Hello all,
Believe it or not, the 2011-2012 Park Prep Academy school year has come to a close. What a great year it was! Here are some of the highlights!
The returning PPA students welcome their new friends and show them the ropes!
The students share their “All About ME” Poster Homework assignment!
The PPA students get “lost” at the park!
Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing
The students (and the teachers) show a wide array of expressive faces during “Feelings and Emotion Week!”
The students meet JC Police Officer Tosado and get behind the wheel of a police van during “Community Week!”
Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing
The students and their parents go Pumpkin Picking and then decorate pumpkins at the PPA Pumpkin Picking Party in the Park!
The students begin their Spanish lessons by practicing Los Numeros (Numbers) vocabulary.
Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing
The students parade around and dress up for Halloween!
The students learn about Paleontologists during a “Letter D is for Dinosaurs Week” technology presentation!
The students transform into Eclectic Elephants during “Letter E is for Elephant Week!”
The students get a giggle while Miss Justine plays a round of “Pin the Tail on the Cow” during “Letter G is for Games Week”.
Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing
Throughout the year, dozens of PPA parents volunteer their time to come in and work with the PPA students! Watch as the Mommy below treats the students to a special Greek lesson and story!
Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing
Here is another parent volunteering (and more below)! Listen to the guitar performance by talented musician and PPA Daddy, Jonathan Fritz!
Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing
The students (and families) do their part to help out during “Letter H is for Helping Week”.
Food Pantry Donation
The students work with a few Marines and Jane Cosco, founder of Operation Goodybag, to stuff 400 goodybags for U.S. Troops overseas!
Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing
The students craft assorted holiday greeting cards for the senior residents of the Hamilton Park Health Care Center.
The students work hard to bake school-made cat and dog treats for the animals at Jersey City’s Liberty Humane Society.
The students spend the day with Harry, a cat rescued by the Hudson County Animal League. After visiting PPA, Harry headed to his new “Forever Home” for his first day with his new adoptive family. 🙂
The teachers drop by the local Police and Fire Station to drop off holiday cards and treats from the students!
The students and their families celebrate at the PPA Winter Holiday Celebration!
The students return to PPA and start off the new year by making glow-in-the-dark Lightning Bugs during “Letter I is for Insect Week”.
The students enjoy singing and dancing along to the following clip during “Letter J is for Jungle Week!”
A PPA Mommy, dressed in a traditional Korean dress known as a hanbok, spends the afternoon with the students teaching them about Korean language and culture during Letter K Week!
Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing
The students create library cards and select books to check out from the PPA Library during “Letter L is for Library Week!”
The students make their own maracas during “Letter M is for Multicultural Music Week”.
The students transform into O’s during Letter O Week!
Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing
The students enjoy dressing up throughout the entire “Letter P is for Pirate, Princess, Prince, and Pajama Week!”
The students answer some scientific questions such as, “How do fish breathe underwater?” during “Letter Q is for Question Week”.
Another Mommy volunteer comes in to lead an exciting Spanish lesson to help review La Comida (food) vocabulary.
Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing
This Daddy (a.k.a. Mr. Shamrock) discusses St. Patrick’s Day with the PPA students!
This Mommy teaches the students about the United Kingdom and even shares some yummy treats from her native country, England!
The students wait eagerly for the big reveal of their school-made Tie-Dye T-Shirts during “Letter T is for Tie-Dye Week”.
The students sculpt their own volcanos out of clay and then watch as their class volcano erupts in the water table!
Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing
The students transform into whisker-faced mice during “Letter W is for Whisker Week”.
They also enjoy a yummy treat just like the mouse in Felicia Numeroff’s classic story, If You Give A Mouse A Cookie.
The students create their very own hand X-ray during “Letter X is for X-Ray Week”.
The Mommies begin to arrive for the PPA Mother’s Day Celebration!
The students perform a special song in honor of the AMAZING PPA Mommies.
Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing
The students wrap up the alphabet and create a “Year in Review” poster during “ABC Review Week”.
The following students bring in a funny “Spanish Review Week” share with a familiar song!
Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing
The students celebrate the INCREDIBLE PPA Daddies at the Father’s Day Ice Cream Sundae Celebration!
As you can see, the 2011-2012 school year was packed with tons of fun and unforgettable experiences. To conclude this amazing school year, the students spent the week reflecting upon some of their favorite moments and also preparing a warm send-off for their Kindergarten-bound friends. The “undergraduates” participated in their end of the school year “Moving Up” certificate ceremony.
The graduates spent the “Graduates Only Last Day” of preschool preparing for the 6th Annual 2012 Park Prep Academy Graduation Ceremony that was held on Wednesday afternoon. Before the cermony began the graduates gathered together for their Graduate Pizza Party Lunch!
Here are some of the highlights from the graduation ceremony.
The Park Prep Academy Class of 2012 is such a wonderful bunch! We met them as new-to-school 2.5 year olds and now send them off to Kindergarten two and half years later as preschool professionals ready for the challenges that Kindergarten has in store! The teachers are all confident that the students will do absolutely wonderfully in Kindergarten. We look forward to hearing about their successes and achievements throughout elementary school and beyond. The graduates and their families alike have all left their mark on Park Prep Academy and will be greatly missed.
Everyone at Park Prep Academy would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the great families that were a part of PPA this year. Without your continued support and enthusiasm, this school year would not have been nearly as wonderful as it was. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Remember, this is not goodbye – it is a “See you soon!” 
Have a sunny and safe summer!
-PPA
REMINDERS:
The Park Prep Academy Summer Camp begins on Thursday, July 5th!
BE SURE TO CHECK THE PARK PREP ACADEMY SUMMER CAMP BLOG (located under the summer tab on the homepage) NEXT WEEK!