Not only are pre-K students at Northeast Elementary School learning how to become readers, writers and mathematicians, but they are learning how to live long and healthy lives. For Amityville’s youngest learners, that means focusing on healthy eating. 

Students recently have been learning what food should be part of a regular diet, and what food should only be eaten occasionally. In Lisa Iannotta’s class, pre-K students were given pictures of items from supermarket circulars and sorted them into “everyday food” and “sometimes food” lists. Children in Yvette Carman’s class had a group discussion to identify the foods they should and shouldn’t eat daily, then made their own chart. 
 
Items like meat, milk, fruits, vegetables and yogurt were in the everyday category, while cake and cookies, French fries, potato chips and soda were deemed sometimes food.

Children had a reason to rhyme at Northeast Elementary School as they celebrated an author whose books can be found throughout their classroom libraries – Dr. Seuss. 

Pre-K students and teachers celebrated his 117th birthday with many fun activities on March 3 and 4. In Andrew Babington’s class, children made “Cat in the Hat” masks and did counting activities based on “10 Apples Up on Top.”

Lisa Carey’s students remembered an author known for his silly stories and crazy characters by wearing their shirts backwards, crazy socks and mismatched shoes. Jacqueline Floyd’s students did a “Green Eggs and Ham” puzzle and played alphabet bingo. In Lisa Randolph’s room, children sang rhyming songs and identified words that rhyme with “cat” and “hat.”

Young scientists were recently hard at work mixing color dye in water at Northeast Elementary School. The simple experiment was designed to give the pre-K students an introduction to different scientific tools including beakers, eye droppers, funnels, magnifying glasses and measuring cups. 

The lesson also related to Black History Month as students learned about Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, a research scientist who has been at the forefront of the development of a vaccine for COVID-19. After learning about her contributions to science, it was time for the students to engage in their own scientific exploration, donning paper lab coats and doctor tags.

Pre-K students have been spreading some love, and also practicing their literacy and math skills, leading up to Valentine’s Day at Northeast Elementary School.

By making presents for their loved ones, children learned about the true meaning of Valentine’s Day while also expressing themselves creatively. There were a wide variety of projects that students could take home to give to a parent, grandparent or sibling.

Students made “You Stole a Pizza My Heart” crafts out of construction paper, and the pieces of pepperoni were cut in the shape of hearts. They also constructed photo frames with hearts glued around the edges, used pieces of tin foil to make large Hershey’s Kisses, wrapped up paper bears holding a Valentine’s Day poem and made candles by putting a small battery-operated tea candle and red confetti in a mason jar. 

The youngsters practiced their literacy skills by writing Valentine’s Day cards to family and friends. They also used candy hearts to write different letters of the alphabet.

Candy hearts were a popular math tool, as well. Students sorted the hearts by color, counted how many they had of each, then made bar graphs. To learn about patterning, they created Valentine’s Day headbands with paper hearts in alternating colors. 

As a special treat, Olaf from “Frozen” visited the school and was stationed at the “kissing booth” in the main lobby. The kisses were actually Hershey’s Kisses and each child received one at the end of the day to take home and enjoy.