Author: LYNNE Gruszka

Northport K8 School sent a large contingency of instructors and staff to enjoy the Meet and Greet held at Chili’s in St. Lucie West recently for the St. Lucie County Reading Council. The council offers district staff a wonderful opportunity to inspire collegiality and promote positive interactions with literacy at the forefront. The Meet and Greet hosted author Henry Cole, who wrote the new One Book-One Community Read, “A Nest For Celeste”! The council, led by president Deb Remington, Manatee Academy media specialist, offers a variety of opportunities to share ideas, compare learning strategies and a chance to take part in … Read More

Northport K-8 School Media Center is open for business and promoting the joy of reading this year!  Long range goals have been formulated with student achievement in the forecast.  Students will learn to select books focusing on their interests and quality research skills are connected to classroom instruction.  Premier literacy programs are offered through the media center targeting common core standards across the curriculum.  Some of the quality programs offered are Veterans Partners In Education programming, September 11 commemoration program, community reading programs and partnerships, Young Authors program, spelling bee, Women’s History programming, book fairs, multicultural events, guests speakers on … Read More

Northport K8 School administration and staff recognize the fact that parental involvement is critical for a truly successful school. Northport K8 PTO sponsors many events throughout the school year such as, Breakfast With Santa, Student of the Month, Fun Run, Fifth grade Moving Up ceremony, AYP celebrations, school wide beautification programs, Teacher Appreciation programs, faculty breakfasts, holiday luncheons and eighth grade graduation. The PTO also matched the school Media Center’s Titlewish program by matching funds collected. The Media Center was able to purchase many new books. Northport k8 School would love to have additional parent involvement and encourage all to become involved … Read More

Northport K-8 school depends on a large and dynamic contingency of parent, grandparent, community and student volunteers to provide assistance to teachers and staff. Volunteers provide individual educational assistance to students to help increase achievement in all areas of curriculum.  There are many opportunities for volunteerism in the school. Categories are instructional, resource, organizational such as PTO and School Advisory committee, Business Partners, Mentoring and fundraisers as well as our dynamic Veterans Partners In Education program.  Pictured are parents Jackie Weir, left, and Suzie Scott who are assisting in the Media Center preparing book sets for the middle grades bookroom.  Anyone Interested … Read More

Northport K-8 students, parents, grandparents, administrators and kindergarten teachers Megan Castiglia, Chelse Goergen, Kara McNair, Melody Nieves, Staci Saunders and Nancy Yost recently celebrated Moving Up Day as students proudly accepted accolades for their many accomplishments as beginning Northport learners.  Students each received a picture with principal Glenn Rustay and assistant principals Benigna Montenegro and Douglas Shook as a symbol of a successful completion of the school year. After the ceremony, students in Melody Nieves’ class and parents joined together for “Absolutely Incredible Kid Day!” Parents wrote letters to be shared in the class about why their child is so incredible and why … Read More

Students in Northport K-8 Janine Ferro Weicks’ third grade RTI class accepted their teacher’s challenge and guidance and produced top of the line PowerPoint presentations recently. Students declared the main concept and provided plenty of rich supporting details when building their presentations. Students worked cooperatively, with Mrs. Weicks serving as coach and mentor through the process of completing slides. Students presented information about some of their favorite topics such as wrestling, soccer, music and the author, Rick Riordan. Students also presented information about themselves, including their likes, dislikes, favorite teachers and favorite types of music. Students presented their slide shows using correct volume, good … Read More

Northport K-8 student Finnegan Carey reaped the rewards of using the writing process effectively, adhering to the school rubric, correctly using dynamic illustrations and producing a relevant and substantial piece of writing. Finn and his parents, Jennifer and Nick Carey, pictured above, celebrated at the school district’s Young Author Showcase recently along with fellow Northport students Saige Searcy, Jazz Courtenay, Samantha Huynh, Paul Brinker, Joseph Ybarra, Giovanni Wright and Raena Davis. Over 175 student authors from across the district and their families were treated to a visit with author Donna Gephart, who wrote the book “How To Survive Middle School”, the district’s … Read More

Northport K-8 students from the Northstar team were selected to present at this year’s Project Citizen Oral Hearings held recently at the Palm Beach Coounty Convention Center. Three of the five teams presenting were from St. Lucie County and two were from Miami-Dade County. The team from Northport K-8 School represented Mary Ellsworth’s sixth period class with their project, “Put Down the Fork and Pick Up the Pace.” The project centered around the issue of childhood obesity and how schools can help combat this increasing problem. With support from Northport administration, the PTO, Building Level Planning team, cafeteria staff and coaches, students were … Read More

Northport K-8 sixth grade students in Amanda Sartain’s science classes immersed themselves in a life sciences unit on immunology and the immune system of the human body by forming a living human cell. The students gathered in a circle in the front of the school and joined hands to form the cell. One student remained outside the cell to represent a nasty virus. The virus burst into the cell and chose one person at a time to come into the cell and spread. The process continued until the cell was filled with viruses and the cell burst, spreading the virus into more of … Read More

Northport K-8 third grade teacher Melanie Polascak organized a Space Walk for her third grade team as a culminating activity on a space/solar system unit of study. Students and teachers used flags to mark the sun and then made a live scale model of the solar system. Each step between flags represented 30 million miles in the real solar system. Students marked 36 million miles as the first step in the solar system. Students took six steps to Mercury from the sun. Students and teachers then counted footsteps using the scale model to reach all planets. The final planet, Neptune, is 3.7 billion miles from … Read More

