Hello all,
PPA’s alphabet curriculum is off to an Amazing, Astonishing, and Awesome start! Can you guess which letter the students learned about first? If you said, “the letter A”, then you are correct! To help explore the letter A, the students also studied all about alligators! Well, “Letter A is for Alligator Week” has come and gone. Read on below to discover the learning that took place and fun that was had throughout the week!
The students returned to school on Monday with an Assortment of Letter A shares! Everything from Animals, Aliens, Astronauts, Anna (from Frozen), and Alligators was sent in and shared! As you will see in the photograph below, there was certainly an Abundance of Awesome letter A shares!
Monday and Tuesday morning marked the introduction of alphabet “morning work” – letter and sound recognition activity coloring pages. Working one on one with the teachers, each student took a break from their morning activity stations to come over, sit down and get to work! The teachers were so impressed with how easily the new students recognized the letter A and also how well the older students remembered all things “A” during their morning work! Whether it involved tracing, writing, or sounding out letters, the activity pages were completed beautifully! The 2019-2020 students of PPA are surely shining stars already.
In the afternoon on both Monday and Tuesday, the students worked together as a group to create the first letter list of the school year! The students took turns brainstorming and contributing words that begin with the letter A! The list below features all of the words the students came up with! After the list had been created, it was time to go hunting – Letter A hunting! In partners, the students took off around the room to find all of the A’s around the classroom! There were A’s on the bookshelves, A’s on the walls, A’s in the cubbies, even A’s on the students (well, on their clothing). Who knew there were some many A’s at PPA?
Can you identify all of the A Shares?
The A shares are Apple, Acrobats, Alligators and an Acorn!
Also on Monday, the students welcomed the first PPA parent visitor of the year as a Guest Reader! With Alligators on the brain, the Mommy photographed below volunteered her time to read a particularly sweet story about using good manners to the class – May I Please Have a Cookie? by Jennifer Morris. A special PPA Thank You to this Mommy and her children for helping to make Monday morning so special!
ATTENTION PPA PARENTS: If you would like to visit PPA, please reach out to Miss Justine or Miss Jocelyn to schedule your visit!
Wednesday was Picture Day at PPA so the student art exploration of the letter A as well as the theme of the week – Alligators – began on Thursday! Take a look at these Adorable Letter A Alligators they created!
On Thursday (and Friday) afternoon, the students participated in their first (and second) Spanish lesson(s) of the school year! For the next few weeks, the students will be learning about Greetings and Numbers. You may hear your child(ren) using some of the following vocabulary at home!
Greetings:
Hola (Hello)
Adiós (Goodbye)
Gracias (Thank You)
De nada (For Nothing/You’re Welcome)
The Park Prep Academy foreign language program takes place two afternoons each week. Please encourage your child(ren) to utilize this vocabulary as often as possible as a way to reinforce what is being taught in the classroom and also increase motivation for Spanish class.
On Friday morning, the students created another alligator craft! This time it was a little different.
Friday afternoon wrapped up with a technology presentation All About Alligators! Earlier in the week, the students had asked the question, “What makes an alligator an alligator and a crocodile a crocodile?” After examining the difference in two up-close photographs, the students determined the most noticeable difference was in the snout/mouth. An alligator has U-shaped snout while a crocodile has a pointier V-shaped snout. The students also observed that if several of its lower teeth were sticking out when the animal has its jaws closed, then it must be a crocodile. When an alligator’s jaws are closed, you cannot see any of its lower teeth. What great observations the students made! The teachers informed the students of some other, less noticeable differences including color, habitat, diet and more! What an exciting investigation into the question it was!
The students also continued their investigation of the letter A with a little help from PPA’s favorite robot duo – The Storybots! Watch below to see/meet these super silly letter-loving robots! Enjoy!
Hooray for A is right! Well, that is all for “Letter A is for Alligator Week” at PPA. It sure was Amazing! As always, thank you for reading and have a fun and safe weekend!
-PPA
Reminders:
SCHOOL CLOSED: Monday, October 14th
Observation of Columbus Day
Upcoming School Events:
PPA Halloween Party
Thursday, October 31st
(2:00-3:00 p.m.)
All PPA students and parents are welcome to attend this event.
Aftercare is not available.
Theme for Next Week:
