Dear PS 130 families
The final weeks of school are always a whirlwind! We’ve celebrated the accomplishments of our youngest students during pre-k and kindergarten stepping up ceremonies, held end-of-unit shares to show off our students’ work in integrated studies, started planning for next year, and graduated our fifth graders! Amidst all of this activity, we also always make time to reflect on the past year.
One partnership that we’ve developed this year is our collaboration with the Beam Center – an organization in Brooklyn that brings together students, educators, artists, and engineers in order to engage in meaningful project-based learning. Beam Center helped us open our upper school Fab Lab and we were amazed at the projects that our third, fourth and fifth graders produced in this space. Our students built houses out of materials found on the prairies as they studied Westward Expansion, constructed 3-D maps of China as they sought to understand how geography impacted Ancient Chinese society, and created their own replicas of colonial New York during a study of Dutch New Amsterdam. Perhaps most impressive (and with careful supervision!), our students even used power tools to complete these amazing projects!
We also worked with the Trust for Public Land to finalize plans for our forthcoming lower school play yard. Our whole school contributed design ideas and voted on the final plan. If you haven’t seen the plan yet, trust us – it’s going to be awesome! We’ll have turf for running, tables for playing games, climbing equipment, trees for shade, and even outdoor classroom space. When you come back in September, the scaffolding will be removed from the lower school; you’ll get to see the gorgeous brickwork on our historic building. Then, in the spring of next school year, we’ll break ground on the new playground!
Our Diversity and Equity Committee also continued its important work this year. The team engaged in conversations about how race and racism have impacted our own lives and communities and also began writing an equity vision statement for PS130. We’re looking forward to sharing our equity vision with the entire school community next year. We’re hoping that this document will not only highlight how much we value the diversity of our community, but also will outline how we as a school will seek to address and prevent inequities.
As we wrap up the year, we’re both excited and sad to graduate our fifth grade class. We’ll miss these students – many of whom we’ve known since they were only four years old! We’re incredibly proud of them and we can’t wait to see all that they accomplish in middle school and beyond.
In these last few days of school, please keep an eye out for “June Packets” coming home in your child’s red homework folder; these packets will give you a brief introduction to your new grade’s curriculum and include a fun summer project to complete. In August, you’ll receive a letter from your child’s new teacher. Please also keep an eye out in September for information about Konstella – a new platform that we’ll be using to streamline home/school communication.
As always, we’re beyond grateful for all that our families do to support our students and our school each and every day. We’re wishing you a summer filled with relaxation, fun, learning, family and friends. We’ll see you in September!
Warmly,
Maria, Stephanie, and Jenny
The Parkside School 