Members of Oakdale-Bohemia Middle School’s National Junior Honor Society, along with chaperone Mary McGonnell, visited the residents of The Arbors Assisted Living at Bohemia this past April. During their time with the residents, the students played bingo and afterwards shared a snack with them.

Student-artists enrolled in Danielle DePalma’s art classes at Oakdale-Bohemia Middle School recently applied their artistic talents to create two beautiful murals which now reside in the school’s hallway and library. Students Zohayr Adnan, Isabella Pusateri and Leah Strauss used some of Brazilian artist Romero Britto’s popular works such as “Mona Cat” as inspiration and then created their own representations of his pieces so that they could be admired by all. 

In an effort to sharpen their scales and improve techniques, elementary-level students from the district recently visited with Oakdale-Bohemia Middle School music students for one-on-one musical mentoring sessions. After being welcomed by a number of student volunteers, the younger students were paired up with a Tri-M Music Honor Society representative who further prepared them for their New York State School Music Association performances.

 

The Oakdale-Bohemia Middle School drama club members recently took to the stage to put on a fantastic performance of “Anything Goes” before audiences for three consecutive evenings. The school’s adaptation was based off the classic 1934 musical, which chronicles the humorous antics of the passengers along an ocean liner on a path from New York to London. To prepare for this year’s production, which was directed by David Bentley-Garfinkel, the students spent months rehearsing their lines and perfecting the choreography before opening night.

In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Oakdale-Bohemia Middle School, students of all grade levels recently took part in a number of exciting activities geared toward celebrating the history of the school’s half-century of existence.

This past January, members of the school’s social studies staff asked if they could create a historical research project for their students to teach them about the history of the school. 

The sixth-grade teachers proposed having students look at artifacts from a time capsule in the building, as well as observing trends from 1969 to present day by reviewing yearbooks from the past. In doing so, the teachers set up the artifacts from the capsule in library like an archeological dig on a table. Students rotated through several tables with yearbooks by decade and reviewed particular areas such as sports, fashion, clubs and activities during their time spent on the activity. 

Seventh-grade students decided to present an oral history lesson, and reached out to former teachers, students and administration through social media to see if they’d come to the school to speak to the students. The students then created questions related to school rules, lunch, structure of the sports teams, attire for students, etc. and presented their findings during a highly informative PowerPoint presentation. 

For their aspect of the celebration, eighth-graders decided to have students investigate the history of the school. The young historians looked at factual information such as the original blueprints for the building, reviewed why the school was built on this property, the population at that time, cost of food and household products, jobs in the area and the average salary at the time.

The OBMS staff worked closely with library media specialist Mairead McInnes, Assistant to the Superintendent John Allen and the Connetquot Library in order to obtain historical records for students to review.