Kids see how it works before Monday’s real deal
The Alto Park Elementary School gym was filled with oohs and ahhs Friday afternoon as Henry Pollitz told the kindergartners gathered before him they would be hearing about Monday’s solar eclipse.
The retired educator, whose education career included being a teacher and a principal at the school, ran through what students would see as the moon travels in between the Earth and the sun, casting the moon’s shadow across the continental U.S. He even used three students to demonstrate what he described, using a bright orange blow-up ball, a Styrofoam ball attached to a stick and an inflatable Earth model. The beam of a flashlight
struck the moon and a shadowed circle landed on the Earth.
Art teacher Jennifer
Bennett has been teaching students about the eclipse, including safety in viewing it, since she has all of the school’s students in her classroom at one time or another, she said. All grades got to experience the presentation from Pollitz.
The kindergartners were particularly intrigued when Pollitz told them that the birds will stop singing during the eclipse, mistaking it for nighttime. But as the moon finishes moving off the face of the sun, the birds will resume their songs.
Kindergartner Ava Crowe contributed to the presentation herself on numerous occasions, sharing what she learned in class. While Pollitz was still speaking about the basics of what the celestial bodies do, she made sure everyone was reminded that they shouldn’t look up in the sky without protective glasses, because their eyes could suffer “irreversible damage.”
Monday’s issue of the Rome News-Tribune will feature more information on what local schools will be doing the day of the eclipse, including reminders concerning when schools will dismiss.