SCHOOLS

Shore Road students show their patriotism

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The Bellmore School District’s oldest students celebrated their patriotism and love of reading during this year’s Parents as Reading Partners program.

PARP, a Bellmore PTA-sponsored initiative that encourages students to read for a minimum of 15 minutes a day, was celebrated at the Shore Road School during the week of Oct. 20. Fifth- and sixth-graders took part in various activities relating to this year’s theme –– “Read, White and Blue” –– throughout the week.

Shore Road Principal Patrice Matthews said the theme was born of conversations that she had with Natalie Molloy, a PARP committee member and local parent, last summer. Along with other members of the Bellmore Moms Group, Molloy arranged for a flag to be flown over the Capitol in honor of Grand Avenue Middle School.


Following the theme, Matthews said, students and their parents signed “declarations of reading independence” to show their commitment to reading throughout the program and every day thereafter.

The students also took part in a special assembly with a writer. Valerie Pfundstein. a kindergarten teacher and author of the children’s book, “Veterans: Heroes in Our Neighborhood,” spoke to the pre-teens about the writing process, as well as about America’s real-life superheroes – its military men and women.

Students and staff members alike participated in the PARP culminating activity on Oct. 24, gathering outside the school to form a living American flag, wearing red, white and blue and singing “The Star Spangled Banner.”