Date Added: 4/11/2024

Students at Forest Avenue Elementary School had a special visit from members of the West Babylon Public Library on March 18 and 19. Students learned about the many different services and programs offered by the library. To get a taste of some of the classes offered, they rotated through different arts and crafts activities stations, created kindness cards for senior citizens in the local community and made butterfly wings to celebrate spring. They each potted their own cup with seeds and soil so they could watch their plants come to life this spring.

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Date Added: 4/8/2024

West Babylon School District’s orchestra students had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play alongside a famous musician, thanks to an artist-in-residence program with Mark Wood, one of the founding members of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Mr. Wood visited with the student-musicians in grade 5-12 from throughout the West Babylon School District on March 14 and 15. Mr. Wood, a native Long Islander, worked with students for two days on a variety of rock songs from the ‘80s and ‘90s, including artists like AC/DC, Coldplay and Bon Jovi. As part of the Evolution Tour and the “Electrify Your Symphony” concert, Mr. Wood played in concert alongside the 220 West Babylon student-musicians during a show at the West Babylon Junior High School on March 15.

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Date Added: 3/25/2024

Forest Avenue Elementary School celebrated Lunar New Year during their library classes with a variety of grade-level activities. The Lunar New Year celebration kicked off on Feb. 10 for 15 days, ending with the Lantern Festival. This year is the Year of the Dragon.

Using folktales, fairytales and nonfiction books and databases, students learned about Chinese culture. They discovered how the 12 Chinese zodiac animals came to be by reading “Cat and Rat: The Legend of the Chinese Zodiac” by Ed Young. They also learned how to use animal tangrams to story tell by reading “Grandfather Tang’s Story” by Ann Tompert.

Students also compared well-known stories – such as “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Cinderella” and “The Runaway Gingerbread Man” – by reading the Chinese culture versions – “Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Story from China” by Eric Young, “Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China” by Ai-Ling Louie and “The Runaway Wok: A Chinese New Year Tale” by Ying Chang Compestine. Using nonfiction books and online databases like Pebble Go, students gathered more information about the Lunar New Year celebration with its traditions and customs.

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Date Added: 3/6/2024