West Islip Union Free School District

This year, more than 160 elementary students are enrolled in the Summer Investigations program housed at Paul J. Bellew Elementary School. The program, which runs Monday through Thursday, is overseen by Paul J. Bellew Principal Rhonda Pratt.

Kicking off on July 7, the program features a different theme each week. The theme for week one was “Passports Around the World,” which involved students exploring continents, countries and cultures from around the world. To learn about each place, they took virtual tours of different continents and read fun facts about them. 

During library classes, kindergarten, first and second graders read “Same, Same But Different” about two pen pals from different countries who learn they have much in common. In third and fourth grade classes, students used Google Earth to “travel” from West Islip to countries they explored during their lessons.

In the STEM lab, students received a boarding pass and learned about airplanes. After watching a video from a pilot, students built their own paper airplanes and launched them to see how far they could fly. They measured and calculated their distances and noted changes to make to their planes more aerodynamic.