Forest Ridge Forerunner
For the Week of September 22-26, 2014
Website:
Our phones are answered M-Th 8:30-4:15, F 8:30-4:00
School Hours 9:15-3:45 p.m.
Students may enter the building at 9:00 a.m.
Lunch price: $2.75, Milk: $.50
Dates to Remember
September
223:55 Schoolhouse Theater
243:55 KidzArt
PTA Ice Cream Social
25Rosh Hashanah - Schools and offices closed
263:55 Bricks for Kids
293:55 Schoolhouse Theater
October
1Individual Picture Day
3:55 KidzArt
33:55 Bricks for Kids
From the Principal's Desk…
Greetings Forest Ridge Families,
Thank you for coming out to participate in our Back-To-School Nights (B-T-S-N) this week! We hope you found the sessions to be informative! A special thank you to our PTA for their mighty presence and support both evenings. If you were not able to attend, teachers sent home B-T-S-N handouts in your child’s “Thursday Folder” (take home folder) yesterday. If you have any questions about curriculum, school/class procedures, or how your child is adjusting to their new grade level, please do not hesitate to call or email the teacher or one of the administrators. We want to partner with you to make this a successful and positive school year. Please keep the lines of communication open!
We realize that B-T-S-N information is general to Forest Ridge and your child’s grade level. We look forward to offering “Parent Education Evenings” a little later in the school year. These evenings will offer parents more specific information on how you can support your child in the content areas at home and allow you to choose the session(s) that meet you and your child’s specific needs.
In other news . . . This summer, the HCPSS Board of Education approved updates to the “Wellness Through Nutrition and Physical Activity” policy. In complying with the updates, FRES Staff will be implementing some changes in the food selections offered to students as part of school and team parties/celebrations that occur during the school day. . .
School celebrations involving foods and beverages may be permitted by the principal no more than once per month after the end of the last lunch period and will comply with IOM Nutrition Standards. Schools are encouraged to develop alternatives to the use of foods and beverages for celebrations.
You can access the complete “Wellness Through Nutrition and Physical Activity” policy (Policy # 9090) at We have attached the “Nutritional Standards for Food in Schools” that all schools are requested to follow. (Please note that the “Tier 1 Snacks” apply to the elementary level.) The FRES Administration will be working closely with the PTA to create a plan for school and grade level team parties and celebrations this school year. Stay tuned for more information!
Have a great weekend!
Anne Swartz, Danielle Shanks, Jason Ortega
A Message About Birthday Celebrations . . .
We love to acknowledge our students’ birthdays on morning announcements each day, and we know the celebration often continues with family and friends at home after school hours. For several reasons, we request that you not ask teachers to distribute birthday invitations at school. Every year, the PTA publishes the PTA Directory, which contains contact information for Forest Ridge Families organized by homeroom. The PTA will be given family contact information (only phone numbers and email addresses) directly from the ASPEN system. (The only exception will be families that request to NOT release their student’s information to school organizations on the online emergency card). The purpose of the directory is to foster relationships outside the school day, including birthday parties. The PTA will be compiling this resource in the next several weeks for families.
On a similar note, we are not able to allow families to bring in cupcakes or treats for student birthdays. This request is in alignment with the HCPSS Wellness Policy, and has been in place at FRES for several years. We do like to celebrate at Forest Ridge and your student’s grade level team may provide food and/or beverages in conjunction with a special celebration for students once per month. We thank you for your support and welcome any questions you may have! In next week’s “Forerunner” edition, we will be sharing updates to the HCPSS Wellness Policy that are beginning this school year.
Student News…
Eagle Egg News
We would like to give a "shout out" to our latest group of Eagle Egg Winners! They were: JerrielMaldonando-Rivera, John Louie, Abigail String, Sahil Khan, Edenilson Fuentes-Rodriguez, and Tanveer Singh.
Our grade level totals were:
K - 789
1 - 492
2 - 648
3 - 440
4 - 591
5 - 182
Congratulations to the following students for completing the Howard County Library's Summer Reading Program: Gavin Banks, Antonia Chrzanowski, Samantha Chrzanowski, Emma Legner, Jessica Legler, and Lisette Meyer.
Forest Ridge News...
October 1 is Individual Picture Day
Look for a flyer coming home next week for our individual picture day on October 1. Picture envelopes will come home on September 30. Please return the money in the envelope on picture day. The children will hand their money to the photographer as pictures are being taken. If your child is absent on picture day there will be a picture make-up day later in the year.
Emergency Card Clarification
Parents, we need your help. We have been informed by our data processing department at the Board of Education that parents need to login and complete the emergency card every year, even if their information has not changed.
New Sign-in
This year we are implementing a new sign-in system! We are going GREEN! There will be no more visitor sign-in and sign-out sheets. We now have a new system called LobbyGuard. With this system, you will be able to sign in at our kiosk, located in the front office, using your driver’s license. Once you scan in, a personalized badge will print out JUST FOR YOU! These badges will have your name on them along with a bar code that you scan to sign yourself out! Please remember that this is new at FRES and we are learning about this more and more each day. So please be patient with us here in the front office! Thank you.
FRES 5K Tablet Trot- Saturday, October 11th at 8:30am
Come walk or run with us through the beautiful Stone Lake community. All proceeds will be used towards purchasing technology for our school. Our goal is to raise enough money to purchase iPads for teams of teachers to share and use for instructional purposes. We need YOUR help to make this happen! Visit: for registration, pictures and more information. Or email:
PTA News...
