MISSION STATEMENT: The North Ridge learning community is committed to helping all of our stu-dents become lifelong learners by building their social, emotional and aca-demic skills. Together we will encourage them to develop self-confidence and promote respect for themselves and others. Through a growing understand-ing of their rights and responsibilities, our children will become contributing citizens of the world in which we live.

“It’s a Very Fine Place”

North Ridge PTA meetings will be held virtually and are usually held on a monthly basis. Dates and times are posted in the district calendar and the Principal’s newsletters. Your involvement in PTA meetings and PTA func-tions is essential to provide meaningful and direct support to our students. The PTA president for the 2021-2022 school year is Leana Visalli (631) 560-5445. Committee chairs and volunteers are always welcome and needed to make PTA functions successful. We encourage all of our families to be involved in our PTA! Our next “Virtual” PTA meeting will be held Monday, October 18th @ 7:00pm. Please join us!

Dear North Ridge Families, Welcome to the start of the 2021/22 school year. I am excited to welcome parents and students at North Ridge in this, “Very Fine Place.” Our school climate contin-ues to instill a life-long love of learning. In the first few weeks of school, our arrival and dismis-sal plans have been working, keeping everyone safe. Also, buses have been arriving in a timely manner, we thank transportation for their diligent work during the first month of school. Our custodians have been work-ing hard to keep our school disinfected according to District Guidelines. We pride ourselves on being a family and maintaining open communication. Please visit our school webpage to keep you up to date on the latest happenings at North Ridge, as well as the PTA website. Also, continue to view our District Website which will keep you in-formed with the district happenings. Please feel free to contact us whenever you need your questions an-swered. If your child will be absent, please call the School Nurse at 631-912-2196. Also, please pack an additional face mask in your child’s backpack. Please continue to check your child’s google classroom for all information, this is the main location for teach-ers to communicate out to families. On behalf of the staff, I welcome all of you to an excit-ing, successful and meaningful school year. Warm Regards,

Be sure to visit the Commack School District Website at: www.commack.k12.ny.us

September - November 2021 - Principal’s Newsletter

2021

FALL North Ridge Review

Important Phone Numbers: NR Nurse (Absence Calls): 631-912-2196 NR Fax: 631-912-2260 NR Main Office: 631-912-2190

WHAT’S NEW AT

NORTH RIDGE?

This month second graders are studying “Communities” in their Social Studies curriculum. They will explore the concept of Identity, through various texts and literature. Our students will be actively engaged in reading fiction and non-fiction books. Second graders will make meaningful connections to our Character Ed Program beginning with the traits of Courtesy and Citizenship. Students are excited to receive Spirit Sticks as they model these character traits. In reading, we take a closer look into text content to gain a better understanding of what we read. We are discovering the wonderful world of Personal Narratives. Students are eager to write about a small moment in their lives. Spelling takes an interactive leap with our students working on Fundations of spelling to reinforce concepts and strategies. Each week they build upon key principles to help them become better spellers and writers. Math places students at a higher level of mastery with Math in Focus. Second grade instruction begins with our first topic: Place Value to 500. We are building number sense through exploration of concepts, guided learning, independent practice and journal writing, in order to become high level problem solvers. We are full immersed in our study of the three states of matter. We are using simple logical reasoning to develop conclusions and recognizing patterns and relationships present in the environment. We are asking “why” questions in attempts to seek greater understanding concerning objects and events and making predictions based on prior experiences. Ask us about the experiments we have been conducting! Technology keeps us continually moving forward during our computer time in our classrooms as we explore our Chromebooks. We will continue to work hard on all our academic pursuits.

Happy Autumn from the Second Grade Teachers!

Our North Ridge kindergartners are enjoying school and adjusting beautifully. They are meet-ing new friends, learning routines and are actively engaged in learning. Throughout the month of September and October we will be learning about numbers to 10, matching, and same and different in math. The children have started Readers’ and Writers’ Workshop. We are starting with procedures, behaviors and the workshop model. We have started with letter sounds and handwriting in Fundations. In science the children are discovering forces and interactions. Our social studies curriculum has started with learning about ourselves and others. We are focusing on our names, birthday, family, things that make us special, respect, getting along with others and our classroom community. We are off to a great start! Happy Fall from the Kindergarten Teachers!!!

Kindhearted

Kindergarteners

All the first graders survived the new routines of September with flying colors! Now it is officially autumn and the children are reaping the rewards of kindergarten experiences that happened so long ago. The children are fully engaged in the curriculum. Several different stories have been explored during our reading work-shop. In math the children are learning the recognition of their number words. They continue to compare numbers using the words more than, fewer than, and the same as. In addition, the students continue to work on number patterns and num-ber bonds. In social studies, the children have compared the Country’s Constitution to the rules of each classroom. The children will continue to study citizenship, as well as various holidays that occur during the Fall season. Empathy training is the focus of first grade’s Second Step program. The students are fascinated by the way faces can show such different emotions! In our Healthsmart program, the children are learning how to keep themselves healthy, as well. The children will be practicing logging onto their Chrome Books. They will learn to navigate the computer using various educational programs as well as their Google Classroom. Happy Thanksgiving from the 1st Grade Teachers!

Fabulous First Graders

Sensational Second Graders

FROM OUR HEALTH OFFICE:

During 2021-2022, we will continue with COVID protocols that were introduced last year. Please continue to be dili-gent in taking precautions to help fight the spread of ALL germs, including COVID.

If your child is sick with ANY of the following symptoms:

** Headache

**Fever or Chills

** Cough

** Shortness of Breath or difficulty breathing

** Fatigue, Muscle or Body Aches

** New loss of taste or smell

** Sore Throat

** Congestion or Runny Nose

** Nausea, Vomiting or Diarrhea

You will need: 1- A Physician’s Note with a Diagnosis or 2- a Proof of a Negative COVID test

You may fax it to 631-912-2260 or email it to dal-brecht@commack.k12.ny.us

Absence Policy

Parents are responsible for calling the Health Office (631) 912-2196 whenever their children are absent from school. You may call your child out of school any time of day, the voicemail is always on. Be sure to provide your child’s name, teacher’s name, date and reason for absence.

As always, do not hesitate to contact me should you have any questions or concerns.

Debbie Albrecht, RN School Nurse

SNACKS

All of our Primary children will have time during the day for a healthy snack. Please send in healthy snack items on a daily basis. Your child’s teacher will inform you of the snack time. Many children are allergic to many different types of food items. It is also important to remind children that they should not share food during snack and lunchtime.

FDMealPlanner: We are pleased to inform you that Whitson’s launched a custom-designed, state-of-the-art, mobile platform that will bring menu planning, nutrition information, meal ingredients and real time allergen information to the fingertips of students, parents, and school district staff. Parents can pre-order meals until 9pm the night before - up to an entire month. To access the FDMeal-

Planner go to: https://www.fdmealplanner.com/

Transportation is arranged through our transportation of-fice, 631-912-2020. If you have concerns regarding pick-up times or bus stops, please contact the transportation office. All children are expected to observe safety proce-dures and conduct themselves in a courteous manner. If a child compromises the Safety procedures, the bus driver will complete a Bus Conduct Report. If a student receives repeated Bus Conduct Reports, further disci-plinary actions such as parent meetings or bus suspen-sions may occur.

September - November 2021 - Principal’s Newsletter

2021

FALL North Ridge

Review

Parent Portal: https://campus.commack.k12.ny.us/campus/portal/commack.jsp

If you have any questions, please call the District Information Office at

631-912-2029.