JAY — Just before Magical Michael began his amazing show of making things move or disappear, he told the Jay Elementary School youngsters to give themselves a round of applause.

“This is for your good behavior,” he told the children.

Magical Michael, also known as Michael Smilek of Farmington, was there Friday afternoon as a reward for the students’ success in the school’s Positive Behavior Intervention Supports program.

JES, similar to several other schools in the region, have adopted the program that emphasizes the positive for achieving improvement of overall student behavior.

Emcee Janet Daigle, who is a second-grade teacher at the school, said the new program is going pretty well.

“We want to have a positive impact on the students,” she said.

Kindergarten teacher Kelly Groomes said so far, so good for the program.

“I like the visuals,” she said, explaining that posters are hung at various places around the school describing what action each number calls for. For example, a zero means be absolutely quiet, a one allows some quiet talking, two means conversations can be a little louder.

She said she often uses her fingers in the classroom to indicate how much noise, if any, is allowed.

“PBIS is new. We’re working with it as we go along,” she said.

Another kindergarten teacher, Deborah Packard, said good behavior has been rewarded through extra recess time and by holding a pajama day. But Friday’s magic show was the big event for the success shown by the students.

Youngsters earn Bee notes when they are “caught” doing something good. The Bee stands for: Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be a Worker, and Be Kind.

Smilek, much to the delight of many youngsters, invited volunteers to help him make items disappear or change from one thing into another. Second-graders Jayven St. Louis, Mikayla Fitch and Brooke Schoonover were among the excited volunteers.

Smilek caused a dollar bill to “move” from a container on his podium, to inside one of several oranges. Mikayla found it, but couldn’t quite figure out why. Jayven drew a mustache on George Washington on a one-dollar bill to prove that that bill was really the one Smilek moved from one container to another. Brooke tried to understand why a rope inside a cube would move, then not.

Smilek explained before he began his performance that magic is illusion.

“You see something that really cannot exist,” he said.

As each seemingly impossible trick was performed, the children first watched silently. Then, when the impossible was completed, huge roars of laughter and clapping could be heard throughout the gymnasium.

The PBIS program will continue throughout the school year. Hopes are that a bucket, hung on a wall in a corridor, will be filled with small certificates showing that the students have been exhibiting good behavior.

Second-grader Mikayla Fitch looks to Magical Michael for instructions on looking for a dollar bill that disappeared. She found it in one of the oranges. The magic program took place at Jay Elementary School as a reward for good student behavior.

Jay Elementary School kindergarten through fifth-graders watched intently as magician Michael Smilek performs one of his many disappearing acts Friday afternoon.

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