Hello all,
“Student Choice Week” was absolutely awesome! The students blew the PPA teachers away with their intellectual curiosity and excitement to investigate various themes ranging from scientific to mathematical to cultural and more! Keep reading to learn all about this amazing and special school week!
In order to prepare for “Student Choice Week” the teachers asked the students a very important question at the end of “Spanish Review Week”. The question was, “What do YOU want to learn about?” As one could imagine, each student had a wonderful contribution to the list of possible topics to explore. Some students even offered MULTIPLE suggestions to the list! After careful consideration of all the topics, the students voted and settled in on the following three topics to explore.
After celebrating Memorial Day on Monday, the students returned to school on Tuesday ready to tackle the first “Student Choice Week” topic – the American flag! The students wondered, “Why does the American flag have stars and stripes?” Thankfully the PPA library contains a plethora of books on the subject! Through their investigation of the topic, the students counted and determined that there are fifty stars on the American flag. Can you think of anything else that there is 50 of in the USA? If you said, “STATES!” then you are correct! The students learned that each star represents a state in our country – like New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, etc. The students were fascinated to learn that many years ago people from England sailed over and decided to name the first thirteen states. These states were New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia but they were not called states just yet. They were called colonies back then! It was only much later that the people living in these colonies decided to join them all together to start the United States of America! The teachers selected one student to come up and count the number of stripes on the American flag. He determined there were thirteen- just like the original number of colonies! The students concluded that the stars are stripes are symbols to help us remember how our country started and how it is today!
To help remember this amazing fact, the students created their own version of the American flag! Take a look below to see them in action!
During the afternoon, the students participated in a technology presenation all about our beautiful country – The United States of America! They loved going on a virtual tour of the country and seeing some of the sights including The Rocky Mountains, Hawaiian Volcanoes, The Great Lakes, The Grand Caynon and more! What an amazing day it was!
The “Student Choice Week” fun continued on Wednesday as the students began investigating the second topic of the week – Big Buildings! The question they wished to investigate was, “How are tall buildings built?” Again, the PPA library proved very helpful and full of wonderful information on the subject! Here is what they learned through their investigation…
It takes many people, construction vehicles, and planning to build a building! First, people known as engineers and architects design and draw the plans for the building to ensure that the building is strong and safe! Next, teams of construction workers use A LOT of construction machines, such as excavators, cranes, cement trucks, and more, to assemble the building according to the plans! The building is built starting at the bottom with a strong base (or foundation) which goes under the ground! Little by little, more of the building is added until they reach the very top!
Speaking of construction, during morning work the students had the opportunity to assemble their very own mini-buildings! Since they learned the importance of safety at a construction site, they made sure to wear a real construction hard hat! A special PPA Thank You to Miss Justine’s husband for donating several of his old hard hats to PPA’s dress-up area! 🙂
Again during the afternoon, the students continued to learn all about tall buildings during a technology presentation! Once again, the students put on their hard hats and explored a real construction site! Along the way they met several important people at the site who helped explain everything from digging, constructing, inspecting and more! What an exciting afternoon it was!
Thursday and Friday’s “Student Choice Week” topic was in a word – SUPER! The students explored a very popular preschool favorite – Superheroes! The students LOVED starting their day by listening to Superhero ABC by Bob McLeod which features amazing rhymes all about interesting superheroes beginning with each letter of the alphabet. After hearing the story, the students were reminded of their question from last week, “Why are Superheroes so special?” Once again, the PPA library proved very helpful and full of wonderful information on the subject!
After carefully analyzing each of their favorite superheroes including: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spiderman, and the Hulk (to name a few), the students discovered that each superhero had something inside of them that made him/her special! Whether it was great strength, courage, intelligence, kindness, or something else, it was clear that all superheroes are special because they all help and do good things for people. This led the students to think about if they had anything inside of them that made them special. Of course they do! Take a look below to see some of the amazing responses they had to the question – What makes you special? Oh, and be sure to check out their cool super hero accessory – wrist cuffs! After all, a big part of being a superhero is the outfit! 🙂
In the afternoons on Thursday and Friday, the students got a jump start on their special surprises for the AMAZING PPA Daddies in preparation for the annual PPA Father’s Day Celebration which will be held next Friday! As is always the case, the Father’s Day projects are so special that they take a few extra days to complete. The students worked diligently to create their special and surprise gifts! Sorry, Daddies! No details will be given prior to the big day! Be sure to look at next week’s blog post to see the students in action!
Well, that is all for “Student Choice Week” at PPA! As always, we hope you enjoyed this posting. Thank you for reading and have a great weekend!
-PPA
Reminders:
Next Upcoming Event:
PPA Father’s Day Celebration
Friday, June 10th
2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
No aftercare available
THE FINAL DAY OF THE SCHOOL YEAR IS
Wednesday, June 15th for all three day students
Thursday, June 16th, for all two and five day students
Friday, June 17th, is Graduation at PPA.
This is the final full school day for students entering kindergarten in the fall.
This day will be spent rehearsing for the Graduation Ceremony which will begin promptly at 1:30 p.m.
Theme for Next Week: