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“Letter B is for Bears” Week is Next!

Hello all,

PPA’s alphabet curriculum is off to an Amazing, Astonishing, and Awesome start!  “Letter A is for Ants” Week has come and gone.  Read on below to discover the learning that took place and fun that was had throughout the week!

After a long weekend at home, the students entered school on Tuesday with an Assortment of Letter A shares! Everything from (Artificial) Ants, Aliens, Astronauts, and Apples was sent in and shared!

The students spent both Tuesday and Wednesday morning completing their Letter A tracing/identification/coloring activity sheets.  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!

In the afternoon on Tuesday and Wednesday, the students created the first Letter List of the year!  As a whole group, the students took turns brainstorming and contributing words that begin with the letter A!  Take a look at the awesomely impressive list they 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?

Thursday was All About Ants!  For their morning work, the students used empty egg cartons donated to PPA from a neighboring restaurant, Rumba’s Cafe, to create their own larger-than-life-sized ant!  A little black paint turned three egg holders into the perfect ant!  The students selected colored pipe cleaners to create the ant limbs.  Once the paint had dried, the pipe cleaners were threaded through, googly eyes were added and the ants were complete!  Although some students expressed concern (or rather distaste) for the honorary  letter A insect, they were all in agreement that these ants were fun!

During the afternoon, the students had music where they were excited to learn a fun ant fact through one of their favorite classroom songs!  The students were eager to begin singing the very popular song, “The Ants Go Marching”.  Here is the song.

The Ants Go Marching

The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah

The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah

The ants go marching one by one,

The little one stops to suck his thumb

And they all go marching down –  in the ground,

to get out – of the rain.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!


The ants go marching two by two, hurrah, hurrah

The ants go marching two by two, hurrah, hurrah

The ants go marching two by two,

The little one stops to tie his shoe

And they all go marching down – in the ground,

to get out – of the rain.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

(The song continues up to ten.  Click here to view the entire song.)

Just as the first verse ended, Miss Jocelyn hit the pause button.  Surprised, the students stopped singing as Miss Jocelyn asked, “Why do the ants go down into the ground?”  As was to be expected, the students all shouted, “to get out of the rain!”  Miss Jocelyn then asked the students to put on their detective thinking caps.  She asked the students to think about WHY the ants would go into the ground to get out the rain?  This lead to a very informative discussion which compared ants to people who go into their homes to get out of the rain so they do not get wet.  The students concluded that ants must make their homes underground – they were absolutely correct!   Miss Jocelyn added some BIG raindrops to the whiteboard.

After all, ants are much smaller than people so the rain drops are really big for them!

Just as the students thought that all of their detective work was complete, Miss Jocelyn introduced another possible reason why ants go underground by drawing a hungry bird on the board. The students all shrieked when they realized that ants were food for some larger animals. They concluded that ants go into the ground to protect themselves by hiding from other animals who are trying to eat them.

With the help of the Life-Size Zoo book, Miss Justine reminded the students about another animal that also starts with the letter A – the Anteater.  Miss Justine asked the students what they thought anteaters ate.  Crackers?  Macaroni and cheese?  Sandwiches?  The classroom erupted with laughter as the students raised their hands to tell Miss Justine that anteaters eat ANTS!  Miss Justine held up the book to show the anteater’s special snout that makes it easy for him to eat those ants!

After the students had such an informative conversation about WHY the ants go under the ground to make their homes, the teachers decided to come up with a craft that was all about ant “homes” – or rather ant hills!  On Friday, the students used their fingertips and some black paint to create a small colony of ants walking inside and around their ant hill!

Friday afternoon was the Park Prep Academy Pumpkin Picking Party!  Fortunately, the rain held off and the PPA Pumpkin Party was able to be held outside.   One by one, the PPA parents began to arrive.  Needless to say, the students greeted them warmly!

Once everyone had arrived, the students headed over to the pumpkin patch and began selecting their pumpkins!


Watch below to learn what the students did next!


Photo SharingVideo SharingPhoto Printing

Using felt pieces, sparkly sequins, feathers, pompoms and more, the students and their parents transformed the regular pumpkins into sparkly masterpieces!

The pumpkins were set aside to dry before the party wrapped up and the students headed home to enjoy the weekend!

What a fun day!  Be sure to view all of the photos from the PPA Pumpkin Picking Party by clicking here.

Well, that is all for Letter A Week.  It sure was Amazing!  Thank you to all of the Park Prep Families that attended the Pumpkin Picking Party on Friday.  We hope you had as much fun as we did!

As always, thank you for reading and have a wonderful and safe weekend!

-PPA

Reminders:

Next Upcoming School Closing:

Tuesday, November 2nd – Observation of Election Day

Next Upcoming PPA Event:

Park Prep Annual Halloween Celebration!

Friday, October 29th (2:00-3:00 p.m.)

All students and parents invited to attend IN COSTUME!

Friday students are welcome to attend school that day IN COSTUME!

No aftercare available.


Theme for Next Week: