Special thanks to EPIC Parent Center coordinator Marta Mangual and her family for their help in organizing the event.

Memorial garden planted for ClubRec employee

Special guests included Kathy and Ray Neuenhoff, Laura’s mom and step dad, Rori Cooper-Corbin, Founder/President of Footings Inc., Cooke Elementary School Principal Sandra Johnson-Fields and Paulette Scheurer, Cooke assistant principal.

The dedication was organized by ClubRec's Assistant Program Director, Dawn VanDoran, and included words to the students by Program Director John Muollo, Ms. Cooper-Corbin and Ms. Johnson-Fields. Afterwards, the 100 attendees had a pot luck supper supplied by parents. Plans for the future include adding additional plants and decorations to the garden plot. For information about the ClubRec program, please call 794-8830 ext. 6.

ClubRec's summer program for preK through grade 5 kids, scheduled for July 14-August 8, is accepting applications.

The program runs Monday-Friday, noon-5:30 p.m. at the Cooke Elementary School. Cost is $75 per week. For more information or to register your child, call 794-8830, ext. 6.

On Wednesday, May 21, Cooke Elementary School 2nd grade students presented a "Salute to Sesame Street!" Students performed various songs from the popular children's program, including "Somebody Come and Play" and "People in Your Neighborhood".

They were directed by music teacher Dawn Clayton and accompanied on piano by by Jane Hardison and Dana Parks. A history of Sesame Street was read by second-grader Grace Lorino. Students Brandon Blakney, Morgan Mitchell, Kate Saracelli and Vincent Creque presented an instrumental version of America and Renaissance Dance and Maredith Parks and Brandon Blakney each sang a solo during the performance of "One Small Voice".

The children at the Cooke Elementary School have been actively participating in a challenge called the Million Tab Club, which benefits the Ronald McDonald Family Room (RMFR) at the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital in Westchester County. The Ronald McDonald Family Room is used as a “home away from home” for families during their child’s hospital stay.

Teacher's Aide Karen DeSimone first saw the story on the Monticello School District Web site about how Chase Elementary School students were collecting aluminum can "pull-tabs" to be recycled, with the proceeds to be donated to the Ronald McDonald House. Mrs. DeSimone decided that the Cooke School children should get involved in this worthy fundraiser as well. Since that time, she has had children bringing in the tabs to give to the Chase School towards their collection. The Million Pull Tab program is simple. Students bring in aluminum pull tabs from cans. Eventually the tabs are sent to a recycling plant and melted down for cash. The cash goes directly to the Ronald McDonald Family Room at Westchester Medical Center to provide respite for families who are enduring the most difficult times of their lives. One night at the RMFR for a family is equivalent to 31,675 tabs. The Cooke School collection began in January when Mrs. DeSimone explained to the children what the Ronald McDonald house represents and encouraged them to bring in their "pull-tabs." She then enlisted the help of teacher's assistant Kelly Mitchell, who has been instrumental in the process.

As of now, the Cooke School has collected over 35,000 pull tabs! This has become a school-wide activity and has gotten the children involved in counting the tops and watching their collection grow !

Cooke Elementary School second-graders Truth Muller and John-Paul Mauer won 2nd place in Toshiba’s National ExploraVision Science Competition (grades K-3) for their ingenious idea for an invention - the Pet Dream Automatic Pet Door and Tattoo Pen.

The boys’ invention would allow a pet owner to use a special pen that would tattoo a metallic pigment inside their pet's ear. The tattoo would activate a magnet in the door making it open automatically when the pet approached. This way, the family cat or dog could get in and out of the house without disturbing its owners.

The inspiration for the invention came to Truth as his dad constantly complained about having to get up to let the family cat in and out of the house, which according to Truth could range up to 100 times a day!
Earlier this year, the boys won the regional segment of the competition from a pool of more than 14,000 entries. For their regional award, they received a Toshiba laptop for their school, and used it to prepare for the national competition, which required them to create a five page web site explaining all the facets of their project. Monticello district staff developer Yesenia Kreeger worked with the boys to create the award-winning site, complete with a slide show and voice-overs.

