Author: LYNNE Gruszka

Northport K-8 third graders celebrated Cinco de Mayo and integrated Positive Behavior Support into their day by giving students who earned SAIL Notes a choice of activities as a reward.  Students chose between viewing The Three Caballeros, eating chips and salsa, dancing to fiesta music or making confetti pinatas.  Students worked together using tissue paper and glue then filled the pinatas with goodies to share.  Cinco de Mayo is celebrated on the fifth of May each year and commemorates the Mexican army’s 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War.  This is a celebration of … Read More

Northport K-8 School proudly accepted a commendation by 14 Medal of Honor recipients held recently in Texas.  The Medal of Honor recipients signed a plaque with the date and signatures of each national hero.  The plaque reads in part, “For the students, faculty and staff of Northport K-8 School located in Port St. Lucie, Florida, for their exceptional support of active duty military personnel and the veterans community of St. Lucie County, Florida.”  The Medal of Honor is the highest award offered to U.S. military.  Most awards are given posthumously for going far above and beyond the call of duty in the … Read More

Northport K-8 students are participating in the Young Authors program and are setting examples of effective writing for display in the school Media Center.  Students from kindergarten through eighth grade have been preparing, thinking, writing, revising, editing, illustrating and demonstrating a commitment to great writing through a year long process of effective learning and teaching.  The crown jewel in Northport’s commitment to effective writing and communicating ideas and information effectively is the Young Authors program.  Each year, students display their books in a Media Center showcase with a theme as a backdrop.  This year the theme is “Wild, Wild West … Read More

Northport K-8 School was pleased to present the Holocaust program Living Voices recently to all sixth graders at the school.  The Living Voices program is an interactive program that incorporates Holocaust history, the story of the Frank family and video and audio presentation to engage  students in realistic history about the Diary of Anne Frank.  The story enhancement of the program was told from the point of view of a young girl living through the Holocaust who was friends with the Franks.  The program supports Holocaust education in our school and deepens and enriches student information about the Holocaust.  Pictured … Read More

Northport K-8 School students in Jennifer Gomez’s fourth grade class studied tessallations in math class and processed the new information by making their own tessallations, which are a pattern of shapes that fit together with no spaces and no overlapping.  Students used their textbooks and a book by author and tessallation artist M.C. Escher to comprehend the new information and to design their own tessallations.  Students took squares, drew lines in the squares, used vertical and horizontal lines and cut out the square.  Students then fit the pieces back together, traced more pieces, flipped and slid the pieces to form a … Read More

Northport K-8 School second grade students in Barbara Greenwood’s class used a real cow’s stomach lining called tripe, a cow’s heart and a cow’s kidney to perform inspections and learn new information about the human body. Students examined each body part and determined the functions of each organ.  They understood after the in-depth lesson that the kidney removes the waste products from the body, the heart pumps and has chambers, and that the stomach lining keeps the stomach strong so it doesn’t rupture and  the stomach digests foods. The hands on lesson was a real eye opener for the kids as … Read More

Northport K-8 teachers and students followed the initiative of the St. Lucie County School Board Wellness Manager Carlye Fabrikant and participated in the program “Take A Walking Lunch Instead of a Working Lunch!”  Teachers and students followed the new healthy walking path mapped out at the school on their lunch breaks and planning periods. Participation in wellness activities has increased at the school this year as students, faculty and staff have participated in a variety of walks, runs, healthy eating plans, weight watchers classes and on campus zumba classes.  Pictured on the healthy walk, from left, are Northport K-8 media specialist … Read More

Students in Juliette Thelusma’s fourth grade class at Northport K8 School created a reflection journal recently depicting the elements of literature.  Students defined each element, then created an example and drew a picture to deepen understanding of each element.  The elements students reflected on were figurative language, alliteration, hyperbole, idioms, similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia, pun and personification. Examples from student Rheanna Buckman’s book included personification, “The sun is smiling on a field of flowers” and hyperbole, “I am so hungry, I could eat a horse!”  Students then shared their books with peers, parents and teachers.  Students represented newfound knowledge in an … Read More

Northport K-8 students from Mala Woessner’s Northstar team performed a play called Women Who Wowed History about famous women such as Joan of Arc, Eleanor Roosevelt, Susan B. Anthony, Emily Dickenson, Abigail Adams, Amelia Earhart and Queen Elizabeth I.  The famous women sat in semi circle and were interviewed by Oprah Winfrey about their contributions and famous quotes. The students showcased the best of Northport K-8 School literacy programs. Principal Glenn Rustay also participated in the Family Reading Festival by encouraging students to read to him in the Read To A VIP section of the festival.  Over 20 authors participated … Read More

Northport K8 School master kindergarten teacher Melody Nieves and her students give a ringing endorsement to FAU student intern Amanda Bean.  Miss Bean completed two years at Indian River State College and then two years in the Education Department at Florida Atlantic University.  She has recently completed her student internship at Northport K8, first easing her way into the classroom, then interning as the full time teacher and then easing back out of the classroom successfully.  Mrs. Nieves and Miss Bean complement each other’s teaching styles and the experience has been positive for students, the intern and the teacher.  Mrs. Nieves … Read More

