John F. Kennedy Elementary School paid special tribute to veterans on Nov. 8 with a breakfast and recognition ceremony. Guests were invited by students to join them for breakfast and photos in the school’s cafeteria. Afterward, the entire school gathered with attendees in the gymnasium.

Following a welcome by Principal Denisha Van Liew, student Lacey Burke sang “God Bless America.” Eastlynn LaMacchia recited her poem “My Hero,” and Amelia Manolopoulous delivered her Town of Babylon award-winning poem “My Favorite Veteran Is My Pop-Pop.”

Councilman DuWayne Gregory, who is also a veteran, thanked his fellow veterans in attendance. Councilman Gregory, Ms. Van Liew and Superintendent of Schools Dr. Yiendhy Farrelly– along with students – then presented certificates to each of the veterans. The second graders, led by Ms. Leidel, performed “I Love My Country.” The ceremony closed out with a standing ovation for all the veterans.

Click here to view the John F. Kennedy Elementary Pays Tribute to Veterans slideshow.

Date Added: 11/12/2024

Throughout the West Babylon School District, Red Ribbon Week was celebrated from Oct. 23-31 with various lessons and activities. Red Ribbon Week highlights the importance of living a drug-free life. It presents an opportunity for parents, educators and communities to reinforce the drug-free messages throughout the year. This year’s theme was “Life Is A Movie: Film Drug Free.”

To kick off the week, students throughout the district took the Red Ribbon Week oath and pledged to be drug free and make healthy choices. Elementary students dressed in different themed days to show their support including Crazy Sock Day, Pajama Day and County Day. Students also showed their support by creating posters and writing stories about how they could live a healthy lifestyle.

Click here to view the West Babylon Pledges to Stay Drug Free 24-25 slideshow.

Date Added: 10/30/2024

Fifth graders at John F. Kennedy Elementary School have been working on their literacy skills this October. During a recent writer’s workshop, Ms. Angelon and Mr. Koentje’s students participated in a gallery walk. The fifth graders worked with a partner to identify the type of lead in each paragraph. They then worked with their partner to take an ordinary lead and make it extraordinary.

Click here to view the JFK Fifth Graders Make Writing Extraordinary slideshow.

Date Added: 10/23/2024

West Babylon School District kicked off a weekend full of homecoming festivities with a pep rally to close out the school day at West Babylon Senior High School on Oct. 18. Continuing the celebrations, members of the school community lined up to march down Little East Neck Road to begin their parade to the West Babylon Junior High School football fields. 

Across the district, students and staff from each of the school buildings marched together to show their West Babylon pride. Led by the marching band, cheerleaders, youth football players, student organizations and clubs flashed their blue and gold colors for the community. The homecoming floats were themed for the four seasons this year, showing off winter, spring, summer and fall looks for each of the classes.  

Back on the football field, senior members of the football team, cheerleaders and marching band were honored. For the big Friday night lights game, the Eagles took on the Centereach Cougars and dominated the game from the start. They took the lead early on with a score of 20-6 going into halftime and closed out the game with a 33-12 victory.  

Varsity cheerleaders led the halftime routine, sporting their pink pompoms for Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October. The marching band wowed the homecoming crowd with their routine. The celebrations continued the following night for the annual homecoming dance at West Babylon Senior High School.  

Click here to view the Friday Night Lights Win for West Babylon’s Homecoming slideshow.

Date Added: 10/22/2024

On Oct. 1, the West Babylon Fire Department visited students at John F. Kennedy Elementary School as a kickoff to Fire Prevention Month. During the interactive outdoor assembly, students engaged with firefighters and practiced stop, drop and roll drills. Kindergarten teacher Ann Flynn even went 100 feet high in the bucket truck.  

Click here to view the Fire Prevention Month Kicks Off with Assembly at JFK slideshow.

Date Added: 10/15/2024

Fifth graders at John F. Kennedy Elementary School recently had the chance to “taste” different kinds of literature during an event held in the library, hosted by library media specialist Lauren Florez. During their classes, students sampled books across various genres and explored titles they may not have typically chosen in the library. After browsing the selections, students noted the new books they would be interested in reading in school or at home in the future.

Click here to view the Sampling New Titles at JFK’s ‘Book Tasting’ Event slideshow.

Date Added: 10/9/2024

We had great Walk to School Day at JFK! Thank you to Officer Castillo and SCPD for joining us this morning! Thank you to Mr. Wallace, Mr. Mark and Mr. Rich for additional security during our walk. Crossing Guard Ms. Peggy was happy to help us cross safely! Thank you to Mrs. Carcone and Mr. Haug for organizing this great event! Thank you to all of the JFK staff members that joined us this morning. Thank you to our families for walking and for your generous Food Drive donations! Thank you Mr. Joe for making sure that we had a cart ready to receive all of our donations. Thank you to Ms. Rhonda and Ms. Nancy for our Food Drive sign! As you can see, it was a school community effort and it was great! Happy Walk to School Day!

Click here to view the Walk to School Day at JFK slideshow.

 

Date Added: 10/2/2024

 

Students in Ms. Marmaroff's art classes at John F. Kennedy Elementary School and Tooker Avenue Elementary School celebrated International Dot Day on Sept. 15. The day encourages students to make their mark, be creative and be courageous in honor of the children’s book “The Dot” by Peter H. Reynolds.

In the book, the main character illustrates dots in imaginative ways. Student artists at John F. Kennedy created their own dots, demonstrating their creativity and utilizing a variety of materials in each grade level. Kindergarten artists used coffee filters and markers to experiment with warm and cool colors. They then used paint brushes with water to blend their colors. In second grade, artists created abstract dots. Students used various mark-making materials and textures such as Kwik Stix, paint with cardboard stampers, bubble wrap and dot markers.

At Tooker Avenue, first graders used Kwix Stix to create concentric circles by starting with one circle in the center and creating more around it until filling their paper.

Click here to view the Tooker and JFK Artists Show Their Creativity slideshow.

Date Added: 9/30/2024