Photos: Riverhead Country Day School hosts Moving Up Day

Riverhead Country Day School on Columbus Avenue at Stotzky Park held moving up ceremonies for its 60 students Thursday morning.

The school was built 19 years ago through a grant the town received from the Community Development Agency. Three of the students in this year’s graduation class, started at the school as babies.

School director Cheryl Taormina marched the children out of the school to perform the “Pledge of Allegiance,” “God Bless America” and “The World is a Rainbow.”

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Ms. Taormina asked the students. Their answers? Princess fairy, doctor, mommy, chef, farmer, Batman, Spiderman, Ninja Power Ranger, police officer, princes doctor and Captain America.

After the graduation ceremony there was a ribbon cutting for the “Outdoor Learning Environment” that surrounds the school. The environment was created after two of the teachers, Teresa Bello and Michele Viccaro, traveled to California last year at their own expense to take a workshop modeled after a similar environment at the Roseville Community Preschool.

The outdoor space now has raised garden beds, a digging area, a stage, play areas, swings and a new blackboard, which was presented to Ms. Taormina by the families of the graduating class at the graduation ceremony.

The project was created by volunteers, with money raised by a community yard sale and items donated by Riverhead Building Supply, Riverhead Garden Club, DeLea Sod Farms, Hampton Sand and Gravel, Peconic Bay Materials, Whitney Tree and Cornell Cooperative Extension and Rick and Kristin Trojanowski, Bud Sexton and Alex Batyr families.

Trees were donated by the Gassar, Talbot and Gajowski families.

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