Fifth grade students at Tackan Elementary School had their chance to sample books with a restaurant theme on Friday.

The school’s librarian, Michelle Robinson, as well as ELA and literary specialist Trish Gallery hosted a “book tasting” for students — allowing them to sample books from different genres to better learn what types of literature may interest them.

A sign greeted students with “Welcome to our Tackan Elementary School Bistro,” red and white tablecloths were draped on what normally serve as library tables, and Parisian music played in the background to set the ambience.

Students wrote brief reviews of the books they sampled. They also placed books they liked on hold to borrow and read later this academic year.

“This is an incredibly special event that only fifth graders get to do, and it’s awesome,” Robinson told the students.

Date Added: 1/21/2022

Colleen McKillop with Pat Smith at Thursday night's award presentation.

Great Hollow Middle School physical education teacher Colleen McKillop earned a highly respected award on Thursday night.

McKillop was honored as the Suffolk Zone Middle School Physical Education Teacher of the Year by the New York State Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance at its awards dinner.

In addition to her physical education duties at Great Hollow, McKillop also coaches the school’s field hockey team.

“Colleen earned this prestigious award due to her innovative technology and interdisciplinary teaching strategies infused into her physical education lessons,” district coordinator of physical education Pat Smith said. “These strategies were particularly impressive through adaptations and enhancement made due to virtual learning.”

Date Added: 1/21/2022

Nesaquake Middle School students demonstrated their knowledge of musical instruments by building their own with random materials in a competitive format on Friday morning.

Teacher Stan Bielski’s music elective class first explored the Hornbostel-Sachs method of classifying musical instruments into categories based on their means of sound production:

• Aerophones — instruments activated by air, mostly by blowing into the instrument.

• Chordophones — stringed instruments whose strings are plucked, picked or bowed.

• Idiophones — instruments whose entire construction vibrates, such as cowbells and cymbals.

• Membranophones — instruments that feature an animal or artificial skin stretched over a frame or shell, such as most drums.

• Electrophones — instruments using electricity to produce their characteristic sounds, such as the theremin and stylophone.

Drawing from the Food Channel program "Chopped" for inspiration, students were divided into four teams and given the same objects: a large coffee can, rubber bands, latex glove, Velcro, string, cardboard tubes, plastic straws, marbles and plastic Ziploc bags. They then were charged with making an instrument in one of the Hornbostel-Sach categories, except electrophones.

Students utilized additional items including duct tape, a can opener and magic tape to make their projects.

Mt. Pleasant Elementary faculty and staff treated young visitors to Barnes & Noble with special readings of their favorite children’s books on Thursday night.

Sponsored by the Mt. Pleasant PTA, the Smith Haven Mall bookstore hosted the Pick A Reading Partner Night event.

Teacher Steve Jackowski kicked off the evening by reading what he described as his favorite book, “The Napping House.” He engaged his young audience by getting them to say lines from the book aloud, too.

Fellow teacher Kellie Morris followed by reading, “How the Crayons Saved the Rainbow.” Afterward, she asked the audience to share what could be learned from the book, and someone correctly noted that it teaches that more can be accomplished as a team.

Mt. Pleasant’s Kathryn Dunleavy then read, “Extra Yarn.” Christine Cole, Kaila Carson and Lisamarie Hausch also read to the children.

The fun evening included a scavenger hunt, with participants asked to find in the bookstore a book with a food in the title, a book with English and Spanish, a book with a robot, a book with 100 or more pages, a book that was made into a movie, and a book that rhymes.

A portion of sales from the night will be donated to the Mt. Pleasant PTA.

Date Added: 1/20/2022

Accompsett Elementary School fourth graders were entertained by science on Thursday.

The “Wacky Science Show” with host Doug Scheer taught the students science principles and encouraged them to continue the experiments at home with supervision.

“This is the kind of science where I say, ‘Try this at home,’” Scheer told the fourth graders.

At one point, Scheer noted that magic often may not be magic at all — but science.

For instance, he showed the students how to make a Styrofoam cup “disappear.” He explained that acetone from generic, non-colored nail polish remover takes the air out of the Styrofoam. And because roughly 90 percent of Styrofoam is air, the cup appears to disappear, although there is the roughly 10 percent plastic remaining in a condensed form after it makes contact with the acetone liquid.

Scheer encouraged the students to borrow books from the library on science experiments that they then can perform with household items.

“You can buy them at the dollar store and be a scientist,” he said.

Date Added: 1/20/2022