On Oct. 26, students from Great Hollow Middle School and Dogwood Elementary School joined forces to help struggling neighbors. Members of the two schools’ Peanut Butter Gang community service clubs visited Hospitality Too soup kitchen in Brentwood. They unpacked crates of donated food, set up tables, and helped serve a hot lunch to soup kitchen guests. They also packed wash kits of toiletries that will be delivered to the needy at various locations on Long Island and in New York City. In addition, students distributed Halloween costumes that had been collected at drives held in both buildings.

To help spread some smiles to the residents of the St. James Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center across the street from their school, fifth graders from Mills Pond Elementary School went trick-or-treating on Halloween. Dressed in their most creative Halloween costumes, the students received candy from the residents, many of whom dressed up to hand out candy as well. 

Second grade students in Kimberly Passmonte’s class teamed up with their buddy fifth graders in Seth Paster’s class at Mills Pond Elementary School for some hands-on math lessons with pumpkins on Oct. 25. Both the fifth and second graders worked together to estimate the weight, circumference and number of seeds for a pumpkin in cooperative learning groups. They then used tape measures, scales and counting skills to discover the actual numbers.  

In conjunction with Red Ribbon Week and Halloween, the classes at St. James Elementary are doing their best to scare away drugs as evidenced by the “scary” display outside their school. With each grade level assigned a different theme, every class stuffed and decorated scarecrows. Students and staff took individual pledges to make healthy choices and scare away drugs. After the pledges were signed and pinned to the class scarecrows, the life-sized creations were staked into the ground in front of the building. They will remain on display through the Halloween season as a symbol of the school’s commitment to “scare away” destructive decisions.

To celebrate National Writing Day, the fourth grade classes at Mills Pond Elementary School participated in different writing seminars on Oct. 21.

The fourth graders had the option to choose which seminar they would like to attend depending on their interests. The fourth grade teachers each presented a different writing workshop including: writing an alternate ending to a story, creating a sequel to a poem and creating adoption advertisements for one of the world’s top 10 ugliest animals. The students also had a chance to stop at the photo wall with a prop to take a picture and remember National Writing Day.

The 50-plus members of the S.I.T.E. (Spreading Inspiration Through Education) Club at High School East are hard at work inspiring a younger generation of students at Mills Pond Elementary.

Club co-presidents Hailey Sheridan and Haleigh Gahan, along with about a dozen members, visit with students at Mills Pond Elementary School each week to provide a hands-on lesson. At their weekly meeting, the students discuss project ideas. Working with the classroom teacher, the students develop an engaging lesson and visit the class to work alongside the students. One or two mentor S.I.T.E students work with the elementary students for small group instruction. At the end of the lesson, the groups present their work to the class. 

On Oct. 17, the students worked in fourth grade classes and presented a lesson based on the scientific method. The students conducted an experiment using Skittles and hot water and wrote a hypothesis, questions and observations.