Second-grade students with some of the artwork they and their classmates created during Foreign Language Week. Students at Stewart and Stratford Avenue schools marked Foreign Language Week in March by exploring the theme You've Got the World on a String with Foreign Languages. The exercise was part of Garden City School District's Foreign Language in Elementary School (FLES) program. "The students discussed the importance of learning foreign languages and explored how they see themselves using Spanish and other languages they may learn in real life," FLES Teacher Bill Kupferman said. "They also brainstormed about items that are often found on strings, like yo-yos, kites, and puppets, and determined that the string enables a person, with practice, to make these items do all kinds of interesting things." The students then connected this concept to foreign languages: that is, once a person learns a foreign language, he or she can apply it in the world in many ways. Finally, second- and third-graders created artwork based on their ideas that have been hung in the hallways for all to enjoy, while fourth-graders created posters that have been submitted to the Long Island Language Teachers Poster Contest.

Third-grade students with the artwork they created exploring the World on a String theme.