EAGLET OCTOBER 2009
CONFERENCE DAY
Primary School Conference Day will be held on Friday, 9 October. There will be no school FOR GRADES PRE-K THROUGH FOUR ONLY. There will be no Before or After School Care on conference day. This is a regular day of school for Middle and High School students. Teachers have sent home appointment times and request that you confirm your appointment as soon as possible. You will be given your child’s report card at your conference.

SPOTLIGHT ON STUDENTS
Congratulations to Leah Munson and Matthew Quirk. Leah and Matthew are kindergarten students who will take part in Ridgewood’s homecoming as flower girl and crown and scepter bearer. The homecoming game will take place on Friday, October 23, at 7:30 at Jefferson Playground. Come cheer them on!

We would like to spotlight out Primary School students’ accomplishments in the EAGLET. If you have something to share about your child’s activities outside of school, please send them in writing to the teacher and we will publish them.

NICE TO MEET YOU
Thanks to all of our parents for a very successful open house. The turn out was great and the teachers enjoyed meeting with you to share important information about their classrooms and curriculums.

Thanks to Mr. Eddleman and Ms. Coviello for coordinating and supervising the babysitting session. MANY, MANY THANKS to Student Council and Library Club members for watching over and entertaining our little ones.

BEFORE 8:15? AFTER 3:15?
This is a reminder about school policy regarding early arrival and late departure of Primary School students. Any student who arrives before 8:15 AM, and is not supervised by a parent, must report to Before School Care. Likewise, any student not picked up from carpool by 3:15 PM is signed in to After School Care by the teacher on duty. After much consideration and experience on the school’s part, this policy has been implemented to insure the safety of each student in our charge. Primary School students are to be under the supervision of an adult faculty or staff person at all times while on the school campus.

CLASS NOTES
PRE-K: MRS. NUSS
Mrs. Nuss’ pre-kindergarten class is off to a wonderful start! We are kickin’ off the month of October learning about letter “G.” In September, we soared through letters “C” and “O!” We also learned about nursery rhymes, seasons, and the five senses. We have had a great time playing in our classroom centers, as well as making new friends. These pre-kinders have been doing so well in handwriting, including writing their first names! Throughout the month of October, we will be busy working on letters G, A and D, graphing, patterns and more. On October 27th, we will be celebrating Kaitlyn’s birthday as she turns five! Be on the lookout for some of the finest pre- kindergarten students around, as we blast through the month of October! Happy Fall!

KINDERGARTEN: MS. ENGLISH
We are off to a fantastic start this year in kindergarten. We have had a lot of fun getting used to school and learning new things. We have explored the five senses, talked about the seasons, and learned about cities, farms, water, and forests. We have also practiced hearing and creating rhymes, made a lot of beautiful artwork, and of course played very hard! In the next six weeks we will get ready to read, do addition and write. Everyone has been working hard and I know we will have a fun and successful year!

FIRST GRADE: MRS. GOLAY
Mrs. Golay and all the returning eagles welcome Adam and Naser Raslan to Ridgewood. These two new eagles have been an awesome addition to the class.

The first six weeks of first grade has been a period of adjustment. We have been finding the transition from kindergarten to first grade to be quite challenging with so much “work” and with so many “rules.” We are trying very hard to earn our first “good behavior” party. So far we have three squares colored in, and we are striving to get seven more colored in soon. Aidan Nugent’s mom has very kindly offered to send in a cookie cake for our party when we get that tenth square colored.

We have been busy in English learning about asking and telling sentences, capitals and end marks, and nouns. In social studies we made a Louisiana book and learned many interesting facts about our state. We are finishing up our first reading book. Our reading skills will continue to improve as we work our way through the reading curriculum. Regular reading practice at home each night will help as well.

Rocket math is going very well. Thus far, everyone is on or ahead of pace, and we have several students with goals in the upper thirties. Also in math, we have been learning to add three addends at a time. Math definitely seems to be this class’s best subject!

Be sure to ask your first grader about our “Word Wall.” We have already built up a pretty impressive list of words that your child should be able to tell you all about. Some words on the list are synonym, antonym, addend, sum, difference, singular, plural, and Mrs. Golay’s favorite word, onomatopoeia.

SECOND GRADE: MS. BURATTO
We can’t believe the first six weeks is already wrapping up! Time flies when you’re having fun learning. The students have enjoyed the Nature Unit in reading. We are beginning the writing process and have undertaken our first research report on animals found around a pond. I’ve shared with them many pictures of my time in Alaska and all the beautiful animals I was lucky enough to see. Our family trees came out wonderfully and I think the students had a great time learning about their family members. Thank you to all who contributed to our recipe book. I know the kids are excited about getting into the kitchen and cooking with you. Soon we will begin our first novel, Sarah, Plain and Tall.

Thank you to all parents who came to open house, and I look forward to working with your child this year.

THIRD GRADE: MS. SBISA
The third grade class is getting off to a wonderful start! Since the start of the school year, we have been reading exciting stories themed around heroism. Our favorite class story has been voted: “Dogzilla”! If you have not yet read the story, the third- graders strongly recommend the story written by Dav Pilkey. Shortly, we will begin to read our first class novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. As for the rest of our busy day, the English lessons are currently centered on nouns. We are exploring what nouns are, the different types of nouns, and the proper ways to use and spell nouns. We are practicing and refining our addition/subtraction skills. We are exploring how to use these skills and discovering how often we use these skills in our everyday life. Our Social Studies chapter about communities has been informative. We recently had an opportunity to show our creativity by designing our own type of rural map, suburban map, and urban map. We hung our maps up for our parents to see during their visit to Open House.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the parents who came out to Open House on September 17th. I appreciate your support in helping your child achieve academic success! I am looking forward to working with you throughout the year.

FOURTH GRADE: MS. ZEUTHEN
The fourth grade class welcomes three new students to Ridgewood this year: Jordan Alexander, Ethan Ohler, and Lane Petitt. Old and new students are working hard to adjust to the brand new school year as the Primary School Senior Class!

Fourth grade has been very busy these first six weeks. We have been reading short stories in Reading and working hard on our comprehension skills. Shortly, we will be moving on to reading a chapter book as a class. We are working on our writing skills in English. In Math we worked our way through place value, ordering/comparing numbers, and estimation. Finally, in Social Studies we finished a unit on geography skills and are currently working on Chapter 1. Soon we will begin our projects on the regions of the U.S.—more information will come as the time gets closer.

Keep up the hard work Fourth Grade!