Herald Schools

East Rockaway students participate in Black History Month events

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As part of Black History Month, students at Rhame Avenue School learned about influential African Americans on Feb. 15.

In Heidi Kreith’s third grade classroom, students performed the play “Ruby: The Story of Ruby Bridges,” which is about the first black girl to go to an all-white school amid adversity from white parents in New Orleans in 1960.

“People were rude to black people,” explained third-grader Caroline Cronin.

Kreith said she wanted the students to learn “how different school was back then and how integrated school is now, and how they’re lucky to be going to school now where everyone’s accepted and treated equally.”

Across the hall, each student in Sarah Kane’s fourth grade classroom colored a square. Each square was compiled to make a poster depicting eight influential African American figures in American history. “They researched these eight people and now they’re using thinking maps to compare and contrast two of the figures, like George Washington Carver and Barack Obama,” Kane said.

The thinking maps were drawn as two circles on either side of a piece of paper, and were connected by adjectives that described both influential figures. There were also lines jetting out of each circle that described characteristics that belonged to only one of the figures.

“I think it’s fun,” said fourth-grader Felicity Caracciolo. “I like learning about people that we’ve heard of.”