Members of the Northport K-8 School student council, under the direction of Christine Persick, promoted school spirit recently during a week long series of community building activities. Students and faculty, as well as administration and staff, participated in “Professional Dress Day,” “Hippie Day,” “Jersey Day” and several other activities to build school spirit and to add to the continuous rapport and “love your school” feeling that teachers and students address on a daily basis! Pictured, from left, are teachers in the groove John Fallon, Laura Poveromo, Michelle McCloskey, Melanie Polascak and Diana Lankow.

Northport K-8 students were honored recently at the Port St. Lucie Elks Lodge No. 2658 for excellence in writing. The Elks offered St. Lucie County students the opportunity to respond to an essay contest entitled “What Veterans Day Means To Me!” Northport students, their parents and families, and media specialist Lynne Gruszka, were treated to a wonderful dinner, honored with six cash prizes of $100 and $50 for all winners, and beautiful plaques inscribed with each student’s name. The students were thrilled with the opportunity to experience writing with feedback and reward from community members. Northport thanks the Elks Lodge … 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 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

Selected Northport K-8 middle grades students have been specially trained to serve as school ambassadors to help showcase the great events and opportunities that are available to the students, families and community members at the school. Northport has many, many community partners including military members, first responders, service therapy dog handlers and many guests who require movement within the school. The selected students have been trained to offer their guests specialized services within a cordial and warm atmosphere, and willingly offer their hand and polite conversation while transporting guests to any location on the campus grounds. The students consider being … Read More

Northport K-8 sixth grade students in Amanda Sartain’s classes completed a comprehensive unit of study on weather, natural disasters and climate.  Mrs. Sartain, helping students to interact with new knowledge, assisted students by representing new knowledge as a fun and interactive research and engineering design project.  Students researched tornado resistant buildings and built their own tornado reistant building with materials on hand. Students tested the durability of their designs on three different levels using a box fan as a tornado simulator.  Students collected data on each design at each level and then graphed the resulting data.

Northport K-8 lower school teachers and students showcased their love of literacy and participated in the state wide reading initiative, Celebrate Literacy, by marching in a literacy Character Day parade.  Students dressed in book character costume, carried their books and walked with parents around the school to promote the pure joy of reading.  The positive interaction between classes, teachers and parade watchers provided a great opportunity for students to see just how much they are cared for and to view the connections between books and good fun!  Pictured are third graders from Diana Lankow’s class promoting popular book character Judy … Read More

Northport K-8 seventh grade students in De Green’s science classes are studying the electromagnetic spectrum. As microwave ovens are a form of radio waves within this spectrum, the student research teams developed individual tests that could be performed with popcorn kernals. Tests varied widely but examples are, “does kernal location in the microwave affact popping success?” and “If a kernal is not in a wrapper, will it pop in the microwave?” When the data was analyzed and conclusions reached by each research team, success was celebrated by popping a bag of popcorn for student consumption. What an outstanding and unique opportunity … Read More

Northport K-8 second graders welcomed Hobe Sound Nature Preserve into classrooms to learn about different types of owls and their eating habits.  The program Directors, Ms. Debbie and Mr. Traci, brought two live owls and owl pellets to the classrooms for students to inspect and dissect.  Students became expert researchers as they picked, poked and prodded their way through the pellets.  Students found mouse and rat skulls, bones, ribs, hair, jaw bones, teeth and hip bones inside the pellets.  Students completed their scientific research by making sorting charts and aligning the specific bone to a diagram.  This reseach offers second … Read More

The Northport K8 School Northstar team has set high expectations for their students. The team set a theme for the year as “Go For The Gold!” Throughout the year, students have been achieving and experiencing the great feeling of meeting challenges set by themselves and their teachers. In Dr. Laura Woodworth’s science classes, the students earn prestigious science “gold medals” for high achievement. Students pictured have achieved a 90% or better on each of the quarters one and three science benchmark tests. Students proudly sporting their gold medals, from left, are Michael Gorbach, Sarah Abulathou, Brandt Wrench, Alaina Franklin, Joshua Benjamin, Cyara Davis … Read More