For their national award, the boys each win a $5,000 savings bond and an all expense paid trip to Washington, D.C. in July with their parents and their teacher/coach, Linda Randall, to attend the official awards ceremony.

For more information about the ExplorVision awards and to view the boys’ winning web site, visit www.exploravision.org.

Photo: Cooke second-graders John-Paul Mauer and Truth Muller display the laptop computer they won from Toshiba. They used the computer to create their award-winning web site that explains their futuristic invention.

Cooke students win big award
Two second graders from Linda Randall's class recently won the Toshiba's/NSTA ExploraVision Awards' regional competition. The students will now move on to compete nationally.

As part of their winning award, the youngsters won Toshiba DVDs and the Cooke Elementary School was presented with a Toshiba Laptop. If the students win in the nationals, they will get an all expense paid trip to Washington DC and either a $5,000 or $10,000 US Saving Bond.

Congratulations and best of luck!

Click here to read Toshiba's national press releases.

Click here for the story by Times Herald-Record reporter Melissa Rennie

Click here for the story by Richard Ross from The River Reporter

Click here to watch Cable 6 News coverage, video courtesy CAP Productions.

Photo: From left, second grader Truth Muller, Cooke Elementary School teacher and coach Linda Randall and second grader John-Paul Mauer. Missing from the photo is the students' mentor Maura Muller.

The Cooke Elementary School celebrated Earth Day in a big way this year as students in the art room were busy beautifying the community.

Cooke art teacher Amy Garrett, partnered with Monticello Shop-Rite to spread Earth Day awareness by having the students design and decorate brown paper shopping bags. The students enjoyed expressing their artistic talents for a global cause.

"This was our way of showing Monticello that our little artists really care about Earth and recycling," said Garrett.

The Cooke School's Spring Open House held on April 24, used the theme "Trash To Treasures" and had students and their families create wonderful works of art from recycled materials as part on an ongoing effort to teach children how to care for the Earth. The event was a huge success with more than 150 families attending. The students and their families enjoyed snacks with their teachers, listened to an Earth Day themed story, visited the book fair (which was sponsored by the Cooke/Rutherford PTA.), and got to know "Clifford the Big Red Dog," as he was present for the entire affair!

Sullivan Renaissance has granted an award to Cherise Barasch's second grade class at Cooke Elementary School! This award has been generated to provide funds for beautification of our community. Students have been planting trees, building garden spaces and maintaining past projects that were funded through the Renaissance program since 1999.

Denise Frangipane of The Sullivan Renaissance Project visited the class to discuss the meaning of community and ways the students could become active volunteers. The children were given native wildflower seeds as a symbol of their ability to make a difference and beautify their school community.

The second-graders, along with Ms. Barasch and some other community volunteers, will be placing a sitting bench, surrounded by native plants and flowers, at the entrance of the 100 wing of the Cooke Elementary School. This will serve as both a visually pleasing sitting area and a demarcation of the entrance point of the school building (the bench will be placed close to the five trees which were planted with last year's award money).

All are invited and welcome to stop by to enjoy this beautiful area designed to create a feeling of "COMMUNITY" between the humans and the birds which surround the area.

Volunteer are needed - please contact Ms. Barasch at 794-8830, Room 108. Special thanks to the community for their support and involvement.

Photo: Cooke Elementary School second grade teacher Cherise Barasch, left, with her class and Sullivan Renaissance representative Denise Frangipane.

As part of their Black History Month celebration, Cooke Elementary School hosted Karen "Queen Nur" Abdul-Malik as she presented a rich blend of tales, songs and rhymes celebrating African-American heritage and the art of storytelling.

Queen Nur's tales celebrated storytelling's ability to speak of values, history and truth through the lives of fictional characters and real persons.

To add to the dramatic performance, she was accompanied by African percussion instruments. And as an added delight, Cooke Elementary School students and staff got a chance to participate in the storytelling, song and dance!

At the January 23, Cooke/Rutherford PTA meeting, Cooke Elementary School physical education teacher Gena Frey and librarian Tammy Porter presented a workshop titled "Raising Healthy Kids." 

During the event, Ms. Frey discussed activities that help promote physical fitness while Ms. Porter talked about nutrition and provided the audience with healthy snack recipes. Participants got up and "got physical" and then tried some of the healthy snacks that were provided!

