A trio of toy drives at Saw Mill Road Elementary School District will bring joy to hundreds of children this holiday season. The Students Against Destructive Decisions club and Danielle Brocco’s second grade class both collected toys for the John Theissen Children’s Foundation. Michelle Mittler’s third graders donated toys to Cohen Children’s Medical Center.

On Dec. 18, John Theissen visited the school to pick up the donations. Sixth graders from SADD and Ms. Brocco’s second graders gathered in the lobby to listen to Mr. Theissen as he explained the origins of his organization, based in Wantagh. He talked about a girl, Tasha, who was in the hospital with him and gave him a teddy bear, inspiring him to start his first toy drive in 1992. Since then, it has grown from delivering 800 toys to sick and underprivileged children that first year, to about 130,000 toys last year. Students emptied the donation box, put all the toys in bags and helped load up his car.

“I feel really good about how our school is helping other children and giving them a good holiday,” SADD club member Nathan Smith said. “I hope they know that people care about them.”

“It’s amazing how he started this because of another person’s nice gesture,” Angelina Chen said about Mr. Theissen. “It feels awesome to know that these gifts can help underprivileged children.”

The SADD club, under the direction of Keara McNamara, made several signs by hand to hang around the school to promote the toy drive, which ran from Dec. 1-17. They also made announcements every morning.

Ms. Mittler has been involving her students in a toy drive every year for about a decade. Her family makes an annual holiday donation to Cohen Children’s Medical Center for the care they gave her daughter. Students are encouraged to contribute a new, unwrapped toy, and Ms. Mittler personally delivered the donations on Dec. 15.

“I like to involve my class,” she said, “because it teaches them about generosity and compassion.”

Click here to view the Saw Mill’s Elves Make Big Impact With Toy Drives slideshow.

String students from North Bellmore’s five elementary schools came together for the annual District Orchestra Winter Concert on Dec. 8 at the Brookside School. Proud parents, siblings, teachers and administrators filled the auditorium to enjoy holiday and winter tunes. 

The young musicians learned the concert music together during early morning districtwide rehearsals over the last several months, as well as during their small-group lessons. The fifth grade ensemble was conducted by Patrice Ryan and the sixth grade group was led by Lisa Uckardes. Individual school winter concerts are also taking place throughout December. 

Date Added: 12/9/2025

Integers, rational numbers and the coordinate plane may seem like advanced math concepts, but sixth graders at Saw Mill Road Elementary School are mastering the topics with ease thanks to a creative project.  

Students had to plot positive and negative numbers on a coordinate grid. Then, they connected the dots to reveal a mystery, fall-themed image. The pictures included acorns, footballs, ghosts, leaves, pumpkins and turkeys. The sixth graders then colored in their images to create lively mathematical creations.  

 

Date Added: 12/2/2025

As they circled the back field at Saw Mill Road Elementary School on Nov. 3, students experienced how easy it is to get some exercise. The annual Gobble Run was hosted by the physical education department to promote health and fitness.

Physical education teachers Alyssa Parker and Anthony Novello set up cones around the field, and every five laps equaled one mile. Students and teachers could run, jog or walk, and some hearty youngsters exceeded 20 laps during their 40-minute sessions. The teachers marked their index cards at the completion of each lap.

Each grade level had a chance to partake in the Gobble Run, which served as a launching point for a cardiovascular fitness unit in physical education classes. Ms. Parker and Mr. Novello said they want students to create lifelong habits that promote health and fitness by seeing that activity can be as simple as taking a walk around the neighborhood.

The annual event occurs between Halloween and Thanksgiving, and students had a partly cloudy but dry fall day to enjoy the time outdoors. For their participation, children were encouraged to donate candy at a donation box in the lobby. The candy will be given to the Bellmore Lions Club for its Polar Express holiday event in December.

Click here to view the Saw Mill Students Enjoy Fitness and Friendship 2 slideshow.

The impact of words was the theme for a program for fourth, fifth and sixth graders at Saw Mill Road Elementary School on Oct. 30. Students gathered for the “Power of Language” assembly presented by Limitless Learning and sponsored by the PTA’s Cultural Arts committee. 

The interactive workshop was designed to help students understand how the words they use can bring people closer together or divide them. It explored the myth of the well-known phrase, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me.” Students identified strategies to support one another when they witness words being used to hurt others and discussed the unique power they have to support one another in ways that have a lifelong impact. 

Presenters Dr. Lenny Breton and Dr. Nancy Kaplan called upon the district’s oldest students to set the example at Saw Mill Road. They explained that the knowledge they gained at the assembly should be carried with them through middle school, high school and into adulthood. The pain that words can cause was evidenced by a show of hands from teachers who still remember something mean that was said to them when younger.  

Dr. Breton and Dr. Kaplan noted that most children know they shouldn’t say certain words or phrases, but don’t understand why they shouldn’t be said. They helped educate children on the reasons that certain words and phrases should never be used, and told them to take that knowledge to teach others who say them.  

The presenters described the difference between words that constitute a “mini-ouch” and a “supersized ouch,” but noted that all mean words are hurtful, no matter how big or small. They also addressed the concept of “roasting.” 

Principal Jeff Rosof said that this topic is very important and encouraged teachers to continue the conversation in their classrooms.  

"At Saw Mill Road, we focus on building a strong and supportive community,” Mr. Rosof said. “This assembly focused on ways that we may undermine these efforts, often without intent.The impact of our words are huge and all Saw Mill Road citizens need to be aware of the power of our words and hopefully work towards using our words to uplift our school community.I appreciate the assembly bringing this awareness to our students.” 

Click here to view the Saw Mill Students Uncover the Power of Words slideshow.

 

Date Added: 11/6/2025