“Fall/Autumn Week” is next!

Hello all,

“Feelings and Friendship Week” was full of just that, Feelings and Friendship! Through play, hard work, and discussion, the students practiced identifying and recognizing all sorts of feelings and ways to be a friend throughout the entire week! Read on below to learn about all the fun that was had and learning that took place! For their morning work on Monday, the students created a “Feeling Faces” Photo Album! One by one, the students came over to have their photograph taken under a sign showing one of the following feelings: Happy, Sad, Angry, or Silly! The students blew the teachers away with their ability to show each feeling with such extremely expressive faces! Here are some of the photos from the students “Feeling Faces” activity.

After such a fun activity in the morning on Monday, the students enjoyed viewing their own and their classmates photos in a technology presentation! They also discussed each feeling in depth by creating a list of things they associate with each feeling. Here is their list of things that make them feel happy.

On Tuesday, the students continued their investigation of feelings but in a very different and fun way! The day began with a whole class read aloud of a book that is a definite classroom favorite, How Are You Peeling? Foods With Moods written by Saxton Freymann and Joost Elfers. In the story, all different types of feelings are discussed but the illustrations are what really steal the show! Every illustration is created using actual food! Take a look below to see just how detailed, imaginative, and fun these illustrations are!

After enjoying the story, the students were ecstatic to learn that they too would have an opportunity to make some food with moods! Using stringy carrots, blue blackberries, raspberries, colorful peppers, strawberries and more, the students assembled the various foods on their plates to create some seriously moody and expressive faces! These faces were quickly gobbled up and enjoyed by all at snack time!

After some in depth investigation of feelings at the start of the week, on Wednesday the focus shifted to the other half of this week’s theme – Friendship! Who better to learn about friendship from than best pals, Piggie and Gerald? For those of you who are not familiar with Mo Willem’s Piggie and Elephant book series, please be sure to “meet” these two friends by reading one of their amazing stories on one of your next visits to PPA!

Wednesday morning began with a reading of the book, My New Friend Is So Fun! In the story, we met Piggie (a pig) and Gerald (an elephant) who are best friends! Gerald begins to worry when he learns that Piggie is playing with a new friend, Brian Bat. If Piggie is playing with her new friend, Brian Bat, what does that mean for Gerald and Piggie? Are they still friends? ABSOLUTELY! Gerald learns that we can have many friends – not just one – and it is more fun that way! To help the students remember this fun friendship fact, they created either a Gerald or Piggie puppet!

Speaking of friendship, things really got “cooking” on Wednesday afternoon as the students wrote the “Recipe For Friendship”.

In order to get started, the students needed the right ingredients, of course! Do you know what ingredients are needed for the Friendship Recipe? Take a look below to see if you can tell which ingredients go into the Friendship bowl and which ingredients do not.

Using kind words

Grabbing toys away

Sharing

Playing nicely

Hitting or pushing

So, how did you do? Do you know what it takes to be a friend? Of course you do! 🙂 Way to go!

Thursday morning began with another reading all about Friendship; this time it was Marcus Pfister’s classic tale, The Rainbow Fish. In the story, we meet the rainbow fish and learn that he was covered in beautiful shiny, shimmery scales! Well, as beautiful as he may be, none of the other fish want to play with him because he refuses to share with anyone. After speaking with the wise octopus, the rainbow fish learns that sharing his beautiful shiny scales with his friends will not only make everyone beautiful but it will also make everyone happy. By the end of the story, the rainbow fish decides that sharing is fun and all of the fish become great friends. After reading the story, the students created their very own Rainbow Fish to remind them that sharing is caring! Click below to see the super neat way they did it!

The rainbow fish were all so beautiful that the teacher decided to turn the students’ creations into a beautiful bulletin board!

In the afternoon on Thursday (and Friday), the students revisited the Feelings part of the theme during music class! The teachers selected several songs including Pharrell’s “Happy” for Happiness, Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Going To Take It” for Anger, Great Big Something and Christina Agueleria’s “Say Something” for Sadness and David Seville’s “Witch Doctor” for Silliness! The students were asked to identify the feeling/emotion to match the tempo and energy of the music being played. What a fun and exciting afternoon it was!

On Friday, the students worked in small groups to role play/demonstrate how to be a great friend! Given a few tricky scenarios such as a friend grabbing from another friend or a friend using “not nice” words with a friend, the students were asked to “What would a friend do here?” All of the students, even the youngest students, enjoyed coming up and performing in front of their classmates. Be sure to click below to view one of their friendship role plays!

Well, that is all for “Feelings and Friendship Week!” What an amazing (and silly) week it was! Be sure to click the link below to visit the PPA Photo Gallery and view all of the students’ Feelings photographs! As always, thank you for reading. See you next week!

-PPA

Reminders:

If you have not done so already, please send in a family photo + the All About Me Poster next week.

Back to School Night

Wednesday, September 24th

(7:00-8:00 p.m.)

This is a parent only event where the school-wide curricular goals, policies and procedures will be discussed. Please try to make arrangements to have at least one parent attend.

October Tuition is due before or by:

Monday, 9/29 (3 day students)

Tuesday, 9/30 (2/5 day students)

Tuition not received by the designated due date will have a $25 late fee added.

Upcoming School Events:

PPA Pumpkin Picking and Decorating Party

Friday, October 10th

(2:00-3:00 p.m.)

All PPA students and parents are welcome to attend this event.

Aftercare is not available.

School Picture Day

Friday, October 17th

ALL STUDENTS (regardless of enrollment schedule) should arrive by 8:30 a.m. Individual portraits and class photographs will be taken. Students who do not attend school on Fridays (2 dayers) will be picked up before lunch at 12:00 p.m. Students who attend school on Friday will stay for the full school day.

PPA Halloween Party

Wednesday, October 31st