Northport K-8 kindergartners dazzled parents,grandparents,administrators and guests as they read from a fluency showcase of reading skills. Students dressed for their parts such as the lion, the skateboarder, the cat, the frog, the dreamer and the bug and used a microphone to show off their reading fluency skills in a readers theater program. The school’s media center was filled with parents, grandparents and guests as the students blended different story lines to make one great student showcase of reading skills. Included in the program was a special presentation by ESOL students who portrayed their language cultivation success.  Pictured are teachers Chelse Goergen, … Read More

Northport K-8 PTO celebrated the students’ accomplishments for the school year by holding a Fun Run.  Over 100 runners, their families and teachers from Northport K-8 participated in a run, a bounce house, a rock climbing wall and a dinner together after school recently.  Students picked up their 2012 yearbooks and had their teachers sign at the party, then enjoyed some time with their friends during the Fun Run and Yearbook signing party.  It was a wonderfully unifying event and the PTO declared it a success!

Northport K-8 students were celebrated for Excellence in Education in math recently at a Mathlete Award ceremony.  Students were given certificates and special recognition at the program which celebrated their dedication and hard work this school year in math.  The third through fifth grade students won first place at the Northport K-8 Math Bowl competition and went on to represent Northport at the district first annual Math Bowl competition held at Fort Pierce Central High School.  The middle school students represented Northport at the regional MathCounts competition at Indian River State College in February.  Students are to be congratulated for … Read More

Middle grades Northport K-8 students in the culinary arts program, under the direction of Caren Boyd,  participated in a cupcake war recently.  Students worked in cooperative teams and devised plans and recipes to produce the best cupcake.  Students in six groups used   Oreos, confetti, gum drops, Hershey kisses, marshmallows, caramel, cherries, peaches, strawberries and different types of icing to concoct the best cupcake.  Judges used a rubric which included taste, appearance, moistness and ingenuity.  Pictured are the winners, from left, Nailen Hernandez, Jaquinton Price, Joel Diaz and Kara Turpin.  The winning cupcake was Oreo flavored with a fudge center, vanilla … Read More

Northport K-8 physical education instructors Linda Walker, Kim Kanada Graff, Ryan Carpenter, Kevin Fess, James Hebb and Daryn Ploeckelman promoted the joy of vigorous activity as well as building teamwork, cooperative learning skills and fine tuning locomotor activity.  Students in grades kindergarten through fifth were treated to Field Days Northport style!  A variety of activities were offered including parachute ball, obstacle courses, hula hoops, basketball throws, bouncy ball races, sidewalk chalk races, jump ropes, bubble blowing contests and lots more great events.  The classroom teachers are to be thanked for their participation right along with their students and many parents … Read More

Northport K-8 middle grades science instructors Amanda Sartain and Kalyn Nova have been selected to receive a 2012 Toolbox for Education Grant for a vegetable garden for the middle school next year.  A school garden allows students to apply curriculum based education in innovative, unique and engaging ways.  Instructors will be using the Gardening For Grades curriculum by Florida Agriculture for planning and creating lesson plans for the garden.  Students will discover the components of a garden that correlates with curriculum from observing plants grown from seeds, measuring growth and designing experiments.  Students at the middle school level will be … Read More

All Northport K-8 students participated in the Young Author program recently.  Students planned, wrote, revised, edited, illustrated and published their own book.  Students displayed the books in the school Media Center with decorations and table adornments geared toward the wild west.  Classes, parents and grandparents toured the tables and were able to see  authentic growth of real writers and authors.  Seven  students were selected to represent the best of Northport K8 and will attend a celebration of good writing at Manatee Academy.  Author Donna Gephart will be the guest speaker for the event.  Gephart is the author of “How to … Read More

Students in Northport K-8 Pam Mishler’s first grade class displayed a wonderful tribute to Mother’s Day recently. Students prepared a Reader’s Theater titled, “Buying Mom’s Present” to express fluency and to give their mothers a message about love and respect.  Students also recited a special poem celebrating a mothers love and the struggles that a mother goes through daily. Each student made a gorgeous necklace called “Box of Love” that was prepared and filled  with words and poetry to express their unconditional love for their mothers.  Many parents and grandparents attended the special celebration of love and the learning was palpable.

Northport K-8 sixth grade science instructor Amanda Sartain addressed deep content in her lesson segment about the human body systems and their relationship within the body.  Ms. Sartain reviewed the new content, then organized students into learning teams to practice and deepen knowledge. Students shared the tasks of cutting out the skeletal system with construction paper, added the main organs for respiratory, circulatory, nervous and digestive systems and then attached each organ to the appropriate place in relation to the skeleton and displayed on a hallway wall. Students then labeled each organ with function and each system with its job … Read More

Northport K-8 teachers are celebrated by administration, staff and students for the month of May during Teachers Appreciation Week! Teachers will be treated to a special luncheon provided by the PTO and a special board was made by parent volunteer Jackie Weir to honor teachers.  Students wrote notes to teachers to be put into a mosaic of appreciation for all to see and enjoy.  Some of the notes read, “Mrs. Polascak, you are so nice, funny and pretty!”  “Mr. Fallon, you are helpful to every student!” “Mrs. Caren Boyd, you are an amazing and caring teacher!” “Mrs. Lankow is always … Read More