School is Cool at Theodore Roosevelt Elementary

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By: Nicole Gawel

This year’s theme of the fourth annual Theodore Roosevelt Reader’s Theatre was “School’s Cool.”

Reader’s Theatre is both a literary and musical production based around one central theme. Jan Millard, Lisa Braniecki and Melanie Bantle, all teachers at the school, began planning for this year’s event the afternoon following last year’s production.

“These talented teachers came up with this idea, and it’s great,” said Thomas Slaiman, principal at the school. “The performances involve skits, acting, singing and reading.”

Each grade level performed a book through a condensed script and in between would act out what was happening and perform songs. This year’s books included Thomas’ Snowsuit by Robert Munsch, performed by the pre-kindergarten class dressed in winter apparel; Mr. Tanen’s Ties by Maryann Cocca-Leffler, in which all of the kindergarten class donned ties and were dressed for success; A Fine, Fine School by Sharon Creech, where the first graders wore yellow and black, the district’s colors, and had a thumb’s up day (in honor of Principal Slaiman); and the second graders performed Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! by Dr. Seuss and Jack Prelutsky where five girls wore shirts that spelled out “think,” and dancers were a cross between Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake.

Between the skits, musical interludes were performed by Amy Fitzner and her students including, the kindergarteners performing Bubblegum: Joseph Bukowski, Joseph Cascio, Jeremy Kulesz, Andrew Maki, Francesca Marchione, Benjamin Samul, Ericc Schultz, Rhianna Slomba, Lillian Stoll, Trinity Swart and Keelin Travis; the first graders with Butterflies: Joseph Borowiak, Matthew Bradley, Sophia Crimi, Bryce Firkins, Jenna Hitchcock, Shayden Hudson, Paige Kaufman, Anthony Mancuso, Madison McElroy, Damyan Miller, Sara Mrzygold, Liam Murphy, Brenden Schmitz, Autumn Tatko, Jeffrey Vecere Owen Voss; and the second graders performed A Silly Song: Jordan Banach, Ethan D’Angelo, Patrick Dawson, Anthony DiFonzo, Cyrus Fisher, Nathan Getz, Mia Kwiatkowski, Katrina Licht, Austin McNaney, Madison Pede, Gabriel Rashko, Parker Ruzeski, Gina Sarama, Jessica Simon, Kiersten Simon, Hailey Sutton and Tabitha Swart.

“We selected the theme, School is Cool, because we wanted to honor our wonderful principal, Mr. Thomas Slaiman,” said Bantle. “The books were selected based on things he says, the way he runs our school and his personality.”

Thomas’ Snowsuit was chosen because the main character’s name is Thomas and the other character was a principal. Mr. Tanen’s Ties was about a principal who had an extensive collection of ties and was told his ties were distracting the students. Slaiman has at least 200 different ties.

He even has a tie that plays music and one that shows his love of his favorite baseball team, the New York Yankees. A Fine, Fine School and Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! Were selected to showcase two schools who thought they were the best.

“Mr. Slaiman is always complimenting the faculty, staff and students on the fine, fine job they do every day to make our school great,” said Bantle.

The students throughout the school look forward to Reader’s Theatre each year because it gives them an opportunity to sing, act, read and learn about a new book and perform in front of their parents, relatives, friends and other teachers in the school.

“Every year Jan Millard, Lisa Braniecki and myself try to create a theme that the students will enjoy and learn topics like life under the sea, books from a specific author, or even some events in history,” said Bantle.

“Our main goal is to expose them to different genres of good literature and music, both current and from the past, and work together as a school to produce a super Reader’s Theatre. It is a joy for us to create this kind of experience for the students. We always try to infuse humor, or showcase a talent, such as a second grader who danced a solo this year and had the audience cheering loudly.”

Next year’s theme is already picked out, a patriotic one, which will highlight each branch of the armed forces.

Actors and narrators of this year’s production included: Kaylee Sclesinger, Patrick Dawson, Matthew Mergenhagen, Riley and Trent Kubiak, Madison Pede, Amanda Plumley, Jayden Pace, Julia Zdyb-Lee, Timothy Witnauer, Jenna Badura, Julia Stechenfinger, Ryan Denne, Jordan Banach, Allie Shultz, Marah Rogowski, Colin Pajak, Kylie Naughton, Zachary Mochol, Hailey Sutton, Ashley Gulczewski, Ryan Schanne, Camdyn Bartholomew, Jillian Bernas, Jonathan Vu, Hailey Gworek, Gina Sarama, Christianna Konczal, Ally Beardi, Joshua Hearn, Emily Boyer, Amari Ross, Brianna Krzysiak, Mariah Roberts, Gillian Samul, Madison Miziak, Kailey Hogg, Skyler Mazurski, Ayden Betti, Kaylee Schlesinger, Miranda Johnson, Tabatha Swart, Kaylee Cork, and Katie Hamm.