On Nov. 1, dozens of students and their families from the Idle Hour Elementary School community gathered in the school’s “cafetorium” to celebrate “Math Night,” an evening filled with mathematical fun and learning. 

Spearheaded by Connetquot Central School District Director of Mathematics Louise Burger and the Idle Hour Parent-Teacher Association, students were able to engage in a series of 10 activity stations all aimed at enhancing their mathematical skillsets. The students and their parents were each given a “Math Night Passport,” which granted them access to explore all of the activity stations in any particular order. Upon successful completion of an activity station, students’ passports were marked off by the station’s facilitator, thus signifying that they mastered the game at hand. 

 Both students and their chaperones were then encouraged to visit the Mathnasium rewards table in order to trade in their passports for goody bags and various giveaways for the attending family members. 

Math Nights are STEM-oriented educational events hosted in an effort to further explore STEM education and careers for students, and expose them to fun and innovative ways of learning mathematics. 

The district would like to thank Mathnasium of Sayville for their assistance in coordinating the night’s events, along with the student-volunteers from Connetquot High School. 

Students of all grade levels from Idle Hour Elementary School recently enhanced their knowledge of the world’s rainforests and its inhabitants during a visit from Barb Whittamore of the Wildlife Encounters, a Wildlife Education Program in Nebraska. During Ms. Whittamore’s visit, she shed light onto the multiple layers of the South American rainforests which include the forest floor, understory, canopy and emergent layers. Student-volunteers were given the opportunity to interact with creatures such as “Jedi” the Blue-Tongued Skink, “Axel” the Red-Footed Tortoise and “Zeus” the Argentine Black and White Tegu.

Students enrolled in Lanie Goodman’s and Claire Bancroft’s kindergarten classes at Idle Hour Elementary School recently took a field trip to the West Sayville Fire Department in recognition of Fire Prevention Week. During their time spent at the fire house, the students learned the most up to date tactics to employ in the event of a household fire, explored the functions of a fire engine and operated a fire house with assistance from firefighters.