HAPPY NEW YEAR
We hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable holiday season. As we approach midterm, here are a few reminders to help everyone get off to a smooth start in the second semester. If, at any time, you have a question about any policy, please address your questions to your child’s teacher.
*Check with your child concerning school supplies, and replenish where needed.
*Students are to be dropped off between 8:15 A.M. and 8:30 A.M. Students who arrive before 8:15 a.m. are sent to Before School Care and the parents are charged accordingly.
*Students are to be picked up from the carpool gate by 3:15 P.M. Students remaining at carpool at 3:15 P.M. are brought to After School Care and the parents are charged accordingly.
*If there is a change in your child’s afternoon dismissal schedule, please send a note to
the teacher.
*If your child is not allowed to charge drinks, lunch, or snacks in the lunchroom, a note should be on file with the teacher.
*Check your child’s folder nightly (homework or daily folders). Friday folders (grades 1-4) are to be checked, emptied, signed, and returned on Monday mornings. The folder is the major means of communication between the teacher and the parents. Please take the time to look at what is being sent home.
*Encourage your child to read nightly. If he is not yet reading, read to him. If she is struggling to read, take turns reading pages or paragraphs. Talk about what you read to increase comprehension.
*Please label your child’s clothing. Without a name, it is most difficult to return the items, especially Ridgewood clothing.
ENTRANCE EXAM
Entrance exams for new students interested in entering Ridgewood for the 2010-2011 school year will be administered on Saturday, 13 March. Applications can be obtained by calling the school office at 835-2545. Pre-kindergarten enrollment is on a first come first served basis and also requires an application. The entrance requirement for pre-kindergarten is that the child be 4 years old by October 15, and kindergarten students must be 5 years old by October 15.
PARKING & CARPOOL
Please continue to follow the traffic pattern driving from Airline Drive down Pasadena, turning right onto A Street toward Giuffrias. PLEASE DO NOT PARK ANYWHERE IN THE BLOCKS SURROUNDING THE SCHOOL, PARTICULARLY ON “A” STREET ACROSS FROM THE CARPOOL GATE. If your child is not ready when you arrive at the gate, please drive around the block again. These few minutes on your part will keep the carpool line moving smoothly. Parents picking up primary and middle or high school students should pick up the primary child at the carpool gate then proceed to the Giuffrias Street gate to pick up middle/high school students.
SECOND SEMESTER
The first semester of the 2009-2010 school year will end on January 15. Report cards for the third six weeks will be sent home on January 22. The next scheduled parent-teacher conferences will be held on Wednesday, March 10. The fourth report card will be given out at the conference.
KEEP THE LABELS COMING
We will soon receive a check for $146.50 from General Mills for our first Box Tops for Education submission. Our goal for this year is $500. Community Coffee Cash for Schools accepts only one submission per year, and the deadline is Jan. 31. We will send in our submission soon. Thank you for your continued participation in these programs and please keep the labels and UPCs coming. We continue to collect throughout the year, banking for the following year. Why not ask neighbors, family and friends to save for us? The funds are used for various Primary School projects including playground equipment, class rewards, classroom project supplies, and supplemental books and programs requested by individual teachers.
SPOTLIGHT ON STUDENTS
Congratulations to Alexis Ross (third grade) and Ben Mader (fourth grade) who placed Superior in the piano competition held recently at Loyola University. Each student earned a trophy for a Superior rating. Keep up the great work!
DONATIONS ALWAYS ACCEPTED
Clean out that attic and closet and donate your used musical instruments to Ridgewood. We are always happy to add to our instrument inventory, and since Ridgewood is a nonprofit, 501(c)3 education institution, your gift to Ridgewood is tax-deductible.
LOOKING AHEAD
Fourth grade students will participate in the annual Solo and Ensemble Festival, which will be held at Ridgewood in February. Ms. Meyer will provide more information soon.
FROM THE LIBRARY
What a wonderful holiday season in Ridgewood’s library! We want to thank the many families who donated books for McDonogh 42 Elementary School’s library. We raised 777 books (give or take a few) and $83 in cash which the librarian, Alice Hopkins, used to shop the Scholastic Book Fair. The response was overwhelming, and the donated books were all wonderful books in excellent condition. It was so fun to deliver the books to Mc 42 in the Seventh Ward of New Orleans with four student representatives from our school.
By the way, your generous support of the Scholastic Book Fair ensured that it was also a rousing success. The book fair is the library’s number one way to raise funds so we really appreciate the way you take time to shop the fair.
The spirit of giving was moving again when we raised 37 presents for the children at Children’s Hospital. I received a letter of thanks from Roger Gorman, the Director of Development at Chidren’s. He wrote, “Thanks to friends like you, we are able to provide gifts for every child in our care.” I am so proud of all the Ridgewood students who demonstrated that the old adage “it is far better to give than to receive” is alive and well at Ridgewood Prep School. Thanks so much for all the ways you help others and help make the library a special place.
