Students at Buchanan-Verplanck, Furnace Woods Enjoying New Activities During Recess

As the weather began to improve this spring, Hendrick Hudson’s youngest students have enjoyed a host of new recess equipment that includes sidewalk chalk, jump ropes, various balls, hula hoops, and bug jars with magnifying lids.

The new items arrived last month for Buchanan-Verplanck and Furnace Woods Elementary Schools thanks to generous grants from the Hen Hud Elementary PTA.

Recess supervisors from both schools submitted grants requesting the new equipment, which the PTA purchased this spring.

“We now have a lot of fun, new things to keep all students active and engaged through art, science and physical education,” said Buchanan-Verplanck teacher Caitlin Tomassi and Furnace Woods teacher Kimberly Valerioti, who helped submit the grants on behalf of their schools. “We would like to say a big thank you to the PTA for purchasing everything for us and for our students.”

Due to the logistics of the school playground, the new items are stored outdoors in large bins at Buchanan-Verplanck. At Furnace Woods, the equipment is stored and wheeled onto the playground in new carts.

“Thank you to our generous and wonderful PTA and thank you to our lunch supervisor teams for putting the grant together on behalf of our school community,” Furnace Woods principal Josh Cohen said.

“The second grade boys tell me that soccer is their new favorite activity and that they play against each other every day,” said Katie Strommer, who serves as Vice President of the Hen Hud Elementary PTA at Furnace Woods. “Our PTA was so excited to be able to provide this for our children to make their recess time even more awesome!”