Long Valley Students Take Virtual Learning To Historic Parks

LONG VALLEY, NJ - The fifth grade team from Benedict A. Cucinella School is enhancing the digital learning experiences that the students have been participating in with the historic help.

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Currently, all grade five students are reading one of the following novels:

• Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes
• Number the Stars
• Under the Blood Red Sun
• The Night Crossing.

The focus of this unit is to learn more about WWII through the historical fiction novels that our students are engaged in, officials said, noting that they wanted to provide deeper connections with the historical events presented about in the novels.

Through research, the teachers were able to contact the education specialist from Pacific Historic Parks, and she has provided them with some virtual opportunities for the students. In the next few weeks, the fifth grade students will be:

• Speaking live with a Pearl Harbor survivor named Dorinda who was 6 years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed;
• Learn how to fold paper cranes, that will include a message of hope written inside. These cranes will be sent to the Hiroshima Memorial for display; and
• Participate in a guided 360° virtual tour of the Battleship Missouri, the site of the Japanese signing of the Instrument of Surrender, which confirmed the end of World War II.

Both parents and students have been invited to enjoy these memorable digital learning experiences, the team said. Through these experiences, students will not only make deeper connections with the curriculum being taught but with our current societal challenges, the team said.

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