The first week of the school year has come and gone and boy, was it great! The students, new and returning, did such an amazing job getting back into the swing of things. The returning students stepped up to the challenge of helping the teachers show the newer students the ropes. By Friday, the teachers had a hard time telling the difference between the new and returning students because they fit into the routine so nicely!

Tuesday was the first day back at Park Prep and with only a few tearful goodbyes, the students headed over to the morning meeting rug to begin their day. The teachers had picked out the perfect book to capture the mood, My First Day of Nursery School by Becky Edwards. In the story, the little girl is very nervous about starting preschool. Throughout the story, she complains that she would rather be with her mommy and that she “doesn’t want to go to preschool!” – that is until she walks in and sees the fun activities that preschool has in store! Within no time, the little girl is so excited and too busy to be sad! By the end of the day, the little girl has had such a blast that she tells her Mommy, “I don’t want to leave preschool!”
The story was very similar to the experience of many of the PPA students! Below is the first day of preschool/school year handprint art projects that the students created for their parents as keepsakes.

Wednesday was the second day of school for some students but also the first day of school for our three dayers. The teachers picked out another special first day of school book for morning meeting – Francesca Rusackas’s I Love You All Day Long. In this story, a little piggie named Owen is also struggling with the idea of going to preschool and saying goodbye to his parents for the first time. Owen’s mommy assures him that even though she isn’t there with him, she still loves him – all day long. This helps Owen make it through the day at school smoothly. This story also helped keep a couple of new student’s eyes dry.

Below are the first (and second) day of preschool/school year hand print art projects that the students created for their parents as keepsakes.

On Thursday, the students listened to Margaret and H.A. Rey’s story, Curious George’s First Day of School! In the story, Curious George heads to school and was having a great day – until he got to the art center! With only three jars of paint, Curious George began to wonder if he could make some more colors. Well, mixing turned to spilling and spilling turned to splashing and that neat art area of the classroom turned into a big mess! Fortunately with the help of some classmates, George and friends were able to clean up that big mess in no time!

Below is two PPA students’ interpretations of Curious George’s painting “mess!”

After such a successful week, the students spent Friday morning creating some amazing stamp artwork showing their feelings towards preschool!

Below are two of the students “I Love Preschool” art projects.

On Friday afternoon, the teachers informed the students that today was a very important day for people living in the United States of America .  The students were intrigued to learn that September 11th was a particularly special day for a city that is very familiar to many of them, New York City.  Since September 11th has been designated a national day of observance, the teachers of Park Prep Academy decided that this was the perfect opportunity to introduce our students to the “Pledge of Allegiance” or should we say the “Pedge of Aweegents”.  Fortunately the “Pledge of Allegiance” is something that the students will be saying every day at school so with practice it should get easier to say!

This week went so smoothly!  It really was a  wonderful way to start the school year.  We can hardly wait to see the excitement and learning that this year will bring!

See you next week!

-PPA