District 13 opens the doors to parents

District 13 rolled out the red carpet for parents last week and invited them to come see their children in action. As part of American Education Week, the four elementary schools were bustling with extra people from Nov. 25-27.

Almost every child had a special visitor, whether is was a parent, guardian, grandparent, aunt or uncle.

“It’s about a building a community,” said Darren Gruen, principal of the James A. Dever School, “and parents are a huge part of that.”

Gruen said every teacher was expected to participate, and they do so graciously. He said the teachers welcome the opportunity to share the many daily activities they do with their students.

Some teachers prepared special activities for students and parents to work on together, while others simply invited in the parents to observe regular lessons.

At Dever, parents came into the kindergarten classes last Wednesday to enjoy a Thanksgiving feast with their children. The meals varied from turkey, carrots and popcorn, to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Before eating, children performed several songs for their parents.

Kristen Dekel and Adrienne Perlaza are the two class mothers in Michele DiScala’s kindergarten class. Though they come to the classroom often, last week’s visit was still special. “We love to come here and see the kids together,” Dekel said. “I thought it was a nice celebration of friendship.”

Down the hall in Anne-Marie Apollo’s class, kindergartners had a full performance of Thanksgiving-related songs all ready to go. “They’re very excited to have their parents come in,” she said of her students.

At the Howell Road School, all kindergarten classes came together for a group performance in the gymnasium. The play included songs such as “Five Fat Turkeys,” “Albuquerque Turkey,” “I’m a little Acorn round” and “God Bless America.”  The students dressed in Native American and Pilgrim outfits, and created a turkey craft with their family members that attended the show. Principal Frank Huplosky said he was pleased with the turnout.

Parents of fifth-graders got to see their children work on some DNA experiments courtesy of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, which visits the school every year. In other classes, parents got to see how the new Common Core Learning Standards have been implemented.

“They love having an opportunity to see some of the Common Core lessons come to life,” Huplosky said. “They hear so much about it in the news.”

Kindergarten and first-grade students at Willow Road School also hosted activities centered on Thanksgiving. At Wheeler Avenue School, parents got to sit in on math games in fifth grade, saw a mealworm experiment in fourth grade, and learned about Egypt in sixth-grade.