Pros at prose

Poetry, prose and presents were all integral to the Valentine’s Day celebration at St. Rocco’s School in Johnston.

For starters, students in pre-K 3, pre-K 4 and kindergarten enjoyed a Valentine’s celebration with their parents and loved ones that brought tears of joy – and offered a glimpse of the past – for Adriana Piccolino, a former Miss Rhode Island Italia, who was once a student at St. Rocco’s School and is now a respected member of the teaching staff.

“Our guests were treated to a wonderful performance by the children,” Piccolino said. “Everyone participated in a craft project and enjoyed a sweet treat. The entire moment was captured by Eric Brown Photography and each child will receive a complimentary photo to remember this special Valentine’s Day of 2020.”

In one of the event’s most memorable moments, she and Robin A. Okolowitcz, St. Rocco’s director of non-academic affairs, noted, “students made special frames for their pictures and made a special heart created by their fingerprints that they placed on a coffee mug that will be forever cherished by their parents.”

Lorraine Moschella, the principal at St. Rocco’s School, complimented teachers Brenda Tavares, Kristen Califano, Cecelia Rodi and Piccolino for creating what she called “this fun-loving program.” She added a special congratulations to our music teacher Rodi for “always leading our children in song.”

There was yet another special event inside St. Rocco’s middle school literature/ELA classroom.

For the past two months, sixth-graders at St. Rocco’s have been reading the play “The Diary of Anne Frank,” written by Frances Godrich and Albert Hackett. While reading, Tripp said, “we have been exploring different elements of a dream as well as different literary devices. Students have been exploring metaphors, similes, personification, alliteration and the overall development of theme.”

Tripp further explained that “as a culminating project, students have been tasked with deciding who is truly responsible for turning the Franks in, and we have studied the different parts of creating an argument and everyone has nailed down who they believe the culprit it.”

However, as a way to put their skills of literary devices to use, Tripp’s class took a break from the subject of Anne Frank to write a Valentine’s poem.

She informed students that, within the poem, they had to use at least three literary devices as well as development of a theme throughout the poem.

Thus, Tripp went on: “In the spirit of traditional Valentine’s Day candy, students blindly selected a large paper version of a conversation heart. Whichever phrase was on their heart was to become the title of their poem. These four phrases needed to found somewhere within their poem.”

As an example of the student’s work, Tripp shared Dominick Iacobo’s poem, which was entitled “True Love Forever,” with the Sun Rise, and it went like this: “Roses are read violets are blue and this Valentine’s is going to you. My heart is yours so we will forever soar, we will forever be above, #love, I will climb a tower to give you flowers, Cupid made all of my dreams very lucid. Your are a star you shine bright, I will always love you and you shine day or night, Your always on my mind, you’re one of a kind.”