In preparation for Thanksgiving, the first graders in Mrs. O’Connor and Mrs. Brunet’s class at Mt. Pleasant Elementary School used their math skills to craft turkeys on Nov. 20. Using a spinner, the students landed on a number between 0-9 and had to color that number of dots on a turkey feather. They then had to use a different color to fill in the remaining dots to equal the number 10. After all the feathers were colored, the students showed off their colorful turkey creations.

During the week leading up to Thanksgiving, the students in the district were hard at work to disguise their turkeys and save them from becoming dinner. At Mt. Pleasant Elementary School and Smithtown Elementary School, the students created paper turkeys. They took their turkeys home and worked with their families to disguise the turkey so the farmer wouldn’t catch them for Thanksgiving dinner. The students came up with creative ways to hide their turkeys this season. The students also sang Thanksgiving songs in class, learned about the holiday and talked about what they are thankful for this year.

Students in Mrs. Trovato’s first grade class at Mt. Pleasant Elementary School went outside on a beautiful fall day to learn about the five senses. They read “My Fall Five Senses,” sang their five senses song, experienced and wrote about what they saw, heard, touched, and could taste and smell during the fall season.

Kindergarten students in Ms. Hausch’s class at Mt. Pleasant Elementary School are becoming apple experts as they learn all about the fall fruit. The students recently participated in an apple taste test, where they had the opportunity to try red, green and yellow apples. After each tasting, the students colored in a happy face or sad face to indicate whether they liked it. Following the activity, the class collected data on which colored apple was their favorite.

Second graders in Ms. Gabriel’s and Mrs. Chester’s classes at Mt. Pleasant Elementary School created jack-o’-lanterns and worked on a writing element on how to carve a pumpkin. They used transition words and adjectives to improve their writing.

Mrs. Trovato’s first grade class, working with Mrs. Smerechniak at Mt. Pleasant Elementary School recently explored Scratch Jr. The programming tool allows students to create their own stories. They have the chance to plan how they want their story to look and how they want their characters to act. Students also applied what they learned by playing Rosie’s Runtime, a coding game. They learned the need to be very specific and put the code in the right sequence. The students explored the motion blocks, added new characters and a new background. They also used the microphone to add their own voices to their projects.