Ross Miceli, from the Monticello YMCA, was also on-hand to discuss some of the YMCA programs available to children, and he gave all attendees a free one day pass to the new YMCA Wellness Center located at Monticello High School.

At the second Cooke Elementary School "P.B.I.S." award ceremony for the 2007-08 school year, held on January 28, 46 students were recognized for demonstrating safe behavior.

This award was based on the Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (P.B.I.S.) value "Be Safe".

The students were nominated by their classroom teachers. Many relatives were on hand to witness the award ceremony and to the delight of the youngsters, an ice cream sundae party was held in their honor.

Students at Cooke Elementary School were certainly learning and celebrating during the month of December. The children created their own gingerbread houses and piñatas. They also studied about holidays around the world.

The students completed an author's study on Chris Van Allsburg which culminated with a pajama party and a viewing of "The Polar Express" movie. The movie was based on Van Allsburg's Caldecott Medal storybook by the same name.

Shoprite of Monticello donated cocoa, cookies, popcorn and candy canes for the pajama party.

Special thanks to the generosity of store manager Jerry Novobilsky and assistant manager Lynka Rivera, who happens to be a former Cooke School student!

Students awarded for their kindness

The award was based on the "Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports" (PBIS) value of "Be respectful" and will be followed by the values of "Be safe" and "Be Responsible".

The award recipients were treated to an ice cream sundae party at the end of November.

The children at the Cooke Elementary School had much to be thankful for during the month of November. They especially enjoyed the company of their classmates, teachers and families who joined together to celebrate Thanksgiving with food, music and fun.

Cooke faculty and staff took the opportunity to teach the children about Native Americans, Pilgrims, the first Thanksgiving, and also about food and customs from around the world. Many classes got to partake in a tasty feast complete with their own homemade treats such as cranberry sauce, applesauce and pumpkin pie.

Cooke Elementary School students were also treated to a visit from a local gentleman who brought a real Native American tepee. Many of the students got to enter and explore the structure, which was set up in the playground area of the school. They learned about the construction of the tepee and about some of the traditions of Native Americans and other pioneers who lived in tepees.

October 31, was the perfect day for a fall festival at the Cooke School!

The children were delighted with an authentic hay ride, a pumpkin patch in the Little Sprouts Garden, a walk through a haunted trail, and a visit from a bird specialist. And as a special treat, everyone was entertained by Encore Performing Arts "Goowins Balloowins."

The day ended with a costume parade and classroom parties. Many teachers took the opportunity to have students create costumes that supported seasonal themes or favorite book characters, like "Clifford", jack-o-lantern "shape" t-shirts and scarecrow outfits.

Patti Whipple's and Mary Brown's first grade class even made their own scarecrow to greet the visitors at the school!

On Monday, Oct. 22, firefighters from Monticello, Rock Hill and Forestburgh Fire Departments entertained and educated Cooke Elementary School schools as to proper emergency procedures in case of a fire. Demonstrations included how to "stop, drop and roll" and "get low and go." The firefighters then dressed in their "turn-out" gear in front of the students to familiarize the children with the outfit so that if they are ever in a situation where there are firefighters in their gear, the children would not be afraid.

During the following days students walked to the Monticello Firehouse where they were amazed by the ladder truck, which spewed water 100 feet into the air. They also got to crawl through a "Smoke House" where they practiced the "get low and go" technique. Afterwards, they participated in a question-and-answer session with the firefighters. The experience was very informative. Many thanks to the local fire departments!

 
On Friday, Oct. 19, Cooke Elementary School students and staff went through the procedures of an evacuation drill. Everyone was taken by bus to a Rutherford Elementary School and then returned to Cooke. The drill ran smoothly and without incident.

The school's Safety Committee planned and executed the drill as a preparatory precaution in case of a real emergency.

Teacher works hard to get ready for her students

Like many other Monticello School teachers, she puts in countless extra hours of work helping students get the most out of their educational experience.

Students and parents alike had to say goodbye to each other and to summer vacation, as the first day of the new school year began.

Many of the students were excited to be back and to see their friends and teachers from last year!