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With some help, students create Easter baskets
By Jeanne Starmack
CAMPBELL
Photo
Campbell first-grader Adelanis Irizzary finishes her Easter basket during a class project earlier this week. Parents came in to all four first-grade classes and helped out.
Some determined first-graders with Elmer’s Glue, Magic Markers and construction paper have made a lot of extra work for the Easter Bunny this year.
At Campbell Elementary School on Monday, teachers and parents in the school’s four first-grade rooms helped the kids make even more Easter baskets for the Bunny to fill. He’d better bring a lot of candy with him.
In Darlene Spurio’s classroom, basket makers were so busy that they barely lifted their heads to watch her as she led the project.
“I’m matching up this fold with this fold,” Spurio said as she formed a box out of construction paper.
“I’m just gonna glue it ...
“... and it should look something like this...”
“Pay attention, pay attention,” said Tracy Feasler, good-naturedly admonishing her son Shawn Paul Joseph, 8.
“OK, cut the corners,” Feasler told Shawn. “Oh my, this is hard, hard work. I’m not used to being back in art class,” she said.
Shawn has a bigger basket at home, so he doesn’t know if he’ll use the one he made at school for the Bunny’s visit, but next to him, Pantelis Pizanias, 6, nodded vigorously at that idea.
Pantelis’ aunt, Georgene Bairamis, was helping him out. The two are looking forward to Easter.
“We have a big party at his house,” she said, “and play outside.”
“I like the Easter egg hunt,” Pantelis said.
At the next table, Victoria Elash, 7, drew and cut out a bunny to decorate the front of her basket. Encouraging the budding artist was her grandmother, Lucy Rosa.
Victoria is going to put her basket out for the Bunny. Her favorite gift from him is the chocolate rabbits.
Tiffany Roldan, 7, with help from mom, Anali Roldan, liked coloring her bunny the best. Her favorite Easter tradition?
Finding the Easter eggs her mom hides in the house and yard.
The first-graders at Campbell have been inviting their parents in for the past eight years to work on baskets at Easter and gingerbread houses at Christmas, said Spurio, fielding questions from kids as she talked.
“Kids love it when their families get to come,” she said, adding that the first grades do a lot with that idea.
During “Muffins with Mom,” girls wear pretty dresses, boys dress in suits, and moms come in to hear songs and poems the Friday before Mother’s Day, she said.
During “Doughnuts or Dogs with Dad,” fathers come in the first week in June to have lunch with their kids.
“We try to get the parents in and get them involved,” she said.