Photos: Pasta Night, Anti-Bullying Campaign, Glee Spotlight

Elementary school students recently celebrated with a pasta night and took an anti-bullying pledge, while the Glee Club was featured as Good Day Glee Club of the week. Do you have other programs, events or achievements you'd like to spotlight happening in the Farmingdale School District? Let us know.

Woodward Parkway Pasta Night

held its annual Pasta Night and Chinese Auction on Thursday, March 31. The cafeteria and gymnasiums were filled with students and their families enjoying different types of pastas and desserts. Children had their faces painted and enjoyed time with friends.

Through the help of donations from students and their families, each class put together gift baskets for the Chinese Auction, which were displayed throughout the school hallways. Attendees were able to purchase raffle tickets to try and win the various prizes. Basket themes included: family picnic basket, Club Penguin, gardening basket, things to do around town, summer fun, lotto luck, and many others.

Other raffles being offered – the “big ticket” items – included: “Principal and Vice Principal for a Day,” a 37” flat screen television, an Apple iPad, an Apple iPod Touch, an X-Box Game System and other exciting prizes.

“We love coming to Pasta Night each year,” said Jennifer Tannazzo who has a third grade son and first grade daughter at Woodward Parkway.  “It is a fun night to reconnect with old friends and see new faces.  And, I even get a night off from cooking!”

This event was organized by the Woodward Parkway PTA as well as parent and teacher volunteers.

Constitution and Anti-Bullying Assembly at Albany Ave.

The Student Council at has written the elementary school’s first “Constitution.” The students brainstormed various ideas over a period of several meetings and decided what key ideas that should be incorporated in this important document, which would create a set of ideals created “by students, for students.” These included respect, hard work, being responsible for your own actions, not bullying, building confidence, focusing on learning.

The students drafted their ideas and presented them to Principal Valentine and Asst. Principal LoRusso. With their approval, an oversized, scroll-like version of the constitution was created, and the entire student body signed it – more than 600 student signatures. It is now hanging in the lobby of the school.

The school then held a special anti-bullying Assembly for all grades. The assembly was led by fifth grade teacher Pat Dejewski and social worker Pam Snyder-Ball and was the brainchild of fourth grade student Madison Burke.

The students listened to the book Say Something by Peggy Moss, which was read aloud by fifth grade student Angelina Ryba, and discussed the meaning of the story. The children learned three important strategies on how to handle bullying (distracting the bully, befriending the victim and a telling a grownup.

The Albany Avenue Student Council then put on special T-shirts that they created to commemorate their commitment to an anti-bullying campaign. Mrs. Dejewski urged teachers and class parents to make similar T-shirts during class parties and to have children wear their shirts every Wednesday – which will be devoted to “Anti-Bullying Wednesdays” – for a school-wide anti-bullying brigade.

Student Council members also handed out special bracelets to all students after they took an “anti-bullying” pledge.

High School Choir Spotlight:

Fox's Good Day New York recently featured the Farmingdale High School choir singing "'Hey Mambo" by Barry Manilow and a version of "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey. The segment profiles local glee clubs, like the fictional one from McKinley High School on the hit FOX show Glee. Reporter Julie Chang also interviewed the students. Check out the segment here.