Hello all,

“Letter Y is for (all things) YELLOW Week” was Yerrific, Yonderful, Yantastic, Youtstanding, and of course quite YELLOW!  Read on below to learn about the fun that was had and learning that took place!

Shares in hand, the students arrived at school on Monday morning ready to get started!  One student in particular was really in a YELLOW mood even before coming to school!  Take a look at her outfit below.  Do you know why she wore this outfit?

If you said, “because bumblebees are YELLOW ” then you are correct!  Fortunately, she was a very nice bumblebee and did not have to use her stinger. 🙂

Monday and Tuesday mornings were spent completing Letter Y identification/writing/tracing activities throughout morning work and morning stations.  The students spent their afternoons learning just how tricky the letter Y really is.  Despite sounding like it should make the Letter W (“Wuh”) sound, the letter Y makes a sound that can often go undetected and in some cases like another letter – U!  To an adult, the word “you” clearly starts with the letter Y but it sounds pretty tricky when you hear the sentence – “You starts with Y”.  Things only got trickier when the student pictured below arrived to school wearing the following sign.

This student “borrowed” her Mommie’s name for the week since it began with the letter Y.  A name like Yvette, which starts with Y but sounds like E, further proved how tricky the letter Y really is!

Even in the face of a tricky letter, the students were able to create a great list of Letter Y words.

On Wednesday, the students created the first YELLOW craft of the week.  Do you know what it is?

If you said, “A YELLOW bird called a Canary” then you are correct.  With some construction paper, paint, glitter, and glue, the students transformed paper plates into these beautiful little YELLOW Canary.

On Wednesday (and Thursday afternoon) the students had Spanish class where they learned about their new (and final) vocabulary unit – Transportación.  Here are their vocabulary words that the students will be learning over the next few weeks.

Carro – Car

Bicicleta – Bike

Barco – Boat

Avión – Plane

Tren – Train

Camión – Truck

Autobús – Bus

Helicóptero – Helicopter

The students even learned a new song!  Listen in below.

Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing

Speaking of songs, the students spent Thursday morning crafting a project that was inspired by a very famous Beatles song.  The story goes that Paul McCartney, a member of the legendary Beatles, was lying in bed one night and decided to write a song comprised of short words so that children would be able to pick it up quickly and enjoy it – the result, YELLOW Submarine.  Here is the students’ artistic interpretation of the song.

After Spanish class on Thursday afternoon, the students had a special YELLOW Submarine-themed sing along and dance party.

By Friday, the students had discussed, created, crafted, sang, danced, and learned a lot  about so many YELLOW things!  One thing that the students had yet to discuss was one of the most sour YELLOW things around – a YELLOW Lemon!  Seeing that many of the students expressed their distaste for the sour YELLOW fruit, the teachers decided that eating it was not a good idea but what else can you do with a lemon?  The students brainstormed a list of all things that could be made using Lemons.  Of all the sweet treats listed, one stood out above the rest – Lemonade!

The students all agreed that Lemonade was the best way to enjoy the YELLOW fruit – but how do you get lemonade from a lemon?  Miss Justine decided that it would best to make lemonade by dropping a lemon into a pitcher of water.  The students laughed as Miss Justine, visibly confused, asked if it was lemonade yet.  Miss Jocelyn then came over and corrected Miss Justine by saying that in order to make lemonade you need lots of lemons!  She added five lemons to the pitcher and said it was ready to serve.  Things got extra silly when Miss Caitlin came over and asked the lemons to give us lemonade!  Nothing worked – the lemons just stayed the same and did not turn into lemonade.  Fortunately, the students were there to correct Miss Justine, Miss Jocelyn and Miss Caitlin, by saying that the lemonade is made by squeezing the lemon juice out of the lemons and adding water!

After washing their hands, the students came over to the tables to squeeze the juice out of the lemons.

All of the students’ squeezing yielded two cups of lemon juice.  The lemon juice was added to the pitcher along with six cups of cool water.

A bit of superfine sugar was poured and stirred into the pitcher and the lemonade was ready to be enjoyed!

Just as the teachers were about to pour the lemonade into cups, Miss Justine came out with ice pop molds and asked the students which they would prefer – lemonade ice pops or lemonade drink.  Not much of a surprise, ice pops won out!

After rest time on Friday afternoon, the teachers checked on the ice pops in the freezer.  The lemonade had hardened but when the teachers tried to lift the ice pops, the sticks flew right out.  Unfortunately, the ice pop stayed inside the container!  How would the students enjoy their ice pops when they were stuck in the containers?  Thanks to a little ingenuity, the teachers scooped out the ice and made a lemonade slushie similar to the consistency of a Lemon flavored Rita’s Water Ice. Yippee!  The students could enjoy the “fruit” of their labor after all- in little cups rather than on sticks! 🙂  Either way, the lemonade ices were enjoyed by all!

Afterward, the students crafted their final YELLOW-inspired activity.  This one involved creating a poster for an American soldier and his squadron in Afghanistan.  The soldier is a Hoboken resident and friend of a Park Prep Academy Mommy.  The students colored and decorated the poster beautifully.  To complete the poster, they adorned it with some YELLOW ribbons – the American symbol of support and pride for American troops.  This poster will be sent over to Afghanistan, along with a special care package, to say thank you to the troops for all their hard work and dedication.  We hope that servicemen and women enjoy the package and poster!

Well, that is all for “Letter Y is for (all things) YELLOW Week”.  As always, thank you for reading and have a great and safe weekend.

-PPA

Reminders:

Next School Closing:

Monday, May 30th

Observation of Memorial Day

Next School Event:

Father’s Day Celebration

Friday, June 17th

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

(No aftercare available)

Theme for next week: