TRR photo by Tom Kane Sullivan West at Narrowsburg elementary students Kyle Freda, left, and Jeremy DeGori, right, have fun at the school's harvest festivities. (Click for larger image)

NARROWSBURG - On October 25 and 26 students and teachers at Sullivan West at Narrowsburg celebrated their first annual Fall Harvest Festival. The festival was the combined effort of Principle Rod McLaughlin, art teacher Steve Layman and the elementary school faculty.

The festival featured activities which combined regular curriculum areas with the theme of fall harvest. Layman planned a hay bale maze as part of his study on patterns found in ancient cultures. Along with his fourth grade class, he designed and built the maze out of 120 bales of donated hay, combined with corn stalks supplied by guidance counselor Dave Nonnemacher.

National Park Service Ranger "Rocky" delighted children during Morning Program with a story about a "flying turtle." Mrs. Meunier's Kindergarten passed rolled yarn back and forth to create a spider web. Mrs. Krauss's first grade class observed how plants draw water to grow, testing and tasting a variety of apples to see which was sweeter and estimating how many kids preferred certain apple types related to color and taste. Students also built a scarecrow named "Tippy" and popped popcorn.

In Mrs. Jay's second grade class, activities included measuring and estimating objects, writing and drawing pictures using a time line. Mrs. Murray's third grade class made apple clowns and scarecrows, which focused on the use of found and recycled materials.

Mrs. Spall's fourth grade class created a landscape scene using colored paper combined with a writing activity, which related to Jean-Francois Millets painting "The Gleaners." The fifth grade class of Tom Nuttycombe wrote positive statements about each other using pumpkins in place of classmates. The idea was to develop a sense of appreciation for one another.

Mr. Haberly's and Mrs. Bliss's physical education classes participated as well.

Music was provided by button accordion player Joe Lindner and folk musician Laurie Stuart on the hammered dulcimer.

On the evening of October 26, high school science teacher Russ Johanson led a celestial observation program. There was also a bon fire and a Starlab demonstration by Carl Breustch. Home economics teacher Marlene Kinch treated the kids with s'mores.

A special thanks goes out to community members who contributed their time and resources, especially Ned and Sari Lang and Angela and Steve Daley.