(January 2022)—Students in Amityville Union Free School District’s Northwest Elementary School have been working on their digital literacy standards. Students are using a program called Typing Club in Media Library to learn important computer skills.

“Digital literacy is an important skill to develop, especially in this day and age with technology incorporated into everything we do,” said Ms. Kathleen Hyland, Principal of Northwest Elementary School. “Practicing keyboarding is essential with younger students. It helps with their fine motor skills and leads to the mastery of touch typing, which can build confidence and is a skill they will use for the rest of their lives.”

Kindergarteners through second grade students are taught to identify letters of the alphabet along with the spacebar, back space, and arrow keys. With each lesson, students are doing finger exercises to strengthen their fine motor skills. In second grade, the students are learning basic keyboarding skills and learning to type with accuracy. Research has shown that students who become proficient with a keyboard do better academically, gain overall confidence and improve future prospects for success in school and beyond. 

 

 (January 2022)—On Friday, January 14, 2022, Amityville’s Northwest Elementary School engaged in many school activities before the federal holiday in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

(November 2021)— Amityville Union Free School District's Northwest Elementary School takes pride in cultivating an environment where learners shine and futures are bright. This goal is clearly demonstrated in Northwest’s first-grade classrooms where the Amplify Science program allows students to experience interactive, hands-on experiments and conduct meaningful investigations.

Students in Ms. Jones’ and Ms. Wittschiebe’s, first grade classes studied how the structures of plants and animals are crucial in aiding their survival. To test what they learned about animal survival, students used different materials to simulate animals and their potential predators. A ball of clay acted as a soft animal or plant and a comb was used to mimic the sharp claws or teeth of a predator. The students were tasked with building structures to defend the clay from being poked by the comb. Students were instructed to hypothesize which materials would keep their ball of clay, or organism, protected from harm by their comb, or predator. They proceeded to create their structures and test their hypotheses. Each student conducted their own experiment and recorded their observations.

“The Amplify Science program is a great way for teachers to have access to remote or hybrid resources to teach science,” said Ms. Kathleen Hyland, Principal of Northwest Elementary School. “Providing students with these interactive, hands-on experiences helps to engage our students, make learning more fun, and develop critical thinking skills.”

The interactive lesson, produced by Amplify Science, encourages students to take advantage of their curiosity and formulate their own questions about the world around them.

(November 2021)— World Kindness Day is an international observance that was introduced in 1998 by the World Kindness Movement in an effort to build compassion between nations. The global day, celebrated on November 13 each year, promotes the importance of being kind to each other, to oneself, and to the world.

In honor of World Kindness Day, Ms. Davi-Ortiz’s 2nd-grade class in the Amityville School District’s Northwest Elementary School published a book about kindness. Helping Ms. Davi-Ortiz with the project were Ms. Soto, the school’s ENL teacher, and Ms. Hyde, a teacher assistant. Each student wrote a page detailing what kindness is to them and drew a corresponding illustration. Students were able to flip through the pages and witness their contributions to this unique publication.

“This was a wonderful experience for these second graders,” said Ms. Kathleen Hyand, Principal of Northwest Elementary School. “I want to thank Ms. Davi-Ortiz, Ms. Soto and Ms. Hyde for engaging these students in such a rewarding and informative project that involved both individual and collaborative efforts by the students.”

“This was an important learning experience for these students,” noted Ms. Davi-Ortiz. “Having the kindness concept reinforced through each student’s own writing and drawing helped make the experience more personal for them.”


In addition to creating the kindness book, the students and teachers wore Be Kind t-shirts on Friday, November 12, in honor of World Kindness Day.