St. James Academy, Prospect Park PA

I was asked to do a reading of ‘Twas the night before Christmas by Paul Johnson for the Rec Committee. Sorry, after quite a few tries I kind of had to speed through some of it to make sure it would upload.

Behind the scenes at St James Academy! These ladies have HEART! They were each contacted prior to the start of the year about how they felt on coming back and reopening during a pandemic. The most common answers were: let’s do whatever it takes to bring some normalcy back to these students lives and it’s go time, let’s do it. They knew the changes weren’t going to be easy, it basically meant changing our whole program around. Class schedules had to change, drop off pro...cess now required paperwork daily for each student and temperature checks had to be taken upon entry. Dismissal process had to change , the class day had to be revamped, classrooms had to have new layouts, sanitation stations had to be set up close enough to get to easily , yet far enough away from the students. It took work, a lot of it, just to get to day 1! Each one of these amazing ladies played a huge part in making this happen! No, they didn’t stop there! They continued to adjust, every time the CDC or Chester County Health changed something, they adapted and they did it with a smile even though it probably meant more work and more paperwork. Each time anything is touched by a student or staff member it leaves the room and it’s taken to the sanitizing station where these amazing ladies rotate and follow the proper sanitizing steps before dropping it back off to the classrooms to be used or played with again. EVERYTHING is sanitized right down to individual crayons and pencils! Crazy right? They have become experts in bleach mixology, along with the sanitizing and disinfecting process! They have spent long hours with their hands in cleaning chemicals, always making sure that ratios are accurate while mixing up a sanitizing solution. All this daily! Every single part of this process was done with smiles on their faces! Why? Because the love of the students! What was the best part of today aside from our amazing students ? It was the smiles on the teachers faces knowing that we were walking out that door for the holiday season and we were able to keep everyone safe and healthy! Our goal was one day at a time, we than pushed that goal until Christmas break! Here we stand, SUCCESS, these teachers have kept COVID out! I pray that they all get the rest and break that they deserve! I pray that they all stay healthy and safe! I pray that we can meet these goals again when we return January 11th! Thank you and Merry Christmas to all of these amazing women who not only teach, but do so much more behind the scenes to keep the Academy safe while having families of their own. We would also like to say thank you to the parents for adjusting, adapting and understanding why some changes had to be made this year!

Oh what fun!! The Academy celebrated our last day of 2020 with a fun filled day and lots of Christmas goodies for our party! They enjoyed the mask break while eating their Christmas snacks!

St James Academy will be closed tomorrow 12/17. Please see your Brightwheel inbox for more info regarding Christmas parties. Stay safe, have fun and enjoy the snow! We hope to see all of our students on Friday!

Here are two songs that some of our students really enjoy! I wanted to post them so that you habe the links and lyrics for them. Happy Birthday Baby Jesus: https://youtu.be/QXteb0DF0Ro And... Red Red Coat: https://youtu.be/ERqgBXBmJDw See more

Today preschool and PreK worked on nativity scenes! The PreK also finger painted Christmas lights!

Here is Yukon Cornelius, the Preschool2 classroom elf! Can’t wait to see where he is tomorrow! And there’s Gillette the Preschool3 elf hiding in their tree!

The Academy Elves showed up today! Here is a clip of the PreK welcoming Snowflake to our room!

Happy Birthday Mahi!! The cutest donuts that we’ve ever seen!!!!

In a world of COVID, we can still use our imagination! The next 2 weeks the PreK class will be working at different North Pole dramatic play centers. The students learn so much all while having fun. We love bringing alternative methods of learning into our young classrooms! This year our North Pole consists of The following centers: Santa’s Office: Students will write letters and lists to Santa. They will also mail off pictures that they make. ... Gift wrapping station: The students will focus on cutting and measuring wrapping paper to fit boxes. Bakery: The students will focus on matching cookies according to color, size, and shapes. Math will also be incorporated in the bakery when other students pay the cashier once they are told their total (play money of course). Santa’s Workshop: The students will work on following directions to create the correct toy pattern so that they can help the elves. Hot Cocoa Stand: The students will work on focusing on what is said and remembering what ingredients were asked for in their customers hot Cocoa. Math will also be incorporated by paying for their hot Cocoa or accepting payment for their hot Cocoa (play money of course). I have a feeling that those little classroom elves are making their way to Prospect Park tonight. I also have a feeling we may have some elf mail delivered tomorrow that may lead us on a hunt around the classroom to see if our Elves have come back. We have a very busy last two weeks of school for 2020!