Edith L. Slocum Elementary kindergarten through third graders hosted a parade to celebrate the end of their Secret Stories unit.

Since the beginning of the school year, students have been learning how to master phonics rules using a tool called Secret Stories. Each day, a “top secret” envelope was dropped off at the primary grade-level classrooms containing that day’s Secret Story.

Secret Stories makes learning to read more fun and engaging by turning tricky spelling rules into “secret” stories or characters. In English, words don’t always sound the way they’re spelled. For example, “ph” sounds like an “f”. Instead of memorizing these patterns, Secret Stories uses creative stories or characters to explain why certain letter combinations make certain sounds.

For the parade, each student either dressed as their favorite Secret Story character or held posterboards, presenting their favorite Secret Story. The students marched around the gymnasium singing the Secret Stories “Better Alphabet Song” for an audience of their older peers.

Date Added: 11/13/2024

On Friday, November 8, Connetquot students took part in special assemblies, put on inspiring musical performances, gave dedications, made donations, recited poems, listened to veterans share their experiences and wrote letters to honor our community’s veterans. As a school community, we would like to thank our veterans for their service today and every day!

Click here to view the Veterans Day in Connetquot slideshow.

Date Added: 11/8/2024

Students in Ms. Pinelli’s fourth grade class at Edith L. Slocum Elementary celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month by researching famous Hispanic people such as Pablo Picasso, Cesar Chavez, Oscar De La Hoya, Dolores Huerta, Celia Cruz, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Sonia Sotomayor and Frida Kahlo.

On their Chromebooks, students filled out a graphic organizer with important and interesting facts about the person. They then took their notes and filled in a flag which they decorated colorfully. The flags were then attached together and hung outside the classroom for all to view.

Click here to view the Researching Hispanic Heritage at Slocum slideshow.

Date Added: 10/18/2024

To enhance their math and money skills, Mrs. Minerva’s second grade students at Edith L. Slocum Elementary were introduced to a fun monthly project called, “pay projects”.

For each pay project, students start by choosing “parts” from a cart before using their coins cut from paper to pay for each item. For example, during their first project, students were given a “backpack” made from paper and had to pay for the “parts” to “fill it”. In this instance, the “parts” were school supplies that they glued onto the backpack. Once they purchased their parts, they could color and decorate the backpack. 

For October, students built a jack-o-lantern and paid for the eyes, nose, mouth, hat, bows, etc. For November, they will build a turkey, paying for feathers. In the winter, they’ll build a gingerbread house and will pay for candy, windows, doors and more. Each month will be a different theme.

The pay projects allow students to use their own creativity while also learning about coin value and the assigned values of the items they purchase. Mrs. Minerva started this in the 2023-24 school year and really saw her students’ money skills grow!

Click here to view the Slocum students use creativity and learn money skills with pay projects slideshow.

Date Added: 10/3/2024