Check out our new spring newsletter highlighting all of the amazing work done by our school and community during this time…

The National Circus Project recently made a weeklong stop at Tackan Elementary School. Two professional circus artist-instructors held introductory workshops for the fourth grade class. The instructors kicked off the week by showing off their skills during an assembly for the whole grade level. Each day during the week, the students learned age-appropriate circus skills during their physical education classes, such as juggling, plate spinning, devil sticks and diablo manipulation. The students showcased their new skills at the conclusion of the week with a performance.

Young writers at High School West have plenty of opportunities to let their creativity shine in both class and during writing clubs.
The creative writing elective is open to students in 9-12 grade. Some of the content produced during the class helps to feed the school’s literary magazine, Penumbra. The yearly magazine showcases many of the talents writers and artists from High School West. Published yearly, the magazine encourages students to explore their talents in poetry, short stories, artwork and photography.
Both the magazine and creative writing class are overseen by teacher Christopher Gunsel. The submissions for the magazine are solicited mainly through the creative writing class coursework. The staff of Penumbra meet weekly, as an extracurricular club, and is responsible for the selection, editing and layout of the magazine, which is upward of 60 pages. The 2020 theme for the magazine is “Failure and Hope.”
Journalism students also have the opportunity to show off their skill set both in the journalism media literacy class and in the journalism club with Mr. Klauber. All of the writing from the class is pulled for the “Bulls Eye” newspaper, which is published twice per year. In addition, students create, write and edit content for the website and the daily broadcast of their news program. Students have the ability to hone not only their writing skills, but editing, layout, design and video production skills for the multimedia format.
The journalism club meets every other week to discuss content and conduct writer’s roundtable discussions, where the students edit and proof most of the submitted work.

Let’s show our local heroes how grateful we are for their service as they battle this pandemic at the front line. Tie ribbons, leave kindness rocks and other creative messages along the Town Hall fence to say #staystrong #smithtown

The magic of Broadway came alive at Mills Pond Elementary School as the fifth grade classes presented their “Broadway Bonanza.” Featuring music from “Annie,” “The Greatest Showman” and “The Lion King” the students wowed their classmates and invited guests during their performances with their song and dance numbers.