District 13’s summer program consists of fun and learning

It’s not all work and no play at District 13’s summer program.

That was evident at the district’s Summer Recreation DJ Party on July 26, when students showed off their dance and music skills, then played on the black top of the Wheeler Avenue School.

“We’re always thinking outside the box,” said Denise DeMeo, the summer school principal.

The party was a way to show parents the work that the students have been doing. As part of the program, students participated in organized sports, art classes, theme days and field trips to local institutions such as Hot Skates in Lynbrook. Third-graders also learned the recorder, and girls in each grade learned a dance routine.

This year, the recreation program tried to incorporate STEAM — Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics — into the five-period program.

“Every summer I look at different programs,” DeMeo said.

In art class, students made boats out of pool noodles and tried to balance them in the water. They also made plaques out of wooden sticks and marionettes out of Styrofoam balls.

Lauren Asselta, a first-grade counselor, also said that she tried to have the students make bubbles out of gumdrops, and the students had to formulate hypotheses and test out their experiments. “It went pretty well,” she said. “They were all able to work together and blow these really big bubbles.”

Asselta, who was once one of the students in the program, said that she has “had a really great summer” in the program.

The Summer Recreation program is not the only summer program that District 13 offers. It also offers an English as a New Learner program and a Kindergarten Readiness program.

English as a New Learner program

The English as a New Learner program is offered to any student in the district’s ENL program. As part of the program, students learn vocabulary, do research and write about what they have learned. This year, the ENL program focused on animal habitats.

On July 26, the kindergarteners and first-graders in the ENL program were making rabbits out of the letter ‘R.’ The second- and third-graders, meanwhile, sorted animals into their different habitats, read about animals and wrote stories about animals. And the fourth- through sixth-graders had the opportunity to compete in a review game and to research marine life.

“It’s been a really good summer,” said English as a New Language Teacher Paula Barnick. “We’ve got a great group here.”

Kindergarten Readiness

Incoming kindergarteners who did not go to preschool also had the opportunity to learn and play as part of District 13’s Kindergarten Readiness program. In the program, the students learn the 26 letters of the alphabet, numbers one through 10, colors and shapes.

The program also provides students with an occupational therapist and a speech-language pathologist. The occupational therapist, Sherley Fils-Aime, assesses how the students move and works on their fine and gross motor skills by having them cut straight lines and writing their names. The speech-language pathologist works with the students on speech-sound development, listening to directions and language structure.

One kindergarten teacher, Katie Pulvidente, said that she has seen an improvement in the students since the program began in early July. “They come in barely able to spell their name and now they’re able to almost write it on their own,” she said.

The programs run every weekday from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m.  The Kindergarten Readiness program runs every weekday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.