STRATFORD SCHOOL NEWS

Stratford April Newsletter

 Spring is in the air at Stratford Elementary School! The flowers are blooming and our children are exploring! It's hard to believe that the end of school and summertime are just around the corner!

We had a fun winter here at Stratford School! The Stratford PTA Indoor Chess Program has now ended and it was a resounding success! Thank you to all our parents who volunteered their time to play chess with our children during recess throughout the winter months. 

The Fifth Grade Select Chorus performed at UBS Arena for an Islanders Game on 3/28 as part of a PTA Family Fun event. It was an awesome experience! Eighty-five 5th graders sang five songs and were featured on the Jumbotron throughout the game. After their spectacular performance, the Stratford families watched the Islanders defeat the Panthers 5-2! Mr. Hartigan and several teachers were also in attendance. Let's Go, Islanders!

Now that it's April, we have a lot of wonderful things going on this spring at Stratford! Please join us for our next joint elementary PTA meeting on Friday, April 24th at 9am via Zoom. To register, please go to www.gardencitypta.org

Award-winning local author Amy McCoy will soon visit the Stratford 3rd graders to talk about her popular books, Little Big Sister and Little Big Sister on the Move. This assembly will be sponsored by the Stratford PTA. Ms. McCoy's books feature a young girl who has a brother with Autism, and third-grade classrooms across the USA are reading her books for Autism Acceptance Month. In her interactive assembly, she will promote social emotional learning by highlighting self-awareness and social consciousness.  She expertly weaves the themes of disability acceptance, the writing process and how kind words and actions can make a remarkable difference in schools and communities. Students are guided to have a deeper understanding of peers who have disabilities. 

This month, PTA will also sponsor an exciting world-music assembly for the Stratford 3rd graders featuring musician Darius Kaufmann. This will be Mr. Kaufmann's third year coming to Stratford and playing instruments from around the world. The assembly thoughtfully supports the third grade world music curriculum and is always highly engaging and fascinating. If you listen closely, you might just hear the sounds of the bagpipe coming from Stratford on that day!

We'll be celebrating and showing our appreciation to the amazing Stratford teachers and staff at the PTA Teacher Appreciation Luncheon on Tuesday, May 5th. We cannot thank them enough for all they do for our children and community. Thank you, Stratford teachers and staff!!!

We want to extend a warm welcome to our new SEPTA director at Stratford, Michael Krumholz! Mike has made himself available to our entire Stratford community so if you have any questions about SEPTA or your own child's education, please email him at ohalui@gmail.com. Thank you for joining the team here at Stratford, Mike!

It is my privilege and pleasure to serve as the PTA Director for our amazing school.  We would love to get you involved at a level that feels right for you so please email me to volunteer for a committee and join our school community!

Please feel free to contact me at stratford@gardencitypta.org anytime if you have any questions or concerns. And, please be sure to join the PTA and SEPTA so that we can all continue to support our students.

Yours truly,
Yasmine Iliya Clark

Stratford PTA Director

stratford@gardencitypta.org

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