Fourth graders at John G. Dinkelmeyer Elementary School are making a crosstown connection with their future classmates. In the beginning of January, students in Janine Steinert’s class wrote letters to peers in Ashley Vella’s fourth grade class at Martin Avenue School, who then responded back. 

Children from the two classes at the district’s northern-most and southern-most schools are now pen pals. On Jan. 22, Ms. Steinert unveiled a large brown envelope, sent via interoffice mail, that contained the first letters from Ms. Vella’s class. The class gathered and individual envelopes were handed out. Together, Ms. Steinert’s students opened and read their letters, then began work on their own responses.  

Ms. Steinert said the plan is for the two classes to remain pen pals for the rest of the year, and hopefully have a meeting over Zoom in the spring. The letters will remain hand-written. She added that it is a great way for them to make connections with other students they will go to middle school and high school with.  

Letter-writing is a lost art among a tech-savvy generation of students, Ms. Steinert said. Before sending their initial letters, she led a class discussion about information that should be included. Ms. Steinert noted the importance of writing conversationally and asking questions that would evoke thoughtful responses from their pen pals. Students also learned how to address an envelope and although they weren’t sent through the actual mail, each still had the recipient’s name and school address, sender’s name and school address, and drawing of a stamp.  

Click here to view the JGD, Martin Fourth Graders Become Pen Pals slideshow.

Date Added: 1/26/2026

What does it mean to be a visionary? That was the question posed to students by Martin Avenue Elementary School Principal Dr. Michael Yannucci to teach children about renowned Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

In the week leading up to the three-day weekend, Dr. Yannucci visited each class for a read aloud. He read, “Who Was Martin Luther King Jr.,” written by Beth Kaiser and illustrated by Stanley Chow, then engaged students in conversations about Dr. King’s dreams for equality and justice. Children learned how they could live that dream by showing kindness and love to others. 

Students from Antonietta Fischetti’s second grade class were helped by their buddies from Rachel Graber’s sixth grader class for an “I Have a Dream” writing project. The older students helped their younger friends think of a dream they have for the world, write it in on a paper cloud, and then cut it out and glue to a piece of construction paper. 

Date Added: 1/20/2026

More than 30 students from the North Bellmore School District were selected for this year’s All-County music festival, hosted by the Nassau Music Educators Association. Rehearsals and concerts are taking place from Jan. 7-18. 

Fifth and sixth grade students from the band, chorus and orchestra were selected based on NYSSMA solo performance scores and teacher recommendations.  

Congratulations to the following students: 

John G. Elementary Dinkelmeyer School: Ethan Andreu, Elliana Fidacaro, Arianna Lettieri,Brooke Murphy, Ella Piazza, Brooke Sheehan and Ella Sjoberg. 

Martin Avenue Elementary School: Alex Caba, Isabelle Dang and Lylah Jakubowski. 

Newbridge Elementary Road: Cecelia Barone, Andrew Boylan, Nina Cannistraci, Marion Chelsea DeJesus, Hunter Outsen, Arielle Zhang and Maya Zucker. 

Park Avenue Elementary School: Marco Artale, Veronica Calise, Anaya Chandhok, Caleb Cheung, Hadley Hollander, Elora Rosello and Destiny Zosike.  

Saw Mill Road Elementary School: Sienna Burmann, Ryan Diaz, Judith Guzman, Kerha lorvena, Vincent Merle, Gianna Toledo and Eliana Weissman. 

Five orchestra students will also participate in the Long Island String Festival Association’s Nassau Intermediate festival from Feb. 27-March 1. Those students are Arianna Lettieri (Dinkelmeyer), Marion Chelsea DeJesus (Newbridge Road), Lucia Rodriguez and DestinyZosike (Park Avenue) and Vincent Merle (Saw Mill Road).

Click here to view the North Bellmore Musicians Bound for Regional Restivals slideshow.

Date Added: 1/12/2026

 

Children love coloring and they also love making people happy, so second graders found the perfect community service project at Martin Avenue Elementary School. 

Students in Mary Carrea’s and Antoinetta Fischetti’s classes partnered with Color A Smile, a New Jersey-based, nonprofit organization that spreads smiles with cheerful drawings. The student-colored pictures are distributed to hospitals, nursing homes, meals on wheels programs and troops overseas.  

In early December, second graders colored the drawings with crayons and markers. The pictures of butterflies, flowers, ladybugs and more included cheerful messages like “Have a Great Day,” “Enjoy Today” and “To My Friend.” Students from the two classes completed more than 50 drawings, which will be sent to the organization and distributed to others during the holiday season. While they mostly worked on the projects in school, several students also colored at home with their families.  

Ms. Carrea and Ms. Fischetti said that the students will continue their work with Color A Smile several more times, as the organization collects and distributes the drawings year round. They decided to kick it off in December, which is known as the season of giving.  

Click here to view the Second Grades Spread Smiles Through Coloring slideshow.

Date Added: 12/19/2025

A solar phenomenon was the inspiration for a third grade art project at Martin Avenue Elementary School. Students completed drawings to capture the northern lights.  

Teacher Erica Farley said the purpose of the project was to give her young artists a chance to experiment with different materials, as they worked with charcoal pencils, chalk pencils and oil pastels. To make the northern lights, students ripped a piece of paper, colored the uneven edge with chalk pastels, and swiped it on the blue construction paper so the colors faded into the sky. 

Students also practiced drawing reflections and silhouettes, as they pictures included animals, mountains and trees. Ms. Farley said that students complete a landscape project each year in art, and this was a chance to for third graders to explore some more advanced concepts and techniques. 

Date Added: 12/11/2025