Todd News

Pop artist Wayne Thiebaud’s art has a child-like quality in its brightly colored paintings of desserts and their thick outlines, which makes them perfect for elementary-school-aged children.

That is one of the reasons art teacher Paul Villanueva selected his art for his second graders’ lesson at Todd Elementary School recently.

Every STEAM class at Todd Elementary School begins with a read-aloud on the rug.

STEAM teacher Mindy Conciatori, who is filling in for Amira Lahlouh this year while she is on maternity leave, considers herself a literature-based teacher and keeps a stack of books in the classroom for each lesson.

Recently, first graders in Alyson Tully and Kim Andrews’ class had a lesson based on the story “The Three Little Pigs.”

There is a short poem that is posted on the walls of Todd Elementary School.

The poem, which lists the traits required to be a Briarcliff Bear, is as follows:

“We BELIEVE in ourselves, give EFFORT every day, have POSITIVE ATTITUDES, RESPECT all and STAND UP for what is right.”

“Respect” is the trait on focus during the month of March, so to help students explore it further, the Todd ENCORE team invited members of the United Martial Arts Center (UMAC) of Briarcliff to hold a presentation during the monthly ENCORE grade-wide assembly.

Making a home-school connection is important when you want to support your children and enhance what they are learning at school.

Recently, parents of Todd Elementary School students had the chance to learn straight from the source how reinforce classroom lessons at home.

At Parent Literacy Night, which was recently held at the school, over 40 parents attended mini workshops facilitated by Todd teachers and learned strategies to help their children strengthen their reading and writing skills.

Todd second graders have been using the power of persuasion to get longer recess time.

In a recent persuasive essay assignment, as part of their opinion writing unit, students wrote letters to Principal Jessica Michaelidis and Assistant Principal Anne Marie Foley, stating their reasons for a longer recess.

A Day in Clay, with artist Cliff Mendelson, is a long-standing tradition at Todd and one of the most anticipated activities of the year for fifth graders, when they get to make their own clay objects and explore different cultures.