Dozens of Wallkill families filled the Ostrander Elementary cafeteria on Nov. 7 to join together for a meal and some educational gameplay at the school’s Family Math Game Night. Each elementary school in the district hosts its own version of the events each semester, which alternate between math and reading themes for the K-6 pupils.

Families gathered around tables in the Ostrander cafeteria on Thursday evening to play traditional math-based board games such as Chutes and Ladders, Battleship and Quizmo, and local parent Kurt Scheerer played a game of Connect Four with his fourth-grade son Tim. “We’ve been doing it since kindergarten,” Scheerer said. “All of our neighbors are here and it’s a good way to see them and the other kids that we don’t get to see much. So it’s a good event.”

Organized by Ostrander teachers Debbie Reese and Cristen Sasaki, the game nights have grown over the last decade and have evolved since their early days as part of the district’s Parent Academy program. “We were giving resources to parents, and then as time went by we realized that wasn’t the demographic we wanted to hit,” Sasaki said. “We really needed to work on reaching out to the community and making sure that the parents feel included and reach out to them to have them come into the building. We wanted to create opportunities for parents to be able to work with their kids.”

Last Thursday, an estimated 170 people attended the event on a cold and rainy night to partake in a lasagna dinner that was prepared by Ostrander teachers and served to students and parents by Wallkill Superintendent Kevin Castle and Wallkill Director of Pupil Personnel Anthony White. “Even with the weather going on outside, it’s amazing the number of people who actually came this evening,” Castle said. “It’s good to see the younger students coming and the parents being here with them. They’ll continue to be here, because they’ll be with us for another six or seven years in this school. So it’s good. I’m very appreciative of the teachers who have put this together and have gotten the word out to encourage families to come.”
Teachers prepared a feast of over two dozen trays of lasagna and carrots for the community to enjoy as they traversed through the numerous game stations. “All of the food is made by the staff, and we have containers where afterward we’ll give out food to take home,” Reese said. “So it really fits a whole bunch of needs. All of the games are basic, general games you can get from Kmart.”

The family game nights have also had an added benefit of attracting more parents into the district’s buildings for after-school activities such as school plays. “It’s great because you have kids that are friends at school and then their parents sit down to play and they start talking and you end up making friendships,” Sasaki said. “They just feel a little more comfortable because they see familiar faces.”