Esten Elementary School

PHOTOS: Rockland’s Esten Elementary School Celebrates Memorial Day with Patriotic Celebration

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Rockland Public Schools
Superintendent Dr. Alan Cron
34 MacKinlay Way,
Rockland, MA 02370

For Immediate Release

Saturday, May 25, 2019

Contact: Benjamin Paulin
Phone: 781-428-3299
Email: [email protected]

PHOTOS: Rockland’s Esten Elementary School Celebrates Memorial Day with Patriotic Celebration

ROCKLAND — Principal Marilyn Smith is pleased announce that the Esten Elementary School held its annual Memorial Day celebration on Friday in the gymnasium. 

The ceremony was hosted once again by retired Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Daniel Clark. Known as “The Singing Trooper” this was Sgt. Clark’s 14th time hosting the Memorial Day ceremonies at Esten.

Sgt. Clark travels throughout New England and performs for many groups. His next stop will be on Memorial Day, May 27 at Fenway Park, where he will sing “God Bless America.”

Sgt. Clark said that his goal in coming to the school each year is to give the children an understanding of the role each branch of the military plays in our country, as well as an appreciation for our country’s traditional patriotic music.

“It’s a rich tradition that I hope to expose them to,” Sgt. Clark said.

Presenting the opening welcome address was Principal Smith, who introduced the service men and women, parents, grandparents and great grandparents of the students who were present.  

“Memorial Day is the day that we stop to remember those who have served and given their lives for our country,” Principal Smith said.

Sgt. Clark then introduced the Rockland Fire Department’s Honor Guard to present the colors.

After singing a stirring rendition of the National Anthem, Sgt. Clark led the school children and guests in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Next, Jeffrey Najarian, State Senior Vice Commander of the Massachusetts Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), introduced Vincent Fontaine, Rockland’s Veteran’s Agent. Najarian also spoke to those in attendance about the importance of remembering those who have served in the military.

Sgt. Clark then introduced each grade as the students recited poems and sang patriotic songs.

Leading the children in their performances was Rockland music teacher Jeffrey Popadic.

  • Kindergartners sang “You’re a Grand Old Flag”
  • First graders recited the poem “For Memorial Day” and sang “My County Tis of Thee”
  • Second graders recited the poem “The Little Flags” and sang “America the Beautiful”
  • Third graders sang “This Land is Your Land”
  • Fourth graders recited the Gettysburg Address and sang “Stars and Stripes Forever”

Following the student performances Popadic played taps on a bugle.

The final performance of the event was Sgt. Clark singing “Proud to be an American and “God Bless America.”

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ZuZu African Acrobats Perform at Rockland’s Esten Elementary School

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Rockland Public Schools
Superintendent Dr. Alan Cron
34 MacKinlay Way,
Rockland, MA 02370

For Immediate Release

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Contact: Jessica Sacco
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: [email protected]

ZuZu African Acrobats Perform at Rockland’s Esten Elementary School

ROCKLAND — Esten Elementary School children enjoyed an hour-long special assembly yesterday that featured an interactive performance by the ZuZu African Acrobats.

On Tuesday, March 26, students in grades kindergarten through fourth grade gathered in the gym to watch as five acrobats demonstrated their skills — even calling up students and staff to join in on the fun.

The group — Paris Mumba, Leonard Ngala, William Ngala, Emmanuel Charo and Shedriack Kario — originally met in their native home of Kenya, Africa and have been performing for more than 15 years. Their program, which they take around the world, is designed to be entertaining while also bringing people in touch with the culture of Africa. ZuZu African Acrobats gained fame in 2009 with their appearance on “America’s Got Talent.”

Principal Marilyn Smith, who worked with Ashley Cutter, vice president of the Esten PAC to bring the group to Esten, was extremely pleased with the performance.

“I haven’t seen our kids so engaged and enthusiastic for an entire assembly,” Principal Smith said. “In fact, when the show neared its end, the students erupted with shouts of ‘We want more!'”

The show began with high energy, native dancing and acrobatics by the five Kenyans, who immediately brought children, teachers and staff members into the show when they asked for volunteers to try to go under a limbo pole.

Next was a truly heart-stopping performance by one of the performers as he almost reached the ceiling, hand-standing on stacked chairs that reached higher and higher in the Esten gym.

Between each stunt the lively performers interacted with the children who cheered loudly at every move the acrobats made.

The show ended with more interactive acrobatics in which children were brought up to take part in jump-roping. Children were also invited to form human pyramids like the Kenyans performed, of course with lots of help from the acrobats, and a sincere warning afterwards to “not try these things at home.”

Smith said that the performance was a great representation, not just of African culture, but also of teamwork, cooperation and trust among the five performers.

“These are things we emphasize to the children at Esten,” she said. “This performance was a great opportunity for us to reinforce these principles in a fun and creative way.”

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Esten Elementary School Students Explore FOSS Science Curriculum

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Rockland Public Schools
Superintendent Dr. Alan Cron
34 MacKinlay Way,
Rockland, MA 02370

For Immediate Release

Friday, Nov. 16, 2018

Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: [email protected]

Esten Elementary School Students Explore FOSS Science Curriculum

ROCKLAND – Principal Marilyn Smith is pleased to announce that Esten Elementary School has implemented the FOSS science curriculum in third and fourth grade classrooms to better incorporate hands on learning.

FOSS, Full Option Science System, is a research-based curriculum for grades kindergarten through eight developed at the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkeley. The program bridges research and practice by providing tools and strategies to helps students obtain a deeper understanding of the natural and designed worlds.

Esten first implemented the curriculum last year to align with Department of Elementary and Secondary Education science standards. Since September, students have engaged in a number of projects and experiments to investigate core science ideas and principles.

“Through the FOSS curriculum, teachers are using hands on learning to better engage students in science topics,” Principal Smith said. “Students love performing different investigations and have begun using scientific terminology in their daily conversations.”

As part of their first unit of study, third and fourth grade students learned about motion and matter. For one project, students in third grade performed an experiment about the way a ramp has an effect on how things move, while students in fourth grade practiced translating Morse code using handmade telegraphs.

Students will now move onto a unit on earth science, which will include looking at water and climate in grade three, and soils, rocks and land forms in grade four.              

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Esten Elementary School Students Participate in Halloween Parade

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Rockland Public Schools
Superintendent Dr. Alan Cron
34 MacKinlay Way,
Rockland, MA 02370

For Immediate Release

Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018

Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: [email protected]

Esten Elementary School Students Participate in Halloween Parade

ROCKLAND — In celebration of Halloween this year, students at Esten Elementary School teamed up for a literary-themed costume parade, showcasing their favorite characters from some of the books they have read during the school year.

On Wednesday, Oct. 31, the school was abuzz with kindergartners dressed as pigeons from the book “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus,” by Mo Williems all the way up to third and fourth graders dressed up as their favorite vocabulary words in an homage to “Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster” by Debra Frasier — a hilarious story chronicling one student’s misadventures with learning new words and phrases.

First graders dressed as Pete from “Pete the Cat” by Eric Litwin, and second graders rounded out the parade dressed as The Cat in the Hat.

The students marched around the inside of the school, and faculty and staffed joined the fun, dressing up as their own favorite children’s book characters. One group of first and second grade teachers collaborated to become “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” while another group of third grade teachers all came to school as synonyms of the word “team.”

“Our students loved taking part in the parade and dressing up for Halloween,” Principal Marilyn Smith said. “The parade is a beloved annual tradition at Esten Elementary, and it gives students and teachers the opportunity to pair learning with dress up, showing as always that learning happens inside the classroom and outside.”

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