The Cherokee Street Elementary School community is paying it forward through “Pink it Forward”, a breast cancer fundraising initiative. Their efforts raised $1,200 to create care packages for women undergoing treatment and surgery for breast cancer in the Connetquot community.

To kick off the fundraising efforts, Cherokee Street Elementary held a staff “pink walk”. Spearheaded by Cherokee Street’s Speech and Language Pathologist Nicole Bren, a variety of merchandise, including bracelets, hats and more was also sold to raise money.

Fourth grade teacher Jennifer Ripp arranged a day for hairstylists to come in and give faculty pink hair extensions. Christine Brennan hosted a candle event at her store, Fire and Wixx, which also brought in contributions.

It was important to me that the money raised was used to directly help other women diagnosed with breast cancer,” said Nicole Bren. “My hope with ‘Pink it Forward’ is that the women receiving the care packages will feel comforted and maybe even a little joy when they receive them.”

Date Added: 11/20/2023

Señor Bedell’s third, fourth and fifth grade students at Cherokee Street Elementary recently learned about El Dia De Los Muertos during their Spanish “lunch and learn” classes. As an exciting culmination to all they’d learned, Cherokee Street welcomed a special Mariachi band performance during the students’ arrival on Nov. 6.

El Dia De Los Muertos or the Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday in which families welcome back the souls of their deceased relatives. In learning about the holiday, students immersed themselves in Mexican culture by collaborating and building an authentic ofrenda, an altar built to honor lost loved ones. Beforehand, they completed grade-specific crafts, reading and writing activities and watched cultural video clips.

Fifth grade art students contributed to the display by creating symmetrical sugar skull paintings. Students from Connetquot High School’s international club even contributed marigolds, ceramic pumpkins and other gifts for the elementary students, which were raffled and given to the winners of different “lunch and learn” classes.

Click here to view the photo slideshow.

Date Added: 11/15/2023

Cherokee Street Elementary School is creating buzz with a new, fun and educational media initiative. The school recently started a media club, Wake Up Cherokee, and a news club, Cherokee Chatter, which are working together to develop an in-school talk show and corresponding newspaper.

Wake Up Cherokee is meant to introduce students to different forms of media and give them the opportunity to experience what it’s like to be a part of the school’s very first morning news show. Students in this club create and film news segments that will be shown to the Cherokee community.

Similarly, Cherokee Chatter is meant to introduce students to different forms of news writing. Students will be in charge of writing news segments and producing a newspaper that goes out into the building.

Recently, the clubs put out their first show and corresponding paper, featuring an interview with Connetquot’s Superintendent Dr. Joseph Centamore. In an effort to get to know him better, questions included, “What do you do at work?” “Why’d you move to our district?” “What do you like to do in your free time?” as well as asking about his favorite book, movie, food and more. Interview questions were written by the news club while the video was produced by the media club.


Date Added: 11/8/2023