Long before the municipal trucks rolled onto school grounds, Grand Avenue School pre-K students were already hard at work, building roads out of blocks, sketching traffic signs and learning how their communities are built.
When a highway payloader, dump truck and street sweeper pulled up outside on Oct. 23, it wasn’t just exciting — it was about to be educational. As part of a classroom unit on roads and transportation, the Uniondale School District partnered with the Town of Hempstead to host a Touch-a-Truck event, giving the district’s youngest learners a chance to connect their in-class exploration with real-world machines — and the workers who operate them.
“Paul Weiss, who’s our pre-K STEAM teacher, has been working with the pre-K on designing an entire unit around roles and community workers,” Grand Avenue School Principal Samantha Dias said, referring to the acronym for science, technology, engineering, arts and math. “He came up with this idea of bringing the community into the lesson, so students get hands-on, real-world experience.”
“I called the Town of Hempstead last week and spoke to the Parks Department,” Weiss said. “I took five minutes out of my day, and gave (students) an experience of a lifetime.”
The children took turns climbing the steps of the vehicles and sitting in the seat of the street sweeper. Some pretended to honk the horn and called out, “Beep, beep!” Others laughed as they explored. When asked if he was scared to get in the sweeper, one 4-year-old student said yes, but smiled proudly afterward.
Town workers stood alongside the trucks, talking with students and teachers. One driver explained how the street sweeper works — and why keeping roads clean matters.
“I always say that if it wasn’t for this job, I wouldn’t be where I’m at,” municipal worker Peter Gonzalez said. “I love to do what I do — it’s not a job for me. When you love to do something, it’s not a job.”
“Maybe in the future, this is something they can do,” Gonzalez said as he pointed to the trucks.
All Students were dressed in yellow hard hats and fluorescent safety vests, like the workers they had been learning about in class. Weiss explained that the event ties in with their curriculum.
“If you go into any of their classrooms, they have tools and construction sites, buildings — they build towers,” he said. “It’s all about community workers and vehicles that are used in the community.”
Jessica Changa, who teaches one of the two pre-K classes at Grand Avenue, said the students had been learning about trucks and traffic for nearly a month before the event.
Teachers also integrate math and literacy into the curriculum. As students practice counting, they may start by tallying how many cars are in a parking lot. Later, they take on another challenge: counting how many toy cars they need to park around toy blocks that looks like a parking lot.
Other activities included drag races in the hallway. They were learning the concept of “push and pull,” in which two students roll a toy car back on the floor and then watch it go. The racetrack borders “musical tubes” or sound pipes acting as the rail. And two students at a time compete against each other. Eventually their toy car reaches the finish line down the hall.
“We’re learning trucks and vehicles — plus, it’s science,” Weiss said. “We’re learning about push and pull. So what’s a fun way for them to incorporate everything?”
“And you never know,” Gonzalez said. “You might have some future town workers here.”
