time, once per week. We are very excited about this opportunity. Please read the email sent to your email, and talk to your child about the opportunity. The 5-week session is voluntary but does require some commitment and will begin later this month. Check your email for more information.

stefanie.lafontain@somersetschools.org

christina.rausch@somersetschools.org

Last week, our superintendent Mr. Jeffrey Schoonover sent out an email to parents with some updated Covid information from the state and the district. The email included information for students with confirmed cases of Covid or who have been identified as close contacts here at school.

Beginning this week, students who are quarantined because they are positive with COVID or have been identified by the school as a close contact and must quarantine may access their classrooms remotely in a modified way from last year. Even though remote learning is different from last year, Somerset and Somerset Berkley are two of only several districts in Southeastern Massachusetts that are allowing students to join their classrooms remotely while having to isolate due to COVID.

If your child is out for COVID, work will be provided to those students through Google Classroom or through packets that can be picked up from school. Students will then be able to join their classes through Google Meet or Zoom, depending on which platform the teacher uses, to observe and/or listen to the lessons taking place. Elementary classroom schedules are different for each class. Therefore your child’s teacher will let you know the times your child can sign on. Affected students will receive an invitation link from the classroom teacher to join the class remotely. It is important to know at the elementary level that teachers will be engaged in teaching the class in front of them, and will not be sitting in front of the screen or be able to monitor or supervise students who are connected remotely. This is different from last year as teachers will not be able to provide students on the screen individualized attention while they are teaching the class. Questions can be emailed to the teacher and they will respond when they can during that day.

It is also important to know that this remote option is only available to students who are positive with COVID or have been identified here at school as a close contact. Students who are out due to other illnesses for extended periods will still be able to pick up work here at school from their child’s teacher. Please continue to communicate with your child’s teacher if you have any questions about missing work or how you can help your child if they are going to be absent from school for an extended period of time. Our teachers continue to be committed to the success of our students and your partnership is important.

The Somerset Education Foundation provides small grants for teachers in Somerset and Berkley Schools. Their next event is a Halloween Fun Run 5K that will be held on Saturday, October 30th.

Link for race and poster below.

https://racewire.com/register.php?id=12475&fbclid=IwAR1vp5FtK-aDljuWJA-eyyHzjTptvSa3fOgRwcp0gmpKY5600-lb3Cr9Q7g

Thank you for joining us for our virtual open house.