Meg Greiner Recognized as Section One Athletic Trainer of the Year

Sensory Art Program a Success at

Furnace Woods

Fourth grader April loves to play and write with shaving cream, while fifth grader Michaela likes sponge painting. Fourth grader Aiden’s favorite activity is crafts. 

Students in Lindsay Giacomantonio’s ABC class at Furnace Woods are enjoying these activities during their sensory art class, a new program taught by art teacher Sandra Feirman.

For each class, Feirman sets up a variety of sensory art projects around a theme. Past themes have included transportation, snowmen, Halloween and pine. “For that class, we worked with pine cones and painted pine branches – the whole room smelled like a forest!” said Feirman.  

Students can cycle through a variety of art “stations," and there are plenty to choose from. Activities have included collaging, crafts, finger painting and puzzles, and using materials such as shaving cream, Play-Doh, squishy objects, sponges and “pop-it” sensory toys. 

Discovery is a big part of the process, and students may find themselves painting with unexpected, unique “tools,” such as cork, feathers, tree branches or even toy cars. 

“I play soothing music and dim the lights to create a calm and joyful atmosphere where the students can learn through play,” said Feirman. “It is wonderful to see the kids explore so many choices during their sensory art experience.”

Some students will spend the period trying out every station and art project, while others will focus most of their time on one particular activity. Both approaches are perfectly fine, according to Feirman and Giacomantonio.

“My students benefit from this type of activity because it nurtures their senses and helps to increase their concentration, attention, and positive behavior,” said Giacomantonio. “Both the children and the staff love the sessions and look forward to them every week!”

FGL Fourth Graders Collaborate to Create “Sailor Pride” Newspaper

The first issue of the Sailor Pride Paper is hot off the press and creating quite a buzz at Frank G. Lindsey.

A group of FGL fourth graders who enjoy writing put their heads together and came up with the idea of publishing a school newspaper. The first Sailor Pride Paper came out just before the holiday break, with a special winter edition featuring stories about New Years Eve, tips for staying warm in the cold weather, a "Meet the Teacher" interview, and a variety of illustrated features and comics. 

"The students came up with the idea for the newspaper and all of the story ideas themselves," said FGL fourth grade teacher Megan Boyle. "They presented their idea to the principal and, once they got the go-ahead, they worked really hard to put it all together."

The students, who are all from different FGL fourth grade classes, brainstormed topics during their lunch and recess periods and then worked on their individual pieces at home. They are hoping to produce the newspaper monthly and have just finished producing their second issue.

"I like to work with my friends and learn team-building skills," said Sofia Santiago, who contributed a comic about Santa for the first issue. "We worked together to make something super fun."

Violet Van Dekker added "I liked being able to work with my friends and use all of our different skills."

The fourth-grade students who worked on the Sailor Pride Paper are Ava Guarrusso, Ava Hallowell, Zanobia Lovell, Lisa Lush, Aubrey Moore, Bryden Ordonez, Raquel Rocha, Cadence Roldan, Sofia Santiago, Elise Van Dekker and Violet Van Dekker.

To read the first issue, click HERE.

B-V First Graders are Growing

Like Cornstalks

When Jessica Anderson’s first-grade students at Buchanan-Verplanck tell each other how many feet tall they are, they really mean feet! The students recently used their shoes to measure one another’s height during a fun, hands-on math lesson.

The students worked in pairs, using their shoes to measure one another from head to toe. Then they cut out tracings of their shoes on paper to create cornstalks that represent how tall they are and placed the stalks in size order.

“This activity was hilarious,” said Rhys. “My favorite part was finding out I was the tallest in the class!”

Naraly said that her favorite part was when they measured each other with their shoes. "We found out that we were all around five or six shoes tall, even Mrs. Anderson!"

Message from the Superintendent

Dear Hendrick Hudson Community,

I hope you have enjoyed this issue of The Lanyard. Be sure to keep up with all the positive happenings in our schools through our e-newsletter, district website and social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter (see links, below).

This week we heard a great deal about the mask mandate in schools and how a court decision in Nassau County may impact the state’s guidelines. For now, staff and students must continue to follow current masking protocols until this legal matter is resolved. Please click here for our latest statement on the topic of masks in school.

While our Covid-positive rate has sharply declined recently, please be sure to continue reporting any positive cases to our dedicated, school-specific email addresses. We appreciate your continued vigilance and cooperation so that we can keep our students and staff healthy and our schools open.

We are now halfway through the school year, and I am extremely proud of how we’ve managed to prioritize in-person instruction in our schools. Moving forward and working together as a school community, we hope to continue doing so through the second half of the year.

It looks like snow is on the way, but fortunately it appears it won’t have any impact on our schools this time around. Stay warm, and have a happy and healthy weekend.

Regards,

Joseph E. Hochreiter

Superintendent