Kindergartners in Nancy Yost’s class at Northport K8 produced a charming display for parents and grandparents recently in their classroom.  Students used singing, verse and rhyme to showcase learning three main requirements for plants to grow: sun, air and water.  Students used verse to portray the months of the year and used pictures to impress with their vocabulary skills.  A few of the words were stumble, journey, absurd and gorgeous.  Much hard work, determination and family support helps to make Nancy Yost’s classroom and her students a success story for all students.  Special thanks to classroom volunteer Sally Poole who is … Read More

Northport K-8 administration, faculty, staff and families united for a terrific cause recently.  The Northport family joined with the American Cancer Society to support Relay For Life held at Digital Domain Park.  The school based organizers, third grade instructor Tiffany Tredor and middle grades math instructor Mehgan Drost generated support for the walk by promoting the Relay For Life continually through the school year to students and families.  This year, thanks to the Relay For Life team, the school met the goal of $2500 and turned in $2696.  Northport K8 tuned into the theme of the Relay For Life this year … Read More

Northport K-8 first graders in Michelle Hicks’ classroom reviewed three dimensional shapes as they prepare for the up coming SAT 10 testing.  Students utilized Venn diagrams to sort  shapes based on whether each shape was rolled, stacked or both.  Students are learning to check faces, vertices and edges to figure our shape.  Mrs. Hicks’ lesson demonstated lively paced instruction, chunking content into “digestible bites” and reflection on information learned. Pictured are first graders McKayla Sanon and Walky Julien.

Northport K-8 third graders in Linda Beidler, John Fallon, Janine Wiecks, Diana Lankow, Melanie Polascak, Glenda Taylor and Tiffany Tredor’s classes took the stress out of their first FCAT test by taking whacks at a homeade pinata on Friday in the school’s courtyard.  As each student took a whack and showed who was boss, they were urged to shout out a learned test taking strategy.  Stategies called out were read the entire passage before attempting to answer, consider key words, underline the key words, cross out distractors, read the questions first, answer from the last question to the first, substitute … Read More

Northport K-8 School honored well over 100 students recently during the Student of the Month celebrations in the school’s Media Center.  Students K-8 were selected by their teachers for academic excellence, overall great attitudes and improvement in conduct or grades.  Students were congratulated by the principal and assistant principals, and had rounds of applause from parents and grandparents.  Pictured in front are students from fifth grade, from left, Cody Scott from Charlotte Tombline’s class, Shannon Oreo from Nichole Robinson’s class, Gabriella Pedraza from Valerie Niewieroski’s class, Jason Derilus from Carl Caldwell’s class, Allison Wilhoit from Judy Fowler’s class and Madison … Read More

Northport K-8 sixth grade student Christina Lambert, left, a member of the Northstar team in Dr. Laura Woodworth’s Life Science class, uses her initiative and concocts an exact replica of a plant cell using homeade cake, frosting and different types of candy.  Christina shared her newfound knowledge of plant cells with Northport fifth grade student Omah Reid, at right, from Charlotte Tombline’s class.  Students are learning about plant and animal cells and the structure, function and location of organelles.  Christina presented the intriguing lesson to Omah and her classmates to make the lesson pertinent.

Northport K-8 fifth graders in Valerie Niewieroski’s class helped celebrate National Library Week April 8-14, 2012, at the school by visiting the Media Center and checking out new library books and playaways, which are books with a matching audio reader.  Students are voraciously reading books utilizing the playaways. Sixth grade instructor Amanda Sartain commented that the students don’t even care what they are reading as long as they are using the playaways. The school media center is busier than ever helping families, students and teachers find appropriate reading materials and providing computers for research skills building and finding up to the minute resources … Read More

Northport K-8 kindergartners in Megan Castiglia’s class  showed off their writing skills to parents and grandparents at a Young Authors mini program recently.  Students in Mrs. Castiglia’s class, affectionately known as Mrs. M.C.’s Little Hammers, wrote Young Author books following the school-wide rubric.  They also made a main character poster following in the footsteps of Dr. Seuss.  As students read their books aloud, parents moved to visit each student and hear the stories read aloud by the students.  Also on hand to listen to the students work were principal Glenn Rustay, assistant principal Bennie Montenegro, media specialist Lynne Gruszka, media … Read More

Northport K-8 School administrators and staff gave a big boost to literacy and offered a “Get Fit” challenge to students at the school.  Students participated in a reading marathon to read 5,000 books before race day.  The mission was accomplished, and Principal Glenn Rustay donned a pink tutu to complete the run.  Also dressed for the occasion were Assistant Principals Benigna Mentengro and Doug Shook, as well as ESE chairperson Sherri Yakovino, and several instructors.  Principal Rustay’s father and his son also competed in the Torrey Pines Race For Research with him.  The Get Fit For Literacy Challenge was a dynamic and exciting … Read More

Northport K-8 Teacher of the Year Mala Woessner joined First Year Teacher of the Year Cheryl Salerno from Samuel Gaines Academy, and Distinguished Minority Teacher of the Year from Allapattah Flats Tekia Montgomery, in a panel discussion at the St. Lucie County Republican’s Club Dinner recently.  The dinner and panel was hosted by Mary Anne Patan, Republican Club president, and moderated by Dr. Mike Salerno from Barry University.  The discussion with question and answer period was dynamic with topics such as FCAT testing, homelessness in St. Lucie County, Project Citizen civics requirements and Arts in Education, as well as veterans … Read More