Brooklyn Avenue students learn why V.S. is ‘a great place to live’

Second-graders produce book about V.S.

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When Brooklyn Avenue Elementary School third-grader Amberley Gajraj was tasked in school last year with studying part of her community, she chose Village Hall. There she learned what kind of municipality Valley Stream is and how its government works.

“I learned that we live in an incorporated village and we have our own mayor,” Amberley said. “I also learned how the branches of government in the village work, and that the mayor is the head of the executive branch, and he is in charge of the budget, development and housing.”

Amberley took this new knowledge, gleaned from an interview with Mayor Ed Fare, and included it in a book that she and the rest of her class helped produce entitled “Valley Stream Is a Great Place to Live.” And this year, after the village’s annual Sept. 11 ceremony, she presented a copy of the finished product to Fare.

“It is a wonderful publication that you and all your classmates can be very proud of,” Fare wrote in a thank-you letter to Amberley. “The book reflects well on our community and reveals just how much our village has to offer.”

Each second-grade student chose a different place in the community, and interviewed people there. They recorded their findings in the miniature booklet with illustrations — made by them — of each of their chosen locations.

Lucia Burnetmerlin, another student from the class, said that through the assignment, she learned public-speaking skills. As part of the project, each student presented a portion of the book to classmates. Lucia wrote about the Valley Stream Target store.

“I learned that during every season, Target has something new and new clothes,” she said. “I also learned that in order to have a community, we need to work together.”

Another student, Sebastian Osegueda, wrote about his cousin’s store, the Little Sugar Shop, on Rockaway Avenue. “I learned how to run a business, how to publish a book and information about the shop,” he said. “My favorite part about creating a page in the book was coloring the page and illustrating the book.”

Chalisa Lauren Vytalingam, who did her page on the former Rockaway Avenue Chase Bank, also said she learned a great deal, and overcame her fears of public speaking. “I learned about how Chase Bank allows people to make different accounts and how they handle financial services,” she said. “I was nervous, but presenting in front of the class helped me to get over my fears.”

The purpose of the assignment, according to Brooklyn Avenue second-grade co-teachers Kelly Martin and Deanna Fichtelberg, was to help their students understand how businesses work in a community and how local governments provide services — and in the process work on their social and public speaking skills. At the end, the students compiled their findings and sent them to Student Treasures Publishing, which produced the finished product.

“The project was important for the students because it encouraged them to be brave enough to talk to an adult from their place and increased their self-esteem,” Martin said. “It also helped the students to work on their public speaking.”

“I am very proud of the students for working on this book because they were very detailed in what they did,” Fichtelberg said. “They did a nice job and they really took the time to answer the questions and be the best they could be.”