OCEANSIDE
School #4 PTA NEWS
Winter 2015
Carmen DeMauro, PTA Co-President ~ 917-747-5329
Lisa James, PTA Co-President ~ 516-305-1110
www.oceansideschools.org/4south
From Our Presidents
We just passed the halfway mark for this school year and we thank you for your support so far! Since
our last newsletter the PTA has been busy. Our School 4 family shopped at the Holiday Boutique,
watched Night at the Museum 3 during our School 4 Movie Day, took pride in our 5th graders who
performed in the Circus, and laughed out loud during Comedy Night at the Brokerage. Through our
efforts we were able to provide great programs for the children and show our appreciation to the
School 4 Staff by hosting a breakfast before the holiday break and a delicious luncheon before the
winter break. Look for our Mixed Bag Designs catalogue fundraiser and save the date for the Spring
Event on May 6th! Thank you again for supporting the PTA. There’s lots more to do, so if you’d like to
lend a helping hand, we welcome you!
Book Fair: Please join us on Wednesday, February 25th for our
annual Spring Book Fair. All students will join us as we venture
“Under the Sea” to explore some great reading choices. Flyers
were sent home, so your child can begin to make their selections.
Parents of 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders are welcomed to assist their
children at the Book Fair, however 4th, 5th and 6th graders will
shop independently. We have wonderful volunteers to help your
child shop. We accept cash, credit cards, and checks made out to
School #4 PTA.
PARP (Parents As Reading Partners) will kick off on February 23rd
and continue through March 6th. The committee is working hard
to make this a fun couple of weeks for our children with activities
for them to do at home and at school. The Book Fair and a Cultural
Art show is planned in these two weeks as well. Look for the
packet in your child’s backpack!
From organ transplants to heart surgeries, today’s advanced medical care relies on
blood transfusions. When one person donates a unit of blood, it can be separated into
individual components to save multiple lives. Blood donors like you help meet the daily
transfusion needs of cancer and surgery patients, accident and burn victims, newborns
and mothers delivering babies, AIDS and sickle cell anemia patients, and many more.
SAVE THE DATE TO SAVE LIVES... Tuesday, March 3rd at School #4 – Return your sign up form to reserve an
appointment today! Contact Teri Mallozzi 457-4350 or Susan Phillips 417-7096 for more information.
Dear Parents,
I hope the suggestions below will help you to enjoy the time you have cooped up at home together with your
children this winter.
 Make a schedule with your children. You do not have to rigidly keep to it, but scheduling the day will
help reduce endless hours of screen time and the constant call of “I’m bored” across your home. Plan
in 20-30 minute increments, but allow activities to take longer if your child is happily engaged. Include:
o Time to Build – with Legos, blocks, couch cushions or if you shop at Price Club towers of paper
towels and toilet paper rolls.
o Time to Write – write to Disney telling them your ideas for their next blockbuster, write to a toy
company to complain about a toy that did not live up to the advertisement, or write a story
about children trapped in the house due to an endless winter.
o Time to Experiment – the Bill Nye app is free and has simple experiments that can be easily
completed at home.
o Time to Read – independently, to each other, newspapers, books, e-readers or magazines.
o Time to Search – use Pinterest or various other sites for easy projects to create at home with
the materials you already have in the house or watch www.cainesarcade.com to be inspired
again as we were last year.
o Time to Get Out – use Mommy Poppins to find an event to break free of everyone’s cabin fever,
spend time at the public library, or sign up for free museum passes at the public library.
Your children will be grown before you know it. Enjoy every minute to the best of your ability.
Warm Regards,
Joanna Kletter
The second grade went on a trip to the Long Island Children’s Museum. We finished
a unit of study on maps and our trip was a culminating activity that allowed the
children to further develop their knowledge on maps. We only explored a small
portion of the museum. If you have not already visited the museum with your child,
we highly recommend taking advantage of all of the exhibits that are
available. Additionally, we are starting our next science unit on States of Matter, and the children have been
conducting experiments to identify the characteristics of each state. If you visit any museums throughout the
course of the school year with your children, please take pictures and send them in for the children to share.
