Family Time Returns

The last Friday of each month is a special time for students at Patrick M. Villano School. That’s when Family Time happens. Family Time is a tradition where small groups of students from all grade levels meet with a teacher. They learn about others in the school community, build relationships, have social-emotional learning lessons, and talk about respect and kindness. Family Time was set aside during the height of the pandemic, but it’s coming back at the end of January.

“I think family time is super important because I think that sometimes we are in classrooms with students that we’re with everyday, all day and we sometime forget that we know other students in the building or we don’t get to really see other students in the building in different grade levels,” Amanda Binetti said.

Binetti is the school social worker and organizer of Family Time. She said the first meeting will be virtual. Teachers leading a student family created a Family Slideshow to share with students on Friday afternoon. Students will remain in their homerooms and create an “about me” slide directly in their Family Slideshow. Principal Jessica Espinoza agrees in the importance of Family Time.

“The purpose of family time is intended to give the students, first of all, an adult in the building that they can have as another person they can talk to throughout their years at Villano,” Espinoza said. “Originally the intention was [that] they would have someone from the beginning of their years [at] Villano all the way through, every year, for their three years beginning in fourth grade all the way through sixth that would be a consistent person.”

According to Binetti, Family Time will continue every month.