Northport K-8 School welcomed LA Hardy recently to bring his message of self respect , self esteem, feeling great about yourself, and how to say “Enough is Enough” to bullies. Mr. Hardy spoke about his past as a bully and he informed the students about the differences between teasing and bullying. He spoke with heartfelt emotion about his trips to Iraq and Afghanistan as part of a group of stand up comedians to bring special messages to the troops. Mr. Hardy, originally from Cleveland, Ohio presently is a radio host at WFLM 104.7 The Flame. He gave students an assignment … 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  middle grades science instructor and science fair program leader, Dr. Laura Woodworth, escorted groups of students through the school science fair exhibits recently.  The exhibits are a culmination of the school based science fair programming.  The program is an authentic assessment of classroom learning and an excellent demonstration of student knowledge of science in action.  Dr. Woodworth monitored student learning using critique charts and journaling as students considered how graphs were utilized to reveal trends in data, how to identify variables in experiments, and made suggestions for possible improvements in student research and how to better the experiment … 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 School is preparing to address the needs of a very diverse population through a targeted and focused ESOL program.  Longtime instructor, Mary Toto along with two paraprofessionals will incorporate RTI or Response To Intervention into small group, multi-tiered learning groups. Each student targeted as ESOL will receive direct instruction in English Language skills to quickly assimilate into the regular education classroom. Students, equipped with support from Mrs. Toto and her team, heritage language dictionaries and classroom instructors who are trained in offered ESOL support strategies will be offered every opportunity to excel and achieve quickly. Each child’s needs … Read More

The entire Northport K-8 School community welcomed new and returning students and their families with a fabulous “Welcome to Northport!” Open House recently! The year was kicked off with teachers and staff that have feelings of renewal and revitalization and are charged with a coordinated effort to bring the best experiences possible to their students. Many Northport students and their familes are thrilled with the K-8 concept that allows students to remain in the same school their entire middle and elementary educational years. Students that are returning are thrilled to look up their teachers and visit with familiar faces. Another … Read More

Northport K-8 instructors are pleased to begin literary instruction in a new and fresh arena for 2012.  Northport teachers Jennifer Babcock Carey and Deb Mock completed a grant to begin work on a literacy plaza, an outdoor classroom setting for Northport K-8 School.  Instructor Valerie Niewieroski began work hand painting the four seasons display which will include literary quotes to inspire young students to read.  The literacy plaza will be completed on January 21 and an Open House will be held on Friday, January 27, 2012. Pictured from left are instructors, Juliette Thelusma, Jill Staggs, Jennifer Gomez, Carissa Provencher, Valerie … Read More

Northport K-8 School is kicking off Young Author season this year in a big way! Each year, the Northport K-8 media center is decorated to showcase the terrific Young Author books at the school. This year, the theme is “Take Me Out To The Ballgame!” Teachers selected a table or counter space and decorated with items that incorporate the theme. Tables this year are decorated with themes of the Miami Heat from Juliette Thelusma’s fourth grade class, Chicago Cubs from Jennifer Gomez’s fourth class, kindergarten has a Mets theme and many, many other teams and sports are represented as a backdrop for … Read More

Northport K-8 School fifth grade students in Melanie Polascak’s class learned a valuable lesson on survival and how to flourish through a tragedy while learning about the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. Mrs. Polascak integrated visual information using video clips of the original World Trade Center prior to 9/11 and of the Ground Zero Memorial, comparing and contrasting the scenes. The class noted the story of “The Survivor Tree” which sustained extensive damage during the attacks. The original tree, a callery pear tree, has been replanted at the Ground Zero Memorial for all to enjoy and learn the story … Read More

Northport K-8 School middle grades Art instruction has been deemed an integral facet in educating the school’s children. Students in grades K-8 enter Valerie Niewieroski’s art class with hopes of fun and color, but Mrs. Niewieroski offers so much more to the students. A plethora of studies have proven that an excellent fine arts school program enhances motor skills, builds language development, strengthens problem solving and critical thinking skills as well as offering a vital outlet for self expression and inventiveness. Studies have also proven a direct correlation between art, music education and higher academic achievement. A report by Americans … Read More