Kindergarten
Count
to 100 and imagine what fun we had on February 25th—the 100th Day of School. We began our day doing 100 exercises with our 5th grade PALs. All the kindergarten children were excited as they entered the kindergarten all-purpose room ready to participate in a wide scope of activities centered on the number 100. These activities included: making our 100th Day Crown; weighing bags of 100 items; stamping 100 stamps; coloring 100 objects; building with 100 Legos, or blocks; and rolling dice to travel a path to 100. The kindergarten teachers greatly appreciate all the parents who volunteered to be a part of this milestone day. With their help, the day was a smashing success! 
First Grade
February was a fun-filled month in First Grade! The students and teachers enjoyed celebrating each of the holidays during this very snowy month. Each class celebrated Valentine's Day by reading poems and books about the holiday. After reading the poems and books, we discussed how we can show the special people in our lives just how much we love them. We started by making them Valentine's Day cards. Miss Kohart's class also made delicious linzer tarts to share with their families. Yum!!
We learned about Chinese New Year by reading books and a special issue of our Scholastic News that was all about the holiday. Of course, we all loved watching Mrs. Mo's parade come through our classrooms!
On February 25th, we celebrated the 100th Day of School! The entire school started the day off by doing 100 exercises in the hallway. Wow...were we out of breath! The rest of the day was filled with exciting activities like eating special 100 Day snacks, making necklaces with 100 pieces of cereal, searching for 100 words we know and counting to 100 in various ways. We love the 100th Day of School! February was a fantastic month!
On February 25th, we celebrated the 100th Day of School! The entire school started the day off by doing 100 exercises in the hallway. Wow...were we out of breath! The rest of the day was filled with exciting activities like eating special 100 Day snacks, making necklaces with 100 pieces of cereal, searching for 100 words we know and counting to 100 in various ways. We love the 100th Day of School! February was a fantastic month!
Second Grade
What a busy month February was!February may have the fewest days, but Searingtown’s second graders had the most fun this month. Some of the holidays, activities, and celebrations that the children enjoyed were: Groundhog’s Day, Valentine's Day, Presidents’ Day, the Chinese/Korean New Year, Black History Month, and the 100th Day of School.
In math and science, we have been busy learning how to measure objects in centimeters and meters. We used rulers and yardsticks to determine the length, width, and height of objects in inches, feet, and yards. We even discovered how long a blue whale is! Our writing workshop focus shifted from personal narratives to creating realistic fiction stories. Our decoding and encoding skills increase each day during our daily Fundations lessons.
The fun and excitement reached its peak on February 12th when we had an incredibly successful Heritage Celebration. Sharing our Treasure Museums, Heritage Dolls,
and “All About Me” books was remarkable. Singing peaceful, loving songs and eating food and desserts from different countries were wonderful treats too. A special thanks goes to all the family members and friends who joined us for this memorable occasion. Our gratitude also goes to Searingtown’s awesome PTA for running a delicious Valentine’s Day bake sale fundraiser and for the extremely educational, informative “Our Living Planet” program for all to enjoy.
Third Grade
The snow-filled month of February was full of fun and learning in third grade. The children continued their exploration of non-fiction, both in reading and writing. In reading we read the biography of Helen Keller. Some classes even read biographies of other historical figures. We examined all the conventions that are seen in nonfiction books. This directly related to our non-fiction writing. The children wrote “All About” books. Their stories covered a huge list of topics, ranging from ice cream to baseball, to video games, and many things in between!On the 100th day of school, third graders did 100 exercises led by Ms. Pasatieri. Some classes did other activities throughout the day including, spending $100 shopping from catalogues, finding things that weigh 100 grams, and estimating what 100 objects look like.
Mrs. Mo’s class helped the entire third grade (and the school) celebrate the Chinese/Korean Lunar New Year. Their colorful lion dancers brightened our day and brought us good luck, as they came dancing through our classrooms!
Fourth Grade
If you think it’s impossible to go on a journey without leaving Searingtown, you might want to speak to the students in fourth grade, because they’ll tell you otherwise. That’s just what fourth graders did recently when they journeyed into American Indian territory right here at Searingtown. Students were immersed in the history of the Woodland Indians of Long Island as part of an in-house field trip presented by “Journeys into American Territory”. The small gym transformed into an extensive museum of culture, which included animal skin clothing, beadwork, drums, wampum, tools, not to mention a replica of a long house and many other artifacts that the students were able touch and explore. By listening to personal accounts, and looking beyond stereotypes, students learned history from the Native American perspective. Through storytelling, playing games, singing songs, and crafting their own pottery students learned the tribal traditions and culture of Native Americans first-hand. It was truly a wonderful learning experience-enjoyed by all!Fourth graders are getting charged up about the electricity unit they’ve been studying in science. But don’t worry they know the safety rules when working with electricity. Students have been busy creating open and closed circuits and lighting up the room as they learn all about conductors, insulators, parallel and series circuits.
In writing, student authors have made their finishing touches and are busy publishing their wonderful realistic fiction stories. They’re all looking forward to celebrating their creative stories about “real” kids just like them. Who knows, one day, maybe they’ll be famous authors visiting Searingtown, and sharing memories of their fourth grade writing experiences that inspired them to become authors of children’s books. Speaking of famous authors-don’t forget to drop by next month to read all about Robert Kimmel Smith who will be visiting with the fourth grade in March!
Fifth Grade
This month the entire fifth grade continued learning about energy in the form of light. Students used a light source to perform experiments with white and colored light. Some of the major concepts that the students learned were reflection, refraction and dispersion. Students gathered information by testing and/or observing the properties of light. They used mirrors to show reflection and refraction and learned how to use a protractor to prove that these angles are always equal. We finished the unit by discovering the colored spectrum of light through a crystal prism.
The students now have a new friend, named Roy G. Biv!
Library
Though a short month, February was jam-packed with activities! All grades have been enjoying the work of our 2010 visiting author/illustrator, Laura Vaccaro Seeger. Third grade has been preparing for a special skype visit from popular author, Dan Gutman, by participating in activities located in our wiki. They have been creating video book reviews, character trading cards, and one class even created their own book series, "Our Weird School" with stories based on Searingtown teachers!In research, Mr. Soloway's and Ms. Ruggiano's students have begun our body systems unit, "Survivor MD, LI", while Mrs. Benzoni's and the Fruda/Fran clan are blogging and getting ready to start a unit on explorers of the land, sky, arts, and ideas!
To always be up to date on what's new in our library media center, please make it a habit to check out our Herricks Virtual Library website. The site is updated weekly, with announcements, projects, book trailers, book reviews, photographs, and the most recent educational websites for students, teachers, and parents. Please give yourself a little time to look through it, and feel free to email Mrs. Kliegman with suggestions about what you would like to see added to the site. Our site is always a work-in-progress and we welcome input from everyone!
ELL
English Language Learners have found their place on a map! Ms. Leone and Ms. Vanore are teaching their students where to find their country, state, town and home. With an emphasis on vocabulary, students will learn and discuss the differences among types of dwellings and acquire household vocabulary.
English Language Learners have also found fellow Americans on the map – the Inuit of Alaska! After researching non-fiction books and websites, we are creating a class book about this hardy culture that lives within the Arctic Circle. The children are learning to write captions and glossaries as a means of connection to this genre of literature.
For more information about what's happening in our classrooms and our special areas, please visit the Teacher Website page!