From the President
Hello All,
Well the Back To School Nights are over and I was so happy to see so many involved parents and I enjoyed talking to a lot of you! There was a lot of good information given those two nights and I know I enjoyed learning what my kid's days looked like schedule wise. We are heading in to fall and so many fun school and community related activities are coming up, so please mark your calendars with all our dates!
Amanda Fields
PTA President
PTA Halloween Dance
Our annual FRES PTA Halloween Dance is coming up Oct 25th! We are in need of decorators, donations of pumpkins and fall decorations. If you would like to come and help us that day, please email Amanda Fields at
In Need of a Delegate
The PTA is still in need of one delegate to share the county meetings with. This is an every other month commitment and it's usually the first Monday of the month, you go to the county meeting and then report back with the info at our next PTA meeting.
Help Needed for PTA Auction
We are in need of resourceful people to go and solicit donations from local and national businesses for our PTA auction in the late winter/early spring. We will be having a committee meeting where you will be given information on how to go about it and letters to hand out to businesses to make their donation a tax break.
Ice Cream Social -Wednesday, Sept. 24- 6:00-7:30pm
Join fellow FRES families for an evening of Wellness and Ice Cream! There is no school the next day! We'll start at 6:00 with a Wellness Walk around the bus loop (or activities in the gym if the weather doesn't cooperate) and then move to the Cafeteria at 6:30 for an ice cream sundae (with real scoop ice cream). You can also sign up to help at this event by going to Hope to see you there!
After School Activites--All after school activity flyers & info can be found on our website at
Learn French w/Nona—Tuesdays, starting October 7—All Grades. Fliers went home this week for this great class. The students will have fun learning basic French language and culture through songs, games, activities and conversations. Cost is $65. Make checks payable to Nona Nourbakhsh. Checks and form can be sent in to your students teacher, in an envelope marked PTA-French. If you have any questions email .
*NEW* Newspaper Writing w/ Little Scholars—Wednesdays starting October 8—Grades 2-5. Cost $104.Ladies and Gentlemen, get it hot off the press! The first edition of the school newspaper needs your help. Students will enjoy this creative and exciting class as they create authentic newspaper stories. As they are transformed into reporters and editors, the outcome goal will be to publish their own school newspaper. Various aspects of newspapers are covered, including parts of a newspaper, writing an article, reading habits, advertisements, and layout and design techniques. Register online at If you have any questions email Kara at or call 410-246-1673.
*NEW*Wood Creations (Part 1)—Thursdays starting October 9—Grades 1-3. Cost $104. Keep your hands building and minds creating with wood creations! We will be building, designing and decorating wood craft such as totem poles, animals, bird feeders and many more fantastic wood creations. Ignite your engineering, physics and math mind through wood projects. Tools that may be used during the class will be hammers and sand paper. Register online at If you have any questions email Kara at or call 410-246-1673.
PTA Website
Visit our new & improved PTA website at We have the calendar, forms, ways you can help, PTA booklet, helpful websites and much more. We are working on getting some opportunities to purchase items online in the future. You can also easily find our Facebook page from the site and email us if you have any questions or suggestions.
Community News...
STEM Family Night
Tuesday, October 21, 6-8 p.m. at the Roundhouse Food Court at Arundel Mills Mall. Click here for the flyer.
Girl Scouts are looking for girls and volunteers. If you are interested, please contact Cathy Lindenmann at or join us at North Laurel Community Center on September 23 at 7:00.
Howard County Recreation & Parks is offering the following After School Enrichment classes this Fall at Forest Ridge ES. To register, go to and type in the Activity Number (ex RP3323.106 for Chess), or call 410-313-7275, 8am-4:30pm, Monday through Friday.
Chess Club Before School
with Silver Knights Chess Company
Grades K-5 / 14 classes, starting Oct 2 / $185
Learn how to play chess from highly rated professional chess instructors, who have coached many state and national champions! Time is evenly split between lesson and play. Lessons range from learning the rules to advanced tournament strategies. Open to all ES grades and experience levels. Play time is structured to pair against opponent of similar skill. All chess supplies provided. (No class 11/24-28, 12/24-31, 1/1-1/2, 1/22.)
Info: Adam Wienckowski, 410-313-4714 or .
RP3323.106 Forest Ridge ES Oct 2 8-9 AM Thursdays
Kid Empowerment Smashing ANTs
& Leadership FUN-damentals Combo!
Grades 1-4 / 7 classes, starting Oct 2 / $119 + $20 materials
Empower your child with tools for success and happiness with Kid Empowerment, an activity-based, hands-on program! Smashing ANTs is a fun and enlightening experiential program that helps kids realize they have the power to create their own success and self-confidence through personal and group leadership skills. With a toolkit of strategies to recognize their own Automatic Non-Supportive Thoughts (ANTs), along with the empowerment
skills to smash them, kids learn to lead and inspire themselves and others. Animated cartoon videos connect and resonate with kids, making learning these important life lessons engaging and fun. New and returning students feel right at home with our Intro/Review Team Building. Through enjoyable hands-on learning activities, we jump start your child on the path to success and happiness! Class meets for one hour each week.
Info: Adam Wienckowski, 410-313-4714 or .
RP3333.103 Forest Ridge ES Oct 2 4:05-5:05 PM Thursdays
Need Child Care for a Special Needs Child?
LOCATE: Child Care can help you find child care. Call 1-800-999-0120