Carbonaro students celebrate the greats

More than 200 students in grades K-6 recited poems to an audience of teachers, family and peers on April 9 in recognition of National Poetry Month.

The Robert W. Carbonaro School has been celebrating poetry by holding its recitation contest every April for the last 12 years. Students memorize a published poem and come up with creative ways of presenting it to an audience. Children who won received trophies, while the others were awarded commemorative pins.

Organized by librarian Kate Lallier and reading teaching Laurie Arnone, the event is an annual celebration of every poet from Mother Goose to William Shakespeare. “The children make the poetry their own by creating props and costumes to enhance their presentation,” said Principal Dr. Lisa Conte. “The event gets more popular every year.”

Physical eduction teacher Faye Egre joined Lallier and Arnone in judging the performances, and several criteria were factored into the scores, including the difficulty of the poem, poise and creativity. “It’s incredibly difficult to choose winners but the students enjoy the competition,” Lallier said. “There are trophies for sports, so why not award trophies for academics?”

While the judges deliberated, teachers entertained the children by performing poetry skits. “Everyone was bitten by the poetry bug,” Arnone said. “We started 12 years ago with about 70 kids and one contest. This year was our largest contest ever with 215 kids in three grade level competitions.”

THE WINNERS

Kindergarten

1st Place: Amir Green

2nd Place: Raquel Henao

3rd Place (tie): Kiara Nsiah; Armaan Patankar

First Grade

1st Place: Maya Alschuler-Pierce

2nd Place (tie): Kalina Palas; Shannuel Lamptey

3rd Place: Gloria Kim and Maya Diaz

Second Grade

1st Place (tie): Nicole Wojtkielewicz; Bailley Fernandez

2nd Place (tie):  Mahek Patankar; Diana Park and Nicole Blecher

3rd Place (tie): Matthew Wang; Rebecca Possidel

Christopher Infantino Award: Jakob Piccioli

Third Grade

1st Place (tie): Arianna Lane and Breana Pellicane; Sarah Cook and Adrianna Heneghan

2nd Place (tie): Steven Lopeck; Tai Spigner and Alan Ayala

3rd Place (tie): Michelle Avshalumov; Wayne Chen-Delgado and Allan Traill

Christopher Infantino Award: Nicole Casillo 

Fourth Grade

1st Place (tie): Jordan Nizri; Giovanni Pupo

2nd Place (tie): Andrea Singh and Sarah Henao; Joel Persaud

3rd Place (tie): Emilio Fredericks; Caitlyn Lopeck and Ibrahim Mozawalla

Christopher Infantino Award: Taryn Bowman

Fifth Grade

1st Place (tie): Julia Basciano; Sophie Renois

2nd Place (tie): Jacob Libsman; Eric Nelson

3rd Place (tie): Anthony Sammarone, Ryan Rizzo, Saqif Ahmed, Chris Brunner and Lokin Dabbiru

Christopher Infantino Award: Jennelle Ledesma 

Sixth Grade

1st Place (tie): Samori Emmanuel; Harrison Dickler

2nd Place (tie): Sheeban Tobria; Brianna Fernandez

3rd Place (tie): Lindsay Cook, Leslie Mendez and Dallas Belvin; Dana De Castro and Briana Schippell; Blair Garrett and Sarah Azeez.

Christopher Infantino Award: Michael Pollard