At School #5, we pride ourselves on developing a sense of family between school staff, parents and children. We believe that as in any good family, teamwork will allow our children to develop positively socially, emotionally and academically. It is our belief that all children can and will succeed. Our devoted teaching and support staff are guided by the doctrine of placing children first in our decision making.

In order to foster a sense of family and community, our active PTA supports the school in a variety of ways. They welcome students to an annual Back-To-School Barbecue where all the School #5 families, along with staff, are invited to our school for food, games, music and to re-acquaint ourselves. During the course of the year, the PTA sponsors book sales, a Holiday Boutique, a Mother's Day Plant Sale, our Fall Festival, the School #5 Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader game show, and many other wonderful events. The PTA also sponsors cultural art events such as visits from celebrated authors and music or performing groups. Reading is encouraged through our People As Reading Partners Program. This is a month-long celebration that highlights the importance of reading with children. The PTA Reflections Contest allows children to compete in Art, Music, Writing and Photography categories.

The academic program at our school is rigorous and stresses the importance of children becoming life-long readers and writers. Outstanding children's literature is found in all of our classrooms as well as our Library/Media Center. Our Mathematics program encourages active learning as children learn concepts through hands-on experiences that foster critical thinking and application of problem solving strategies. Through inquiry based science instruction our students construct a solid foundation of scientific knowledge. Students learn local, national and world history within a rich social studies curriculum.
We believe that in addition to classroom instruction, field trips to support that instruction are a necessary part of the program. To this end, students take trips to such sites as Old Bethpage Restoration Village, Fire Island Lighthouse, The Oceanside Nature Preserve, and many other meaningful places. A highlight of our sixth grade program is a two night, three day stay at The Ashokan Environmental Center in Shokan, New York.

Computer technology enhances curriculum and instruction in all classrooms. We utilize a fully equipped computer lab. Each of our grades 4-6 classrooms are equipped with state of the art SMART Board Technology and all our grades 3-6 classrooms have document cameras and projectors. This year we will be adding document cameras and projectors to our grade 1-2 classrooms and our teachers will have the use of our newly acquired Classroom Remote Systems or Clickers. Clickers are hand held devices that allow all students to simultaneously respond to a given question posed by the teacher. Our students also partake in a variety of video conferences throughout the year. Technology is effectively and meaningfully integrated within our curriculum.

We are particularly proud of our music and art programs. Children excel in band, chorus and orchestra. In addition to winter and spring concert for all of the performing groups, our chorus performs at local nursing homes and our band marches annually in the Memorial Day Parade.
Our staff provides an outstanding array of extra curricular clubs that children may participate in both before and after school. These clubs include an active Student Council, Art Club, Physical Education Club, Mathletes, Homework Club, Computer Club and a School Store.

School #5 is a warm and supportive environment in which children can thrive and develop to achieve their individual best!