Combining lessons in cultural arts and mathematics, the fifth graders at Tackan Elementary School celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with a hypothetical trip to explore Ireland. Students were given a budget of $3,500 to plan a trip to Ireland. There were certain purchases in their budget that they needed to make, such as a passport, airline tickets, lodging and at least budget for two meals per day. They also were required to budget for one activity per day, as well as transportation to and from that activity. Students were given a choice of different lodging options, souvenirs and a variety of excursions to plan during their weeklong stay in Ireland.

The district was the recipient of three Western Suffolk BOCES Model Schools awards. Out of the 18 component districts in Western Suffolk BOCES, Smithtown received three out of five awards this year.

Congratulations to the following winning submissions: Sheila Cavooris, Michaela Riviello and Deanna Jakubowsky from Great Hollow Middle School (The Roaring Twenties: A Unit Redesigned to Reconnect to a Hybrid World, eighth grade social studies); Michelle Robinson, Tackan Elementary School (Reindeer Games: Connecting Picture Books and STEM, fourth grade library); and Rita Damato and Michelle Manning, Great Hollow Middle School (Ancient Egypt Escape Room, sixth grade social studies). For each of the three awards, Western Suffolk BOCES will provide $1,000 to be used for the school and/or classroom.

As part of their lessons on physical properties and how they change, the fifth grade students at Tackan Elementary School conducted a St. Patrick’s Day-themed slime making experiment. Using laundry detergent and shaving cream, along with some gold glitter, the students each made their own bucket of slime as they learned about how the properties of the ingredients changed during the experiment.

Students in Ms. Spata’s fifth grade class at Tackan Elementary School recently finished reading the book “Esperanza Rising.” As a cumulative project, the students created their own yarn dolls. In the book, Esperanza makes yarn dolls to give to her friends. The fifth graders each created two dolls, one for themselves and one to gift to a classmate.

The kindergartners at Tackan Elementary School turned into caregivers for their stuffed animals during a virtual teddy bear clinic held on March 5.

Kristi Ladowski of the Stony Brook University Trauma Center connected remotely with the students to teach them about safety and how to do their part to stay injury free. The clinic helps ease the process of doctor and hospital visits by showing students how to be caregivers. They learned about buckling up their seatbelts to stay safe in vehicles and to always wear their helmet when riding a bike to keep safe.

Students cared for their injured stuffed animals, tended to and bandaged them and gave them instructions on how long to rest. They also wrote down how they could be safer next time to prevent injuries.

More than 250 parents, students and staff members participated in Smithtown Central School District’s virtual Parent University on March 8. Parent University is hosted by the district’s Wellness Committee. The evening, themed “Responding to this Moment,” featured more than a dozen workshops for participants in two different sessions.

Workshops were facilitated by both community members, professionals and staff. Mental health counselor Ron Villano addressed how to manage concerns for students during this time such as anxiety, stress, feeling trapped and mental health, and school performance. Dietitian/nutritionist Colleen McDermott talked about different nutrition components to lead a healthy lifestyle, while registered sleep technologist Brendan Duffy spoke about how to protect and improve sleep.

Smithtown’s administrator for guidance and related student services Kevin Colon provided strategies for effective communication between parents and teenagers. Nesaquake Middle School reading teacher Julianne DeSilva spoke about how to encourage reading at home with ideas for how parents can engage with reading with their children and model good reading habits.

Dr. Beth Forhman’s workshop offered evidence-based suggestions to foster family and children’s resiliency during this challenging time. Dr. Marissa Abram also spoke about the impact of mental health during the pandemic and how to create self-care plan. Psychologist and therapist Craig O’Brien addressed biological stress reactions and strategies for managing anxieties.

Smithtown is one of nine schools districts to be included in the recent Smart Start grant received by Western Suffolk BOCES. The purpose of the Smart Start grant is to develop, implement and share innovative programs that provide professional development and support to increase expertise in computer science, engineering and/or educational technology among teachers in grades K-8.

Smithtown was one of the component districts that expressed interest in participating in the grant. Western Suffolk BOCES was awarded $500,000 a year for each of the next five school years (2021-2022 through 2025-2026). The money allocated to each district will be based on the student population. Smithtown’s portion of the funds will support 115 teachers in computer science professional development. Beginning this summer, the district will be able to open up the training to 23 teachers per year.

Teachers will be involved in four days of professional development during the summer months and two-and-a-half days during the school year. Teachers will be trained in computer science by the company Mouse. “Our goal is to further enhance our computer science offerings here in Smithtown as well as support teachers in the delivery of our Project Lead the Way program,” said Paul Strader, assistant superintendent for curriculum and assessment.

This summer, the district will offer the training to interested K-5 STEM specialists, K-8 library media specialists, middle school math teachers and K-5 elementary classroom teachers. They will continue to expand the pool of teachers offered the professional development each school year. Teachers will receive a stipend from grant for their participation. Following the training, the teachers will be delivering at least 15-20 computer science-based lessons.

Second grade students at Tackan Elementary School recently learned about geodes during their art classes with Mrs. Chandler. The students cracked open their own geode and were excited when they found their rocks to be filled with glistening crystals. They discussed the different characteristics of the crystals within the geodes and how they can vary depending on the mineral deposits inside. The second graders then made their own geode paintings inspired by the rings of color found within these special rocks.

Fourth graders from Tackan Elementary School recently read “Dasher” by Matt Tavaras during their library class with Mrs. Robinson. The book tells the story of how Santa’s sleigh came to be driven by reindeer. Students were tasked with building a reindeer out of paper cups, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks and masking tape. The reindeer then had to “fly” using Sphero Bolt and Sphero Mini robots.