CLASS NOTES
PRE-K: MRS. NUSS
Mrs. Nuss’ PreKindergarten class is kickin’ off the New Year learning about new letters and topics! These amazing pre-kinders have been blending letters and learning to actually read! Throughout this month, we will be learning about letters L and I. In Math, we will begin comparing and understanding numbers through ten. Be on the lookout for their outstanding work displayed in our hallway! On January 22nd, we will go on a Health Hunt at Walgreen’s Take Care Clinic. This field trip will be an introduction for our exciting health and body unit in February. As usual, these kiddos are blasting their way through Pre-K and will be ready for Kindergarten in no time! Happy New Year!!
KINDERGARTEN: MS ENGLISH
Kindergarten is going to start the New Year off right! This is the time of the year when we really start to push to get ready for first grade. For starters, we will no longer be napping! We will instead use the time usually allocated for napping to start working on our writing skills. We will continue cruising along in math and will finish up with the basics of subtraction soon. With that, we will dive right in to the fast paced, exciting world of rocket math! We are also looking forward to finishing up social studies with some discussion of our wonderful country and then move into our first science unit, anatomy. January should be a fun filled month!
FIRST GRADE: MRS. GOLAY
Congratulations to Adam and Naser Raslan both of whom completed their addition rockets in less than 45 days. Now these two math wizards are consistently completing at least 60 problems in a minute. Way to go guys! With 9 days left in the semester, everyone still has time to complete their own addition rockets before we start subtraction on January 18. Also in math, each and every first grader has successfully mastered 2 digit addition with and without renaming. Nice work!
We recently completed our “easy” first grade English book and have now moved on to our “second grade” English book. We will now use what we have learned as we strive to enhance our writing skills.
Within the next couple of weeks, we will be finishing up our Social Studies book. We will then start working on science. We are all looking forward to that!
SECOND GRADE: MRS. BURATTO
Happy 2010! The first semester has ended and we’ve accomplished many things. The students very much enjoyed our first novel, Sarah, Plain and Tall. They studied about life in America in the 1800’s and the challenges the settlers faced. No TV, no electricity, no running water, no Wii! We also focused on the Plains Native Americans, their customs, traditions and culture. Most of the students were happy to being living in 2009. Mateo’s parents, both of native descent, gave wonderful presentations on their tribes, Olivia’s mom treated us to authentic cornbread made in a cast iron skillet just like they would have done in the “old days”, and Olivia’s dad brought in a 100 year old butter churn. Thank you so much for sharing with us. The new year will bring more challenges to 2nd grade. The students will begin cursive writing and copying their assignments in their planners, which is a big responsibility. I know they can rise to the challenge. We change from Social Studies to Science and will be focusing on water, a topic dear to people of southern Louisiana. We will be very busy this 2nd semester. Continued support and guidance from parents will ensure the students’ success with the remainder of the year.
THIRD GRADE: MS. SBISA
I hope everyone had a happy holiday and I wish everyone a wonderful new year! The third grade class is wrapping up Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (finally!) and the book turned out to be a class favorite! We would like to share our favorite parts with you:
Reece: “My favorite part was when Augustus got sucked up the pipe in the Chocolate River.”
Rivers: “My favorite part was when Charlie found the last Golden Ticket.”
Alexis: “My favorite part was when Charlie found the last Golden Ticket. It was like getting a Christmas present you always wanted!”
Destiny: “My favorite part was when Augustus got sucked up the pipe in the Chocolate River.”
Joe: “My favorite part was when Augustus got sucked up the pipe in the Chocolate River.”
Matias: “My favorite part was when Augustus got sucked up the pipe in the Chocolate River.”
Chloe: “My favorite part was when Violet turned violet!”
Keep up with those math facts, guys! Our multiplication skills will be growing stronger as we continue practice with larger factors. There are some exciting upcoming changes coming soon! We will soon study the wonders of chemistry and conducting cool experiments! Look for us in the Science Lab soon!
FOURTH GRADE: MS. MARRONE
First of all, I would like to thank the Fourth Grade parents and students for their patience, dedication, and hard work over the last six weeks! We’ve made it out of the tunnel that was the last semester and are finally seeing the light at the other end!
With the beginning of the second semester, Fourth Graders will commence learning the physics of motion in Science class. We have a lot of fun “hands on” experiments to perform, and I am looking forward to guiding the students in their studies about the workings of the world around them. I am also excited about starting a second in-class novel, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. This fantastical tale has been loved many times over by children around the world, and I know the children will enjoy their literary travels through the magical land of Narnia. We will continue to drill basic concepts in all core subjects in order to prepare students for the Fifth Grade (which is coming all too soon!). Multiplication and division in Math, restating the question and using correct grammar in Reading and English, and keeping our handwriting neat and legible are continuing themes for the rest of the year.