Garden City hosts Primary Literacy and Mathematics Family Fun Night
On Feb. 11, Garden City hosted its Primary Literacy and Mathematics Family Fun Night at Hemlock School, where they welcomed students and families for an evening of hands-on learning and fun. The event featured 12 teacher-facilitated workshops, with families selecting sessions to attend based on their interests.
Literacy offerings included “Heads Up!,” where participants wore hats displaying secret sentences for partners to read aloud before writing them down; “Play, Read, Repeat,” which reinforced sight words through games like bingo, hide and seek, and tic-tac-toe; and “Let’s Talk About It!,” where families built storytelling and conversation skills through picture sequencing, wordless books and phonological awareness activities.
Math sessions were equally interactive, featuring “Subtraction Bowling,” where students solved subtraction problems based on pins knocked down; “Place Value Power,” which used UNO cards to explore tens and ones; and “Tenzie,” a fast-paced dice game that strengthened number recognition and fluency.
Families also visited the Scholastic Book Fair, which was coordinated by Garden City Schools, PARP and Alyssa Vitez with support from the Gardenia Chapter of the National Charity League, including mothers and daughters Maureen and Kaitlyn Clemente, Mariella and Tami McQuade and Lori and Natalie Madden.
“Watching students run into the building with excitement to see their teachers and learn alongside them and their families was such a joy,” said Lauren Kaufman, director of literacy K-12, and Christina Cardella, director of mathematics and STEAM. “From the thoughtfully planned, engaging interactive experiences to the smiles and laughter shared throughout the evening, it was a night our families will not forget and neither will we.”
The Primary Literacy and Mathematics Family Fun Night was a success, bringing families together through engaging, interactive experiences that made learning both meaningful and memorable.