Between Thanksgiving and our winter holiday vacation, the School 4
family raised $3,400 for the American Heart Association during our
Jump Rope/Hoops for Heart fundraising activity.
Additionally, during the first week in January, all students participated
in Circus Activities during Physical Education class. The Circus Arts program culminated with a 5 th grade circus
performance on Friday, January 9.
Looking forward, School 4 will be holding its annual Family, Fun and Fitness Night on Friday, March 27th.
Details to follow, so please attend.
The 5th Grade hopes you enjoyed our circus this year. It was fun learning new skills
and having the opportunity to perform for friends and family.
In Social Studies with Ms. Ralph, the children are now sharing their research skills as
they present their Native American Projects to each other. Thank you to Mrs.
Herman for helping us to find books, magazines, and websites with information for
our topics.
We hope that the entire school has participated in the Make It and Take It part of our Post-it-ivity Project that
the 5th grade and Mrs. Silverstein started in our school. In addition to making positive post-its to give
encouragement to each other, please remember to take a positive post-it when you need the extra boost!
Thank you to all who joined us playing Bingo at our Kids Night Out in January.
We hope you all had fun!
Spring is around the corner and with that being said, many of us do some
Spring cleaning. Let’s start going through our closets now! We will be have a
Clothing Drive but it does not stop there! Have an old TV? A bike? Knickknacks
that you don’t want any more? Bring them! Our Drive will be on Saturday,
March 14th from 9-11am at School #4 on the Land Place side.
Keep your eyes open for our next event which will be our Applebee’s Flapjack Breakfast from 8 to 10am on
Saturday, April 25th. Come dine with us and let our 6th graders serve you!! Special thanks go out to all the
parents who have chaired and ran our events for the 6th grade committee. It’s a lot of work and we thank
you!! We thank all the School #4 Family for supporting us! ~ Rosemarie Prendergast, 6th Grade Advisor
$1 PRETZELS for sale at 3pm on Land Place most
Fridays. Thank you for your continued support!
As most of you know, the anticipated 6th grade trip to Frost Valley begins Monday, March 30th and our
children will return on Wednesday, April 1st. Frost Valley offers top-notch environmental education,
challenging adventure courses and recreation. In addition, the Frost Valley team sparks the transformation
from student to leader in just a few days, inspiring a passion for lifelong learning. Feel free to visit the website
frostvalley.org -- More information to follow.
DAWC - Drug Advisory and Wellness Council
DAWC is sponsoring a Community Meeting on Tuesday, March 10, 2015 at 7:00 pm in the cafeteria at St.
Anthony's Church. This is a special session on “How we Care for our Children in Oceanside.” There will
be several speakers from a number of local organizations on services available to youths and families in
Oceanside. The main speaker will be Steven Dodge, a former OHS graduate, who will tell his story. If you
haven't heard his story, you should, and I promise you will be riveted and amazed.
Music, Drama & the Arts
Shamrocks for Shamus: 6th Grade Art Club and Student Council are creating beautiful shamrock
pins for our annual charity fundraiser to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to help find a
cure for blood cancers.
Colors of Long Island Student Art Exhibit: Long Island Museum of Art, History, and Carriages,
Stony Brook, NY. Emma Olnick and Michael Savopoulos will display artwork beginning February 27
through April 26, 2015.
11th Annual All County Art Exhibit: Adelphi University, Garden City, NY – Sunday, March 15, 2015.
Nominations to be announced.
CULTURAL ARTS
In January, Trudy Ludwig, renowned children’s
author presented to all students about bullying and
empowering yourself with “tools” against bullies and
we all agreed that it was a very good presentation.
