(DECEMBER 2022)—Before heading into the holiday recess, Valley Stream UFSD Thirteen students were busy sharing the holiday spirit with each other through various activities and classroom lessons.
At Willow Road Elementary School, students read the winter favorite, The Mitten by Jan Brett. Students focused on identifying the setting and acting out the story in sequential order using animal puppets and creating festive winter trees. Students celebrated Grinch Day for Spirit Week and engineered a new tree for Cindy Lou while rocking Who-Ville-inspired outfits.
Wheeler Avenue Elementary School students learned about the holidays and traditions celebrated around the world throughout the month of December, including Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and Christmas. The fourth-grade chorus shared holiday cheer by singing outside the school and participating in a sing-along assembly where students sang winter songs together.
At James A. Dever Elementary School, students participated in a candy cane science experiment where they predicted what would happen when they put their candy canes in water at different temperatures. Students crafted snow globes and wrote their own stories about what it would be like to live in a snow globe.
Howell Road Elementary School students created a gingerbread man billboard by crafting gingerbread men with photos of themselves. The students worked on sequencing in writing after reading How to Catch a Gingerbread Man by Adam Wallace. In the spirit of the holidays, the students wrote meaningful letters to each other and wore cozy pajamas for Spirit Week.