Earlier this month, Mad Science of LI presented an
interactive assembly called "Marvels in Motion"
touching on Isaac Newton, gravity, and a real rocket
car!
Coming in March, Agostino and Co. Performing Arts
will do an assembly called "Story Faces" where they
tell stories through face painting!
For more information, please contact
Papadoniou, VP Cultural Arts at 567-1907.
Jina
Our 5th and 6th graders
will present a theatrical
performance of “Bye Bye
Birdie” in the School 6
Auditorium on Wednesday,
March 25th and Thursday,
March 26th.
The School #4 Reflections winners in each category are:
Literature: Primary Division – Emma Olenick 2-5 (Mrs. Simon) &
Lucas Galvez 2-9 (Mrs. Formisano)
Intermediate Division – Gabrielle Abela 3-1 (Mrs. Madden) & Gracie
Greenberg 4-1 (Miss McGrath)
Middle Division – Jeremy Feder 6-6 (Mrs. Flynn) & Brandon Jager 6-9
(Mrs. Greisheimer)
Art: Primary Division – Nicole DiPace 2-A (Mrs. Coyne) & Ellis Chiu
2-D (Mrs. Coyne)
Intermediate Division – Emily Esposito 5-A (Ms. Ralph) & Kaicey Rahn
5-D (Ms. Ralph)
Music Composition: Middle Division – Aidan Shapiro (Mrs. Flynn)
We are very proud of all School 4 students who participated in The
National PTA Reflections Art Program. At our May 14th PTA meeting,
we will have an awards ceremony where our students works will be
displayed and there will be a live performance of one students
instrumental entry! For more information, please contact Jina
Papadoniou at 516-567-1907.
Become a PTA Member today! It’s not too
late to join and the School 4 Class closest to
100% Membership will enjoy a special treat!
Individual and SEPTA Membership is $11 and
Family Membership is $17. Please call Regina
Flynn, VP Membership at 984-8791 with any
questions.
Oceanside PTA Council News
Oceanside PTA Council is having a special meeting on Monday, February 23rd at 8pm in the Oceanside
High School library to enlist all Oceanside parents to write individual letters to their elected officials
regarding getting our fair share of NYS Education Aid to our district and about concerns regarding the
length and pressures of the NYS Standardized Tests. Please join us tomorrow evening.
Please continue to send Box Tops
in as we want to reach our goal for
the year. Also, be sure to check
out the box tops website at
www.boxtops4education.com for
some fun ways you can enter
sweepstakes to help School 4
earn more. Contact Patricia Abela
at 917-991-4001 for more
information.
The next PASS seminar will be on Tuesday, March 31, 2015 at
7:30 pm, in the OHS Auditorium, titled “Hang Up and Drive.”
This is for all parents and students in grades 9-12. Hear from
nationwide renowned speaker and distracted driving survivor,
Jacy Good, and her husband, Steve Johnson, about the dangers
of distracted driving and the perils of texting while driving. Hear
her miraculous survivor's story and learn why the roadways
should be cellphone free. It can wait.
The last PASS seminar of this year will be on Wednesday, April
29, 2015 at 7:30 pm in the OHS Auditorium, titled “STOP: The
Send”-Sexting and Online Safety. This is for all parents and
students in grades 7-12 and will be presented by the Nassau
District Attorney's office on the dangers of online activity and the
consequences of sexting.
PTA Meetings: We will meet again on March
18th and April 16th at 7:30 p.m. in the School 4
auditorium. Hope to see you there – we would
If youappreciate
have any questions,
please do not hesitate to contact Herb
your support!
Pitkowsky at 376-7981.
Join us on the
“Oceanside School 4
Parents Association”
Facebook Group.
BOE Meetings: The next Board of
Education meetings regarding the budget
are 3/3 at #6, 3/17 at #5, 3/24 at #6 and 4/21 at
#8. Come, be involved, let your opinion and
voice be heard!